( 548) 
XXXVI. Copy of a Letter from Sir Grenvitte Trurce, Bart., to Lieut.- 
General Brnsamin Forzrs, M.R.A.S., relative to.a Phenician Tombstone 
Sound at Maghrawah in Tunis, and presented to the Roya Astaric Soctrty 
by Sir Grenvitte TrempPce. 
Read the 7th of December 1833. 
Malta, 2d July 1833. 
Tue sepulchral stone with the Phoenician inscription,* I found at Maghra- 
wah (s,|,e), a little village in the Beylik of Tunis, situated on the northern 
declivity of the range of hills, which separates Muhadhar-al-Hammadah 
Walid Ayir (jhe od,\ slis!! yss*), the ancient Tucca Terebenthina, from the 
plain of Zirrz 35; inhabited by the Beni Riss, a branch of Déthridis, and 
on which are seen the ruins of Assura, now called Zan/ir 5}. I feel 
inclined to imagine that Maghrdéwah occupies the situation of one of those 
Libyo-Pheenician towns or villages which were never colonized by the 
Romans ; for though we find several fragments of coarsely-executed bas- 
reliefs 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 Maghra- 
wah, in the direction of Zanfir, is the small village of Lheys VJ, where 
are found similar remains, mixed however with fragments of Roman 
inscriptions and sculpture. 
The inscription, which I imagine to be written in one of the various 
Phoenician dialects, is valuable from its scarcity ; for during a tour which I 
made through the whole of the interior of the Beylik, I only found seven 
or eight inscriptions which were not in Latin; and this one was all that I 
was enabled to bring away, the others being too large to be carried by a 
* Vide the accompanying plate. 
