Гробница Эшмуназара II: Финикийский саркофаг VI века до н.э.

6th century BC Phoenician royal coffin

The sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II is a 6th century BC sarcophagus unearthed in 1855 in the grounds of an ancient necropolis southeast of the city of Sidon, in modern day Lebanon, that contained the body of Eshmunazar II (Phoenician: 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 ʾšmnʿzr, ), Phoenician King of Sidon. One of only three Ancient Egyptian sarcophagi found outside Egypt, with the other two belonging to Eshmunazar's father King Tabnit and to a woman, possibly Eshmunazar's mother Queen Amoashtart, it was likely carved in Egypt from local amphibolite, and captured as booty by the Sidonians during their participation in Cambyses II's conquest of Egypt in 525 BC. The sarcophagus has two sets of Phoenician inscriptions, one on its lid and a partial copy of it on the sarcophagus trough, around the curvature of the head. The lid inscription was of great significance upon its discovery as it was the first Phoenician language inscription to be discovered in Phoenicia proper and the most detailed Phoenician text ever found anywhere up to that point, and is today the second longest extant Phoenician inscription, after the Karatepe bilingual. The sarcophagus was discovered by Alphonse Durighello, a diplomatic agent in Sidon engaged by Aimé Péretié, the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut. The sarcophagus was sold to Honoré de Luynes, a wealthy French nobleman and scholar, and was subsequently removed to the Louvre after the resolution of a legal dispute over its ownership. More than a dozen scholars across Europe and the United States rushed to translate the sarcophagus inscriptions after its discovery, many noting the similarities between the Phoenician language and Hebrew. The translation allowed scholars to identify the king buried inside, his lineage, and his construction feats. The inscriptions warn against disturbing Eshmunazar II's place of repose; it also recounts that the "Lord of Kings", the Achaemenid king, granted Eshmunazar II the territories of Dor, Joppa, and Dagon in recognition for his services. The discovery led to great enthusiasm for archaeological research in the region and was the primary reason for Renan's 1860–1861 Mission de Phénicie, the first major archaeological mission to Lebanon and Syria. Today, it remains one of the highlights of the Louvre's Phoenician collection.

Eshmunazar II (Phoenician: 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 ʾšmnʿzr, a theophoric name meaning 'Eshmun helps') was the Phoenician King of Sidon, reigning c. 539 BC to c. 525 BC. He was the grandson of King Eshmunazar I and a vassal king of the Achaemenid Empire. Eshmunazar II succeeded his father, Tabnit I, on the throne of Sidon. Tabnit I ruled briefly before his death, and his sister wife, Amoashtart, acted as an interregnum regent until the birth of Eshmunazar II. Amoashtart then ruled as Eshmunazar II's regent until he reached adulthood. Eshmunazar II, however, died prematurely at age 14 during the reign of Cambyses II of Achaemenid Persia, and was succeeded by his cousin Bodashtart. Eshmunazar II, like his mother, father and grandfather, was a priest of Astarte. Temple building and religious activities were important for the Sidonian kings to demonstrate their piety and political power. Eshmunazar II and his mother, Queen Amoashtart, constructed new temples and religious buildings dedicated to Phoenician gods such as Baal, Astarte, and Eshmun.

The Phoenicians emerged as a distinct culture on the Levantine coast in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550 – c. 1200 BC) as one of the successor cultures to the Canaanites. They were organized into independent city states that shared a common language, culture, and religious practices. They had, however, diverse mortuary practices, including inhumation and cremation. Archaeological evidence of elite Achaemenid period burials abounds in the hinterland of Sidon. These include inhumations in underground vaults, rock cut niches, and shaft and chamber tombs in Sarepta, Ain al Hilweh, Ayaa, Magharet Abloun, and the Temple of Eshmun in Bustan el Sheikh. Elite Phoenician burials were characterized by the use of sarcophagi, and a consistent emphasis on the integrity of the tomb. Surviving mortuary inscriptions from that period invoke deities to assist with the procurement of blessings, and to conjure curses and calamities on whoever desecrated the tomb. The first record of the discovery of an ancient necropolis in Sidon was made in 1816 by English explorer and Egyptologist William John Bankes.

The sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II was discovered on 19 January 1855 by the workmen of Alphonse Durighello, an agent of the French consulate in Sidon hired by Aimé Péretié, an amateur archaeologist and the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut. Durighello's men were digging on the plains southeast of the city of Sidon in the grounds of an ancient necropolis (dubbed Nécropole Phénicienne by French Semitic philologist and biblical scholar Ernest Renan). The sarcophagus was found outside a hollowed out rocky mound that was known to locals as Magharet Abloun ('the Cavern of Apollo'). It had originally been protected by a vault, of which some stones remained in place. One tooth, a piece of bone, and a human jaw were found in the rubble during the sarcophagus extraction, showing that the remains of Eshmunazar II had been robbed in antiquity. Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck, an American missionary physician, made it to the scene and made a transcript of the inscription which was first published on 11 February 1855 in The United States Magazine. On 20 February 1855, Durighello informed Péretié of the find. Durighello had taken advantage of the absence of laws governing archaeological excavation and the disposition of the finds under the Ottoman rule, and had been involved in the lucrative business of trafficking archaeological artifacts. Under the Ottomans, it sufficed to either own the land or to have the owner's permission to excavate. Any finds resulting from digs became the property of the finder. To excavate, Durighello had bought the exclusive right from the land owner, the Mufti of Sidon, Mustapha Effendi.

Péretié rushed the sarcophagus' laborious transportation to France. The bureaucratic task of removing the sarcophagus to France was facilitated with the intervention of Ferdinand de Lesseps, then the French consul general in Alexandria, and the French minister of education and religious affairs, Hippolyte Fortoul. During the transportation to the Sidon port, the citizens and the governor of Sidon gathered, escorted, and applauded the convoy; they adorned the sarcophagus with flowers and palm branches while 20 oxen, assisted by French sailors, dragged the carriage to the port. At the wharf, the crew of the French navy corvette French corvette Sérieuse loaded the sarcophagus' trough, and then its lid, onto a barge, before lifting it to the ship. The commander of Sérieuse, Delmas De La Perugia, read an early translation of the inscriptions, explaining the scientific importance and historical significance of the cargo to his crew. The sarcophagus of King Eshmunazar II is housed in the Louvre's Near Eastern antiquities section in room 311 of the Sully wing. It was given the museum identification number of AO 4806.

The Egyptian anthropoid style sarcophagus dates to the 6th century BC and is made of a solid, well polished block of bluish black amphibolite. It measures long, wide, and high. The lid displays a relief carving of the figure of a deceased person in the style of Egyptian mummy sarcophagi. The effigy of the deceased is portrayed smiling, wrapped up to the neck in a thick shroud, leaving the head uncovered. The effigy is dressed with a large Nubian wig, a false braided beard, and a usekh collar ending with falcon heads at each of its extremities, as is often seen at the neck of Egyptian mummies. Two other sarcophagi of the same style were also unearthed in the necropolis.

The Egyptian style sarcophagus has no hieroglyphs; however, there are Phoenician inscriptions on its lid and trough. De Luynes and American philologist William Wadden Turner believed that the inscriptions were traced directly on the stone free hand without the use of typographic guides for letter spacing, and that these tracings were followed by the carving artisan. The inscriptions of the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar are known to scholars as CIS I 3 and KAI 14; they are written in the Phoenician language and alphabet. They identify the king buried inside, tell of his lineage and temple construction feats, and warn against disturbing his repose. The inscriptions also state that the "Lord of Kings" (the Achaemenid King of Kings) granted the Sidonian king "Dor and Joppa, the mighty lands of Dagon, which are in the plain of Sharon" in recognition of his deeds. According to Scottish biblical scholar John Gibson the text "offers an unusually high proportion of literary parallels with the Hebrew Bible, especially its poetic sections". French orientalist Jean Joseph Léandre Bargès wrote that the language is "identical with Hebrew, except for the final inflections of a few words and certain expressions." As in other Phoenician inscriptions, the text seems to use no, or hardly any, matres lectionis, the letters that indicate vowels in Semitic languages. As in Aramaic, the preposition אית (ʾyt) is used as an accusative marker, while את (ʾt) is used for 'with'.

The lid inscription consists of 22 lines of 40 to 55 letters each; it occupies a square situated under the sarcophagus' usekh collar and measures in length and width. As is customary for Phoenician writing, all the characters are written without spaces separating each word, except for a space in the 13th line, which divides the text into two equal parts. The lid letters are not evenly spaced, ranging from no distance to a spacing of The lines of the text are neither straight nor evenly spaced. The letters in the lower part of the text (after the lacuna on line 13) are neater and smaller than the letters in the first part of the inscription. The letters of the first three lines of the lid inscription are cut deeper and rougher than the rest of the text which indicates that the engraver was either replaced or made to work more neatly.

A copy of the first part (twelve and a half lines) of the lid inscription is carved delicately and uniformly on six lines around the head curvature on the trough of the sarcophagus, with the letters corresponding in size and style to the second part of the lid inscription. An unfinished seventh line matches the first nine characters that form the beginning of the text that begins after the lacuna on the 13th line of the lid inscription. It measures in width, significantly wider than the lid inscription. The relationship between the trough and the lid inscription has been discussed amongst scholars. Turner believed that the similarity of the trough's characters to those of Part II of the lid inscription suggested that the trough was inscribed immediately after the completion of the lid. Turner speculated that this may have been to claim both parts of the sarcophagus as Eshmunazar's property, and suggested that the original intention was to copy the whole of the lid inscription, but after the copy of Part II had started, it was concluded that the ornamental line which runs round the outside of the sarcophagus would have divided the inscription in an unattractive manner. Turner's theory was in contrast to German theologian Heinrich Ewald's earlier proposal that originally the entire inscription had been intended to be engraved around the trough, to represent it as proceeding from his mouth, but error(s) made in the writing caused it to be abandoned, and the inscription started again on the lid. The external surface of the trough bears also an isolated group of two Phoenician characters. De Luynes believes that they may have been trial carving marks made by the engraver.

+ Line number Original Phoenician inscription Transliteration Transcription English translation1𐤁𐤉𐤓𐤇 𐤁𐤋 𐤁𐤔𐤍𐤕 𐤏𐤎𐤓 𐤅𐤀𐤓𐤁𐤏 𐤗𐤖𐤖𐤖𐤖 𐤋𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤉 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌In the month of Bul, in the fourteenth year of the reign of king Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians2𐤁𐤍 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤕𐤁𐤍𐤕 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤃𐤁𐤓 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤋𐤀𐤌𐤓 𐤍𐤂𐤆𐤋𐤕son of king Tabnit, king of the Sidonians, king Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians, said as follows: I was carried away3𐤁𐤋 𐤏𐤕𐤉 𐤁𐤍 𐤌𐤎𐤊 𐤉𐤌𐤌 𐤀𐤆𐤓𐤌 𐤉𐤕𐤌 𐤁𐤍 𐤀𐤋𐤌𐤕 𐤅𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤀𐤍𐤊 𐤁𐤇𐤋𐤕 𐤆 𐤅𐤁𐤒𐤁𐤓 𐤆before my time, son of a limited number of short days (or: son of a limited number of days I was cut off), an orphan, the son of a widow, and I am lying in this coffin and in this tomb,4𐤁𐤌𐤒𐤌 𐤀𐤔 𐤁𐤍𐤕 𐤒𐤍𐤌𐤉 𐤀𐤕 𐤊𐤋 𐤌𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕 𐤅𐤊𐤋 𐤀𐤃𐤌 𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤆 𐤅in a place which I have built. Whoever you are, king or (ordinary) man, may he not open this resting place and5𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤁𐤒𐤔 𐤁𐤍 𐤌𐤍𐤌 𐤊 𐤀𐤉 𐤔𐤌 𐤁𐤍 𐤌𐤍𐤌 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤔𐤀 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤇𐤋𐤕 𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁𐤉 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤏𐤌may he not search in it after anything because nothing whatsoever has been placed into it. And may he not move the coffin of my resting place, nor carry me6𐤎𐤍 𐤁𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤆 𐤏𐤋𐤕 𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤔𐤍𐤉 𐤀𐤐 𐤀𐤌 𐤀𐤃𐤌𐤌 𐤉𐤃𐤁𐤓𐤍𐤊 𐤀𐤋 𐤕𐤔𐤌𐤏 𐤁𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤊 𐤊𐤋 𐤌𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕 𐤅away from this resting place to another resting place. Also if men talk to you do not listen to their chatter. For every king and7𐤊𐤋 𐤀𐤃𐤌 𐤀𐤔 𐤉𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤏𐤋𐤕 𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤆 𐤀𐤌 𐤀𐤔 𐤉𐤔𐤀 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤇𐤋𐤕 𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁𐤉 𐤀𐤌 𐤀𐤔 𐤉𐤏𐤌𐤎𐤍 𐤁𐤌every (ordinary) man, who will open what is above this resting place, or will lift up the coffin of my resting place, or will carry me away from8 𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤆 𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤊𐤍 𐤋𐤌 𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤀𐤕 𐤓𐤐𐤀𐤌 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤒𐤁𐤓 𐤁𐤒𐤁𐤓 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤊𐤍 𐤋𐤌 𐤁𐤍 𐤅𐤆𐤓𐤏this resting place, may they not have a resting place with the Rephaïm, may they not be buried in a tomb, and may they not have a son or offspring9 𐤕𐤇𐤕𐤍𐤌 𐤅𐤉𐤎𐤂𐤓𐤍𐤌 𐤄𐤀𐤋𐤍𐤌 𐤄𐤒𐤃𐤔𐤌 𐤀𐤕 𐤌𐤌𐤋𐤊(𐤕) 𐤀𐤃𐤓 𐤀𐤔 𐤌𐤔𐤋 𐤁𐤍𐤌 𐤋𐤒 taḥténōm weyasgirūnōm hāʾalōnīm haqqadošīm ʾét mamlokū[t] ʾaddīr ʾéš mōšél bin(n)ōm laq after them. And may the sacred gods deliver them to a mighty king who will rule them in order10 𐤑𐤕𐤍𐤌 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤌𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕 𐤀𐤌 𐤀𐤃𐤌 𐤄𐤀 𐤀𐤔 𐤉𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤏𐤋𐤕 𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤆 𐤀𐤌 𐤀𐤔 𐤉𐤔𐤀 𐤀𐤉𐤕 to exterminate them, the king or this (ordinary) man who will open what is over this resting place or will lift up11 𐤇𐤋𐤕 𐤆 𐤅𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤆𐤓𐤏 𐤌𐤌𐤋𐤕 𐤄𐤀 𐤀𐤌 𐤀𐤃𐤌𐤌 𐤄𐤌𐤕 𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤊𐤍 𐤋𐤌 𐤔𐤓𐤔 𐤋𐤌𐤈 𐤅 this coffin, and (also) the offspring of this king or of those (ordinary) men. They shall not have root below or12 𐤐𐤓 𐤋𐤌𐤏𐤋 𐤅𐤕𐤀𐤓 𐤁𐤇𐤉𐤌 𐤕𐤇𐤕 𐤔𐤌𐤔 𐤊 𐤀𐤍𐤊 𐤍𐤇𐤍 𐤍𐤂𐤆𐤋𐤕 𐤁𐤋 𐤏𐤕𐤉 𐤁𐤍 𐤌𐤎 fruit above or appearance in the life under the sun. For I who deserve mercy, I was carried away before my time, son of a limited13 𐤊 𐤉𐤌𐤌 𐤀𐤆𐤓𐤌 𐤉𐤕𐤌 𐤁𐤍 𐤀𐤋𐤌𐤕 𐤀𐤍𐤊 𐤊 𐤀𐤍𐤊 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤁𐤍 number of short days (or: son of a limited number of days I was cut off), I an orphan, the son of a widow. For I, Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians, son of14 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤕𐤁𐤍𐤕 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤁𐤍 𐤁𐤍 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤅𐤀𐤌𐤉 𐤀𐤌𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 king Tabnit, king of the Sidonians, grandson of king Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians, and my mother Amo[t]astart,15 𐤊𐤄𐤍𐤕 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤓𐤁𐤕𐤍 𐤄𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕 𐤁𐤕 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤀𐤌 𐤁𐤍𐤍 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤁𐤕priestess of Ashtart, our lady, the queen, daughter of king Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians, (it is we) who have built the temples16 𐤀𐤋𐤍𐤌 𐤀𐤉𐤕 (𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓)𐤕 𐤁𐤑𐤃𐤍 𐤀𐤓𐤑 𐤉𐤌 𐤅𐤉𐤔𐤓𐤍 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤔𐤌𐤌 𐤀𐤃𐤓𐤌 𐤅𐤀𐤍𐤇𐤍 of the gods, [the temple of Ashtar]t in Sidon, the land of the sea. And we have placed Ashtart (in) the mighty heavens (or: in Shamem Addirim?). And it is we17 𐤀𐤔 𐤁𐤍𐤍 𐤁𐤕 𐤋𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍 (𐤔)𐤓 𐤒𐤃𐤔 𐤏𐤍 𐤉𐤃𐤋𐤋 𐤁𐤄𐤓 𐤅𐤉𐤔𐤁𐤍𐤉 𐤔𐤌𐤌 𐤀𐤃𐤓𐤌 𐤅𐤀𐤍𐤇𐤍 𐤀𐤔 𐤁𐤍𐤍 𐤁𐤕𐤌 éš banīnū bīt laʾèšmūn [śa]r qudš ʿīn ydll bihar weyōšibnūyū šamém ʾaddīrim weʾanaḥnū ʾéš banīnū bītīm who have built a temple for Eshmun, the prince of the sanctuary of the source of YDLL in the mountains, and we have placed him (in) the mighty heavens (or: in Shamem Addirim?). And it is we who have built temples18 𐤋𐤀𐤋𐤍 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤁𐤑𐤃𐤍 𐤀𐤓𐤑 𐤉𐤌 𐤁𐤕 𐤋𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤑𐤃𐤍 𐤅𐤁𐤕 𐤋𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤔𐤌 𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤅𐤏𐤃 𐤉𐤕𐤍 𐤋𐤍 𐤀𐤃𐤍 𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤌 for the gods of the Sidonians in Sidon, the land of the sea, a temple for Baal of Sidon, and a temple for Ashtart, the Name of Baal. Moreover, the lord of kings gave us19 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤃𐤀𐤓 𐤅𐤉𐤐𐤉 𐤀𐤓𐤑𐤕 𐤃𐤂𐤍 𐤄𐤀𐤃𐤓𐤕 𐤀𐤔 𐤁𐤔𐤃 𐤔𐤓𐤍 𐤋𐤌𐤃𐤕 𐤏𐤑𐤌𐤕 𐤀𐤔 𐤐𐤏𐤋𐤕 𐤅𐤉𐤎𐤐𐤍𐤍𐤌 iyat duʾr weyapay ʾarṣōt dagōn hāʾaddīrōt ʾéš biśadé šarōn lamiddot ʿaṣūmot ʾéš paʿaltī weyasapnūnémDor and Joppa, the mighty lands of Dagon, which are in the Plain of Sharon, as a reward for the brilliant action I did. And we have annexed them20 𐤏𐤋𐤕 𐤂𐤁𐤋 𐤀𐤓𐤑 𐤋𐤊𐤍𐤍𐤌 𐤋𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤋𐤏𐤋(𐤌) 𐤒𐤍𐤌𐤉 𐤀𐤕 𐤊𐤋 𐤌𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕 𐤅𐤊𐤋 𐤀𐤃𐤌 𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤏𐤋𐤕𐤉 to the boundary of the land, so that they would belong to the Sidonians for ever. Whoever you are, king or (ordinary) man, do not open what is above me21 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤏𐤓 𐤏𐤋𐤕𐤉 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤏𐤌𐤎𐤍 𐤁𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤆 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤔𐤀 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤇𐤋𐤕 𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁𐤉 𐤋𐤌 𐤉𐤎𐤂𐤓𐤍𐤌 and do not uncover what is above me and do not carry me away from this resting place and do not lift up the coffin of my resting place. Otherwise,22 𐤀𐤋𐤍𐤌 𐤄𐤒𐤃𐤔𐤌 𐤀𐤋 𐤅𐤉𐤒𐤑𐤍 𐤄𐤌𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕 𐤄𐤀 𐤅𐤄𐤀𐤃𐤌𐤌 𐤄𐤌𐤕 𐤅𐤆𐤓𐤏𐤌 𐤋𐤏𐤋𐤌 the sacred gods will deliver them and cut off this king and those (ordinary) men and their offspring for ever.

The sarcophagus, along with two others found at the nearby Royal Necropolis of Ayaʿa, are considered the only Egyptian sarcophagi that have ever been found outside of Egypt. name=Kelly Marie Louise Buhl's monograph The late Egyptian anthropoid stone sarcophagi confirmed the sarcophagus as belonging to the 26th dynasty, which began in 664 BC and ended with Cambyses II's conquest of Egypt in 525 BC – many centuries after the last of the known Egyptian Stelae in the Levant. These three Egyptian sarcophagi are considered to have contained the bodies of the same family – i. e. Eshmunazar II and his parents Tabnit and Amoashtart. Whereas Tabnit's sarcophagus reemployed a sarcophagus already dedicated on its front with a long Egyptian inscription in the name of an Egyptian general, and Amoashtart's was uninscribed, the sarcophagus used for Eshmunazar II was new and was inscribed with a full length dedication in Phoenician on a clean surface. According to French archaeologist and epigrapher René Dussaud, the sarcophagi and their inscriptions may have been ordered by Amoashtart. Scholars believe these sarcophagi were originally made in Egypt for members of the Ancient Egyptian elite, but were then transported to Sidon and repurposed for the burial of Sidonian royalty. Gibson and later scholars believe that the sarcophagi were captured as booty by the Sidonians during their participation in Cambyses II's conquest. Herodotus recounts an event in which Cambyses II "ransacked a burial ground at Memphis, where coffins were opened up and the dead bodies they contained were examined", possibly providing the occasion on which the sarcophagi were removed and reappropriated by his Sidonian subjects. name=Kelly

The discovery of the Magharet Abloun hypogeum and of Eshmunazar II's sarcophagus caused a sensation in France, which led Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, to dispatch a scientific mission to Lebanon headed by Ernest Renan.

The lid inscription was of great significance upon its discovery; it was the first Phoenician language inscription to be discovered in Phoenicia proper. Furthermore, this engraving forms the longest and most detailed Phoenician inscription ever found anywhere up to that point, and is now the second longest extant Phoenician inscription after the Karatepe bilingual. Due to its length and level of preservation, the inscription offers valuable knowledge about the characteristics of the Phoenician language and, more specifically, of the Tyro Sidonian dialect. Additionally, the inscription displays notable similarities to texts in other Semitic languages, evident in its idiomatic expressions, word combinations, and the use of repetition.

The sarcophagi of Tabnit and Eshmunazar may have served as a model for the later sarcophagi of Sidon. name=Kelly After Tabnit and Eshmunazar II, sarcophagi continued to be used by Phoenician dignitaries, but with marked stylistic evolutions. These local anthropoid sarcophagi, built from the 5th century BC to the first half of the 4th century BC, continued to be carved in the form of a smooth, shapeless body, but used white marble, and the faces were progressively sculpted in more realistic Hellenic styles. name=Kelly It is uncertain whether they were imported from Greece or produced locally. This type of Phoenician sarcophagi has been found in the ruins of Phoenician colonies throughout the Mediterranean.