Image Details
Paraiba Inscription: This tracing of Ladislau Neto’s copy of the purported Phoenician inscription was discovered in the 1960’s in a scrapbook belonging to Wilberforce Eames, director of the New York Public Library at the end of the last century. Professor Cross’s translation of the inscription is as follows:
“We are sons of Canaan from Sidon from the city of the king. A storm cast
us on this distant shore, a land of mountains, and we gave a young man to the gods
and goddesses, in the nineteenth year of Hirom, our great king.
We went from Ezion-geber on the Red Sea and departed with ten ships.
We were at sea together two years circling the land belonging to Ham but were separated
From the (protecting) power of Baal and were no longer with our company. We arrived here twelve
men and three women on the new shore of which I Mat’astart, the cap-
-tain have taken possession. May the gods and goddesses grant us grace.”
us on this distant shore, a land of mountains, and we gave a young man to the gods
and goddesses, in the nineteenth year of Hirom, our great king.
We went from Ezion-geber on the Red Sea and departed with ten ships.
We were at sea together two years circling the land belonging to Ham but were separated
From the (protecting) power of Baal and were no longer with our company. We arrived here twelve
men and three women on the new shore of which I Mat’astart, the cap-
-tain have taken possession. May the gods and goddesses grant us grace.”