The Phoenician-Maltese cippus owned by France’s Louvre Museum has been returned to Malta for a short loan to Heritage Malta. It will be exhibited alongside the other Phoenician-Maltese cippus at the National Museum of Archeology until the 31st March of 2025. The cippi have identical transcriptions and were found at the Phoenician temple of Tas-Silġ in in the 17th century. Grand Master Emmanuel De Rohan gave one the cippi to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1782.
The cippi have a Phoenician inscription on them, which is dedicated to the god Melqart and the cippi were an offering to the god in the name of two brothers. The Phoenician inscription on the cippi were some of the earliest full Phoenician texts found and were used in the early Phoenician studies that discovered and transcribed the Phoenician alphabet and language.
The sea-faring Phoenicians from what is today Lebanon colonised Malta in the 8th century BC as they colonised lands through the Mediterranean and as far as Spain. Malta has the remains of a Phoenician temple in Tas-Silġ, Marsaxlokk where many archeological items have been discovered. Other Phoenician archeological remains have been found in Mdina, Gozo in Rabat and in the main harbour area, Valletta and the Three cities.
The Romans captured Malta from the Phoenicians in 218BC during the Second-Punic War.
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