The Pheonicians were completely destroyed by their archenemies the Romans in the Third Punic in 146BC and with all written traces of Carthage obliterated, there is no trace of their own account of their lifestyle before the Romans. The only source left of Carthaginian history is from their enemies, therefore it is hard to define the truth from the negative rumors and propaganda in Greek and Latin literature. One of the most profound mysteries is the question of whether the legend of the Phoenician ritual of sacrificing their infants was true.
In Sicily, when 6000 urns were excavated in a Phoenician Tophet, containing cremated remains of infants, the archaeological society divided. Some believed that the Tophet was just the sacred resting place for the still-born and children who died in early infancy, while others argued that this was the evidence to support the detailed Roman and Greek descriptions of the Phoenician religious ritual of sacrificing their infants to appease their bloody-thirsty gods in times of crisis. …
