Phoenician Marsala Ship Alphabet Markings

Research on an ancient Phoenician Punic shipwreck found near Marsala, off the west coast of Sicily, showed that its builders designed the hull so workers could assemble it quickly. Excavators studying the Marsala Punic Ship in the 1970s found that each plank and structural element carried painted or carved letters from the Punic alphabet, a local form of the Phoenician script. These marks indicated the position of every piece and acted as assembly guides for shipwrights.

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