Recent Excavations at Carthage. 221 The only question that remains to be discussed is the age of the inscribed tablets, a point on which none of the commentators have expressed an opinion. Are they Punic that is, anterior to the destruction of Carthage or are they of the Roman period ? On comparing the characters on them with those on coins and other remains, we find that, although they do not possess the angularity of the earliest examples, they have none of the carelessness of later Phoenician letters. There is no perceptible difference between them and the famous inscrip- tion found at Marseilles," which from its very nature is evidently of consider- able antiquity. The names are likewise purely Phoenician. On examining the ornaments engraved on the tablets we shall perceive that they resemble more closely the later works of the Greek school than those of the Roman. The neurons or honeysuckle ornaments are like those on Greek vases of the second or third century before Christ. The form of the tablets is likewise derived from Greek rather than from Roman models. If, therefore, there be no choice between assigning them to a period anterior to the destruction of Carthage, or to one subse- quent to the rebuilding by Augustus, I would venture to express an opinion that they belong to the former period, and that they are therefore really Punic. Tt is, however, possible that Carthage was not so utterly annihilated as has been generally supposed, and that these rude works may have been the votive offerings of such of its Punic inhabitants as lingered among its ruins. Such are the tablets of which Mr. Davis has had the good fortune to discover the largest number that have been brought to light at Carthage, and which seem to be the only remains that can claim to be of Punic origin. The antiquities to be hereafter described are all of Roman workmanship. II. Fragments of Architecture and Sculpture. Two Arabic authors, Abou-Obaid Bekri, and El-Edrisi, who wrote during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, describe some of the public buildings of Carthage as then standing, and as being remarkable for the profusion of their sculptured ornaments ; b and we learn from other sources that some of these decorations re- mained till the sixteenth century. Every vestige, however, has now disappeared. M. Falbe tells us that the Pisans carried off shiploads of sculpture and marble to decorate their cathedral, and the Genoese seem to have followed their example. Carthage, in fact, was resorted to as a large quarry. The walls and houses of Judas, Etude de la Langue Phenicienne, pi. xxvii. " Bureau de la Malle, Topographic de Carthage, p. 36. c Recherches sur T Emplacement de Garth, p. 12.
