(Please read from the start)
>> This dude is a pure A. hole. Sorry, but it’s true. He is fully aware that the inscriptions from the infant burial in Carthage are PUNIC not Phoenician = as in a mutated form of Phoenician where Berber and “others” have merged with Phoenician to create a new form of it = the Punic. Also, please do indicate which inscription from Motherland Phoenicia = Lebanon, you are using a proof because nothing of what you are talking about have been found there. And I’m a bit glad to see you have a tiny ounce of decency in you, because you admitted that the inscriptions on the stelae of the infant burial ground in Carthage are laconic, which makes it hard to interpret and understand. So the meaning could be anything and everything. We simply don’t know, we are unsure. So why did you and the rest of your “mafia” friends jump quickly onto interpreting uncertain inscriptions as being evidence of child sacrifice? The presence of such inscriptions right above burial urns doesn’t mean the infants were sacrificed? That is ONE POSSIBILITY out of MANY, but there is nothing tangible to support that, mostly that no sacrificial knife was found nor any marks of any sort on the bones.
“For more information on the meaning of the word "Moloch," see Lawrence E. Stager and Samuel R. Wolff, "Child Sacrifice at Carthage‹Religious Rite or Population Control? Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1984. (This issue is out of print. To order a photocopy of this article, call us at 1-800-221-4644.) Somewhat unexpectedly, inscribed stelae in the Carthage Tophet occasionally mark jars containing animal remains, incinerated and buried in the same careful fashion as the human victims. In this regard, a second- or third-century A.D. Neo-Punic stela from Cirta (Constantine), in Algeria, is relevant. The stela is inscribed in Latin: vita pro vita, sanguis pro sanguine, agnum pro vikario (Life for life, blood for blood, a lamb for a substitute). This act of substitution is reminiscent of the biblical Akedah, in which Abraham's sacrifice of his son Isaac was forestalled by the miraculous provision of a ram as a substitute (Genesis 22:13).”
>> Do you remember Numidia and the role it played when Carthage was “destroyed” by the Romans during the last Punic war (page 1 548)? Cirta is in Numidia, did you know that? The Numidians were the enemies of the Carthaginians and in the same time they were the allies of the Romans. Also didn’t the Romans destroy Carthage in 146 B.C? And then rebuild a Roman city on the ruins of the Punic City? While the men were killed, the women and children tortured, raped and enslaved. And from since 146 B.C. the new Carthage is a Roman city, run by the Romans and it’s where there was a Roman community living in there. And you are giving me as an example an inscription which dates either for the second or third century A.D.? As in, Carthage was ruled for almost 350 years by the Romans. And then look at the artifacts from Numidia: do anons remember what it means to find an iconography from a female deity holding her breasts like this? = the cult of the Evil lady. Also, were there any migrants from Carthage to Cirta in Numidia? Of course there were….but…from which community were they? Were they from the Greek, Ancient Egypt, the Phoenicians, the Jewish or any other community living there? We simply don’t know. There are too many bumps before we declare this stele with its inscription as a piece of evidence against the Carthaginians. It was not even found in the burial ground in Carthage nor does it fit the reign of the Punic City = around 350 years after its fall. This dude thinks the reader is an idiot whom won’t go check if his claims are right or false.
“Evidence from archaeology. The burned bones found inside jars from the Carthage Tophet provide conclusive evidence for Phoenician child sacrifice. Animal remains, mostly sheep and goats, found inside some of the Tophet urns strongly suggest that this was not a burial ground for children who died prematurely. The animals were sacrificed to the gods, presumably in place of children. It is highly likely that the children unlucky enough not to have substitutes were also sacrificed and then buried in the Tophet.”
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