Lilybaeum stele

The Lilybaeum stele is a notable Phoenician gravestone stele found in Sicily and first published in 1882.^[1]

The stele was published in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, having been supplied to Renan by Count Francesco Hernandez di Carrera.^[2] It measures 0.37 x 0.22 m and is made from white calcareous stone.^{[citation needed]}

It was found in Marsala (Roman Lilybaeum), in an area known as il Timpone di S. Antonio.^{[citation needed]} It is currently in the Antonino Salinas Regional Archeological Museum in Palermo.

The inscriptions is known as KAI 63 and CIS I 138. It is a standard Punic votive inscription, dedicated to Baal Hammon by Hanno, son of Adonbaal:^[3]

The stele shows some important Phoenician religious symbols. These symbols include symbols of Tanit (Sign of Tanit) and Baal Hammon (a crescent and a disc), Caduceus, an incense burner and a Priest spreads his right hand up (a position related with the cult of Tanit), as well as a depiction of a line of stelae on a stage, similar to a stelae line found in Hazor.^[4] On one of the stelae in Hazor, a crescent with a disc and two hand spread ur towards them are engraved.^[5]

Its significance was described by Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez in 1885:

...the chief interest of the monument lies in the bas-relief on its upper part. In the middle of the field stands one of those candelabra of which we have already given examples taken from Carthaginian steles; to the left is the sacred cone, here represented with head and arms as on the coins of certain Asiatic towns; near the cone stands a caduceus, on the right there is a man adoring. He is dressed in a robe falling to the feet and gathered in a band about the waist; a pointed cap is on his head. The whole thing is without value as a work of art, but it gives a good idea of the Phoenician costume, a costume which resembles that still worn in the Levant by those Greek, Syrian, and Armenian merchants who have not yet adopted the costume of Europe.^[6]