[Book review] Frendo, Anthony J. - How to read ancient texts : with a focus on select Phoenician inscriptions from Malta

Abstract

How does one read ancient texts responsibly? Anthony J. Frendo’s book is a welcome interdisciplinary work for scholars of Northwest Semitic epigraphy (especially Phoenician) and the Hebrew Bible, classical scholars, and archaeologists specialising in the ancient Mediterranean and the Levant (pp.xxi). The book explores two main areas: “the principles of interpretation involved in reading and understanding texts from the ancient Mediterranean world”; and, “[the application of ] the results gained in discussing such principles to three Phoenician inscriptions retrieved from the Maltese archipelago”, namely, the ‘twin’ stelae CIS I, 123 and 123bis, and the Tal-Virtù Papyrus. All three artefacts were discovered in Rabat, Malta.