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There are no surviving literary sources and Punic religion is primarily reconstructed from inscriptions and archaeological evidence. [2] An important sacred space in Punic religion appears to have been the large open air sanctuaries known as tophets in modern scholarship, in which urns containing the cremated bones of infants and animals were ...
Tophet excavations in 1921. In 1921, the so-called "priest stele" was unearthed as part of the clandestine archaeological digs that were very common at the time. [10]A limestone stele, over a metre high, [11] depicting an adult wearing a typical kohanim (Punic priest) hat, a Punic tunic and holding a young child in his arms, was offered by an outfitter to enlightened antiquities enthusiasts ...
The Punic religion was a direct continuation of the Phoenician variety of the polytheistic ancient Canaanite religion. At Carthage, the chief gods were Baal Hammon (purportedly "Lord of the Brazier") [16] and his consort Tanit, but other deities are attested, such as Eshmun, Melqart, [17] Ashtart, Reshef, Sakon, and Shamash. [18]
In Sicily and Sardinia, tophets slowly went out of use in the third and second centuries BCE, following the establishment of Roman control in the First Punic War. In the same period in North Africa, many new tophets were established, mainly inland in Tunisia. Many of these tophets remained in use after the fall of Carthage in 146 BCE.
It was the centre of the Carthaginian Empire, a major power led by the Punic people who dominated the ancient western and central Mediterranean Sea. Following the Punic Wars, Carthage was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, who later rebuilt the city lavishly. [5] [6] [7]
Phoenician votive inscriptions or Punic votive inscriptions are votive inscriptions in the Phoenician and Punic religion, dedicated to a certain god or gods, mostly on stelae. The inscriptions have a standard formula, including the name of the god (or gods), the statement of the vow , the name of the vower and a closing statement.
Tanit or Tinnit (Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 Tīnnīt [3]) was a chief deity of Ancient Carthage; she derives from a local Berber deity and the consort of Baal Hammon. [a] [5] [6] As Ammon is a local Libyan deity, [7] so is Tannit, who represents the matriarchal aspect of Numidian society, [2] whom the Egyptians identify as Neith and the Greeks identify as Athena.
The sign of Tanit or sign of Tinnit is an anthropomorph symbol of the Punic goddess Tanit, present on many archaeological remains of the Carthaginian civilization.. The symbol has many variants, but the basic form consists of a disc on top of a triangle, separated by a horizontal line, like a schematic image of a person.