Pitt-led study debunks millennia-old claims of systematic infant sacrifice in ancient Carthage

[Adsos Letter]

Source: EurekAlert

PITTSBURGH—A study led by University of Pittsburgh researchers could finally lay to rest the millennia-old conjecture that the ancient empire of Carthage regularly sacrificed its youngest citizens. An examination of the remains of Carthaginian children revealed that most infants perished prenatally or very shortly after birth and were unlikely to have lived long enough to be sacrificed, according to a Feb. 17 report in PLoS ONE.

The findings—based on the first published analysis of the skeletal remains found in Carthaginian burial urns—refute claims from as early as the 3rd century BCE of systematic infant sacrifice at Carthage that remain a subject of debate among biblical scholars and archaeologists, said lead researcher Jeffrey H. Schwartz, a professor of anthropology and history and philosophy of science in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences and president of the World Academy of Art and Science. Schwartz and his colleagues present the more benign interpretation that very young Punic children were cremated and interred in burial urns regardless of how they died.

"Our study emphasizes that historical scientists must consider all evidence when deciphering ancient societal behavior," Schwartz said. "The idea of regular infant sacrifice in Carthage is not based on a study of the cremated remains, but on instances of human sacrifice reported by a few ancient chroniclers, inferred from ambiguous Carthaginian inscriptions, and referenced in the Old Testament. Our results show that some children were sacrificed, but they contradict the conclusion that Carthaginians were a brutal bunch who regularly sacrificed their own children."

Schwartz worked with Frank Houghton of the Veterans Research Foundation of Pittsburgh, Roberto Macchiarelli of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and Luca Bondioli of the National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome to inspect the remains of children found in Tophets, burial sites peripheral to conventional Carthaginian cemeteries for older children and adults. Tophets housed urns containing the cremated remains of young children and animals, which led to the theory that they were reserved for victims of sacrifice.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/uop-psd021710.php

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Biblical scholars...old testament? WTF?

The old testament does not talk about Carthage. Ever. As the vast majority of the OT was written @500 BCE - primarily composed by exiled Jews in Babylon - there would be NO mention of the Phonecians and their practices, from whom the Carthaginians were descended.

Supposedly, the Caananites sacraficed babies - such claims coming only from the writing of their arch enemies - but that was a common claim by anyone about anyone else. Part of that is reflected even as recently as the blood libel against the Jews from the middle ages. Of course the Romans would make that claim about the Carthaginians. If Hannibal had won, we'd be reading about how the Romans sacraficed babies, and how the noble Carthaginians put an end to that practice.

Sometimes I think we are returning to the good old days where 'history' was pure fiction, written by the victor.

[Greyhound]

2. Victorianism is an illness from which we still suffer greatly.

All those parochial men and their truly bizarre world-view have poisoned so many disciplines with their insane guesses fueled by sexual repression, sado-masochism, and false superiority, it's a wonder we have any knowledge of history at all.

I imagine Raygunism will be similarly destructive for many generations to come.
:kick: