Phoenician language
In 1694, a Maltese "canonicus", Ignazio di Costanzo, was the first to report an inscription on the cippi which he considered to be in the Phoenician language. This identification was on the basis that "Phoenicians" were recorded as ancient inhabitants of Malta by Greek writers Thucydides and Diodorus Siculus. Costanzo spotted these inscriptions, which were part of two almost identical votive cippi at the entrance of "Villa Abela" in Marsa, the house of the celebrated Maltese historian, Gian Franġisk Abela. Di Costanzo immediately recognised the Greek inscriptions, and he thought the other parts were written in Phoenician. However, the Maltese historian Ciantar claimed that the cippi were discovered in 1732, and placed the discovery in the villa of Abela, which had become a museum entrusted to the Jesuits. The contradiction in the dates of the discovery is confusing, given di Costanzo's 1694 letter.