KNMY inscription

The KNMY inscription (KAI 79 or CIS I 3785) is an inscription in the Punic language from Carthage that is believed to record a so-called "molk" child sacrifice.

[1] The text is inscribed on a 55 cm high stela that was discovered in 1922.

[2] In this inscription KNMY, a Carthaginian slave (or "servant"), says that he "vowed" (nador) "his flesh" (BŠRY, cf.

Hebrew beśarō) to the two major gods of Carthage, Tinnīt-Phanebal and Ba‘al-Ḥammon, which is understood to mean that he sacrificed a child of his (Krahmalkov translates BŠRY as " of his own flesh"[3]).

[4] The inscription ends with a curse for those who might remove or damage the stela.