Tophet (Motya)
Area belonging to the archaeological site of Mozia
Here is the description of the place from the Sapienza website:
"The excavations at the Tofet di Mozia were conducted by Antonia Ciasca without interruption for ten years from 1964 to 1973 (to which was added a campaign in 1993 aimed at the museumization of the area), with systematic campaigns that led to the clarification of the stratigraphy of the area and to the recovery of a considerable number of finds. The sanctuary has returned more than a thousand depositions and about two hundred between steles and cippi, distributed over seven layers, as well as a series of other cult installations, which allow us to reconstruct, an almost unique case in the panorama of the Punic tophets, the historical-archaeological development of the place of worship linked to the sacrifice of infants throughout the history of Motya. The seven distinct layers in the field of urns were grouped by Antonia Ciasca into three phases, in accordance with the data that can be deduced from the study of the architectural structures present in the Tofet (the walls that delimit the sanctuary, the urban walls that enclose it on the northern side and the chapels present inside), which cover a chronological period between the second half of the eighth and the end of the fourth century BC
Phase A - Layers VII, VI and V (c. 750-520 BC)
The foundation of the sanctuary presumably follows a few years from the Phoenician settlement in Mozia in the mid-eighth century BC, which, according to Antonia Ciasca, can be dated thanks to Greek ceramic materials found in the tombs of the archaic necropolis, largely excavated by Whitaker in the years 1908-1913, precisely attributable to this chronological phase. The original dimensions of the sanctuary were 20-25m on the east-west axis and 19-20m on the north-south axis. Ciasca indicates wall M4 as the limit of the original temenos on the west side, which however is also the perimeter wall of a rectangular chapel (11,0 mx 3,5 m) with entrance from the south (also delimited by wall M5); this structure could alternatively be rebuilt, perhaps more convincingly, as a portico open to the east and facing the urn field. As the eastern limit of the sacred enclosure Antonia Ciasca identified a much less powerful structure, which would only be preserved in the south (walls A2, A2N). Finally, on the southern side, the limit of the sanctuary towards the city was represented by the long T1 wall.
Layer VII - The cineraries were initially deposited in the reddish clayey paleoil of Mozia, in pits that reached the outcropping limestone marl; the urns were sometimes covered with small stones and in one case a limestone sliver was stuck above the cinerary, probably with a mnemonic value. The density of the depositions was low (0,5 per m750) and the pits were distributed quite regularly. The cineraries of the northern sector consisted of small pots of dough, plates and even small lumps of raw clay. The remains of the cremated were modest, in some cases minimal; in the central and southern sector of the sanctuary, on the other hand, the quality of the cineraries was better, including also locally made vases made on a lathe. A characteristic shape is the amphora with a marked and keeled shoulder and a red ingubbing decoration and black lines, usually closed by a large navel plate with a distinct brim, also completely covered with a pink engubbing. The chronology of the VII stratum has been roughly fixed from the second half of the VIII century to the beginning of the VII (690-XNUMX BC).
Layer VI - The first raising of the field of urns takes place in the first quarter of the 6th century, through a casting of brown soil containing ceramic fragments defined as "pre-Phoenicians" (it is a paleosolum carried over from a sector not far from the Tofet itself, with residual materials from the Bronze Age). The density of the cineraries clearly increases in this layer (XNUMX x mXNUMX), also due to the fact that two superimposed depositional levels can be distinguished. The most innovative forms in the cineraries are the greek-geometric amphorae, the jug with cylindrical neck with median rib (which will remain a classic type until another layer III), the single-handled pot of Phoenician tradition and the truncated cone-shaped pot with four sockets (of local tradition ); the umbilicated plates and the two-pointed oil lamps are, on the other hand, the favorite shapes for the cinerary roofs. Also to this layer belong a jug with a mushroom rim, a double-cup censer and a painted jug (of Sicilian tradition). Layer VI roughly covers the entire XNUMXth century BC
Layer V - A new arrangement of the urn field is marked by a layer of light clayey soil rich in calcareous marl. In this layer, votive monuments such as cippi and stele appear for the first time; the density of the urns is now 4,5 square meters, even if the figure is partial because it depends on the complex of the exposed surface. The cineraries are largely made up of single-handled jugs and jugs with cylindrical necks with a median prominence. Among the most significant vases is a Corinthian cylindrical pyx from the first half of the 2002th century BC (restored in the 150 excavation campaign). The tendency to highlight the depositions with stelae and other markers is also evidenced by the use, attested in the highest level of layer V, to engrave the cineraries between cut stone slabs, often in association with a cippus or a stele (i few found in situ in layer V face south-east, that is to say towards the point where Antonia Ciasca assumed that the entrance to the sanctuary was located). In the next phase, heaps of stelae clearly removed from layer V were found, which, due to the enlargement of the urn field which caused a resumption of deposition activity further down, to the east of the original depositional space, remained for a long time exposed and was finally excavated by Whitaker (who recovered about XNUMX stele and stele fragments there). At the end of layer V (and also at the end of the first phase of use of the sanctuary [Phase A]) a group of terracotta was placed between two blocks (D and E) a short distance from the place where it probably stood, at the highest point del Tofet, a small square chapel (Ciasca believed that the terracottas had been ritually buried not far from their original context of use). The stipe included some of the most famous finds of the Tophet of Motya: the grinning mask, which was perhaps originally affixed in the square chapel, the veiled female protome of the so-called rhodium type, six Egyptianizing female protomes, a fragmentary protome of the Siceliot type.
Phase B - Layers IV-I, 2 (520-397 BC)
Layer IV - The end of layer V marked a radical change in the Sanctuary of the Tofet, according to Antonia Ciasca following the upheavals brought to Motya by the Spartan Dorieo's expedition to Western Sicily. The new arrangement of the Tophet was determined by the erection of the walls, and saw the construction of a separation wall between the field of urns and the curtain of the walls (wall T2); this structure, however, mainly had the function of a retaining wall for new fillings, which in fact in several cases also went beyond the corresponding section of the eastern walls (MEA wall). To the west, the sanctuary was further enlarged with the addition of a rectangular temple ("Sacello A"), facing west, identified only in the looting cables of the block foundations (with the exception of the only limestone block in the north-east corner ) and in a limestone marl platform that raised the east sector; this small temple with a rectangular structure had a Greek-Punic “contaminated” character, with a Doric capital column in the center of the western antis entrance (flanked by pilasters) and, nevertheless, a flat roof characteristic of the Mozian Punic buildings; the structure and dimensions are comparable in some ways to the rectangular building recognized by JN Coldstream as a small temple erected outside the North Gate. The pre-existing building (perhaps a portico), oriented transversely with the major north-south axis, which closed the urn field to the west, apparently remained in use, even if the circular well that was associated with it was filled (with pebbles, possibly accumulated bullets), the raised decking and a new well with a square mouth open further south; the use of both structures, however one oriented, the portico, towards the east and the urn field, the other, Sacello A, towards the outside of the sanctuary to the west, has not been clarified. In the field of urns, now located in the eastern valley, about 2 m below the level of the previous layer V, there are numerous steles, which mostly adopt the scheme of the Egyptianizing naos facade, often with painted inscriptions. The cineraries of layer IV are still the globular pots, the single-handled jugs and the jugs with cylindrical neck with median prominence and the covers of the depositions are also in this layer made up of umbilicated plates, cups and very few oil lamps (which almost never show traces of 'use); the materials from the cineraries show signs of combustion, probably because they were deposited while the combustion was still in progress. The chronology of layer IV oscillates between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century (520-500 BC).
Layer III - A new violent event marks the end of layer IV, as the city walls are destroyed and rebuilt (this is evident in the section called MEA), as well as wall T2, which is raised to delimit the urn field again also by placing numerous steles on each head disassembled from layer IV and arranged in such a way as to create a flat exposed face on the outside, while on the inside the machined faces and the different lengths of the monuments are regularized through the insertion of stones and other waste materials. In the soil of layer III the cineraries are very dense (6,2 m2), even crossing the presumed original eastern limit of the sanctuary to the south-west (overlapping the A120N wall). In this layer, in addition to the stelae (the only one in situ is facing north), there are also some stone-thrones with small pillars serving as censers, an altar (S.285), two "a cappella" steles (S. 35 and S.500), one excavated with an internal compartment for the insertion of a betylus or a cult statuette closed by a wooden door, the other with the statuette of a divinity (male?) Made separately, in order to be removable from the niche. The cineraries of layer III are still the single-handled olla, the single-handled pot and the jug with a cylindrical neck with a median prominence. There are also a lid, two late Corinthian types and an achromatic Siceliot jug, probably residual, which Antonia Ciasca still considered relevant to the end of the 480th - beginning of the XNUMXth century BC. findings from the first twenty years of the XNUMXth century BC (XNUMX-XNUMX BC).
Layer II - The eastern terracing wall of the urn field was raised again with stele from layer III; among them an Egyptizing female protome in terracotta was found. The work to move the steles to free the field and prepare it for new depositions are also evidenced by a large stele found with the lower half abandoned at the southern limits of the sanctuary together with other piled up steles and the upper one used in the body of wall T2. The new depositional layer consists of pure yellowish-gray clay soil; the cineraries have a density of 2,1 x m3 (the excavation test is however very large and includes areas without depositions); in this phase the stelae and signacles disappear, while the presence of Selinuntine ceramics clearly increases. Stratum II is contemporary with phase 480 of the fortifications and dates back to between 420 and XNUMX BC
Layer I, 2 - The most recent layer, which is in use for a limited time before the final destruction of the city, is characterized even more by the presence of Greek-like elements, evident for example in the cineraries, which are pots of the type with l strongly marked internal raised edge (lekanides). The density of the depositions decreases even more in this layer (0,8 m1), even if this could be attributed to the relatively short time elapsed from the moment of the reconstitution of the urn field to the final destruction of Motya. This violent event put an end to the regulated activity of employment of the Tophet and was followed by spoliation interventions that mainly affected the major buildings of the sanctuary and the walls, but which only marginally involved the urn field, which continued to be used in Phase C (layer I, XNUMX), throughout the fourth century BC
Phase C, Layer I, 1 (397-300 BC)
Phase C represents the last use of the sanctuary, already partially destroyed and plundered, by the inhabitants of Mozia, who escaped the great final destruction of the city. The expansion in the valley that flanked to the east the rocky spur on which the urnfield had initially been opened was definitively filled, thus reconstituting a flat situation, where the urns of layer V to the west were practically in contact and partly covered from those of layer I, 1 to the east. The cineraries of layer I, 1 include the pan with a keeled body, leaning handles, an internal raised rim and a truncated cone-shaped lid from the Greek tradition, while the umbilical plates now have a very wide brim and a heavy disc base. In the robbery hollow of the structures of the "Sacello A", to the west, a group of terracotta items probably coming from this temple is placed in a stipe, in the ruins of which a throne with sphinxes was found in fragments, which must also be dated in the immediately preceding period.
Bibliography:
- A. Ciasca, “Sul tophet of Mozia”, in Archaeological Sicily 4,14 (1971), pp. 10-15.
- A. Ciasca, “Mozia (Sicily): the tophet. Campagne 1971-1972 ", in Review of Phoenician Studies 1,1 (1973), pp. 94-98.
- MG Amadasi Guzzo, “A stele inscribed from the tophet of Mozia”, in Rivista di Studi Fenici 6,2 (1978), pp. 153-159.
- MG Amadasi Guzzo, “The epigraphic documentation from the tophet of Mozia and the problem of the molk sacrifice”, in C. Bonnet, E. Lipinski, P. Marchetti (edited by), Religio Phenicia. Acta Colloquii Namurcensis habiti diebus 14 et 15 mensis Decembris years 1984 (Studia Phenicia 4), Louvain 1986, pp. 189-207.
- A. Ciasca, “Motya: an overview of the tophet”, in the Near East 8,2 (1992), pp. 113-155.
- A. Ciasca, “A cult furniture of the tophet of Mozia (Sicily)”, in E. Acquaro (edited by), On the threshold of classicism: the Mediterranean between tradition and innovation. Studies in honor of Sabatino Moscati, Pisa-Rome 1996, pp. 629-637.
- A. Ciasca, R. Di Salvo, M. Castellino, C. Di Patti, “Preliminary essay on the incinerates of the tophet of Motya”, in the Near East 10 (1996), pp. 317-346.
- A. Ciasca, “Archeology of the Tofet”, in A. Gonzáles, LA Ruiz Cabrero (edited by), Otto Eissfeldt. Molk als Opferbegriff im Punischen und Hebräischen und das ende des Gottes Moloch. Molch as conceived of the sacrifice púnico y hebreo y el final del dios Moloch, Madrid 2002, pp. 121-140.
- P. Bernardini, “For a re-reading of the sanctuary of the tophet, 1. The case of Mozia”, in Sardinia, Corsica, Baleares Antiquae 3 (2005), pp. 5-70.
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Source: La Sapienza: http://www.lasapienzamozia.it/Tofet.php
Photo: wikipedia
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
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