A lot has been deduced from this short Phoenician inscription, which was found on a potsherd at Idalion. If the date has been read correctly, 'year 50' must be the 50th year of Pumayyaton king of Kition, who is called Pygmalion in Greek. The translation is taken from F.M. Cross, in "Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology", pp.93-103 ( Google Books), who suggests that the inhabitants of Idalion may have resorted to child sacrifice in the final crisis of Pumayyaton's reign, when Cyprus was invaded by Ptolemy I in 313/2 B.C. (see Diod_19.79 ).
...l son of Rapa[ʾl ?]. Holocaust of a scion. Year 50.
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