Understanding Tophets: A Short Introduction

By Adriano Orsingher

Few historical issues are as controversial as child sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean and Biblical worlds. The Biblical term Tophet is conventionally used to refer to a type of open-air cremation sanctuary. The common element characterising Tophets is the presence of an open space where urns containing cremated remains of animals and/or children were deposited.

Motya, Tophet: view of the urnfield, with stratum V (c. 625-550 BC) in the foreground, from the west (courtesy of Rome “La Sapienza” Archaeological Expedition to Motya).

Biblical texts (e.g. 2 Kgs 23:10; Jer 7:31-32, 19:6-13; Isa 30:33) refer to “the high place of Tophet”, in the Valley of Ben Hinnom outside Jerusalem, where people passed their sons and daughters through the fire. In addition, various Greek and Latin authors such as Diodorus Siculus and Tertullian also mention human – and child – sacrifices among the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, mainly in honor of the god Kronos/Saturn and in moments of crisis.

So far Tophets are only attested from the 8th century BCE in Phoenician/Punic-speaking settlements of the central Mediterranean. Before the 2nd century BCE, their number is limited to North Africa (Carthage and Sousse/Hadrumetum), Sicily (Motya, possibly Lilybaeum and Solunto), possibly Malta (Rabat), and Sardinia (Sant’Antioco/Sulky, Tharros, Bitia, Nora, Cagliari and Monte Sirai).

Map of the central Mediterranean with the position of the certain, probable (*) and hypothetical (**) Tophets attested between about the 8th and 2nd centuries BC (by A. Orsingher).

These sacred areas were usually located on the outskirts of the settlement or outside it, near an outcrop of bedrock or in an elevated position. In addition, platforms, altars, small chapels, or shrines may have been built and sculptures, terracotta figurines, ritual and miniature vessels may have been used within the sacred compound.

Motya, Tophet: selection of small and miniature vessels from strata VI-V, c. 675-550 BC (photo by A. Orsingher; courtesy of Rome “La Sapienza” Archaeological Expedition to Motya).

Their most characteristic elements – a field of urns and stelae, the titular deities, and the rite ending with the cremation of young animals and children – survived at Sousse after the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE. They were also attested in newly founded cult sites, which from the late 3rd and, especially, the 2nd century BCE started to spread in North Africa until the 2nd century CE. At some of these sites, a sanctuary to Saturn was built near or on top of the Tophet,. The relationship between these cult-places, whether in terms of continuity and/or change, is still debated.

Some artefacts, such as miniature vessels, stone flakes, shells, amulets, metallic finds, were placed in the urn or just outside it. In later periods urnfields also contained stone markers, which varied in shape, size, material, and iconography and were sometimes inscribed. These votive inscriptions were usually addressed to the god Ba‘l Hamon and – from about the 5th century BCE– to the goddess Tinnit, specifying that the stone markers have been erected because the god(s) has/have heard the worshipper’s voice or so that the dedicator(s) would be heard. So are these the evidence of child sacrifice?

Motya, Tophet: inscribed stele from stratum III, c. 525-470 BC; G. Whitaker Museum, inv. no. S 177 (photo by L. Nigro; courtesy of Rome “La Sapienza” Archaeological Expedition to Motya).

Schematic diagram of the archaeological record in Tophet sanctuaries (adapted from A. Orsingher, Vessels in Tophet sanctuaries: the Archaic evidence and the Levantine connection, Proceedings of the International Symposium Beirut 2012 “Cult and Ritual on the Levantine Coast and its impact on the Eastern Mediterranean Realm. BAAL Hors-Série X, Beirut, 2015, fig. 1).

The association of biblical and Classical texts with these cult sites was proposed in the 1920s, first at Motya and linked it to the Carthaginian custom of sacrificing children. However, it was the discovery at Carthage of several decorated stelae and urns containing cremated animal and child skeletal remains that has attracted the most academic, media, and public attention.

Motya, Tophet: aerial view of the sacred area, with Long Island and Favignana in the background, from the south (photo by L. Nigro; courtesy of Rome “La Sapienza” Archaeological Expedition to Motya).

Carthage, Tophet: a detail of the so-called stele of the priest and child, c. mid-4th-3rd centuries BC; Musée National du Bardo, Tunis, inv. no. Icard C217 (photo by A. Orsingher).

One of these stelae stood out because of its striking iconography: a standing male figure, possibly a priest, holding a child with his left arm. The occurrence of the term MLK on some of the inscribed stelae recalls references to the god Molech in biblical sources. This character became part of the collective imagination thanks to a series of literary and cinematographic works: first and foremost, Flaubert’s Salammbô (1862), which inspired the fictional representations of the deity, and his rite and statue in Salgari’s Cartagine in fiamme (1908) and in the silent movies Cabiria (1914) and Metropolis (1927).

The echo of this discovery rapidly spread beyond academia. The topic soon created a division between scholars who could not bring themselves to accept the existence of child sacrifice, questioning the credibility of the written sources and suggesting children died of natural causes, and those who trusted texts and saw these sanctuaries as the archaeological evidence for such rituals. Although nearly a century has passed, this division has characterised most of the history of Tophet studies.

Cabiria: film poster by N. Morgello, 1914 (Wikimedia Commons).

The debate generated a tremendous quantity of scholarly literature, in which some turning points can be identified. Discussions on human sacrifice and the god Molech started as early as the Middle Ages, but – until 1921 – were exclusively based on biblical and Classical texts. Later, the discussion was extended to the archaeological evidence collected through fieldwork activities and fortuitous discoveries.

Scientific excavations, especially those begun in the 1960s-1970s in several sanctuaries, became the cornerstones of Tophet studies by providing detailed reports and catalogues of stelae, their iconographies and inscriptions, and analyses of the cremated skeletal remains, urns and terracottas. The infant-sacrifice interpretation remained the mainstream narrative until early 1980s when criticisms of the sacrificial theory emerged. For example, Hélène Bénichou-Safar emphasized the scarcity of child burials at Carthage, reviving the theory of Tophets as cemeteries for children who died of natural causes before their initiation, and Graeco-Roman sources were again dismissed as biased or misinformed.

Carthage, Tophet: stratigraphic scheme of the urnfield (adapted from: H. Bénichou-Safar, Le tophet de Salammbô à Carthage. Essai de Reconstitution. Collection de l’École française de Rome 342, Roma, 2004, pl. XXV).

Motya, Tophet: schematic west-east stratigraphic section through the urnfield (adapted from A. Ciasca, Mozia: sguardo d’insieme sul Tofet, Vicino Oriente 8 (1992), fig. 7).

The year 1987 stands out as a turning point. Sabatino Moscati and Sergio Ribichini published books denying the systematic practice of child sacrifice, a conclusion that has found increasing support among scholars. Meanwhile, among those supporting the sacrificial theory, arguments were made for explaining this rite as a mechanism for regulating population growth or as a seasonal ceremony. The debate that followed these criticisms helped refine methodologies, developing a more critical approach to the various sources and exploring new lines of research, such as the connection of Tophets to the Phoenician identity.

But just as the debate was cooling down, contradictory results from osteological analyses carried out separately by two teams on the same cremated skeletal remains from ASOR’s excavations at Carthage were published. A long dispute (2010-2017) – based on differences in age-estimation criteria – took place. One group pointed out a significant number of prenatal remains, which were inconsistent with the theory of child sacrifice, while the other team saw higher ages at death, according to which sacrifice was very probable.

Meanwhile (2013-2017), Palermo University discovered more child burials in the necropolis on Motya. There the proportion of children in the skeletal sample and the presence of various other age groups are consistent with infant mortality rates in pre-industrial societies, attesting that – whatever rituals were held in the Tophets – they involved only a selection of prenatal, neonatal, and infant humans.

The question of child sacrifice remains unresolved, but the necropolis-sanctuary dichotomy now seems outdated. Today many scholars agree that Tophets were multipurpose sacred areas where a variety of rites was performed. The adoption of statistical methods may help in distinguishing between norms and exceptions in ritual practices, hopefully generating new – and even shared – views of these sanctuaries.

Adriano Orsingher is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archaeology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.

For Further Reading

Bénichou-Safar, Le tophet de Salammbô à Carthage. Essai de Reconstitution. Collection de l’École française de Rome 342, Roma, 2004.

D’Andrea, I tofet del Nord Africa dall’età arcaica all’età romana (VIII sec. a.C. – II sec. d.C.). Studi archeologici. Collana di Studi Fenici 45, Roma, 2014.

Stager, Rites of Spring in the Carthaginian Tophet. BABESCH Byvanck Lecture 8, Leiden, 2014.