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XXXVI. Copy of a Letter from Sir Grenville Temple, Bart., to Lieut.-General Benjamin Forbes, M.R.A.S., relative to a Phænician Tombstone found at Maghráwah in Tunis, and presented to the Royal Asiatic Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

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Extract

The sepulchral stone with the Phænician inscription, I found at Maghráwah, a little village in the Beylik of Tunis, situated on the northern declivity of the range of hills, which separates Muhadhar-al-Hammaáah Walád Ayár, the ancient Tucca Terebenthina, from the plain of Zirrz inhabited by the Bení Riss, a branch of Dthrídis, and on which are seen the ruins of Assura, now called Zanfür. I feel inclined to imagine that Maghráwah occupies the situation of one of those Libyo-Phœnician towns or villages which were never colonized by the Romans; for though we find several fragments of coarsely-executed basreliefs representing men and animals, evidently of a date anterior to the epoch when sculpture attained any degree of perfection, yet I saw not a single vestige of the workmanship either of the later Carthaginians or of their conquerors. Not the smallest fragment of either capital, frieze, or cornice is descernible. About an hour and a-half's distance from Maghráwah, in the direction of Zanfúr, is the small village of Lheys, where are found similar remains, mixed however with fragments of Roman inscriptions and sculpture.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1834

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References

* Vide the accompanying plate.