SANCTUARY OF TANIT PEOEOK 571 



of the plan of the temple itself. One of the greatest problems of 

 this discovery is the solving of the historic question of the human 

 sacrifices of the Carthaginians. The excavation has already yielded 

 thousands of urns filled with the ashes and bones of newly born 

 children and small animals. It is thought that the animal bones 

 were those of aninuils substituted secretly by parents for their chil- 

 dren. The relics have been examined by the Pasteur Institute and 

 found to be largely those of infants. 



In six weeks we dug out hundreds of vases, sometimes averaging 

 50 a day. Nearly all the vases contained ashes of children and we 

 are driven to the conclusion that on this site there were very dreadful 

 holocausts in antiquity. 



Diodorus Siculus mentions that in the year 311 B. C. as many as 

 300 people were sacrificed during one ceremony. The Carthaginians 

 were abhorred by the ancients because of this terrible custom of 

 " passing their people through fire " as in biblical days. One of the 

 most remarkable conditions of a peace treaty ever recorded was that 

 made by Gelon of Syracuse on behalf of the Greeks. After defeat- 

 ing 300,000 Carthaginians at the great battle of Himera, they de- 

 manded one single condition, and that was the abolition of the sacri- 

 fice of children at Carthage. Darius, King of the Persians, sent an 

 ambassador all the way to Carthage demanding the abolition of 

 human sacrifices and also the eating of little dogs, a great Phoenician 

 delicac}' which was considered an abomination in those days. 



The awful cult of Moloch continued in the reign of Tiberius, 

 according to the great apologist Tertullian. This Emperor had the 

 priests who performed these " abominations of the Sidonians " cruci- 

 fied in the Temple Gardens where they had performed these ritual 

 sacrifices. 



Saint Augustine also spoke of these cruelties, which he said con- 

 tinued even in his day, the sacrifices being made then to Saturn 

 instead of to Baal Amnion. This is a dreadful period of human 

 degeneracj" that we are now unearthing in the famous Temple of 

 Tanit, but such is archeology ! In one spot we may be uncovering 

 works of priceless art and traces of the advancement of civilization, 

 and in another spot the contrasting decadence shown in the revela- 

 tion of such a cult as found at Aphrodisium and at Carthage in 

 Africa. 



THE URNS DISCOVERED IN THIS YEARS CAMPAIGN 



(The excavations of floor A) 



The first ruin to be located in the excavation was what seemed to 

 be the Roman Temple of Saturn built above the Punic ruin below. 

 We give it this name from a votive inscription found among the 



