The Thinissut Sanctuary in Bir Bouregba (Tunisia) gives us a nice glimpse into Punic religion and provides us with some of the coolest Punic writing. This stele (≈1st C. BC-1st AD) is an example of the transition between Punic and Neo-Punic writing (photo credit @HabibMhenni)

If you’re wondering what Neo-Punic is, it’s just (later) Punic that’s impossible to read. Forget about the clear letter shapes shown in this thread that I made before. At the Neo-Punic stage, nobody has time to carve clear letters for us anymore. https://twitter.com/qrt_hdsty/status/1311160084333035520

Fortunately, this stela displays a mix of the two, so it stays somewhat readable but still shows us some differences between the two types of writing. For context, the stele is dedicated to Baal Hammon and Tanit, as is the sanctuary, and it is kept at the Museum of Nabeul.

The 1st line reads lʾdn lbʿl wltnt pn bʿl mqdšm šnm ʾš pʿl bʿl tnsmt bšt šptm “To the lord to Baal and to Tanit face of Baal, two sanctuaries which the citizens of Tnsmt made in the year of the Suffetes” We get the Punic name (likely Berber in origin) of Thinissut: 𐤕𐤍𐤎𐤌𐤕

This 1st line already shows some of the complications of Neo-Punic, especially the writing of t 𐤕 and n 𐤍. Compare the writing of Tanit here, and the one in my previous thread. This one is harder to read, but we’re still at a time where it’s recognizable.

Same for the aleph, 𐤀 which still had its characteristic bull head shape in the word ʾdn the previous inscription. Here, it’s just a diagonal stroke with another one perpendicular to it, only distinguishable from tav 𐤕 with the direction of the stroke.

Also, the m of Tnsmt barely resembles the one of ʾšmn in the other inscription. Things are getting pretty shaky here and the letter loses its distinctive features even more in later attestations of the language.

The 2nd line starts with the names of the Suffetes: Ḥmlk and Ḥmlk bn ʾnkn, then thru the middle of the 4th line are the names of people who did the construction work on the sanctuary: ʾpšn bn Gdsn, Bʿlḥnʾ bn Mskr, Prnkn bn Mndkn and Yšdʾ bn ʾnkn.

Then we get the mention of the gods: bʾ hʾlnm ʾl ʿlt hmqdšm ʾl bʿsr wšbʿ lyrḥ mpʿ lpny hšt z “These gods entered these sanctuaries on the 17th of the month of Mpʿ before this year.” Here, we can see the h 𐤄 starts changing too, but still recoverable.

There's still a lot to talk about in this stele, but if you made it here, thanks for reading, and thanks to @HabibMhenni for taking this amazing high quality picture and uploading it to Wikipedia, giving me access to the original text from where I am. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inscription_punique_Neapolis.JPG