(Biblical Archaeology): Carthaginians & Infant Sacrifices to Baal?

Did the Carthaginians Really Practice Infant Sacrifice?

Recent publications survey the evidence at Phoenician tophets

Robin Ngo   •  02/04/2014 

 

“But with full knowledge and understanding [the Carthaginians] offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds.”

—Plutarch, Moralia II.171C

The excavated Tophet of Sulcis at Sant’Antioco in Sardinia. Photo: www.tharros.info.

One of the most debated questions in the study of the ancient world is whether or not the Carthaginians practiced human sacrifice—more specifically, the sacrifice of infants. Plutarch and other ancient Greek and Roman authors reported that the Carthaginians vowed their own children to the gods Baal Hamon and Tanit as sacrificial offerings. This idea had been accepted in scholarship until the 1970s, when a growing number of academics began to doubt the practice.

Now, studies published in Antiquity have responded to recently renewed criticisms—and have provided comprehensive evidence that the Carthaginians really did sacrifice their own children.

For the rest, see:

http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/did-the-carthaginians-really-practice-infant-sacrifice/