- Historically, the practice of child sacrifice is attested by Greek historian Plutarch, and Carthaginian Christian historian Tertullian, and Orosius, Philo, and Diodorus Siculus. Some scholars contend that these records are exaggerated remembrances and propaganda by the Romans against their arch-nemesis. However, archaeologically, there is a vast graveyard of cremated human remains, mostly infants and children. It is referred to as the “Tophet”, after the word for such a thing found in the Hebrew Bible. Some scholars have contended that it wasn’t a religious ritual, but rather a graveyard for infants and children who died of natural causes. This is the official view of Tunisia, the modern country where Carthage is located (mostly because it’s not exactly savory to be host to a massive child sacrifice cult site). However, I believe the archaeological evidence points to ritual child sacrifice. There are an estimated 20,000 urns filled with cremated child remains in the Carthage tophet alone, and there are a couple other Tophet-like sites in other Phoenician/Canaanite cities around the Mediterranean (Paolo Xella, Josephine Quinn, Valentina Melchiorri and Peter van Dommelen (2013). Cemetery or sacrifice? Infant burials at the Carthage Tophet. Antiquity, 87, pp 1199-1207).
- The remains do include some small animals, and the argument goes that if the animals were sacrificed, then it is logical that the children were too. There is also a correlation between the rate of cremated children and the well-being of the city. When the city is in dire straits from war or natural disaster, the rate of cremated children in the Tophet skyrockets. Another argument from Patricia Smith is that the infant bones are from children aged two months, which is not usual for infant mortality as previously reported, indicating sacrifice. The original round of skeletal analyses were very contradictory, and the original scholar who performed them (Schwartz) has contradicted himself and his own results several times, and has not produced a consistent aging of the cremated children, despite making several attempts to do so. His efforts were so inconsistent, the directors of the excavation actually removed him from the project and brought in other scholars. Despite this, he continues to publish studies on the Tophet. Personally, given that I know most of the scholars involved, I would not trust Schwartz’s work on the Tophet, but rather would look to Pat Smith and Sherry Fox for much better analysis. The most recent work (done by Sherry Fox and Patricia Smith) has indicated that the children were healthy at the time of death, and of an age when infant mortality is not usual. The fact that so many children are of the same age at death, when this age is not associated with infant mortality indicates a purpose behind the deaths and cremations. There are just too many children, over a long period of time, all of a similar age (and not fetuses, but children who have survived the first few months), all bearing no skeletal signs of deformity or disease or injury that would have indicated death from some other method. This coupled with the historical accounts of child sacrifice are the evidence. Why did they sacrifice children? Notice I mentioned before that the rate of child sacrifice is inversely proportional to the wellbeing of the city. Great distress requires great sacrifice, according to Carthaginian religion. When your city is in extreme peril, and you need to get the god’s attention, you make a sacrifice. For them, the greatest possible sacrifice was a child. It was not undertaken lightly, but was the most visceral, last-ditch effort to call to their god for help. It’s a controversial and divided subject, to be sure. But the majority of scholars who have worked on it who are unaffiliated with the country of Tunisia are of the opinion that child sacrifice took place. The major opponents to this have not done particularly exemplary work on the subject. I have heard lectures by the major excavators of the site, and they would agree. Unfortunately, due to the sensitive nature, some of this is unpublished or in the process of publication. Most of the published research is by Schwartz, who was removed from the project by the directors for producing inconsistent results with age distribution of the remains, and generally poor scholarship, but he took his data with him and continues to publish, for better or worse (Patricia Smith, Lawrence E. Stager, Joseph A. Greene and Gal Avishai. Age estimations attest to infant sacrifice at the Carthage Tophet. Archaeology. Volume: 87 Number: 338 Page: 1191–1199).
- The practice of infant sacrifice is mentioned by numerous Roman anti-Carthage and Christian anti-pagan authors from antiquity. Thus, for a variety of reasons, people have often felt more comfortable denouncing the claims as propaganda. But archaeology is here to afflict the comfortable. Excavations at the major Carthaginian tophet–a sacred cemetery and ritual site–revealed an entire section dedicated to infant burials. But not just any infants: recent researchers have concluded that the vast majority of infants were healthy and around two months old when they died. For illness, accident, and stillbirth reasons, generalized high levels of infant mortality would be more likely to produce a higher proportion of infants who had died at a younger age (later premodern statistics back this up). Additionally, chronologically the burials themselves are clustered around a distinct moments in time rather than consistently spaced out. This suggests: (1) yes, the infants were probably sacrificed and buried at the sacred site, and (2) it wasn’t necessarily a standard or regularly scheduled practice, but a last-ditch, utterly desperate attempt to make things right with the gods in times of calamity and cataclysm.
What evidence is there, that Carthage sacrificed humans?
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