Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa have received increasing international attention in the first decade of the 21st century.
The phenomenon of witch-hunts in Sub-Saharan Africa is ancient, but the problem is reportedly "on the rise", due to charismatic preachers such as Helen Ukpabio, as well as "urbanization, poverty, conflict and fragmenting communities".
Practice
Recent reports by UNICEF, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Save the Children and Human Rights Watch have also highlighted the violence and abuse towards children accused of witchcraft
in Africa. Accusations of witchcraft in Africa are a very serious
matter as the witch is culturally understood to be the epitome of evil
and the cause of all misfortune, disease and death. Consequently, the
witch is the most hated person in African society and subjected to
punishment, torture and even death.
The victims of witchcraft accusations in African societies have usually been the elderly, the disabled, albinos and anyone who was considered different. In recent years due to the impact of rapid urbanisation, economic decline, as well as the HIV/AIDS pandemic,
children have become more and more the victims of witchcraft
accusations, especially orphans. Other factors of the rise of
accusations include the rise of charismatic preachers such as Helen Ukpabio,
generational social conflicts and the deterioration of education
systems. Religiously-inspired films also legitimize beliefs about
children witches.
Child victims of witchcraft accusations are more vulnerable than
adult victims as they cannot defend themselves as they are confronted
with physical and psychological abuse from their family and community.
The sheer scale and intenseness of the recent witch-hunts targeting children classifies as unprecedented in written history.
— Ethnologist Felix Riedel
Children accused of witchcraft may be subjected to violent exorcism rituals by African Pentecostal-Charismatic
pastors who mix Christianity with African witchcraft beliefs. Such
exorcism may include incarceration, starvation, being made to drink
hazardous substances or even being set on fire with gasoline.
In other cases accused children are expelled and end up living on the
streets, are trafficked and in some instances they are killed.
By country
Angola
In Angola,
many orphaned children are accused of witchcraft and demonic possession
by relatives in order to justify not providing for them. Various methods are employed: starvation, beating, unknown substances rubbed into their eyes or being chained or tied up. Many of those who are rejected by their family end up in orphanages and are shunned by the population.
The Gambia
In The Gambia,
about 1,000 people accused of being witches were locked in government
detention centers in March 2009. They were forced to drink an unknown hallucinogenic potion, according to Amnesty International. They were then forced to confess to witchcraft, with some being severely beaten.
Witchdoctors, who also identify as traditional healers, will consult the spirits for anyone who can pay their fee.
The spirits will communicate via them the kind of sacrifice for
appeasement that they want. Often these sacrifices are chickens or
goats, but when such sacrifices fail to make the client prosper
instantly, ‘the spirits' will demand human sacrifices.
When a child is sacrificed, the witch doctor and his accomplices will generally undertake the whole process.
This includes: the witch-hunt, the abduction, followed by the removal
of certain body parts, the making of a potion and lastly if required the
discarding of the child's body.
Nigeria
In Nigeria, Helen Ukpabio and other Pentecostal
pastors have incorporated African witchcraft beliefs into their brand
of Christianity, resulting in a campaign of violence against young
Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused,
abandoned and even murdered. The preachers make money out of the fear,
providing costly exorcism services to their parents and their
communities. Human rights activists opposing the practice have been threatened and some, such as humanist Leo Igwe, mobbed and harassed by police. One source estimates 15,000 children in the Niger Delta alone have been forced on the streets by witchcraft accusations.
[Children] are taken to churches
where they are subjected to inhumane and degrading torture in the name
of 'exorcism'. They are chained, starved, hacked with machetes, lynched
or murdered in cold blood.
In Akwa Ibom State and Cross River State of Nigeria, about 15,000 children were branded as witches and most of them end up abandoned and abused on the streets. A documentary aired on Channel 4 and the BBC, Saving Africa's Witch Children, shows the work of Gary Foxcroft and Stepping Stones Nigeria in addressing these abuses.
Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone and neighbouring countries, the young survivors of the ebola epidemic are often accused of withcraft, losing parents to the disease and community support to superstition.
According to a disputable empiric construction, sick infants tend to have better survival rates due to witch-hunts:
[T]he effect of the witch cleansing
probably lasts for years in the sense that mothers are predisposed to
tend their babies with more hopefulness and real concern. Therefore many
babies who, before the arrival of the witchfinder, might have been
saved if the mothers had had the heart and will to stop at nothing to
tend their babies, will now survive precisely because they will receive
the best attention, as the mothers now believe that the remaining
children are free of witchcraft. So there is a reduction in the infant
mortality rate in the years immediately following the witchcleansing
movement.
Congo
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
it is estimated that there are 25,000 homeless children living on the
streets of the capital city. Of these, 60% were expelled from their
homes because of allegations of witchcraft. Accusations of witchcraft is
the only justifiable reason for the refusal to house a family member,
no matter how distant the relation. As result, 50,000 children are kept in churches for exorcisms.
In Ethiopia, Mingi is the traditional belief among the Omotic-speaking Karo people and Hamar people in southern Ethiopia that adults and children with physical abnormalities are ritually impure.
The latter are believed to exert an evil influence upon others, so
disabled infants have traditionally been disposed of without a proper
burial.
Children are killed by forced permanent separation from the tribe by
being left alone in the jungle or by drowning in the river.
Reasons for being declared impure include birth out of wedlock,
the birth of twins, the eruption of teeth in the upper jaw before the
lower jaw, and chipping a tooth in childhood.
Possible solutions
Interventions until now have been limited and localised such as the safe houses run by Safe Child Africa and their partners in Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria by Bishop Emílio Sumbelelo of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Diocese of Uíje, Angola, and by Africa Outreach in Malawi. Following the distribution of documentaries on the topic, such as Saving Africa's Witch-Children (2008) and Dispatches: Return to Africa's Witch Children,
global awareness of the problem of child witchcraft accusations in
Africa is growing as evidenced by the above-mentioned UNICEF and UNHCR
reports.
According to Dr. Erwin Van der Meer, a researcher with the
University of South Africa, it is likely that increased global awareness
of the problem of child witchcraft accusations in Africa will
eventually lead to more initiatives to assist its victims. Nevertheless,
it is equally important to address the underlying socioeconomic,
political and environmental factors that contribute to this problem.
Van der Meer suggests that, in the meantime, the general
population in countries where child witchcraft beliefs are prevalent
need to be convinced that the torture and killing of children is
unacceptable. This can be done by means of grass-roots awareness and
prevention campaigns, conferences and theological education with the
support of religious leaders. The judiciary, human rights organizations,
civil society, and local and national governments can also aid this.
Leo Igwe
criticizes Western interpretations of witchcraft as a socially
stabilizing mechanism and suggests that the most effective way to end
witch persecution is to state clearly the superstitious nature of
witchcraft belief. According to Igwe, campaigns against witch
persecution should be based on fact and science. While Igwe supports
collaborating with faith-based individuals and organizations, his
approach includes calling out religious efforts that threaten or
undermine advocacy against witch persecution.
Spread to the UK
Research by Dr Leo Ruickbie
has shown that the problem of child witchcraft accusations is spreading
from Africa to areas with African immigrant populations. In some cases
this has led to ritualised abuse and even murder, particularly in the UK
with such high-profile cases as that of Kristy Bamu in 2010.
Witch-hunts are practiced today throughout the world. While prevalent world-wide, hot-spots of current witch-hunting are India, Papua New Guinea, Amazonia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. While an unknown problem in vast parts of the Western populations of the world, body-counts of modern witch-hunts by far exceed those of early-modern witch-hunting.
Terminology
Of
main terminological interest in ethnographic literature were the emic
perspectives and differentiations between witchcraft (spiritual) and
sorcery (possible empiric actions like creating amulets, charms,
chanting spells and curses) and the classification and translation of
native terminology concerning spiritual offenses and powers.
Ethnographic literature has used the term "sorcerer-hunt", which is used
equivalent to witch-hunt. Also "sorcery" and "sorceress" is sometimes
used as equivalent to "witchcraft". A confusion of the terms
"witch-hunt", "witchcraft" and "witchcraft notions" permeates scientific
literature.
In this article, only those cases are referred to as witch-hunts,
that involve the notion of a spiritual crime. Closely related and
sometimes included are accusations of sorcery, where a potentially
observable act is suggested, but rarely proven.
Acts of lynching involving fabricated rumors of ritual murders occur
frequently in Sub-Saharan Africa. They can be classified as very closely
related to witch-hunts.
Not included is the different phenomenon ritual murder or any ritual abuse, which is sometimes referred to as witchcraft or witch-hunting (meaning the man-hunt for body-parts for ritual purposes).
A common parlance refers to witch-hunts as "witchcraft",
a confusion of topics. Another common parlance refers to political
persecution in general as "witch-hunt", an example were the trials of McCarthyism in the USA.
Most witch-hunts today take place in modern sub-Saharan Africa.
The majority of ethnographic literature on the subject remains on a
local level. Summarizing studies and meta-analysis remain scarce due to
the amount of data involved. Max Marwick, John Middleton, Mary Douglas and Lucy Mair
were among the first to cover a wider range of witch-hunts. In recent
times, Wolfgang Behringer has provided an overview about witch-hunts
throughout history and continents.
A particularly high prevalence of recent witch-hunting has been noted for the DRC, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria. Other states showing ongoing and repeated witch-hunts are Malawi, Ghana, Gambia, Benin, Angola, CAR. While some societies suffer at most sporadic and low-level witch-hunts (Senegal, Namibia, Rwanda),
the entire Sub-Saharan Africa shows a high prevalence of beliefs in the
existence of witchcraft and a considerable prevalence of violent
witch-hunts. Nonetheless, many if not most ethnic groups believe in the
existence of witchcraft but do not or do not normally accuse people of
witchcraft. Where accusations occur, accusations do not in all places
lead to violence and can be even used for benefits by the accused
person.
Cameroon
Several African states, including Cameroon, have reestablished witchcraft-accusations in courts after their independence.
From Cameroon, Robert Brain and Peter Geschiere delivered ethnographic
accounts on a child-witchcraft scare that tended to remain largely
peacefully. After confessions, the accused or self-accused children were
rewarded with large amounts of meat to induce a purifying vomiting. In addition, witch doctors have been used as expert witnesses in trials, according to a 1998 study.
In 2017, it was reported that the Cameroonian President Paul Biya had urged citizens to use witchcraft as a means of combatting Boko Haram.
Gambia
In May 2008, Amnesty International reported that up to 1,000 people in the Gambia
had been abducted by government-sponsored "witch doctors" on charges of
witchcraft, and taken to detention centers where they were forced to a
drink poisonous concoction at gunpoint, known as kubejaro. On 21 May 2009, the New York Times reported that the alleged witch-hunting campaign had been sparked by the Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh.
The president continued a series of "witch hunts" over the next seven
years, in which rural villagers experienced beatings, kidnappings, and
forced confessions (after the ingestion of kubejaro, which often made
the victims extremely weak or unconscious). Deaths that occurred during
the time were due to the side effects of drinking kubejaro, such as
kidney failure, or beatings. Later, the Gambian government launched an
investigation of these crimes and opened a center to support the
victims. However, a Washington Post report found that many of the
victims had received no support or outreach from such initiatives. Many
of the victims also still suffer from health problems, such as pains,
weakness, and anxiety.
Jammeh fled the country in 2017 after losing an election. In
January 2019, investigators began interviewing people about their
experiences of the atrocities, as either torturers or victims. The
hearings may last two years. Meanwhile, the truth and reconciliation commission publicizes the interviews through social media.
Ghana
Research on witch-hunting in Ghana
dates back into the early 20th century. Arthur W. Cardinall may be the
first anthropologist to mention the Ghetto for victims of witch-hunts at
an earth-shrine in Gnani (Tindang, Gnaani). A later research of Susan Drucker-Brown observed and discussed the renowned Ghetto in Gambaga. In 2004, the documentary Witches in Exile by Allison Berg followed the structure of accusations in Kukuo, the biggest Ghetto near Bimbilla. Another documentary, The Witches of Gambaga, follows over 10 years the inmates of Gambaga. The Bradt Travel Guides
mentions the ghetto in Gambaga as a tourist attraction.
A total of eight sanctuaries for witch-hunt victims were listed by the
Ethnologist Felix Riedel. The list of sanctuaries includes so far
(locations with inmates):
Kukuo (Bimbilla, Nanumba South): 450.
Tindang (Gnani, Gnaani): 350.
Gushiegu: 120.
Gambaga: 80.
Nabule (Chereponi): 55.
Kpatinga: 40.
Duabone: 10.
Banyasi (Bonyanse): 3-8
While all are sanctuaries that offer protection for outcasts, at
least five of the eight ghettoes are dominated by an earth-priest. They
then serve as sites for traditional exorcisms, that involve a
chicken-ordeal to determine the guilt or innocence of an accused person
and a concoction to cleanse the supposed witchcraft-power. The local
earth is believed to neutralize the witchcraft powers.
Ethnographic research and journalistic interest in the comparably
safe and well-researched Northern Ghana sometimes lead to an
overrepresentation of Ghana what witch-hunting concerns. Neighbouring
regions and countries appear underrepresented in current research in
comparison.
In the southern parts of Ghana as in its urban areas
witch-hunting as mass-violence occurs, but far less frequent than in the
Northern Regions. Deadly mass-panics in Accra and Kumasi involved
media-induced penis-theft-hysterias common throughout Western and
Central Africa. In general, witchcraft accusations in Southern Ghana
today tend to stay rather peaceful or at least quiet, leading to social
isolation of a person. A study of Van der Geest also showed, that almost
every person in a Southern Ghanaian town has both experienced an
accusation and accused another person.
In the early 20th century, several Witch-hunting movements spread
from Northern Ghana's shrine Tongnaab into Southern Ghana and into
Nigeria. Those movements tended to stay rather peaceful, while
harassment, beating and fining of accused persons occurred on a regular
base.
Kenya
Kenya has a long-covered history of witch-hunts. In the past years, lynchings were a frequent feature of public violence. For example, it was reported on 21 May 2008 that in Kenya a mob had burnt to death at least 11 people accused of witchcraft.
The Western region of Kenya is particularly known for witch hunts, and the district of Kisii has been labeled a "sorcery belt". In this region, elders are often targeted and labeled as witches.
Nigeria
People accused of being witches in Nigeria include a seventy year old widow from Irrua
named Auntie B. As of 2019, she had avoided being made to drink a
magical potion of toxic substances. In the nearby Ozalla community, at
least twenty accused people since 2004 have died under similar
circumstances. "Killing an alleged witch is considered a form of
community service, a way to avenge and neutralize the source of danger
to the community."
Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone,
the witch-hunt is an occasion for a sermon by the kɛmamɔi (native Mende
witch-finder) on social ethics : "Witchcraft ... takes hold in people's
lives when people are less than fully open-hearted. All wickedness is
ultimately because people hate each other or are jealous or suspicious
or afraid. These emotions and motivations cause people to act
antisocially".
The response by the populace to the kɛmamɔi is that "they valued his
work and would learn the lessons he came to teach them, about social
responsibility and cooperation."
Tanzania
Tanzania
has seen some of the most intense witch-hunts in Africa, with an
estimated 20,000 people brought to death throughout the past 20 years.
Mostly elderly women were affected by the violence. As a main factor,
economic strains and exploitation are named by documentaries,
state-reports and independent observers.
As much as 93% of the population believe in magic and witchcraft,
and witchdoctors play an important role in society as healers, and
everyday helpers, with as much as 100,000 registered in the county's
healthcare system protocols.
Black magic and witchcraft, however, is feared and not just for
superstitious reasons. Incidents of abductions, maimings and even
bestial killings by witchdoctors and their helpers, are regularly
experienced in Tanzania, where human body parts are used in some
witchcraft rituals or as magical charms. In particular the country's albino population is targeted for this, but not exclusively.
Zambia
Audrey I. Richards, in the journal Africa, relates in 1935 an instance when a new wave of witchfinders, the Bamucapi, appeared in the villages of the Bemba people of Zambia.
They dressed in European clothing, and would summon the headman to
prepare a ritual meal for the village. When the villagers arrived they
would view them all in a mirror,
and claimed they could identify witches with this method. These accused
persons would then have to "yield up his horns"; i.e. give over the horn containers for curses and evil potions to the witch-finders. The bamucapi then made all drink a potion called kucapa which would cause a witch to die and swell up if he ever tried such things again.
The villagers related that the witch-finders were always right
because the witches they found were always the people whom the village
had feared all along. The bamucapi utilised a mixture of Christian and
native religious traditions to account for their powers and said that
God (not specifying which God) helped them to prepare their medicine. In
addition, all witches who did not attend the meal to be identified
would be called to account later on by their master, who had risen from
the dead, and who would force the witches by means of drums to go to the
graveyard, where they would die. Richards noted that the bamucapi
created the sense of danger in the villages by rounding up all
the horns in the village, whether they were used for anti-witchcraft
charms, potions, snuff or were indeed receptacles of black magic.
Asia
India
Some people in India, mostly in villages, have the belief that witchcraft and black magic are effective. On one hand, people may seek advice from witch doctors for health, financial or marital problems. On the other hand, people, especially women, are accused of witchcraft and attacked, occasionally killed. It has been reported that mostly widows or divorcees are targeted to rob them of their property. Reportedly, revered village witch-doctors are paid to brand specific
persons as witches, so that they can be killed without repercussions.
The existing laws have been considered ineffective in curbing the
murders. In June 2013, National Commission for Women (NCW) reported that according to National Crime Records Bureau statistics, 768 women had been murdered for allegedly practising witchcraft since 2008 and announced plans for newer laws.
Recent cases
Between 2001 and 2006, an estimated 300 people were killed in the state of Assam. Between 2005 and 2010, about 35 witchcraft related murders reportedly took place in Odisha's Sundergarh district.
In October 2003, three women were branded as witch and humiliated,
afterwards they all committed suicide in Kamalpura village in Muzaffarpur district in Bihar. In August 2013, a couple were hacked to death by a group of people in Kokrajhar district in Assam. In September 2013, in the Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh, a woman was murdered and her daughter was raped on the allegation that they were practising black magic.
A 2010 estimate places the number of women killed as witches in
India at between 150 and 200 per year, or a total of 2,500 in the period
of 1995 to 2009. The lynchings are particularly common in the poor northern states of Jharkhand, Bihar and the central state of Chhattisgarh.
Witch hunts are also taking place among the tea garden workers in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal India.
The witch hunts in Jalpaiguri are less known, but are motivated by the
stress in the tea industry on the lives of the adivasi workers.
In India, labeling a woman as a witch is a common ploy to grab
land, settle scores or even to punish her for turning down sexual
advances. In a majority of the cases, it is difficult for the accused
woman to reach out for help and she is forced to either abandon her home
and family or driven to commit suicide. Most cases are not documented
because it is difficult for poor and illiterate women to travel from
isolated regions to file police reports. Less than 2 percent of those
accused of witch-hunting are actually convicted, according to a study by
the Free Legal Aid Committee, a group that works with victims in the
state of Jharkhand.
Indonesia
Superstition and belief in magic is most common in Indonesia, where services from dukun, as Indonesian male and female witch-doctors are called, help with healings,
blessings, fortune telling, and other magical tasks in everyday life on
a regular basis. Belief in, and fear of, black magic and sorcery from dukun is also prevalent and a source of conflict and sometimes even witch-hunts and killings.
The collapse of the violent Suharto-era in 1998, was accompanied by vigilante witch-hunts with about 400 killings in the following years.
The large scale persecutions has diminished since then, but
accusations, witch-hunts and sometimes killings still occur regularly on
a smaller scale in Indonesia.
However, it is unclear if superstition and genuine fear of sorcery is
the motivating factor in these incidents, or the prospect of grabbing
victims possessions and property is more important.
The law and penal code of Indonesia does not encompass magic or the
supernatural, but there has been public pressure and debate about
including it since at least 1981, hoping to outlaw witches and
witchcraft.
Witch-hunts in Nepal are common, and are targeted especially against low-caste women.
The main causes of witchcraft related violence include widespread
belief in superstition, lack of education, lack of public awareness,
illiteracy, caste system, male domination, and economic dependency of
women on men. The victims of this form of violence are often beaten,
tortured, publicly humiliated, and murdered. Sometimes, the family
members of the accused are also assaulted.
In 2010, Sarwa Dev Prasad Ojha, minister for women and social welfare,
said, "Superstitions are deeply rooted in our society, and the belief in
witchcraft is one of the worst forms of this."
Papua New Guinea
Though the practice of "white" magic (such as faith healing) is legal in Papua New Guinea, the 1976 Sorcery Act imposes a penalty of up to 2 years in prison for the practice of "black" magic.
In 2009, the government reports that extrajudicial torture and murder
of alleged witches – usually lone women – are spreading from the
highland areas to cities as villagers migrate to urban areas.
For example, in June 2013, four women were accused of witchcraft
because the family "had a 'permanent house' made of wood, and the family
had tertiary educations and high social standing". All of the women were tortured and Helen Rumbali was beheaded.
Helen Hakena, chairwoman of the North Bougainville Human Rights
Committee, said that the accusations started because of economic
jealousy born of a mining boom.
Reports by UN agencies, Amnesty International, Oxfam and
anthropologists show that "attacks on accused sorcerers and witches —
sometimes men, but most commonly women — are frequent, ferocious and
often fatal."
It's estimated about 150 cases of violence and killings are occurring
each year in just the province of Simbu in Papua New Guinea alone.
Reports indicate this practice of witch hunting has in some places
evolved into "something more malignant, sadistic and voyeuristic."
One woman who was attacked by young men from a nearby village "had her
genitals burned and fused beyond functional repair by the repeated
intrusions of red-hot irons."
Few incidents are ever reported, according to the 2012 Law Reform
Commission, which concluded that they have increased since the 1980s.
Other regions
Amazonia
Neil
L. Whitehead and Robin Wright presented a collection of essays on
witch-hunts among native tribes in the amazon high- and lowlands. While
prevalent in many tribes, especially child-witch-hunts among Ashaninka
have attracted interest and raised questions about methodological
strategies in reporting abusive practices in an already biased
environment.
Brazil
In 2017, philosopher Judith Butler
was burned as a witch in effigy while she helped organize a conference
at SESC, a research organization in São Paulo. Butler was accused of
witchcraft at a protest, and was accused of trying to destroy people's
gender identities and trying to undermine the values of the country.
Saudi Arabia
Witchcraft or sorcery remains a criminal offense in Saudi Arabia, although the precise nature of the crime is undefined.
The frequency of prosecutions for this in the country as whole is
unknown. However, in November 2009, it was reported that 118 persons
had been arrested in the province of Makkah that year for practising
magic and "using the Book of Allah in a derogatory manner", 74% of them
being female. According to Human Rights Watch
in 2009, prosecutions for witchcraft and sorcery are proliferating and
"Saudi courts are sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious
police."
In 2006, an illiterate Saudi woman, Fawza Falih,
was convicted of practising witchcraft, including casting an impotence
spell, and sentenced to death by beheading, after allegedly being beaten
and forced to fingerprint a false confession that had not been read to
her.
After an appeal court had cast doubt on the validity of the death
sentence because the confession had been retracted, the lower court
reaffirmed the same sentence on a different basis.
In 2007, Mustafa Ibrahim, an Egyptian national, was executed,
having been convicted of using sorcery in an attempt to separate a
married couple, as well as of adultery and of desecrating the Quran.
Also in 2007, Abdul Hamid Bin Hussain Bin Moustafa al-Fakki, a
Sudanese national, was sentenced to death after being convicted of
producing a spell that would lead to the reconciliation of a divorced
couple.
In 2009, Ali Sibat,
a Lebanese television presenter who had been arrested whilst on a
pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced to death for witchcraft
arising out of his fortune-telling on an Arab satellite channel.
His appeal was accepted by one court, but a second in Medina upheld his
death sentence again in March 2010, stating that he deserved it as he
had publicly practised sorcery in front of millions of viewers for
several years.
In November 2010, the Supreme Court refused to ratify the death
sentence, stating that there was insufficient evidence that his actions
had harmed others.
On 12 December 2011, Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar was beheaded in Al Jawf Province after being convicted of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. Another very similar situation occurred to Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri and he was beheaded on 19 June 2012 in the Najran Province.
Children and witch-hunting
Witch-hunts
against children appear in the early ethnographic literature and in
many modern circumstances. In Cameroon, DRC, Ghana, but also in Brazil
sporadic child-witch-hunts have a tradition of at least 100 years. In
the past 20 years and especially in the past 10 years an unprecedented
increases in child-witch-hunting has been noted in Southern Nigeria,
DRC, Angola, Ghana and other sub-Saharan regions. Several sources
estimate 40,000 children in Kinshasa alone as witch-hunt-related
orphans.
Public awareness and scientific debate
Public awareness of witch-hunting outside Africa is low compared to other conflicts. In early social/cultural anthropology, ethnology
and other cultural sciences, witchcraft beliefs and witch-hunts ranked
as paradigmatic problems especially from the late 19th century into the
first half of the 20th century, the time of the creative career of James George Frazer.
With the loss of interest in overarching theories and
development-problems bound to the late colonial era, witch-hunts and
witchcraft-beliefs were treated as an issue of specialists.
Ethnographies divide sharply in critical reports of violence and in
rationalizations of witchcraft-beliefs as useful functions according to
paradigms of structural functionalism with its main proponents Bronislaw Malinowski and his student E.E. Evans-Pritchard.
In this tradition, the focus of research was shifted on supposed social
functions of witchcraft-beliefs and less frequent, violent witch-hunts.
Both were considered as ensuring the survival and identity of an
ingroup.
One of the last competing generalizing theorists was Lucien Lévy-Bruhl.
He collected material of societies that were first contacted by the
source writing about its behaviour. He then provides evidence of
counterproductive witch-hunting that serves no real social function, but
arises from an entirely different worldview, the "prelogic" mindset
opposed to logic.
Babylonian cylinder seal representing child sacrifice
Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please or appease a deity, supernatural
beings, or sacred social order, tribal, group or national loyalties in
order to achieve a desired result. As such, it is a form of human sacrifice.
Child sacrifice is thought to be an extreme extension of the idea that,
the more important the object of sacrifice, the more devout the person
giving it up is.
The practice of child sacrifice in Europe and the near east appears to have ended as a part of the religious transformations of late antiquity.
Archaeologists have found the remains of more than 140 children who were sacrificed in Peru's northern coastal region.
Aztec culture
1499, the Aztecs performing child sacrifice to appease the angry gods who had flooded Tenochtitlan
Archeologists have found remains of 42 children. It is alleged that these remains were sacrificed to Tlaloc (and a few to Ehécatl, Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli) in the offerings of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan by the Aztecs of pre-Columbian Mexico.
In every case, the 42 children, mostly males aged around six, were
suffering from serious cavities, abscesses or bone infections that would
have been painful enough to make them cry continually. Tlaloc required
the tears of the young so their tears would wet the earth. As a result,
if children did not cry, the priests would sometimes tear off the
children's nails before the ritual sacrifice.
Human sacrifice was an everyday activity in Tenochtitlan and women and children were not exempt. According to Bernardino de Sahagún, the Aztecs believed that, if sacrifices were not given to Tlaloc, the rain would not come and their crops would not grow.
Inca culture
The Inca culture sacrificed children in a ritual called qhapaq hucha. Their frozen corpses have been discovered in the South American
mountaintops. The first of these corpses, a female child who had died
from a blow to the skull, was discovered in 1995 by Johan Reinhard. Other methods of sacrifice included strangulation
and simply leaving the children, who had been given an intoxicating
drink, to lose consciousness in the extreme cold and low-oxygen
conditions of the mountaintop, and to die of hypothermia.
Maya culture
In Maya
culture, people believed that supernatural beings had power over their
lives and this is one reason that child sacrifice occurred. The sacrifices were essentially to satisfy the supernatural beings. This was done through k'ex, which is an exchange or substitution of something. Through k’ex infants would substitute more powerful humans.
It was thought that supernatural beings would consume the souls of more
powerful humans and infants were substituted in order to prevent that. Infants are believed to be good offerings because they have a close connection to the spirit world through liminality.
It is also believed that parents in Maya culture would offer their
children for sacrifice and depictions of this show that this was a very
emotional time for the parents, but they would carry through because
they thought the child would continue existing.
It is also known that infant sacrifices occurred at certain times.
Child sacrifice was preferred when there was a time of crisis and
transitional times such as famine and drought.
There is archaeological evidence of infant sacrifice in tombs
where the infant has been buried in urns or ceramic vessels. There have
also been depictions of child sacrifice in art. Some art includes
pottery and steles as well as references to infant sacrifice in mythology and art depictions of the mythology.
Moche culture
The Moche of northern Peru practiced mass sacrifices of men and boys.
Timoto-Cuica culture
The Timoto-Cuicas offered human sacrifices. Until colonial times children sacrifice persisted secretly in Laguna de Urao (Mérida). It was described by the chronicler Juan de Castellanos, who cited that feasts and human sacrifices were done in honour of Icaque, an Andean prehispanic goddess.
Ancient Near East
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)
The Tanakh mentions human sacrifice in the history of ancient Near Eastern practice. The king of Moab gives his firstborn son and heir as a whole burnt offering (olah, as used of the Temple sacrifice). In the book of the prophet Micah, the question is asked, 'Shall I give my firstborn for my sin, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?',
and responded to in the phrase, 'He has shown all you people what is
good. And what does Yahweh require of you? To act justly and to love
mercy and to walk humbly with your God.' The Tanakh also implies that the Ammonites offered child sacrifices to Moloch.
Ban in Leviticus
In Leviticus 18:21, 20:3 and Deuteronomy 12:30–31, 18:10, the Torah contains a number of imprecations against and laws forbidding child sacrifice and human sacrifice in general. The Tanakh denounces human sacrifice as barbaric customs of Baal worshippers (e.g. Psalms 106:37).
James Kugel argues that the Torah's specifically forbidding child sacrifice indicates that it happened in Israel as well. The biblical scholar Mark S. Smith
argues that the mention of "Topeth" in Isaiah 30:27–33 indicates an
acceptance of child sacrifice in the early Jerusalem practices, to which
the law in Leviticus 20:2–5 forbidding child sacrifice is a response. Some scholars have stated that at least some Israelites and Judahites believed child sacrifice was a legitimate religious practice.
Genesis relates the binding of Isaac, by Abraham to present his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. It was a test of faith (Genesis 21:12). Abraham agrees to this command without arguing. The story ends with an angel
stopping Abraham at the last minute and making Isaac's sacrifice
unnecessary by providing a ram, caught in some nearby bushes, to be
sacrificed instead. Francesca Stavrakopoulou
has speculated that it is possible that the story "contains traces of a
tradition in which Abraham does sacrifice Isaac". Rabbi A.I. Kook,
first Chief Rabbi of Israel, stressed that the climax of the story,
commanding Abraham not to sacrifice Isaac, is the whole point: to put an
end to the ritual of child sacrifice, which contradicts the morality of
a perfect and giving (not taking) monotheistic God. According to Irving Greenberg the story of the binding of Isaac, symbolizes the prohibition to worship God by human sacrifices, at a time when human sacrifices were the norm worldwide.
The most extensive accounts of child sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible refer to those carried out in Gehenna by two kings of Judah, Ahaz and Manasseh of Judah.
In the Book of Judges, the figure of Jephthah
makes a vow to God, saying, "If you give the Ammonites into my hands,
whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in
triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it
as a burnt offering" (as worded in the New International Version). Jephthah succeeds in winning a victory, but when he returns to his home in Mizpah he sees his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels, outside. After allowing her two months preparation, Judges 11:39 states that Jephthah kept his vow. According to the commentators of the rabbinic Jewish tradition,
Jepthah's daughter was not sacrificed but was forbidden to marry and
remained a spinster her entire life, fulfilling the vow that she would
be devoted to the Lord. The 1st-century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, however, understood this to mean that Jephthah burned his daughter on Yahweh's altar, whilst pseudo-Philo,
late first century CE, wrote that Jephthah offered his daughter as a
burnt offering because he could find no sage in Israel who would cancel
his vow. In other words, this story of human sacrifice is not an order
or requirement by God, but the punishment for those who vowed to
sacrifice humans.
The practice of child sacrifice among Canaanite groups is attested by
numerous sources spanning over a millennium. One example is in the
writings of Diodorus Siculus:
"They also alleged that Kronos had turned against them
inasmuch as in former times they had been accustomed to sacrifice to
this god the noblest of their sons, but more recently, secretly buying
and nurturing children, they had sent these to the sacrifice; and when
an investigation was made, some of those who had been sacrificed were
discovered to have been substituted by stealth... In their zeal to make
amends for the omission, they selected two hundred of the noblest
children and sacrificed them publicly; and others who were under
suspicion sacrificed themselves voluntarily, in number not less than
three hundred. There was in the city a bronze image of Kronos, extending
its hands, palms up and sloping towards the ground, so that each of the
children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping
pit filled with fire. It is probable that it was from this that
Euripides has drawn the mythical story found in his works about the
sacrifice in Tauris, in which he presents Iphigeneia being asked by
Orestes: "But what tomb shall receive me when I die? A sacred fire
within, and earth's broad rift." Also the story passed down among the
Greeks from ancient myth that Cronus did away with his own children
appears to have been kept in mind among the Carthaginians through this
observance." Library 20.1.4
"Again, would it not have been far better for the
Carthaginians to have taken Critias or Diagoras to draw up their
law-code at the very beginning, and so not to believe in any divine
power or god, rather than to offer such sacrifices as they used to offer
to Cronos? These were not in the manner that Empedocles describes in
his attack on those who sacrifice living creatures: "Changed in form is
the son beloved of his father so pious,Who on the altar lays him and
slays him. What folly!" No, but with full knowledge and understanding
they themselves offered up their own children, and those who had no
children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as
if they were so many lambs or young birds; meanwhile the mother stood
by without a tear or moan; but should she utter a single moan or let
fall a single tear, she had to forfeit the money, and her child was
sacrificed nevertheless; and the whole area before the statue was filled
with a loud noise of flutes and drums so that the cries of wailing
should not reach the ears of the people." Moralia 2, De Superstitione 3
"With us, for instance, human sacrifice is not legal, but
unholy, whereas the Carthaginians perform it as a thing they account
holy and legal, and that too when some of them sacrifice even their own
sons to Cronos, as I daresay you yourself have heard." (Minos 315)
"And from then on to the present day they perform human
sacrifices with the participation of all, not only in Arcadia during the
Lykaia and in Carthage to Kronos, but also periodically, in remembrance
of the customary usage, they spill the blood of their own kin on the
altars, even though the divine law among them bars from the rites, by
means of perirrhanteria and the herald's proclamation, anyone
responsible for the shedding of blood in peacetime."
"Some even proposed renewing a sacrifice which had been
discontinued for many years, and which I for my part should believe to
be by no means pleasing to the gods, of offering a freeborn boy to
Saturn —this sacrilege rather than sacrifice, handed down from their
founders, the Carthaginians are said to have performed until the
destruction of their city—and unless the elders, in accordance with
whose counsel everything was done, had opposed it, the awful
superstition would have prevailed over mercy. But necessity, more
inventive than any art, introduced not only the usual means of defence,
but also some novel ones." History of Alexander IV.III.23
"In Africa infants used to be sacrificed to Saturn, and
quite openly, down to the proconsulate of Tiberius, who took the priests
themselves and on the very trees of their temple, under whose shadow
their crimes had been committed, hung them alive like votive offerings
on crosses; and the soldiers of my own country are witnesses to it, who
served that proconsul in that very task. Yes, and to this day that holy
crime persists in secret." Apology 9.2-3
"Among ancient peoples in critically dangerous situations
it was customary for the rulers of a city or nation, rather than lose
everyone, to provide the dearest of their children as a propitiatory
sacrifice to the avenging deities. The children thus given up were
slaughtered according to a secret ritual. Now Kronos, whom the
Phoenicians call El, who was in their land and who was later divinized
after his death as the star of Kronos, had an only son by a local bride
named Anobret, and therefore they called him Ieoud. Even now among the
Phoenicians the only son is given this name. When war’s gravest dangers
gripped the land, Kronos dressed his son in royal attire, prepared an
altar and sacrificed him."
"There is another form of sacrifice here. After putting a
garland on the sacrificial animals they hurl them down alive from the
gateway and the animals die from the fall. Some even throw their
children off the place, but not in the same manner as the animals.
Instead, having laid them in a pallet, they drop them down by hand. At
the same time they mock them and say that they are oxen, not children."
"And Kleitarchos says the Phoenicians, and above all the
Carthaginians, venerating Kronos, whenever they were eager for a great
thing to succeed, made a vow by one of their children. If they would
receive the desired things, they would sacrifice it to the god. A bronze
Kronos, having been erected by them, stretched out upturned hands over a
bronze oven to burn the child. The flame of the burning child reached
its body until, the limbs having shriveled up and the smiling mouth
appearing to be almost laughing, it would slip into the oven. Therefore
the grin is called “sardonic laughter,” since they die laughing."
"The Phoenicians too, in great disasters whether of wars
or droughts, or plagues, used to sacrifice one of their dearest,
dedicating him to Kronos. And the ‘Phoenician History,’ which
Sanchuniathon wrote in Phoenician and which Philo of Byblos translated
into Greek in eight books, is full of such sacrifices."
"When the king of Moab saw that the battle had gone
against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through
to the king of Edom, but they failed. Then he took his firstborn son,
who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the
city wall. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew and returned
to their own land." (2 Kings 3:26-27)
At Carthage, a large cemetery exists that combines the bodies of both
very young children and small animals, and those who assert child
sacrifice have argued that if the animals were sacrificed, then so too
were the children.
Recent archaeology, however, has produced a detailed breakdown of the
ages of the buried children and, based on this and especially on the
presence of prenatal individuals – that is, still births
– it is also argued that this site is consistent with burials of
children who had died of natural causes in a society that had a high infant mortality rate,
as Carthage is assumed to have had. That is, the data support the view
that Tophets were cemeteries for those who died shortly before or after
birth. Conversely, Patricia Smith and colleagues from the Hebrew University and Harvard University
show from the teeth and skeletal analysis at the Carthage Tophet that
infant ages at death (about two months) do not correlate with the
expected ages of natural mortality (perinatal), apparently supporting
the child sacrifice thesis.
Greek, Roman and Israelite writers refer to Phoenician child
sacrifice. Skeptics suggest that the bodies of children found in
Carthaginian and Phoenician cemeteries were merely the cremated remains
of children that died naturally.
Sergio Ribichini has argued that the Tophet was "a child necropolis
designed to receive the remains of infants who had died prematurely of
sickness or other natural causes, and who for this reason were "offered"
to specific deities and buried in a place different from the one
reserved for the ordinary dead".
According to Stager and Wolff, in 1984, there was a consensus
among scholars that Carthaginian children were sacrificed by their
parents, who would make a vow to kill the next child if the gods would
grant them a favor: for instance that their shipment of goods was to
arrive safely in a foreign port.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
The Quran documents pagan Arabians sacrificing their children to idols.[Quran6:137]
Pre-Modern Europe
The Minoan civilization, located in ancient Crete, is widely accepted as the first civilization in Europe. An expedition to Knossos by the British School of Athens, led by Peter Warren, excavated a mass grave of sacrifices, particularly children, and unearthed evidence of cannibalism.
clear evidence that their flesh was
carefully cut away, much in the manner of sacrificed animals. In fact,
the bones of slaughtered sheep were found with those of the children...
Moreover, as far as the bones are concerned, the children appear to have
been in good health. Startling as it may seem, the available evidence
so far points to an argument that the children were slaughtered and
their flesh cooked and possibly eaten in a sacrifice ritual made in the
service of a nature deity to assure an annual renewal of fertility.
Additionally, Rodney Castleden uncovered a sanctuary near Knossos where the remains of a 17-year-old were found sacrificed.
His ankles had evidently been tied
and his legs folded up to make him fit on the table... He had been
ritually murdered with the long bronze dagger engraved with a boar's
head that lay beside him.
At Woodhenge,
a young child was found buried with its skull split by a weapon. This
has been interpreted by the excavators as child sacrifice, as have other human remains.
The Ver Sacrum
("A Sacred Spring") was a custom by which a Greco-Roman city would
devote and sacrifice everything born in the spring, whether animal or
human, to a god, in order to relieve some calamity.
The continued murder of black children of all ages, for body parts with which to make muti, for purposes of witchcraft, still occurs in South Africa. Muti murders
occur throughout South Africa, especially in rural areas. Traditional
healers or witch doctors often grind up body parts and combine them with
roots, herbs, seawater, animal parts, and other ingredients to prepare
potions and spells for their clients.
In the early 21st century Uganda has experienced a revival of child
sacrifice. In spite of government attempts to downplay the issue, an
investigation by the BBC into human sacrifice in Uganda found that ritual killings of children are more common than Ugandan authorities admit.
There are many indicators that politicians and politically connected
wealthy businessmen are involved in sacrificing children in practice of
traditional religion, which has become a commercial enterprise.
The Phoenicians were a Semitic-speaking people of somewhat unknown origin who emerged in the Levant around 3000 BC. The term Phoenicia is an ancient Greekexonym that most likely described one of their most famous exports, a dye also known as Tyrian purple; it did not correspond precisely to a cohesive culture or society as it would have been understood natively. It is debated whether Phoenicians were actually distinct from the broader group of Semitic-speaking peoples known as Canaanites. Historian Robert Drews believes the term "Canaanites" corresponds to
the ethnic group referred to as "Phoenicians" by the ancient Greeks.
The Phoenicians came to prominence in the mid 12th century BC, following the decline of most influential cultures in the Late Bronze Age collapse.
They were renowned among contemporaries as skilled traders and
mariners, becoming the dominant commercial power for much of classical
antiquity. The Phoenicians developed an expansive maritime trade network
that lasted over a millennium, helping facilitate the exchange of
cultures, ideas, and knowledge between major cradles of civilization
such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. After its zenith in the ninth
century BC, Phoenician civilization in the eastern Mediterranean slowly
declined in the face of foreign influence and conquest; its presence
endured in the central and western Mediterranean until the mid-second century BC.
The Phoenicians were organized in city-states, similar to those of ancient Greece, of which the most notable were Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos.
Each city-state was politically independent, and there is no evidence
the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. The Phoenicians established colonies and trading posts across the Mediterranean; Carthage,
a settlement in northwest Africa, became a major civilization in its
own right in the seventh century BC. Phoenician society and cultural
life centered on commerce and seafaring; while most city-states were
governed by some form of kingship, merchant families likely exercised influence through oligarchies.
The Phoenicians were long considered a lost civilization due to
the lack of indigenous written records, and only since the mid-20th
century have historians and archaeologists been able to reveal a complex and influential civilization. Their best known legacy is the world's oldest verified alphabet, which was transmitted across the Mediterranean and used to develop the Hebrew script, Arabic script, and Greek alphabet and in turn the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets.
The Phoenicians are also credited with innovations in shipbuilding,
navigation, industry, agriculture, and government. Their international
trade network is believed to have fostered the economic, political, and
cultural foundations of Classical Western civilization.
Etymology
The name Phoenicians, like LatinPoenī (adj. poenicus, later pūnicus), comes from GreekΦοινίκη (Phoiníkē). The word φοῖνιξphoînix meant variably "Phoenician person", "Tyrian purple, crimson" or "date palm." Homer used it with each of these meanings. (The mythical bird phoenix
also carries the same name, but this meaning is not attested until
centuries later.) It is difficult to ascertain which meaning came first,
but it is understandable how Greeks may have associated the crimson or
purple color of dates and dye with the merchants who traded both
products. A derivative, po-ni-ki-jo, is already attested in Mycenean Greek Linear B from the 2nd Millennium BC. In these records, it means "crimson" or "palm tree" and does not denote a group of people.
Since little has survived of Phoenician records or literature, most
of what is known about their origins and history comes from the accounts
of other civilizations and inferences from their material culture
excavated throughout the Mediterranean.
Some scholars suggest there is evidence for a Semitic dispersal
to the fertile crescent circa 2500 BC; others believe the Phoenicians
originated from an admixture of previous non-Semitic inhabitants with
the Semitic arrivals. Herodotus believed that the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain, a view shared centuries later by the historian Strabo. The people of modern Tyre in Lebanon, have particularly long maintained Persian Gulf origins. The Dilmun civilization thrived in Bahrain during the period 2200–1600 BC, as shown by excavations of settlements and the Dilmun burial mounds.
However, recent genetic researches have shown that present-day Lebanese
derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population.
Emergence during the Late Bronze Age (1479–1200 BC)
The first known account of the Phoenicians relates to the conquests of Pharaoh Thutmose III
(1479–1425 BC). The Egyptians targeted coastal cities such as Byblos,
Arwad, and Ullasa for their crucial geographic and commercial links with
the interior (via the Nahr al-Kabir and the Orontes rivers).
The cities provided Egypt with access to Mesopotamian trade and
abundant stocks of the region's native cedarwood. There was no
equivalent in the Egyptian homeland.
By the mid 14th century BC, the Phoenician city-states were
considered "favored cities" to the Egyptians. Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and
Byblos were regarded as the most important. The Phoenicians had
considerable autonomy, and their cities were reasonably well developed
and prosperous. Byblos was the leading city; it was a center for
bronze-making and the primary terminus of precious goods such as tin and lapis lazuli from as far east as Afghanistan.
Sidon and Tyre also commanded interest among Egyptian officials,
beginning a pattern of rivalry that would span the next millennium.
The Amarna letters report that from 1350 to 1300 BC, neighboring Amorites and Hittites
were capturing Phoenician cities, especially in the north. Egypt
subsequently lost its coastal holdings from Ugarit in northern Syria to
Byblos near central Lebanon.
Ascendance and high point (1200–800 BC)
Sometime between 1200 and 1150 BC, the Late Bronze Age collapse
severely weakened or destroyed most civilizations in the region,
including the Egyptians and Hittites. The Phoenicians appear to have
weathered the crisis relatively well, emerging as a distinct and
organized civilization in 1230 BC. The period is sometimes described as a
"Phoenician renaissance."
They filled the power vacuum caused by the Late Bronze Age collapse by
becoming the sole mercantile and maritime power in the region, a status
they would maintain for the next several centuries.
The recovery of the Mediterranean economy can be credited to
Phoenician mariners and merchants, who re-established long distance
trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia in the 10th century BC.
Early into the Iron Age, the Phoenicians established ports,
warehouses, markets, and settlement all across the Mediterranean and up
to the southern Black Sea. Colonies were established on Cyprus, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, Sicily, and Malta, as well as the coasts of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Phoenician hacksilver
dated to this period bears lead isotope ratios matching ores in
Sardinia and Spain, indicating the extent of Phoenician trade networks.
By the tenth century BC, Tyre rose to become the richest and most
powerful Phoenician city-state, particularly during the reign of Hiram I (c. 969–936 BC). During the rule of the priest Ithobaal
(887–856 BC), Tyre expanded its territory as far north as Beirut and
into part of Cyprus; this unusual act of aggression was the closest the
Phoenicians ever came to forming a unitary territorial state. Once his
realm reached its largest territorial extent, Ithobaal declared himself
"King of the Sidonians," a title that would be used by his successors
and mentioned in both Greek and Jewish accounts.
The Late Iron Age saw the height of Phoenician shipping,
mercantile, and cultural activity, particularly between 750 and 650 BC.
The Phoenician influence was visible in the "orientalization" of Greek
cultural and artistic conventions. Among their most popular goods were fine textiles, typically dyed with Tyrian purple. Homer's Iliad, which was composed during this period, references the quality of Phoenician clothing and metal goods.
Carthage was founded by Phoenicians coming from Tyre, probably initially as a station in the metal trade with the southern Iberian Peninsula. The city's name in Punic, Qart-Ḥadašt(𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕), means "New City". There is a tradition in some ancient sources, such as Philistos of Syracuse, for an "early" foundation date of around 1215 BC—before the fall of Troy in 1180 BC. However, Timaeus,
a Greek historian from Sicily c. 300 BC, places the foundation of
Carthage in 814 BC, which is the date generally accepted by modern
historians. Legend, including Virgil's Aeneid, assigns the founding of the city to Queen Dido.
Carthage would grow into a multi-ethnic empire spanning North Africa,
Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, the Balearic Islands, and southern Iberia, but
would ultimately be destroyed by Rome in the Punic Wars (264–146 BC) before being rebuilt as a Roman city.
Vassalage under the Assyrians & Babylonians (858–538 BC)
Two bronze fragments from an Assyrian palace gate depicting the collection of tribute from the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon (859–824 BC). British Museum.
As a mercantile power concentrated along a narrow coastal strip of
land, the Phoenicians lacked the size and population to support a large
military. Thus, as neighboring empires began to rise, the Phoenicians
increasingly fell under the sway of foreign rulers, who to varying
degrees circumscribed their autonomy.
The Assyrian conquest of Phoenicia began with King Shalmaneser III.
He rose to power in 858 BC and began a series of campaigns against
neighboring states. The Phoenician city-states fell under his rule,
forced to pay heavy tribute in money, goods, and natural resources.
Initially, they were not annexed outright—they remained in a state of
vassalage, subordinate to the Assyrians but allowed a certain degree of
freedom. This changed in 744 BC with the ascension of Tiglath-Pileser III.
By 738 BC, most of the Levant, including northern Phoenicia, were
annexed; only Tyre and Byblos, the most powerful city-states, remained
tributary states outside of direct Assyrian control.
Tyre, Byblos, and Sidon all rebelled against Assyrian rule. In 721 BC, Sargon II besieged Tyre and crushed the rebellion. His successor Sennacherib suppressed further rebellions across the region. During the seventh century BC, Sidon rebelled and was destroyed by Esarhaddon,
who enslaved its inhabitants and built a new city on its ruins. By the
end of the century, the Assyrians had been weakened by successive
revolts, which led to their destruction by the Median Empire.
The Babylonians, formerly vassals of the Assyrians, took
advantage of the empire's collapse and rebelled, quickly establishing
the Neo-Babylonian Empire in its place. Phoenician cities revolted several times throughout the reigns of the first Babylonian King, Nabopolassar (626–605 BC), and his son Nebuchadnezzar II
(c. 605–c. 562 BC). In 587 BC Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, which
resisted for thirteen years, but ultimately capitulated under "favorable
terms".
In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great, king and founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, took Babylon.
As Cyrus began consolidating territories across the Near East, the
Phoenicians apparently made the pragmatic calculation of "[yielding]
themselves to the Persians." Most of the Levant was consolidated by Cyrus into a single satrapy (province) and forced to pay a yearly tribute of 350 talents, which was roughly half the tribute that was required of Egypt and Libya.
The Phoenician area was later divided into four vassal
kingdoms—Sidon, Tyre, Arwad, and Byblos—which were allowed considerable
autonomy. Unlike in other empire areas, there is no record of Persian
administrators governing the Phoenician city-states. Local Phoenician
kings were allowed to remain in power and given the same rights as
Persian satraps (governors), such as hereditary offices and minting
their coins.
Achaemenid-era coin of Abdashtart I of Sidon, who is seen at the back of the chariot, behind the Persian King.
The Phoenicians remained a core asset to the Achaemenid Empire,
particularly for their prowess in maritime technology and navigation; they furnished the bulk of the Persian fleet during the Greco-Persian Wars of the late fifth century BC. Phoenicians under Xerxes I built the Xerxes Canal and the pontoon bridges that allowed his forces to cross into mainland Greece. Nevertheless, they were harshly punished by the Persian King following his defeat at the Battle of Salamis, which he blamed on Phoenician cowardice and incompetence.
In the mid-fourth century BC, King Tennes of Sidon led a failed rebellion against Artaxerxes III, enlisting the help of the Egyptians, who were subsequently drawn into a war with the Persians.
The resulting destruction of Sidon led to the resurgence of Tyre, which
remained the dominant Phoenician city for two decades until the arrival
of Alexander the Great.
Hellenistic period (332–152 BC)
Phoenicia was one of the first areas to be conquered by Alexander the Great during his military campaigns across western Asia.
Alexander's main target in the Persian Levant was Tyre, now the
region's largest and most important city. It capitulated after a roughly
seven month siege, during which many of its citizens fled to Carthage. Tyre's refusal to allow Alexander to visit its temple to Melqart, culminating in the killing of his envoys, led to a brutal reprisal: 2,000 of its leading citizens were crucified and a puppet ruler was installed. The rest of Phoenicia easily came under his control, with Sidon surrendering peacefully.
Alexander's empire had a Hellenization
policy, whereby Hellenic culture, religion, and sometimes language were
spread or imposed across conquered peoples. However, Hellenisation was
not enforced most of the time and was just a language of administration
until his death. This was typically implemented through the founding of
new cities, the settlement of a Macedonian or Greek urban elite, and the
alteration of native place names to Greek.
However, there was no organized Hellenization in Phoenicia, and with
one or two minor exceptions, all Phoenician city-states retained their
native names, while Greek settlement and administration appear to have
been very limited.
The Phoenicians maintained cultural and commercial links with their western counterparts. Polybius recounts how the Seleucid King Demetrius I escaped from Rome by boarding a Carthaginian ship that was delivering goods to Tyre.
The adaptation to Macedonian rule was likely aided by the Phoenicians'
historical ties with the Greeks, with whom they shared some mythological
stories and figures; the two peoples were even sometimes considered
"relatives."
When Alexander's empire collapsed after his death in 323 BC, the
Phoenicians came under the control of the largest of its successors, the
Seleucids. The Phoenician homeland was repeatedly contested by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt during the forty-year Syrian Wars, coming under Ptolemaic rule in the third century BC.
The Seleucids reclaimed the area the following century, holding it
until the mid-first 2nd century BC. Under their rule, the Phoenicians
were allowed a considerable degree of autonomy and self-governance.
During the Seleucid Dynastic Wars
(157–63 BC), the Phoenician cities were mainly self-governed. Many of
them were fought for or over by the warring factions of the Seleucid
royal family. Some Phoenician regions were under the control and
influence of the Jews, who revolted and succeeded in defeating
Seleucids in 164 BC.
The Seleucid Kingdom, including Phoenicia, was seized by Tigranes the Great of Armenia in 82 BC, ending the Hellenistic influence on the region.
With their strategically valuable buffer state absorbed into a
rival power, the Romans intervened and conquered the territory in 62 BC.
Shortly after that, the territory was incorporated into the Roman province of Syria. Phoenicia became a separate province
in the third century AD. With the Roman invasion, whatever political
autonomy Phoenicians had was dissolved, and the region was romanized.
Roman Empire ruled the province up to 640s when the Muslim Arabs invaded
the region successfully, and a process of Islamisation and Arabisation started.
Demographics
The people now known as Phoenicians, similar to the neighboring Israelites, Moabites and Edomites were a Canaanite people. Canaanites are a group of ancient Semitic-speaking peoples that emerged in the Levant in at least the third millennium BC. Phoenicians did not refer themselves as such but rather are thought to have referred to themselves as "Kenaʿani", meaning Canaanites.
One 2018 study of mitochondrial lineages in Sardinia concluded
that the Phoenicians were "inclusive, multicultural and featured
significant female mobility," with evidence of indigenous Sardinians
integrating "peacefully and permanently" with Semitic Phoenician
settlers. The study also found evidence suggesting that south Europeans
may have settled in the area of modern Lebanon.
A 2008 study led by Pierre Zalloua found that six subclades of Haplogroup J-M172 (J2)—thought to have originated between the Caucasus Mountains, Mesopotamia and the Levant—were
of a "Phoenician signature" and present amongst the male populations of
coastal Lebanon as well as the wider Levant (the "Phoenician
Periphery"), followed by other areas of historic Phoenician settlement,
spanning Cyprus through to Morocco. This deliberate sequential sampling
was an attempt to develop a methodology to link the documented
historical expansion of a population with a particular geographic
genetic pattern or patterns. The researchers suggested that the proposed
genetic signature stemmed from "a common source of related lineages
rooted in Lebanon". Another study in 2006 found evidence for the genetic persistence of Phoenicians in the Spanish island of Ibiza.
In 2016, the skeleton of 2,500 year old Carthaginian man excavated from a Punic tomb in Tunisia was found bearing the rare U5b2c1 maternal haplogroup. The lineage of this "Young Man of Byrsa" is believed to represent early gene flow from Iberia to the Maghreb.
According to a 2017 study published by the American Journal of Human Genetics, present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in the Levant since at least the Bronze Age. More specifically, according to geneticist Chris Tyler-Smith and his team at the Sanger Institute in Britain, who compared "sampled ancient DNA from five Canaanite people
who lived 3,750 and 3,650 years ago" to modern people, revealed that 93
percent of the genetic ancestry of people in Lebanon came from the Canaanites (the other 7 percent was of a Eurasian steppe population).
In a 2020 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers have shown that there is substantial genetic continuity in Lebanon since the Bronze Age interrupted by three significant admixture events during the Iron Age, Hellenistic, and Ottoman period, each contributing 3–11 percent of non-local ancestry to the admixed population.
The Phoenicians served as intermediaries between the disparate
civilizations that spanned the Mediterranean and Near East, facilitating
the exchange of goods and knowledge, culture, and religious traditions.
Their expansive and enduring trade network is credited with laying the
foundations of an economically and culturally cohesive Mediterranean,
which would be continued by the Greeks and especially the Romans.
Phoenician ties with the Greeks ran deep. The earliest verified relationship appears to have begun with the Minoan civilization on Crete (1950–1450 BC), which together with the Mycenaean civilization (1600–1100 BC) is considered the progenitor of classical Greece.
Archaeological research suggests that the Minoans gradually imported
Near Eastern goods, artistic styles, and customs from other cultures via
the Phoenicians.
To Egypt the Phoenicians sold logs of cedar for significant sums, and wine
beginning in the eighth century. The wine trade with Egypt is vividly
documented by shipwrecks discovered in 1997 in the open sea 50
kilometres (30 mi) west of Ascalon, Israel. Pottery kilns at Tyre and Sarepta produced the large terracotta jars used for transporting wine. From Egypt, the Phoenicians bought Nubian gold.
Phoenician sarcophagi found in Cádiz, Spain, thought to have been imported from the Phoenician homeland around Sidon. Archaeological Museum of Cádiz.
From elsewhere, they obtained other materials, perhaps the most crucial being silver, mostly from Sardinia and the Iberian Peninsula. Tin for making bronze "may have been acquired from Galicia by way of the Atlantic coast of southern Spain; alternatively, it may have come from northern Europe (Cornwall or Brittany) via the Rhone valley and coastal Massalia." Strabo states that there was a highly lucrative Phoenician trade with Britain for tin via the Cassiterides, whose location is unknown but may have been off the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
Industry
Phoenician metal bowl
with hunting scene (eighth century BC). The clothing and hairstyle of
the figures are Egyptian. At the same time, the subject matter of the
central scene conforms with the Mesopotamian theme of combat between man and beast. Phoenician artisans frequently adapted the styles of neighboring cultures.
Phoenicia lacked considerable natural resources other than its cedar
wood. Timber was probably the earliest and most lucrative source of
wealth; neither Egypt nor Mesopotamia had adequate wood sources. Unable
to rely solely on this limited resource, the Phoenicians developed an
industrial base manufacturing a variety of goods for both everyday and
luxury use. The Phoenicians developed or mastered techniques such as glass-making, engraved and chased metalwork (including bronze, iron, and gold), ivory carving, and woodwork.
The Phoenicians were early pioneers in mass production, and sold a
variety of items in bulk. They became the leading source of glassware
in antiquity, shipping thousands of flasks, beads, and other glass
objects across the Mediterranean. Excavations of colonies in Spain suggest they also utilized the potter's wheel. Their exposure to a wide variety of cultures allowed them to manufacture goods for specific markets. The Iliad suggests Phoenician clothing and metal goods were highly prized by the Greeks. Specialized goods were designed specifically for wealthier clientele, including ivory reliefs and plaques, carved clam shells, sculpted amber, and finely detailed and painted ostrich eggs.
Tyrian purple
An Etruscan tomb (c. 350 BC) depicting a man wearing an all-purple toga picta.
The most prized Phoenician goods were fabrics dyed with Tyrian purple, which formed a major part of Phoenician wealth. The violet-purple dye derived from the hypobranchial gland of the Murex
marine snail, once profusely available in coastal waters of the eastern
Mediterranean Sea but exploited to local extinction. Phoenicians may
have discovered the dye as early as 1750 BC. The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador, in present-day Morocco.
The Phoenicians' exclusive command over the production and trade
of the dye, combined with the labor-intensive extraction process, made
it very expensive. Tyrian purple subsequently became associated with the
upper classes. It soon became a status symbol
in several civilizations, most notably among the Romans. Assyrian
tribute records from the Phoenicians include "garments of brightly
colored stuff" that most likely included Tyrian purple. While the
designs, ornamentation, and embroidery used in Phoenician textiles were
well-regarded, the techniques and specific descriptions are unknown.
Mining
Mining
operations in the Phoenician homeland were limited; iron was the only
metal of any worth. The first large-scale mining operations probably
occurred in Cyprus, principally for copper. Sardinia may have been
colonized almost exclusively for its mineral resources; Phoenician
settlements were concentrated in the southern parts of the island, close
to sources of copper and lead. Piles of scoria
and copper ingots, which appear to predate Roman occupation, suggest
the Phoenicians mined and processed metals on the island. The Iberian
Peninsula was the richest source of numerous metals in antiquity,
including gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead.
The significant output of these metals during the Phoenician and
Carthaginian occupation strongly implied large scale mining operations.
The Carthaginians are documented to have relied on slave labor for
mining, though it is unknown if the Phoenicians as a whole did so.
Viticulture
The most notable agricultural product was wine, which the Phoenicians helped propagate across the Mediterranean. The common grape vine may have been domesticated by the Phoenicians or Canaanites, although it most likely arrived from Transcaucasia via trade routes across Mesopotamia or the Black Sea. Vines grew readily in the coastal Levant, and wine was exported to Egypt as early as the Old Kingdom period (2686–2134 BC). Wine played an important part in Phoenician religion, serving as the principal beverage for offerings and sacrifice.
An excavation of a small Phoenician town south of Sidon uncovered a
wine factory used from at least the seventh century BC, which is
believed to have been aimed for an overseas market. To prevent oxidation, vessels were sealed with a layer of olive oil, pinewood, and resin.
The Phoenicians established vineyards and wineries in their colonies in North Africa, Sicily, France, and Spain, and may have taught winemaking
to some of their trading partners. The ancient Iberians began producing
wine from local grape varieties following their encounter with the
Phoenicians. Iberian cultivars subsequently formed the basis of most
western European wine.
Shipbuilding
As early as 1200 BC, the Phoenicians built large merchant ships. During the Bronze Age, they developed the keel. Pegged mortise-and-tenon joints proved effective enough to serve as a standard until late into the Roman Empire.
The Phoenicians were possibly the first to introduce the bireme, around 700 BC. An Assyrian account describes Phoenicians evading capture with these ships. The Phoenicians are also credited with inventing the trireme,
which was regarded as the most advanced and powerful vessel in the
ancient Mediterranean world, and was eventually adopted by the Greeks.
Warship with two rows of oars, in relief from Nineveh, (c. 700 BC).
Two Assyrian representations of ships, which could represent Phoenician vessels
The Phoenicians developed several other maritime inventions. The amphora,
a type of container used for both dry and liquid goods, was an ancient
Phoenician invention that became a standardized measurement of volume
for close to two thousand years. The remnants of self-cleaning
artificial harbors have been discovered in Sidon, Tyre, Atlit, and Acre. The first example of admiralty law also appears in the Levant. The Phoenicians continued to contribute to cartography into the Iron Age.
In 2014, a roughly 50-foot Phoenician trading ship was found near Gozo island in Malta. Dated 700 BC, it is one of the oldest wrecks found in the Mediterranean. Fifty amphorae, used to contain wine and oil, were scattered nearby.
Important cities and colonies
Map of Phoenician (in yellow) and Greek colonies around 8th to 6th century BC (with German legend)
The Phoenicians were not a nation in the political sense. However,
they were organized into independent city-states that shared a common
language and culture. The leading city-states were Tyre, Sidon, and
Byblos. Rivalries were expected, but armed conflict was rare.
Numerous other cities existed in the Levant alone, many probably unknown, including Beiruta (modern Beirut) Ampi, Amia, Arqa, Baalbek, Botrys, Sarepta, and Tripoli.
From the late tenth century BC, the Phoenicians established commercial
outposts throughout the Mediterranean, with Tyre founding colonies in
Cyprus, Sardinia, Iberia, the Balearic Islands, Sicily, Malta, and North
Africa. Later colonies were established beyond the Straits of
Gibraltar, particularly on the Atlantic coast of Iberia. The Phoenicians
may have explored the Canary Islands and the British Isles.
Phoenician settlement was primarily concentrated in Cyprus, Sicily,
Sardinia, Malta, northwest Africa, the Balearic Islands, and southern
Iberia.
Phoenician colonization
To
facilitate their commercial ventures, the Phoenicians established
numerous colonies and trading posts along the coasts of the
Mediterranean. Phoenician city states generally lacked the numbers or
even the desire to expand their territory overseas. Few colonies had
more than 1,000 inhabitants; only Carthage and some nearby settlements
in the western Mediterranean would grow larger. A major motivating factor was competition with the Greeks, who began expanding across the Mediterranean during the same period. Though largely peaceful rivals, their respective settlements in Crete and Sicily did clash intermittently.
The earliest Phoenician settlements outside the Levant were on Cyprus and Crete, gradually moving westward towards Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, and Sicily, as well as on the European mainland in Genoa and Marseilles. The first Phoenician colonies in the western Mediterranean were along the northwest African coast and on Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands. Tyre led the way in settling or controlling coastal areas.
Phoenician colonies were fairly autonomous. At most, they were
expected to send annual tribute to their mother city, usually in the
context of a religious offering. However, in the seventh century BC the
western colonies came under the control of Carthage, which was exercised directly through appointed magistrates. Carthage continued to send annual tribute to Tyre for some time after its independence.
Society and culture
Since
very little of the Phoenicians' writings have survived, much of what is
known about their culture and society comes from accounts by
contemporary civilizations or inferences from archaeological
discoveries. The Phoenicians had much in common with other Canaanites,
including language, religion, social customs, and a monarchical
political system centered around city-states. However, by the early Iron
Age (roughly 1300 BC), they had emerged as distinct people. Their
culture, economy, and daily life were heavily centered on commerce and
maritime trade. Their propensity for seafaring brought them into contact
with numerous other civilizations.
The Phoenician city-states were fiercely independent in both domestic and foreign affairs. Formal alliances between city-states were rare. The relative power and influence of city-states varied over time. Sidon was dominant between the 12th and 11th centuries BC and influenced its neighbors. However, by the tenth century BC, Tyre rose to become the most powerful city.
At least in its earlier stages, Phoenician society was highly stratified and predominantly monarchical.
Hereditary kings usually governed with absolute power over civic,
commercial, and religious affairs. They often relied upon senior
officials from the noble and merchant classes; the priesthood
was a distinct class, usually of royal lineage or leading merchant
families. The King was considered a representative of the gods and
carried many obligations and duties concerning religious processions and
rituals. Priests were thus highly influential and often became
intertwined with the royal family.
Phoenician kings did not commemorate their reign through
sculptures or monuments. Their wealth, power, and accomplishments were
usually conveyed through ornate sarcophagi, like that of Ahiram of Byblos.
The Phoenicians kept records of their rulers in tomb inscriptions,
which are among the few primary sources still available. Historians have
determined a clear line of succession over centuries for some
city-states, notably Byblos and Tyre.
Starting as early as 15th century BC, Phoenician leaders were
"advised by councils or assemblies which gradually took greater power". In the sixth century BC, during the period of Babylonian rule, Tyre briefly adopted a system of government consisting of a pair of judges with authority roughly equivalent to the Roman consul, known as sufetes (shophets), who were chosen from the most powerful noble families and served short terms.
Nineteenth-century
depiction of Phoenician sailors and merchants. The importance of trade
to the Phoenician economy led to a gradual sharing of power between the
King and assemblies of merchant families.
In the fourth century BC, when the armies of Alexander the Great
approached Tyre, they were met not by its King but by representatives of
the commonwealth of the city. Similarly, historians at the time
describe the "inhabitants" or "the people" of Sidon making peace with
Alexander. When the Macedonians sought to appoint a new king over Sidon, the citizens nominated their candidate.
Law and administration
After
the King and council, the two most important political positions in
virtually every Phoenician city-state were governor and commander of the
army. Details regarding the duties of these offices are sparse.
However, it is known that the governor was responsible for collecting
taxes, implementing decrees, supervising judges, and ensuring the
administration of law and justice.
As warfare was rare among the most mercantile Phoenicians, the army's
commander was generally responsible for ensuring the defense and
security of the city-state and its hinterlands.
Stela from Tyre with Phoenician inscriptions (c. fourth century BC). National Museum of Beirut.
The Phoenicians had a system of courts and judges that resolved
disputes and punished crimes based on a semi-codified body of laws and
traditions. Laws were implemented by the state and were the
responsibility of the ruler and certain designated officials. Like other
Levantine societies, laws were harsh and biased, reflecting the social
stratification of society. The murder of a commoner was treated as less
severe than that of a nobleman, and the upper classes had the most
rights; the wealthy often escaped punishment by paying a fine. Free men
of any class could represent themselves in court and had more rights
than women and children, while slaves had no rights. Men could often
deflect punishment to their wives, children, or slaves, even having them
serve their sentence in their place. Lawyers eventually emerged as a
profession for those who could not plead their case.
As in neighboring societies at the time, penalties for crimes
were often severe, usually reflecting the principle of reciprocity; for
example, the killing of a slave would be punished by having the
offender's slave killed. Imprisonment was rare, with fines, exile,
punishment, and execution the main remedies.
Military
As
with most aspects of Phoenician civilization, there are few records of
their military or approach to warfare. Compared to most of their
neighbors, the Phoenicians generally had little interest in conquest and
were relatively peaceful.
The wealth and prosperity of all their city-states rested on foreign
trade, which required good relations and a certain degree of mutual
trust. They also lacked the territory and agricultural base to support a
population large enough to raise an army of conquest. Instead, each
city had an army commander in charge of a defensive garrison. However,
the specifics of the role, or city defense, are unknown.
Around 1050 BC, the Phoenicians developed a script for writing their own language. The Canaanite-Phoenician alphabet consists of 22 letters, all consonants (and is thus strictly an abjad). It is believed to be a continuation of the Proto-Sinaitic (or Proto-Canaanite) script attested in the Sinai and in Canaan in the Late Bronze Age. Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to Anatolia, North Africa, and Europe. The name Phoenician is by convention given to inscriptions beginning around 1050 BC, because Phoenician, Hebrew, and other Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before that time.
Phoenician inscriptions are found in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine,
Cyprus and other locations, as late as the early centuries of the
Christian era.
The alphabet was adopted and modified by the Greeks probably in
the eighth century BC. This most likely did not occur in a single
instance but the process of commercial exchange. The legendary Phoenician hero Cadmus is credited with bringing the alphabet to Greece. However, it is more plausible that Phoenician immigrants brought it to Crete, whence it gradually diffused northwards.
Art
Phoenician art was largely centered on ornamental objects, particularly jewelry, pottery, glassware, and reliefs.
Large sculptures were rare; figurines were more common. Phoenician
goods have been found from Spain and Morocco to Russia and Iraq; much of
what is known about Phoenician art is based on excavations outside
Phoenicia proper. Phoenician art was highly influenced by many cultures,
primarily Egypt, Greece, and Assyria. Greek inspiration was
particularly pronounced in pottery, while Egyptian styles were most
reflected in ivory work.
Phoenician art also differed from its contemporaries in its continuance of Bronze Age conventions well into the Iron Age, such as terracotta masks. Phoenician artisans were known for their skill with wood, ivory, bronze, and textiles. In the Old Testament, a craftsman from Tyre is commissioned to build and decorate the legendary Solomon's Temple
in Jerusalem, which "presupposes a well-developed and highly respected
craft industry in Phoenicia by the mid-tenth century BC". The Iliad mentions the embroidered robes of Priam’s wife, Hecabe, as "the work of Sidonian women" and describes a mixing bowl of chased silver as "a masterpiece of Sidonian craftsmanship." The Assyrians appeared to have valued Phoenician ivory work in particular, collecting vast quantities in their palaces.
Phoenician art appears to have been indelibly tied to Phoenician commercial interests.
They have crafted goods to appeal to particular trading partners,
distinguishing not only different cultures but even socioeconomic status
classes.
Face bead; mid-4th–3rd century BC; glass; height: 2.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Earring from a pair, each with four relief faces; late fourth–3rd
century BC; gold; overall: 3.5 x 0.6 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Women
Female figurines from Tyre (c.1000–550 BC). National Museum of Beirut.
Women in Phoenicia took part in public events and religious
processions, with depictions of banquets showing them casually sitting
or reclining with men, dancing, and playing music.
In most contexts, however, women were expected to dress and behave more
modestly than men; female figures are almost always portrayed as draped
from head to feet, with the arms sometimes covered as well.
Although they rarely had political power, women took part in
community affairs. They had some voice in the popular assemblies that
began to emerge in some city-states. At least one woman, Unmiashtart, is recorded to have ruled Sidon in the fifth century BC. The two most famous Phoenician women are political figures: Jezebel, portrayed in the Bible as the assertive princess of Sidon, and Dido, the semi-legendary founder and first queen of Carthage. In Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid,
Dido is described as having been the co-ruler of Tyre, using cleverness
to escape the tyranny of her brother Pygmalion and to secure an ideal
site for Carthage.
Figure of Ba'al with raised arm, 14th–12th century BC, found at ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra site), a city at the far north of the Phoenician coast. Musée du Louvre
The religious practices and beliefs of Phoenicia were generally common to those of their neighbors in Canaan, which in turn shared characteristics common throughout the ancient Semitic world. Religious rites were primarily for city-state purposes; payment of
taxes by citizens was considered in the category of religious
sacrifices. Unfortunately, many of the Phoenician sacred writings known to the ancients have been lost.
Several Canaanite practices are attested in ancient sources and mentioned by scholars, such as temple prostitution and child sacrifice.
Special sites known as "Tophets" were allegedly used by the Phoenicians
"to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire," and are condemned
by Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, particularly in Jeremiah 7:30–32, and in 2nd Kings
23:10 and 17:17. Notwithstanding these and other important differences,
cultural and religious similarities persisted between the ancient
Hebrews and the Phoenicians.
Canaanite religious mythology does not appear as elaborate as their Semitic cousins in Mesopotamia. In Canaan the supreme god was called El (𐤀𐤋, "god"). The son of El was Baal (𐤁𐤏𐤋, "master", "lord"), a powerful dying-and-risingstorm god. Other gods were called by royal titles, such as Melqart, meaning "king of the city", or Adonis for "lord". Such epithets may often have been merely local titles for the same deities.
The Semitic pantheon was well-populated; which god became primary
evidently depended on the exigencies of a particular city-state. Melqart was prominent throughout Phoenicia and overseas, as was Astarte, a fertility goddess with regal and matronly aspects.
Religious institutions in Tyre called marzeh (𐤌𐤓𐤆𐤄, "place of reunion"), did much to foster social bonding and "kin" loyalty. Marzeh held banquets for their membership on festival days, and many developed into elite fraternities. Each marzeh nurtured congeniality and community through a series of ritual meals shared among trusted kin in honor of deified ancestors. In Carthage, which had developed a complex republican system of government, the marzeh
may have played a role in forging social and political ties among
citizens; Carthaginians were divided into different institutions that
were solidified through communal feasts and banquets. Such festival
groups may also have composed the voting cohort for selecting members of
the city-state's Assembly.
The Phoenicians made votive offerings to their gods, namely in the form of figurines and pottery vessels.
Hundreds of figurines and fragments have been recovered from the
Mediterranean, often spanning centuries between them, suggesting they
were cast into the sea to ensure safe travels.
Since the Phoenicians were predominantly seafaring people, it is
speculated that many of their rituals were performed at sea or aboard
ships. However, the specific nature of these practices is unknown.
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