Sarcophagus Inscription of Eshmunazar II
Eshmunazar II's tomb inscription asserts that his premature death cut short a reign of temple-building piety rewarded by the Persian Great King with the rich Sharon Plain territories of Dor and Joppa, and it threatens total ruin on anyone who violates the tomb.
- royal funerary curse protecting the tomb
- co-regency with his mother Amashtart, priestess of Astarte
- Achaemenid territorial reward for service to the Persian crown
- temple-building piety as royal legitimation
The longest Phoenician inscription of the Achaemenid period, carved on the lid of a black amphibolite sarcophagus, Egyptian-quarried stone reused from the Wadi Hammamat, found near Sidon in 1855, records the young king's lament that he died a son of few days, an orphan, son of a widow, after a reign shared with his mother and regent Amashtart. He credits their joint piety, building temples to Baal of Sidon, Astarte, and Eshmun, with the Lord of Kings, the Achaemenid Great King, granting Sidon the territories of Dor and Joppa on the Plain of Sharon as reward for services, probably naval support to a Persian campaign. Most of the text is an escalating curse against anyone who opens the coffin, promising no resting place among the dead, no offspring, and destruction by the holy gods.
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