Bodashtart inscriptions
The Bodashtart inscriptions are a well known group of about 22 to 24 Phoenician texts from the 6th century BC that mention King Bodashtart. The first one, CIS I 4, is said to have been found in 1858 in a wall near Sidon. In the early 20th century, two sets of inscriptions were found at the Temple of Eshmun near Sidon in Lebanon. They are known as KAI 15 and KAI 16. KAI 15 mentions Bodashtart by name only, while KAI 16 mentions Bodashtart and his heir Yatan-milk.
In 2004 another important inscription was reconstructed. It is the earliest Bodashtart inscription and is unique because it is dedicated to the goddess Astarte rather than to Eshmun, as the others are. The text is not fully quoted here, but it is recognized as an important early record.
These inscriptions were published together as RES 766 in the Répertoire d'Épigraphie Sémitique and were edited in detail by Philippe Berger in 1904. The discovery story is dramatic. Four workers were removing blocks from the temple for the Druze leader Nassib Jumblatt when they noticed some stones with inscriptions painted in red. An antiques dealer bought three of these stones, all bearing the same inscription. The blocks were very large, so some were cut down to 15–20 cm thick, and some were split into pieces. Later, forgeries appeared.
The temple wall where the inscriptions were found had two construction layers. The inner layer was better built and the KAI 16 inscriptions were on the inside faces, hidden at first. The KAI 16 inscriptions were later found in the outer, less carefully built layer and also turned inward, so they could not be seen when the wall was standing.
A fourth Bodashtart inscription, consisting of eleven lines, was described by Paolo Xella and José-Ángel Zamora in 2004. It had been discovered and photographed by Maurice Chéhab around 1960 on the Awali river bank, a few kilometers from the river’s mouth, in an area later used for an electric power plant. The original inscription seems to be lost now, but Xella and Zamora located Chéhab’s photographs. They conclude it probably refers to building a water channel from the Awali river to the Eshmun temple complex, which Bodashtart had enlarged to meet the temple’s growing water needs. This inscription is dated to about 520 BCE.
Scholars have sketched Bodashtart’s chronology. Xella and Zamora suggest we already have enough sources to begin writing his biography. The oldest known inscription is CIS I 4, from Bodashtart’s first year as king, which describes dedicating land to the goddess Astarte, a typical royal act in Sidon who were also high priests. It hints that Bodashtart was related to previous rulers and may have justified his succession through religious duty and family ties.
In the canal inscription, Bodashtart is shown in the seventh year of his reign, after a period of major building at the Temple of Eshmun and in three urban districts mentioned in the text. A few years later, KAI 15 records his building activities in those three districts and in a fourth district named “Sidon of the Ruler.” A few years after that, KAI 16 mentions building the Eshmun temple complex and, for the first time, his son Yatonmilk as a legitimate successor to the throne. This suggests some anxiety about his own right to rule, though it is not clear whether Yatonmilk ever became king.
Between about 575 and 400 BCE, Sidon had at least twelve rulers, including one queen-regent, Amoashtart. Bodashtart probably ruled from about 525 to 515 BCE, and his accession may be linked to Cambyses II’s campaign in 525 BCE that led to the conquest of Egypt. The Bodashtart inscriptions thus offer a valuable window into his building programs, family, and the politics of Sidon during that period.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 04:36 (CET).