Ahiram Sarcophagus

The Ahiram Sarcophagus (TM 865188 ) is the limestone funerary chest of a Phoenician king, dated to the middle of the 9th century BC. It was discovered by a French archaeologist in the original tomb in the royal necropolis of Byblos. It is the oldest example of the fully developed Phoenician script, and considered by some to be a terminus post quem for the transfer of the alphabet to Greece. The sarcophagus in now kept in the National Museum in Beirut.