The volume contains studies dealing with Mediterranean history in the
first millennium B.C., based mainly on epigraphic data. Chapter I
concerns the Philistines and the kingdom of "terra firma", established
by "Sea Peoples" on the Lower and Middle Orontes and in the Aleppo area,
showing their Mycenaean background. Their obvious relations with the
Phoenicians lead to the presentation of the newly identified material
referring to the goddess Tanit, best known from Carthage, but coming
from the Levant. Information provided by classical sources is then
discussed in two chapters dealing with Herodotus and with later sources
giving some information on Phoenician and Punic law and jurisprudence.
The second part of the book consists in an analysis of Phoenician,
Punic, and Neo-Punic inscriptions which so far have not been fully
deciphered or interpreted. Most of them come from North Africa, but
inscriptions from Ibiza and Sardinia are examined as well. Some of them
offer the possibility of better understanding the molk-sacrifice
and its human implications, especially in the second and first centuries
B.C. Attention is paid also to the meaning and the implications of some
personal names appearing in those inscriptions.