The Cippi of Melqart is the collective name for two white marble cippi that were unearthed at Tas-Silġ

Tas-Silġ

The Tas-Silġ is a rounded hilltop in Zejtun, Malta, overlooking the head of Marsaxlokk-Bay. Tas-Silġ is a multi-period sanctuary site covering all eras from Neolithic to the fourth century AD.-Description:...

, Marsaxlokk

Marsaxlokk

Marsaxlokk is a traditional fishing village located in the south-eastern part of Malta, with a population of 3,277 people . The village’s name comes from marsa, which means "port" and xlokk, which is the local name for south east...

, Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 by the Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

 in the late 17th century. One is currently in the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

, the other rests in the National Museum of Archaeology

National Museum of Archaeology, Malta

The National Museum of Archaeology is a a Maltese museum of prehistoric artifacts, located in Valetta. It is managed by Heritage Malta.History=...

 in Valetta.

Of Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...

n origin, the candelabra-shaped cippi dated to the 2nd century BCE served as monuments and incense-burning pillars dedicated as ex voto gifts by the brothers Abdosir and 'Osirshamar, to the Tyrian divinity Melqart

Melqart

Melqart, properly Phoenician Milk-Qart "King of the City", less accurately Melkart, Melkarth or Melgart , Akkadian Milqartu, was tutelary god of the Phoenician city of Tyre as Eshmun protected Sidon. Melqart was often titled Ba‘l Ṣūr "Lord of Tyre", the ancestral king of the royal line...

, syncretized

Syncretism

Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...

 as Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

.

The cippi provided the key to the deciphering that led to modern understanding of the Phoenician language, since the inscriptions on each base were written in both Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and Phoenician.

The inscription on the cippus of the Louvre reads:

• (in Phoenician) To our lord Melqart, Lord of Tyre, dedicated by / your servant Abd' Osir and his brother 'Osirshamar / both sons of 'Osirshamar, for he heard / their voice, may he bless them;
• (in Greek) Dionysos and Serapion
  Serapion
  -Physicians:*Serapion of Alexandria , Greek physician*Yahya ibn Sarafyun , also known as Serapion the Elder or Johannes Serapion, Christian physician who wrote two medical compilations in Syriac...
  
  the / sons of Serapion, Tyrenes / to Heracles
  Heracles
  Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
  
   the founder.

The French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélémy

Jean-Jacques Barthélemy

Jean-Jacques Barthélemy was a French writer and numismatist.-Early life:Barthélemy was born at Cassis, in Provence, and began his classical studies at the College of Oratory in Marseilles. He took up philosophy and theology at the Jesuits' college, and finally attended the seminary of the Lazarists...

 identified Phoenician letters with this inscription, which used 18 of the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet

Phoenician alphabet

The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, was a non-pictographic consonantal alphabet, or abjad. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia...

.

In 1782, the cippus of the Louvre was presented to Louis XVI by Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc

Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc

Fra' Sir Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc was a member of the wealthy and influential Rohan family of France, and 70th Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta from 1775 to 1797....

, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller. It was first deposited at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...

 and then moved to the Bibliothèque Mazarine

Bibliothèque Mazarine

The Bibliothèque Mazarine is the oldest public library in France.- History :The Bibliothèque Mazarine was initially the personal library of cardinal Mazarin , who was a great bibliophile...

in 1792, where it remained for 4 years. It was moved to the Louvre in 1864.