The inhabitants of ancient Carthage did sacrifice their children

The researchers seek to disprove the prevailing theory that one should not rely on Greek and Roman writings tainted with anti-Carthaginian racism is out of place, especially when the archaeological findings support the theory of the victims

After decades of tending to deny the claim that the people of Carthage sacrificed their children, a new study has revealed "overwhelming" evidence that this ancient culture did indeed perform the controversial ritual.

A joint article by researchers from academic institutions around the world, including the University of Oxford, suggests that the parents of Carthage ritually sacrificed young children as an offering to the gods. The article claims that well-intentioned attempts to identify ancient baby graves as those where babies who died of natural causes are buried are wrong. According to the researchers, the practice of sacrificing babies is what caused the establishment of the Carthaginian culture in the first place.

The study reviews literary evidence, epigraphy (the field of research that deciphers and investigates inscriptions that appear on pottery, etc.), archeology and the historical records of the Greeks and Romans that were studied until the seventies of the 20th century when researchers began to claim that the sacrificial theory is simply propaganda against Carthage.

Dr. Josephine Quinn from the Faculty of Classical Studies at the University of Oxford, one of the authors of the article, said: "It is becoming more and more clear that the stories about child sacrifice in Carthage are true. This is something the Romans and Greeks reported, and it was part of the popular history of Carthage in the 18th and 19th centuries.

"But in the 20th century, more and more people began to support the opinion that this was racist propaganda on the part of the Greeks and Romans against their political enemy, and that Carthage should be protected from this terrible slander. "What we are saying now is that the archaeological, literary and documentary evidence for child sacrifice is overwhelming and that instead of rejecting it outright, we should try to understand its meaning. "

The city-state of ancient Carthage was a Phoenician colony located in present-day Tunisia. It operated from approximately 800 BC until 146 BC when it was destroyed by the Romans.

Children, both boys and girls, at the age of a few weeks were sacrificed by the Carthaginians in places called Toft (Teft). In practice these rituals were also performed by the residents of other Phoenician colonies in Sicily, Sardinia and Malta. The dedications from the children's parents to the gods are engraved on stone tablets above their cremated remains, which ended with the explanation to the god or gods concerned "Hear my voice and bless me".

Dr. Quinn said: "People have tried to claim that these archaeological sites are cemeteries for children who were killed or died young, but apart from the fact that a weak, sick or dead child would be a rather poor offering to God, and that the animal remains found at those sites were treated in exactly the same way, It is hard to imagine how the death of a child can be considered an answer to prayer.

"Today it is difficult for us to understand people's motives for carrying out this action and why the parents agreed to it, but it is worth trying." "Perhaps this stemmed from deep religious piety, or the feeling that the good that the victim could bring to the family and the community as a whole outweighed the life of the child.

"We need to remember the high level of infant mortality in antiquity. It would have made sense for parents not to get too attached to a child who may not even make it past his first birthday. '

Dr. Quinn added: "We think of the victimization claim as libel because we see morality in our own terms. But people looked at it differently 2,500 years ago. We don't have to imagine that ancient people thought like us and were horrified by the same things."

The reaction against the idea of ​​the Carthaginian child sacrifice began in the second half of the 20th century and was led by researchers from Tunisia and Italy, the countries where the inferno sites were found. Dr. Quinn added: "Carthage was much bigger than Athens and for many centuries much more important than Rome, and this is a fact that many have forgotten."
If we accept the fact that the sacrificial ritual did take place on a large scale, it explains why the colony was founded in the first place. It is possible that the reason the people who founded Carthage and its neighbors left the Phoenicians' original home in present-day Lebanon was because other Phoenicians objected to their unusual religious practice.

"Child abandonment was common in the ancient world, and human sacrifices were found in many historical societies, but child sacrifice was relatively rare. Perhaps Carthage served its founders like the founders of the settlement in America at Plymouth Cliffs, were pious in their devotion to gods who were no longer welcome in their home."

"Rejecting the idea of ​​sacrificing children stops us from seeing the bigger picture. ” she concludes.

For information on the Oxford University website