ISSN 2239-5393

Introduction
Tophet as a Historical Problem

Paolo Xella
(Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico, C.N.R., Roma University of Pisa)

1. This volume is a double issue of SEL and it resumes the tradition of some previous
monographs numbers (see e.g. 8, 1991: Onomastics; 12, 1995: Lexicography; 15, 1998:
Magic; 20, 2003: Epigraphy and History of Religions; 23, 2006: Cult Personnel). It
aims to offer a wide overview of current knowledge about tophets, the open-air
cremation infant sanctuaries, exclusive to the Phoenician and Carthaginian tradition,
spread in the central Mediterranean from the end of the 8th cent. BCE to the 2nd cent.
AD. Our goal is to point out the status quaestionis and to supply a point of reference for
future research.
As is well known, the tophets represent one of the most difficult and fascinating
problems in the ancient Mediterranean history; since the discovery of these special cult-
places, their origin, morphology and function are far from being defined, so that the
topic still remains open to debate. Moreover, it is an extraordinary case of historical
methodology, due to the variety, quantity and quality of the related sources, both direct
and indirect. Archaeology (and osteology), epigraphy, iconography and iconology, and,
as far as indirect evidence is concerned, biblical texts and classical writers: all sources
to be approached and analysed according to a rigorous and unbiased methodology.
After several years characterised by a substantial stagnation, the scientific debate
about the tophet has recently recovered its strength. At present, a wide and thorough
interdisciplinary debate is in progress, which involves not only archaeologists,
historians and epigraphists, but also physical anthropologists and scholars specialised in
osteological and other technical analyses. It is a truly beneficial renewal of research and
it must be stressed it was high time What is absolutely needed is a fully scientific
approach, and not biased interpretations, or analyses that are conditioned by emotivism
rather than stimulated by a genuine desire for knowledge. Moreover, and first of all, the
consciousness has imposed itself by now, that it is indispensable to take into account
the whole evidence, without privileging or penalising some specific aspects of it.
Over the last decades, the marked increase chiefly regarding Italian isles in
archaeological activity had supplied excavation reports, which were in general scarcely
attentive to contextualise the burials; instead, a series of sectorial catalogues were
provided, regarding stone materials (cippi and stelae), ceramic products and metallic
artefacts: to be sure, an important set of evidence, but often presented without a wide
historical overview of the original contexts. Instead, due to the fact that the urns
containing the cremated remains of humans and animals, and the votive markers, are
the characterising elements of these sanctuaries, it is absolutely necessary to (try to)
reconstruct the original contexts in their entirety.

Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici 29-30, 2012-2013: iii-x

iv P. Xella, Introduction

It is not out of place here to make clear a fundamental aspect of this research. On the
one hand, it is undeniable that a study of the tophet cannot be reduced to the question: a
cult-place for infant sacrifice or not? On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the
major tracks of the rites carried out there are urns and votive markers. As a
consequence, the problem of the real nature blood rites or not of these ceremonies is
not a secondary aspect of the investigation, even if the functions of the tophets were
surely manifold: it is certain that a lot of different ceremonies were performed in these
sanctuaries, including substitution rites (animal / human). As for this aspect, several
scholars have been tending to minimalize the problem of the nature of the sacrifices
and, as a consequence, avoiding assuming a definite position regarding this question.
As remarked above, even if the tophet problem cannot be reduced to the dilemma
blood- or bloodless rites, pointing out the type of ritual activity carried out there is an
essential step in our research.
At all events, recent contributions rightly insist on the necessity of making
chronological and geographical seriations of the different cult-places, stressing their
conservative aspects but, at the same time, also the local changes concerning both the
visual aspects and the typology of the rites. Therefore, the tophet is to be considered as
a complex element of identity and identification, which each community formulates
according to its cultural parameters. Direct as well as indirect sources are at present
subject to sound re-examinations, regarding both the methodology and the detail of
information. All this one can hope will lead to a more conscious and thorough
approach and, consequently, open to very significant developments in our research.
When this collection of essays was being planned, invitations were extended to
scholars, who were and are intensively working on this topic and, of course, irrespective
of their personal scientific point of view. Many colleagues accepted, and we are
sincerely grateful to them. Others have declined our invitation, due to absolutely valid
grounds, and we want to thank them at all events; even better, it is a pleasure to
remember some of them (e.g. Hlne Bnichou-Safar, Sandro Filippo Bond, Sergio
Ribichini) for their kindness in answering and the sympathy manifested toward our
scientific enterprise.
During the preparation of this volume, other colleagues, to whom we express our
deep gratitude, have remarkably assisted the editors and the scientific board of SEL.
Among them, the warmest thanks go to Wilfred G. E. Watson, who was not only an at-
tentive and sagacious translator, but also a competent and available scholar, lavish with
his scientific advice to us in several cases. Moreover, Valentina Melchiorri, besides
helping us in the editorial work, has taken it upon herself to supply a selected bibliog-
raphy on the tophet-topic at the end of the book, paying a precious service to all us.
As for the sequence of the contributions in the volume, we preferred not to follow a
neutral (and arid) alphabetic order of the authors, but rather to arrange the articles
according to some inner criterion. As a result, we decided to begin with more general
studies, irrespective of the epochs and the kind of evidence they discuss; then more
circumscribed contributions follow, regarding biblical, classical and epigraphic sources;
to continue by more technical contributions, chiefly (but not exclusively) concerning
demography and osteological analyses; finally, the proposition of an overall
interpretation of the tophet concludes the volume.
SEL 29-30, 2012-2013: iii-x v

At all events, it must be stressed that we are dealing with a historical problem which
is far from being cleared up: as a consequence, this volume must be considered as a re-
starting point and as a stimulus to study the tophet topic more and more in depth.

2. As far as the individual contributions are concerned, it may be useful to remember

here the main arguments and thesis they discuss.
Paolo Bernardini tackles the problem of the tophet proposing a sound analysis of
organized settlements and cult-places both in the Central Mediterranean and on the
Atlantic coasts, during the crucial period between the 9th and the 7th cent. BCE.
According to previous unconvincing approaches, such scenarios have been considered
as very differently even opposed, from certain points of view as regards the
functions of each settlement. In Bernardinis opinion, on the contrary, we deal with
elements of a general, coherent and unitary picture. As a consequence, he proposes to
include the tophets, as well as the settlements with this kind of sanctuary, within an
organized pattern of Phoenician irradiation, to be analysed according to the concepts of
function, strategy and hierarchy. Firstly, the most relevant settlements during the 9th and
the first part of the 8th cent. are examined: it deals with sites, that can be defined as
Phoenician, indigenous, or perhaps mixed (e.g. Huelva, S. Imbenia, Cdiz, Morro de
Mezquitilla, Cerro del Villar, Toscanos, Carthage, etc.). Their formal and structural
features are emphasized, whilst the obsolete application of old terminologies and socio-
economic macro-models applied to the Phoenician presence in the West are strongly
criticised, such as e.g. the dichotomy: Circuit of the Strait (Cdiz) vs. Central
Mediterranean Circuit (Carthage). A possible additional fil rouge to be followed in this
analysis is represented by the presence of sanctuaries dedicated to the god Melqart in
the various regions and particular sites, where we dispose of reliable evidence
(archaeological and/or literary) to identify them. The main focus of this study is on the
historical situation of the Central Mediterranean between the 8th and the 7th cent. BCE,
particularly, on the possible hierarchy of the organised settlements in this period, and on
the role of the tophets within the different communities. Special attention is also paid to
the three sites that provide the most ancient evidence, Carthage, Sulci and Motya: they
are settlements which experienced a large increase to the population resulting from an
influx of different groups of various ethnic origins. A complex social picture emerges
from the presence and the different features of various cultural groups (Phoenicians,
Greeks, Indigenous). Also beyond the ritual aspects of tophets activity which
Bernardini explicitely decides to exclude from his analysis he concludes that such
sanctuaries probably played a role as instruments of social cohesion, consolidation and
identity markers, within the larger context of a compact affirmation of a civitas and a
societas (according to the words of Justin). The role of the tophet as an element of a
fully realized civic identity surely foresaw different and complex ritual customs, to be
thoroughly studied in details by future research.
According to Josephine C. Quinn, the term Punic is misleading because it
presupposes the existence of a general colonial paradigm, characterised by uniform
ethno-cultural parameters. On the contrary, the historical scenario shows a series of
different communities, each one with own cultural identity, in a dynamic historical
process. The child-sacrifice sanctuary is typical of only a set of Central Mediterranean
settlements, which chose it as a fundamental characterising element of identification
vi P. Xella, Introduction

among themselves. The custom of infant ritual killing was a cultural practice shared
among a small group of Phoenician-speaking migrant communities a self-conscious
group, perhaps bringing different or perhaps dissident religious traditions in the
Central Mediterranean, which decided to identify with each other in such a way and to
constitute a distinct set of privileged relationships: we should precisely look at the
specifics of those relationships, and this can open up interesting questions about the
changing nature of colonialism, power and connectivity in the Phoenician-speaking
Mediterranean. In this scenario, socio-cultural and religious links emerge as more
important than ethnic or political ones, and distinguish this group of commercial
colonists from others speaking the same language. The distinctive material cultures of
these sanctuaries allowed the different settlements to undermine this mutual
identification and, at the same time, underline their difference and distance from each
other. In particular, these distinctions do not suggest a series of cultural alliances with
Carthage, but an interconnected criss-crossing network of sites, similar to a bazaar.
From this point of view, new historical possibilities emerge which challenge traditional
connections between religion, commerce, culture and imperialism.
Basing himself on the assumption that the Phoenician colonisation really involved
the foundation of another world, and that the tophet represented a cultural
identification flag for several Central Mediterranean settlements, Giuseppe Garbati calls
attention to the divine patrons of this sanctuary, Baal Hammon and his spouse, Tinnit.
Garbati tries to follow the origins, morphology and diffusion of their cult in new
geographical contexts, pointing out that we deal with dynamic historical processes,
where ancient traditions are reinterpreted and revised according to new situations and
cultural values. As far as the divine couple and its inner balance are concerned, Tinnit
continues to be subordinate to Baal Hammon, but she acquires more and more and
chiefly at Carthage, where she becomes the polyadic genius the role of an operating
executor of the male-gods will. On the one hand, Baal Hammon remains the depository
of the ancestral (social and familiar) traditions; on the other hand, Tinnit embodies the
emancipation dynamism of the colonial venture Tinnit in the West, and particularly at
Carthage. As a consequence, the divine couple thus expresses both tradition and
innovation in the New World.
Brien K. Garnand offers a special ethno-geographic rereading of the classical
sources regarding blood rites of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. According to him,
the literary evidence shows an interesting tendency to draw a particular sacrificial ge-
ography of the ancient world, where the Phoenicians are located at the margins of the
ecumene, the known inhabited land. Phoenician blood sacrifices are considered, on the
one hand, as opposed (considered as deviant and barbaric behaviours) to Greek and
Roman ritual customs and laws, but, on the other hand, they are symmetrically com-
pared with and balanced by similar rites characteristic of other ethne (Celts, Taurians,
Egyptians, etc.). Among the different forms of human sacrifice (killing of foreigners,
prisoners, elders), testified in many other societies, ritual infanticide is presented as
nearly exclusive to the Phoenician culture and is not transferred to other peoples. Fol-
lowing the methodology used by Garnand, this datum cannot be considered as real his-
toriographical: it derives from an ethnographic syntax than must be decodified and
interpreted. Nevertheless, the fact that ritual infanticide is considered as very specific to
the Phoenicians/Carthaginians in this kind of evidence not suspectable of propaganda
SEL 29-30, 2012-2013: iii-x vii

or bias is an important element to be incorporated in the documentary dossier of to-

phet topic and appropriately taken into account in this research.
As for North-African societies in the period between the end of the Christian era and
the first centuries AD, research has traditionally proposed an interpretation of the
religious phenomena presupposing a substantial continuity between the so called Punic
heritage and the Romanisation: the key-words can be resumed by two slogans,
from Baal Hammon to Saturn and from tophet to temple. Even if scholars are well
aware that cultural processes are never static, continuity (and not change) has been
assumed as the prevailing factor, generally evaluated both in minimalistic terms and at a
more formal than substantial level. This kind of approach and particularly the concept
of continuity is under investigation in the contribution by Matthew M. McCarty. He
does not accept the dogma of a linear and direct continuation of the traditions, but
rather proposes to enucleate creative processes of comparison of reconstruction of the
past, discernable in the religious strategies adopted by each community in the different
cult-places. According to McCartys opinion, two case studies El-Hami and Thugga
do confirm the validity of this approach, because (mutatis mutandis) links to the past
are clearly noticeable there in the frame of a renewed cultural context, and several rites
are rebuilt combining a set of archaising and new elements. In these cases, links
between past and present are imagined and fixed through ritual practices, ceremonial
gestures, sacred objects that cannot be considered as mere evidence of continuity. At
El-Hami, a little votive deposit dating to the 5th-6th cent. AD has been found a cooking
pot containing ash and burnt ovine bones surrounded by four miniature chalices, each
containing gray sediment and topped with a clay plug; four lamps and two coins
which seems to be a reliquiarium. It is an act of reconstruction of the past, realised
through the combination of different elements, considered as antique and thus re-
functionalised. At Thugga, the presumed continuity Baal Hammon (tophet) > Saturn
(temple) is demented by both archaeological and epigraphic evidence, which also
testifies a new set of ritual practices, even if not completely unrelated to earlier
traditions. Gods, ritual customs, sacred architecture: if one presumes an a priori
continuity and stasis, it becomes impossible to identify possible caesuras and changes.
On the contrary, the most promising approach consists of investigating the strategies of
the local communities, which create link to their past and re-interpret traditional cults
and cult-practices through creative reconstructions.
Facing the fundamental (and perhaps too radical) question whether the tophet must
be considered as an infant cemetery or a place of infant sacrifice, Paul Mosca resolutely
rejects the first hypothesis on the basis of solid arguments: archaeological, epigraphic
and literary evidence does not allow at all such interpretation. As far as the second op-
tion is concerned, a selective re-examination of the documentation (chiefly, the biblical
texts) does not justify according to Mosca evaluating the tophet sic et simpliciter as
a sacrificial cult-place in the conventional meaning of the term. Proposing that he him-
self should study the topic in more detail, Mosca offers a third interpretation: the cre-
mation of the infants and their transference by the fire could be primarily understood as
an act of divinization and as a gift to the gods. Sacrificial assumption is not denied, but
the role of fire in this process appears to Mosca as a privileged way of interpreting the
tophet-rites, which are not comparable tout court to conventional ritual killings.
viii P. Xella, Introduction

Traditionally, the Hebrew Bible has played a major role in tophet-research,

beginning with the term tophet itself, which conventionally defines such Phoenician
cremation infant sanctuaries. As is well known, some biblical passages directly refer to
Tophet as a cult-place near Jerusalem where special rites were performed, regarding
children who were passed into/through the fire as sacrificial victims. Other allusions
give more information about these rites, adding that the children were variously killed
before the cremation. Francesca Stavrakopoulou takes stock of this very precious
source, particularly important due to the absence of archaeological evidence so far not
only in Jerusalem, but also in the Phoenician motherland, so that scholars remain
largely dependent on the biblical portrayal of this practice. In order to avoid unfounded
interpretation and clumsy caricatures of the tophet in modern scholarship, this
contribution analyses the biblical portrayal of the tophet afresh and concludes that its
sacred status as a powerful cult site associated with Yahweh, rather than Molek,
permeates the Old Testament traditions. On the one hand, Stavrakopoulou refuses the
theory of the presence of a god Molek in the Old Testament (whose existence is
incompatible with the interpretation of Punic sacrificial formulae mlk, mlkmr, mlkdm,
etc.); on the other hand, she argues that it was a cult not completely foreign to the
Yahwistic tradition; ideological and theological grounds pushed biblical writers (and
also several modern scholars) to adopt a distancing strategy and brand it as a
Canaanean custom, possibly practiced by a minority of idolatrous people in Israel and
Judah. Inter alia, this explains well the favour found by the term tophet for the
Phoenician and Punic child-sanctuaries in some milieus: Canaanean origin,
appurtenance to this cultural continuum, and little or nothing to do with Hebrew culture
and religion. As a consequence, the term is not completely innocent and its uncritical
use may cause misinterpretations and distortions. As far as biblical Tophet is
concerned, it may be at best explained according to the sacrificial model. On the
contrary, it has been by far more convenient to the Biblical theology and imagery to
presuppose a god Molek, whose existence acquitted Yahweh on the charge of being the
addressee of the cult and, in some cases (e.g. Abraham and Isaac), even the promoter of
such blood rites.
The contribution by Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo and Jos ngel Zamora Lpez
provides a welcome and fundamental assessment of the epigraphic sources from the
different tophets. As is well known, the inscriptions on the votive markers (cippi,
stelae) are together with the archaeological data and the osseous remains the first
and most reliable sources of information, chiefly because they are direct evidence, not
subject to manipulations and more difficult to distort by a priori conditioned
approaches. Inter alia, this comprehensive study stresses the general (universal) votive
character of the inscriptions, analyses the different formulae, tries to assess the material
both chronologically and geographically, and finally tackles some individual epigraphic
and philological cruces, providing an useful selected collection of texts. It is worth
stressing that it deals with a very precious documentation, too often ignored or
misunderstood under the pretext of its (apparent) obscurity and repetitiveness. On the
contrary, a systematic, overall and sound analysis can provide a lot of very interesting,
detailed and reliable information about many aspects and characters in the tophet-topic.
SEL 29-30, 2012-2013: iii-x ix

As far as the contribution by Brien K. Garnand, Lawrence E. Stager and Joseph A.

Greene is concerned, their thesis is clear and firm: all available sources even if not
entirely homogeneous are consistent overall in indicating the sacrificial nature of the
tophet and restricting the age of the victims. In the light of the available evidence, three
ceremonial scenarios are hypothesized by the authors for ritual infanticide or its
substitution: the regular, periodic sacrifice of first fruits; the regular, occasional
sacrifice of the firstborn at a certain social-developmental transition; the occasional
votive sacrifice of children in moments of extreme anxiety. A very interesting aspect of
this study is the attention paid by the authors to the demographic implications of child
sacrifices. They maintain that neither the (possible) artificial selection of female infants
nor that of firstborn males would have a substantial demographic impact on the ancient
population in general, and Phoenicians / Carthaginians in particular; moreover, the
infanticide occurred not because of indifference but despite compassion and despite
high rates of infant mortality. According to comparative material, it turns out that
seasonal and geographical variation in infant mortality could accommodate the artificial
selection of infants of both sexes likely to die during certain seasons. Always from a
comparative point of view, ancient and pre-modern societies employ(ed) manifold
means to lower the birth-rate (e.g. infanticide, abortion and contraception). Also in the
case of the Phoenicians / Carthaginians, not only age at marriage and fertility patterns
combined might compensate for the loss of the children, but also infanticide following
the first week artificially selects many of the same infants who would likely die a
natural death in their first year. As a consequence, the authors accept the artificial
selection of infants devoted to the gods of the tophet after their first week or month.
Valentina Melchiorri offers a detailed overview of osteological research on human
and animal burnt remains found in the urns from several tophets (Carthage on several
occasions Sousse / Hadrumetum, Tharros, Motya, Henchir el-Hami, and Sulci). This
aspect of the tophet-Forschung is perhaps the most promising one, due to the direct
character of the sources and the possibility of finding out new perspectives thanks to the
improvement of the techniques both in quality and quantity in comparison to the
first pioneering analyses. In fact, since the 1920s, when this kind of study began,
osteological research has made enormous progress: the current debate has reached such
high specialized degree that Melchiorris contribution is an indispensable summary for
humanist scholars, which wish to follow this topic closely and benefit from the results
in a wider historical perspective. Moreover, new interesting data about the current
analysis on osseous remains from the Sulci tophet are provided, still in progress by a
team comprising the author. It must be emphasised, moreover, that this survey is not at
all a neutral summary of research: the main problems, goals and, most of all, the
necessity of a multidisciplinary open dialogue between different scientific skills and
teams are strongly stressed in order to avoid not only extreme technicality withdrawn
into itself, but also misinformed and ideologically conditioned interpretations.
In conclusion, the contribution by Paolo Xella proposes a general historical and
functional interpretation of the tophet and related rites. Taking into account the whole
evidence (archaeological, epigraphic, literary), the hypothesis of the tophet as a (also
special) necropolis reserved for infants prematurely or naturally dead is excluded. At
the same time, the thesis of this cult-place as the seat of child- and animal-sacrifices
(mostly newborn or very young) is reaffirmed as the most performative and economic
x P. Xella, Introduction

interpretative model. The victims were offered to Baal Hammon (and Tinnit) as a
consequence of both individual and collective vows (*ndr), regarding health, social
security, and other individual or social grounds. Once the vow was made, it must be
kept at all cost, chiefly in the case of exauced prayers, and also sometimes in advance.
According to the author, this interpretation matches the whole evidence, and also
explains the possible even if not fully demonstrated presence of phoetuses in the
urns. Infant ritual killings were surely not the only ceremonies performed and their
frequence was not as high as one normally maintains, but they were the real and most
visible core of the ritual activity carried out in the tophet.