Sidonians at Marisa (Maresha)

One of the most important epigraphical finds of ancient Idumea, which has led scholars to believe that a Sidonian/Phoenician community was present in Marisa during the Hellenistic period (fourth–second centuries BCE), is the well-known inscription uncovered at the site in 1905, reading “Apollophanes son of Sesmaios, Chief of the Sidonians at Marisa.” This inscription was discovered in a large, lavishly painted tomb in the city’s necropolis, allegedly supporting a presence of a Sidonian/Phoenician community in Marisa. Following a comprehensive examination of the material culture from Marisa vis-à-vis that of other Phoenician sites, this commonly-held assumption is put to question. Phoenician pottery, very common in Phoenician cities of the Hellenistic period, such as ‘Akko and Ashqelon, is absent from Marisa, and the Greek onomasticon of Hellenistic Marisa also lacks Phoenician names and includes mainly Idumean and Greek names common in the East. Also, the numismatic evidence from Marisa does not seem to support a Sidonian presence. In this paper I argue that the term ‘Sidonians’ in the Hellenistic context at Marisa implies an instrumental context rather than an ethnic one.