Στα μουσεία

Ό,τι δεν μπόρεσαν να κάψουν.

Αγάλματα από τη Βύβλο και την Τύρο. Σαρκοφάγοι Σιδωνίων βασιλέων. Χρυσός και γυαλί που ταξίδεψαν στη Σαρδηνία. Οι χιλιετίες είναι μακρύτερες από αυτόν τον τοίχο. Αυτά τα έργα ακόμη ονομάζονται δικά μας — Βηρυτός, Λούβρο, Βρετανικό Μουσείο, Κάλιαρι.

Λίθος και χαλκός

The bronze of Byblos

National Museum of Beirut

Temple of Baalat Gebal, 19th–18th century BCE

Votive figures from the temple of the Lady of Byblus. Gold on bronze, already standing when Egypt was still buying cedar from this harbor.

The letters on stone

National Museum of Beirut

Sarcophagus of Ahiram, Byblos

One of the earliest full sentences in our alphabet. A king of Gubla, named in the mother script, still speaking from the stone.

Eshmunazar of Sidon

Louvre

Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, 5th century BCE

A Sidonian king in Egyptian dress, speaking Phœnician on the lid — the longest Persian-period inscription we have. He forbids the opening of his rest. The letters outlasted the warning.

The Sidon faces

National Museum of Beirut

Anthropoid marble sarcophagi, 5th century BCE

Marble bodies with human faces, from the royal necropolis of Sidon. Egypt’s coffin-shape, our features, our dead.

A king in limestone

National Museum of Beirut

Tyre, 8th century BCE

A Tyrian ruler cut in the local stone. Pharaoh’s pose is a fashion. The face is of the island.

The inscribed body

National Museum of Beirut

Statue from Umm el-Amed

A votive body that still carries the letters. Umm el-Amed, south of Tyre — a temple site that would not stop writing our name.

Given to Eshmun

National Museum of Beirut

Sanctuary of Eshmun, Bustan esh-Sheikh, 5th century BCE

“This statuette was given by Baalshillem, son of king Baana, king of the Sidonians, to his lord Eshmun of the spring. May he bless him.” A child in marble. A king’s prayer, still on the base.

A stone from Tyre

National Museum of Beirut

Phoenician stela, 4th century BCE

Relief from the island of purple. The gods and the dead, cut shallow, still catching the museum light.

Πηλός

Women of Tyre

National Museum of Beirut

Terracotta figurines, Iron Age II

Clay women from the island. Household and shrine. The same hands that blew glass also pinched these faces.

A face from Tyre

National Museum of Beirut

Terracotta funerary mask, 7th century BCE

They buried their dead with a face that would not fade. Clay from the island of purple, looking out still.

A god from Tyre

National Museum of Beirut

Deity figurine, 7th century BCE

Melqart’s city, a small god in fired earth. The colonies carried larger ones. This one stayed home.

Γυαλί και χρυσός

Glass and gold at the throat

British Museum

Phoenician necklace, 6th century BCE

Forty-five beads, blue glass, gold uraei at an altar. Protection, rank, the gods in miniature.

From the graves of Tharros

British Museum

Phoenician necklace, Sardinia

The same craft in a western grave. The ships did not go home empty.

Fire of Sidon, worn west

Archaeological Museum of Cagliari

Phoenician glass necklace

Sidon learned to trap light in sand. The beads travelled with the ships to Sardinia.

Ψηφιδωτό

Europa of Tyre

National Museum of Beirut

Mosaic from Byblos, 3rd century CE

A princess of Tyre, carried west. The continent that later mapped us as a footnote is wearing a Tyrian name.