Ю. Эйтинг и коллекция пунических стел Государственного Эрмитажа. (in Russian) (Euting and the collection of Punic stelae in the State Hermitage Museum). (original) (raw)

Marat M. Yunusov // Труды Государственного Эрмитажа : [Т.] 95 : Материалы Международной конференции, посвященной 100-летию со дня рождения Игоря Михайловича Дьяконова (1915–1999) / Государственный Эрмитаж. – СПб. : Изд-во Гос. Эрмитажа, 2018. C. 264-284. J. Euting and the collection of Punic stelae in the State Hermitage Museum. The collection of Punic stelae in the State Hermitage Museum is closely connected with the famous German orientalist and traveller Julius Euting (1839-1913). In 1871 J. Euting published “Punische Steine. St. Pétersbourg, 1871 // Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg. Tome XVII, № 3» in Russia. This book is a collection of drawings of the stelae from Carthage and Hadrumet (modern Sousse) including 27 inscribed objects of Euting’s private collection. There he provided some information on the provenance of these stelae (Vorbemerkurgen/ I. Ineditae). It is still the only complete research of the Punic inscribed stelae in the State Hermitage Museum (accurate drawings of the stelae’s images, analysis of proper names) though some considerations of the German scholar need to be correlated with modern data and the large amount of the Punic stelae published after 1871. In 1879, J. Euting presented all Punic stelae from his collection (except the two presented earlier to W. Wright) as a gift to the Asiatic Museum of Saint Petersburg expressing his gratitude to the Russian Academy of Sciences for the publication of “Punische Steine”. Until 1938, this collection was kept in the Leningrad Institute of History, and was later transferred to the State Hermitage Museum. This collection of Punic stelae comprises 34 decorated and/or inscribed objects in different preservation conditions. The stelae date back to the 4th-2nd centuries BC and vary in style. 26 stelae have engraved dedication inscriptions naming the goddess Tanit, “face of Baal”, and the god Baal-Hammon, and also naming the person who made the dedication, in fulfillment of a vow. There are religious symbols and images above and below the inscriptions: a raised hand, a crescent and a disc together, the caduceus, and the so-called “Tanit” symbol. One stela (Hermitage №18741/Euting’s C. 234) is half-finished: it is inscribed only with a dedication formula without the dedicator’s name and obviously did not find a purchaser for some reason. Five unpublished stelae bear no inscriptions; they are decorated with a raised hand and a flower in the center, and the goddess Tanit symbol in the apex (Hermitage №18756// Asiatic museum №30), the goddess Tanit symbol flanked by caducei (18757// 29), the one under the shining sun disc (18761//28), images of a sacrificial animal – sheep (18738//31, 18749//32). Three other objects are fragments of stelae with some letters and symbols (18738//Euting’s Neop.121; 4991//–; 5329//–). For the first three unpublished stelae (courtesy of the State Hermitage Museum), see Plates I-III. Key words: Euting, State Hermitage, Punic stelae.