Lation-Punic Epigraphy.

• Author: Schmitz, Philip C.
• Position: Book review

Latino-Punic Epigraphy. By ROBERT M. KERR. Forschungen zum Alten Testament, vol. 42. Tubingen: MOHR SIEBECK, 2010. Pp. xvi + 253. [euro] 64 (paper).

This book begins with the author's preface (pp. vii viii), an introduction (pp. 1-24), then two main chapters presenting the principal argument. A text corpus, glossary, and bibliography conclude the work. The opening sentence states the book's scope: "to describe the grammar of Late Punic" (p. 1 [emphasis original]). The Late Punic dialect includes the language of inscriptions in the script style called Neo-Punic, Graeco-Punic texts from EI-Hofra, and the fully vocalized Latino-Punic texts from Tripolitania. (The Latino-Punic ostraca are not included because their cursive Latin script requires a different epigraphic specialization, p. 3). Kerr was able to examine many of the originals in Tripoli and several other North African locations (pp. 2, 1.69), so the judgments concerning letter forms and readings offered in this book are highly reliable.

Kerr's working assumption that "the language of these texts is to all intents and purposes Phoenico-Punic in Latin guise" (p. 1) is certainly correct, and thus the work serves not merely as a detailed analysis of a tiny sub-corpus of odd texts, but as a foundational study with broader application to Phoenician-Punic phonology and morphology in all periods of the language.

The author is amply qualified to undertake the study in a subfield beset with a multitude of historical and linguistic difficulties. Educated in venerable European centers, Kerr has acquired considerable competence in comparative Semitics and classical languages. He has additional skill in the non-Semitic cuneiform traditions, Egyptian, Persian, and Berber. These and an array of modern languages are continually in play on the book's pages. It might also be deduced from a comment in the preface (p. viii) that Kerr typeset the manuscript.

The introduction establishes the scope of the study, describes the corpus, explains the genres of texts involved, introduces additional texts (especially the Punic dialogues in the Poenulus) called upon, and sets out the temporal and social setting of Late Punic (pp. 1-13). The second part of the introduction (pp. 13-24) marshals evidence and argument bearing on the survival of Punic in North Africa. Good use is made of the astonishing discovery (by J. Divjak) of previously unknown letters from the early years of Augustine's priesthood. Citations of...