Phoenician Votive Inscriptions Excavated at Carthage, Published 1863
Phoenician inscriptions recovered from the site of Carthage by Nathan Davis between 1856 and 1858 and deposited in the British Museum, drawn for his published catalogue of 1863. Punic stelae like these are the only substantial body of writing the Carthaginians left in their own language.
Almost everything written about Carthage that survives was written by its enemies. The city's own literature is gone; what remains in Punic is largely this — short votive and funerary formulae cut into limestone stelae, thousands of them, naming a dedicant, a lineage and a deity. They will not settle the story of Dido, but they do establish the language, the gods, the family structures and the naming practice of the people who told it. Davis excavated at British government expense and the stones went to the British Museum. See the foundation and early rise of Carthage.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
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