The Banobal stele is a

Horus on the Crocodiles The Horus on the Crocodiles or Horus cippus or Horus stele is a group of ancient Egyptian amulets, or healing statues, from the Third Intermediate Period until the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Well known specimens include the so-called Metterni ...

stele with a Phoenician graffiti inscription on a block of marble which served as a base for an Egyptian stele, found near the

Pyramid of Unas The pyramid of Unas ( Egyptian: ''Nfr swt Wnjs'' "Beautiful are the places of Unas") is a smooth-sided pyramid built in the 24th century BC for the Egyptian pharaoh Unas, the ninth and final king of the Fifth Dynasty. It is the smallest Old Ki ...

in Memphis, Egypt in 1900. The inscription is known as KAI 48 or RES 1. It was first mentioned in 1900 by Melchior de Vogüe, who had been sent a copy of the stele by

Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia. ...

, who was excavating Memphis, Egypt. It is currently at the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...

, with ID CG 9402 (JE 33264+34081).

Phoenician inscription

The inscription is the front of the plinth of the stele, which measures 55 x 64 x 32 cm. The text of the inscription is damaged; it has been dated to the 2nd-1st centuries BCE. The inscription reads: ::

Charles Clermont-Ganneau Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (19 February 1846 – 15 February 1923) was a noted French Orientalist and archaeologist. Biography Clermont-Ganneau was born in Paris, the son of Simon Ganneau, a sculptor and mystic who died in 1851 when Clermon ...

suggested the name Binba‘al might be better restored ''Banoba'al'' or ''Hanobal''.Clermont-Ganneau, Charles
Le nom phénicien Banobal et l’inscription de Memphis
Recueil d'archéologie orientale, Volume IV, 1901, section 41, page 216-217 Scholars have connected this name to Banobali or Bariobali, a Phoenician temple slave described by

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

in ''

In Verrem "In Verrem" ("Against Verres") is a series of speeches made by Cicero in 70 BC, during the corruption and extortion trial of Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily. The speeches, which were concurrent with Cicero's election to the aedileshi ...

''.

Gallery

File:Banobal inscription zoomed in.jpg, Inscription zoomed in File:Banobal stele at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (front).jpg, Front File:Banobal stele at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (back).jpg, Back

Bibliography

* Daressy, Georges, 1903
Textes et dessins magiques, 9402
pages 3-11 Egypt. Maslahat al-Athar
Vol 13: Bulletin de l'Institut d'Egypte (1930-1931)
page 79
Vol 21: Bulletin de l'Institut d'Egypte (1938-1939)
page 261

References

{{reflist Phoenician inscriptions Archaeological artifacts KAI inscriptions