574 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



VOTIVE ALTARS 



The votive altars need especial and separate study of their own. 

 The forms and designs are so numerous that nearly every day we 

 find new specimens of Punic design and unlmown examples. It 

 would make an interesting study to compare the different specimens 

 of these great altars with those of other antique lands to see if any 

 likeness can be detected. 



The altars stand in the temple area in very close formation, under 

 wdiich we found the sacred urns. They were actually covered with 

 painted stucco, and we have found several absolutely intact with the 

 colors still showing after nearly 27 centuries. They range from 1 

 to 5 feet in height and are compcssed of a sand stone found at Cape 

 Bon. Many are in the form of the '" betel " stone. This is the most 

 common form found. And then comes in greatest number the figure 

 of a mummy standing between columns; then the triangle of Tanit, 

 the lozenge, the disk, the crescent, and replicas of temples, with 

 steps, are also quite common. Near these altars hundreds of Punic 

 lamps were found showing that many of the ceremonies nnist have 

 been performed at night. Babies' milk bottles, Punic coins, quanti- 

 ties of grim ashes, and pottery of great variety are found around 

 the altars, as well as strange symbols of little-known gods. 



The excavation of this historic spot this year was under the direc- 

 tion of Abbe Chabot, membre de LTnstitut, and the greatest living 

 expert on the Punic inscriptions, and de Prorok, who purchased 

 the site with a donation given by Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Brady, of 

 New York. Maj. F. Shorey, of McGill University, Mr. A. Duff, of 

 Oxford University, and Mr. D. Harden, of the University of Cam- 

 bridge, Rey de Vilette, of the Ecole des Sciences Politiques, Paris, 

 and Horton O'Neill, of St. Louis, Mo., who took the photographs 

 illustrating this article, made up the composition of the staff. M. 

 Poinssot, the learned director of the Service des Antiquites also 

 supervised the work periodically. All these factors insured the 

 careful and proper scientific excavation and documentation of this, 

 the most important ruin discovered in North Africa in recent years. 

 It has turned out to be a veritable treasure mine of antiquity, and a 

 wonderful trace of the empire that once nearly conquered the an- 

 cient world. 



