Ahiram sarcophage
Sarcófago de Ahiram
- Date
- 1923 · confidence high
- Place
- Byblos, Lebanon
- Credited to
- Pierre Montet
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The sarcophagus of the Phoenician king of Byblos found by Pierre Montet in the royal necropolis; its inscription is the earliest known example of the fully developed Phoenician alphabet.
What it led to
- Confirmation of the Phoenician alphabet as ancestor of later alphabets
- Basis for dating other royal Phoenician inscriptions from Byblos
- Renewed study of the alphabet's transmission across the Mediterranean
- Reference point for Iron Age Levantine chronology
Built on
Made possible
- Greek alphabet with vowels