The Foundation of Carthage, 814 B.C.: The Douïmès Pendant Inscription

Journal article (Journal of Semitic Studies 26.2, 1981, pp. 177–191) arguing for the historical credibility of the traditional 814 BCE foundation date for Carthage on the basis of a Phoenician-script inscription on a gold pendant from the Douïmès cemetery at Carthage. Krahmalkov, one of the leading 20th-century scholars of the Punic language, proposes a reading that, if correct, provides epigraphic support for an early-9th-century foundation otherwise known only from the Greco-Latin literary tradition. The reading is contested and the evidence is thin, but the article is essential reading for any treatment of the foundation date question and for the broader problem of using Punic-script evidence to check the literary chronology.