Art. IV. Sarcophagus of Esinunazar, king of Sidon. 



Institute Rooms, Thursday Eve., 3d April, 1855. 



The Secretary laid before the meeting the following com- 

 munication received from Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, corres- 

 ponding member, now in Syria, calling the attention of the 

 members to the great novelty and interest of the subject at 

 this particular period : 



" The enclosed inscription was discovered on the lid of a 

 sarcophagus some three weeks since, about a mile from this 

 city. A man had employed several workmen in excavating, 

 or rather digging, trenches through an ancient cemetery, 

 in hope of finding concealed treasures ; by this means the 

 sarcophagus was discovered. 



"The material is blue limestone, the upper or head part is 

 sculptured into the form of a bust, like the Egyptian mummy 

 cases; the features are Egyptian perfectly, and the ibis is 

 seen on the shoulders; the word Misraim also occurs in • 

 the inscription, thus identifying the Phoenician w T ith the 

 Hamitic races. 



" The French and English consuls are quarreling about their 

 respective rights to this relic ; in the mean time it has been 

 carefully reinterred until the matter in dispute shall be 

 settled. The inscription being in the very oldest Phoenician 

 character is of very ancient date. The first line says : " In 

 the 14th year of Asmanid, king of the Sidonians, in the 

 month Bel." As yet we have not been able to make out 

 definitely anything more. The words Ashteroth and Misraim 

 occur in several places. 



"This is the only Phoenician inscription that has been 

 found in Phoenicia, and amounts to more than all others 

 known. Gesenius, in his work on the remains of the Phoeni- 



