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

Abstract

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.