A 2300-year-old discovery of rare gold gifts made in the renowned Phoenician city of Carthage
A group of offerings were discovered by archaeologists digging in the Tophet sanctuary in Carthage, according to a news release from Tunisia's Ministry of Cultural Affairs. In addition to tombstones and many urns containing the bones of animals, children, and preterm infants, they also discovered five gold coins from the third century BC.
Carthage is a large archaeological site that was founded about 2,900 years ago by Phoenicians. It is situated on a hill that dominates the Gulf of Tunis and the nearby plain. Carthage, the center of Punic civilisation in Africa and the Roman province of Africa's capital, had a significant impact on antiquity as a powerful economic empire.
The Carthaginian Sanctuary Tophet had a "shrine area" for the sacrifices and a cemetery area for the burial of the dead.
Over 20,000 urns, each carrying the ashes of a child (mainly newborns but sometimes youngsters up to the age of four), were found when a French team of archaeologists explored the site in 1921. Although the practice of child sacrifice by the Carthaginians is unmistakably documented in ancient records, there are numerous additional hypotheses as to what may have actually happened.
Archaeologists excavating the sacred tophet site in Carthage, a place of child sacrifice, found gold coins left as offerings 2,300 years ago. Photo: Tunisia Ministry of Cultural Affairs/Facebook
According to the Tunisian source Shems FM, the rare gold coins are nearly an inch in diameter and feature a design featuring the face of Tanit, an ancient goddess of motherhood and fertility.
Rich worshipers left the money as offerings to the principal deities of the Tophet, the god Hammon and the goddess Tanit, according to Arabic RT.
Several urns found at the sacred site. Photo: Tunisia Ministry of Cultural Affairs/Facebook
Professor Syed Imad bin Jarbaniyah, Director of the Department of Programming, Cooperation, Publishing, and Training at the National Institute of Heritage, and expert in archaeological and historical research According to him, the recently unearthed gold coins "reflect the wealth of that historical period and confirm the cultural value of Carthage."
The Sanctuary of Tophet of Carthage, a holy area devoted to the gods Tanit and Baal Hammon, is regarded as one of the most significant Punic monuments at the location of Carthage and in the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea.