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1 results

  • Aging cremated infants: the problem of sacrifice at the Tophet of Carthage

  • P. Smith, G. Avishai, J.A. Greene, L.E. Stager
  • Journal:
    Antiquity / Volume 85 / Issue 329 / September 2011
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    02 January 2015, pp. 859-874
    Print publication:
    September 2011

  • The Greeks and Romans reproached the Phoenicians for the sacrifice of infants, and the excavation of cremated infants at ‘Tophets’ (named after the sacrificial site in Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible) seems to bear this out. However, the argument for infant sacrifice depends largely on a skewed age profile, and age is not easy to determine. The authors approach this problem with a battery of new techniques, showing that in the Tophet of Carthage the majority of the infants died between one and one and a half months. Sacrifice was thus very probable.