Carthage burial grounds called Tophet holds urns with the cremated remains of thousands of babies. While some say Tophet is a site of child sacrifice, others contend it was used to bury babies and fetuses.
Posted on 09/20/2012 1:09:45 PM PDT by Renfield
A Carthaginian burial site was not for child sacrifice but was instead a graveyard for babies and fetuses, researchers now say.
A new study of the ancient North African site offers the latest volley in a debate over the primary purpose of the graveyard, long thought to be a place of sacred sacrifice.
"It's all very great, cinematic stuff, but whether that was a constant daily activity ― I think our analysis contradicts that," said study co-author Jeffrey Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh....
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
.... for your consideration.
Wow! They had Planned Parenthood way back then?
At least they recognized that a fetus was a baby and deserving of burial. Here we just rinse unwanted children down the garbage disposal or fling them in the dumpster.
The Greeks and Romans would decide whether a baby was worthy and if not, leave it out somewhere to die. Its called “exposure”.
They worshipped Moloch, a fake “god” so awful he’s mentioned in the Torah; chief attribute they sacrified babies to it.
I’ll go for “contemporary accounts” vs. counter-intuitive balooney trying to make the Bible look bad for $100 Alex.
Ping
The Greeks and Romans didn’t
That’s a great tag line. May I quote that?
re: cremated remains of thousands of babies, young goats and lambs
So, they find the cremated remains of babies with goats, and lambs. And we are supposed to believe that the Carthaginians, who were reported in the Bible to practice child sacrifice to their pagan gods, weren’t really sacrificing anything. They were just participating in sacred burial rituals for all the babies and animals that routinely died.
Be my guest!
Curiously, looking up you will see that the official name is Plaza Topete. Like the location cited in the article here, it was originally the location of a Phoenician temple (tophet) from which it gets it's name. At the site there were the remains of numerous infants. The oral history say this was where the Phoenicians would sacrifice their first born child. Not surprisingly, the citizens prefer to call it the place of flowers rather than by that gruesome reference.
I note the skepticism in the article about human sacrifice, I only note that the site in the article is not unique in reputation.
Lots of Archaeologists like to discourage the belief in human sacrifice.
Many people have made careers spinning that the Aztecs and Maya didn’t practice human sacrifice, and that it was all Spanish lies.
thanks all, will ping later, meanwhile...
Phoenicia’s Stone Coffins, Child-Eating Gods Emerge in Paris
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3WQ8n3TvSO4&refer=muse
A burial site for a baby, apart from that of the family into which it was born? Uummm. Credulous creature that I am, why of course those “scientists” must right!
Dear Leader calls them burdens.
My Thoughts exactly
Well said!
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks Renfield, momtothree, and NYer. |
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The Spartans looked over each newborn child and if it was unhealthy or had any birth defects, they would leave it to die. Only the healthiest and strongest were chosen to live. Just watched a two hour special on the Spartans...very interesting.
Sacrifices!
Burials!
Sacrifices!
Burials!
Sacri...
STOP! You’re BOTH right! For certs, they had to do something respectful with the victims’ remains, or the gods would have vomited up the sacrifices as unworthy.
The argument against infant sacrifice in the article seems long on conjecture and short on facts. They even argue the Carthaginians wouldn’t waste precious wood on infant sacrifices despite the evidence the bodies were indeed cremated.
I wholeheartedly agree. Those who deny infant sacrifice among the Phoenicians have some kind of agenda, and it probably has to do with the instructions from the local political authorities. Same thing happened with Egypt’s “no slavery in ancient Egypt” requirement. And that one’s clearly ridiculous — “oh, look, we found dozens of bakeries to feed the workers who built the Giza pyramids — that means they weren’t slaves.” Complete stupidity.
moloch
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