What Was the Religion of the Ancient Phoenicians and Carthaginians?

Many different civilizations have risen in the Near East over the millennia and each had their own unique religion, though they often overlapped, intermingled, and influenced one another. Gods and goddesses from one culture migrated into another along with their rituals and myths.

The Phoenicians thrived in the Levant in the early 1st millennium BCE, and their descendants, the Carthaginians, dominated North Africa between the 7th and 2nd centuries BCE. Their religion had much in common with their Near Eastern neighbors, with one important exception: they engaged in human sacrifice.

The Phoenicians were a Semitic speaking people who were closely related to the ancient Hebrews and other Canaanite people who lived in the Levant. The area that they inhabited is roughly equivalent with the modern nation-state of Lebanon. They never developed a unified state or empire, but had independent city-states in the northern coastal Levant, of which Byblos, Tyre, and Sidon were the most important.

A number of ancient texts mention the Phoenicians, but usually refer to them by the names of their city-states and never as “Phoenicians.” The city-state of Tyre and its greatest king, Hiram I (ruled c. 971-939 BCE), are mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament. Most of those references concern how Hiram provided King Solomon of Israel with the cedar needed to build the Temple in Jerusalem.

What Do We Know About Phoenician Religion?

The different religions of the Near East shared some commonalities, such as polytheism, but also some notable differences. The Phoenicians were located in an interesting geographic area surrounded by several civilizations.

The Phoenicians were in the heart of the Canaanite/Levantine civilization region, to their south was Egypt, to their north was Anatolia, and to their east was Mesopotamia. Because of this, the Phoenician pantheon included many deities from other cultures. Likewise, some Phoenicians deities, such as the goddess Astarte, were venerated throughout the Mediterranean.

Many of the details about Phoenician religion remain a mystery due to the nature of the primary sources. Most of the Phoenician texts are brief and fragmentary, while the classical and biblical references provide a biased outsider perspective. With that said, there are enough primary sources to paint a picture, albeit one that is incomplete.

Although the Phoenicians practiced a similar religion in all of their cities, each of the major cities had its own primary deity. For example, Melqart—possibly the biblical Moloch—was the primary god of Tyre, El/Baal was the dominant god in Sidon, and the goddess Baalat was the patroness of Byblos. Each of the primary deities had consorts, and they were always accompanied by other gods and goddesses.

Far less is known about Phoenician religious rituals, which has led to some controversy and debate. Due to the nature of Phoenician culture, it is believed that water played a significant role in their rituals. But many scholars argue human sacrifice was also important. The practice of human sacrifice rituals would be unique among the peoples of the Mediterranean and Near East at the time.

Although the classical and biblical sources state that the Phoenicians practiced human sacrifice, there is very little archeological evidence to support this. Modern scholars argue that there are a number of reasons for this. First, the nature of population distribution has resulted in most of the important Phoenician sites either being on the bottom of the Mediterranean or buried under modern Lebanese cities. Second, it is also possible that many of the images, symbols, and signs associated with human sacrifice were destroyed by Christians and Muslims in later periods. Still, based on the strength of the classical and biblical sources, most modern scholars believe that the Phoenicians did practice ritual human sacrifice.

Biblical References to Phonecian Human Sacrifice

There are numerous references to Phoenician human sacrifice in the Old Testament, although most are not entirely clear. Jeremiah 7:31 states that the Israelites burned their sons and daughters in “the fire,” but does not name the god to whom the sacrifices were made. Other passages are clearer about the god receiving the sacrifice, but less explicit about the fate of the victims. The Book of Kings II 17:16-17 states the following:

“And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshiped all the hosts of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire.”

The term “pass through the fire” is presumed by many modern scholars to refer to an elaborate ritual where the sacrifice victims were burned alive. Although there is no archeological evidence from the Levant that can corroborate this ritual, classical sources make references to a similar ritual practiced in Carthage.

Carthage was an ancient city-state located on the coast of modern Tunisia. According to Carthaginian and classical sources, it was founded in 814 BCE by Phoenician colonists from Tyre. The Carthaginians eventually became the most powerful state in the western Mediterranean, conquering all of North Africa west of Libya, Mediterranean coastal Spain, and most of the western Mediterranean islands.

Carthage developed its own unique culture that mixed elements from Phoenicia, Greece and Rome, and North Africa. The Carthaginians spoke a dialect of the Phoenician language that became known as Punic and by the 6th century BCE, they had distinguished themselves from their Phoenician ancestors. But despite their many cultural differences, the Carthaginians practiced a religion that was essentially Phoenician.

Classical References to Human Sacrifice in Carthage

The three most important Carthaginian gods were Baal, often referred to as “BaalHammon,” Baal’s consort Tanit, and Reshef/Reshep. The worship of all three of these deities originated in the Levant and their attributes and worship were likely the same in Carthage.

There is considerable textual and archeological evidence that links the Carthaginians to the practice of ritual human sacrifice. One particularly graphic account was written by the 1st century BCE Greek historian Diodorus. In the account, following the Greek custom of giving Greek names to non-Greek gods, Baal is referred to by the Greek name “Cronus.” The account reads (Library of History, 20.14):

“They also alleged that Cronus 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 substitutions… In their zeal to make amends for their 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 their city a bronze image of Cronus, extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire.”

Diodorus’ graphic account appears to corroborate the biblical accounts, or vice versa, as the details are similar, particularly the use of fire. It also adds another important and interesting point: the rituals called for the sacrifice of noble children. Apparently some nobles were willing to possibly provoke the wrath of Baal by offering substitutes to be sacrificed instead of their own children. Despite apparent resistance, the sacrifices continued in Carthage and throughout the western Mediterranean.

The archeological evidence of Carthaginian ritual human sacrifice, or Carthaginian religion generally, is somewhat sparse. But when the limited number of archeological sources are combined with the textual evidence, a more complete picture of Carthaginian/Phoenician human sacrifice rituals is revealed.

Perhaps the greatest archeological evidence of Carthaginian ritual human sacrifice was the discovery of a tophet. The term “tophet” was taken from several Old Testament verses where it referred to a specific location in the valley of Hinnom in Israel. Tophet is mentioned in Jeremiah as a place where children were ritually sacrificed, but modern archeologists have given it a slightly different meaning. The modern term tophet has come to refer to ancient cemeteries where remains of children have been discovered. One notable tophet in Carthage had 20,000 buried yearns containing the remains of infant and animal bones that had been cremated.

Although the tophet in Carthage is the largest known, archeologists have discovered some other notable ones throughout the western Mediterranean. A tophet was discovered in the Tunisian city of Hadrumetum. Hadrumetum pre-dates Carthage as a Phoenician colony and later became part of the Carthaginian Empire.

Tophets have also been discovered on the small island of Motya off the shore of Sicily and on the island of Sardinia. There is also an interesting piece of art-historical evidence that corroborates the existence of Carthaginian human sacrifice.

Archeological Evidence: Mausoleum of Pozo Moro

A funerary monument known as the Mausoleum of Pozo Moro, discovered in southeastern Spain, is an interesting piece of evidence that can further elucidate the Carthaginian religion. Archeologists have dated the monument to c. 6th century BCE based on the style of Carthaginian-Phoenician reliefs on its walls. But the style of the art is not why the structure is so important.

On one wall of the monument is a scene carved in raised relief that depicts what scholars have identified as a ritual sacrifice scene. Two small figures, likely children, are being offered in a bowl to a two-headed monster. Unfortunately, there is no accompanying text and there is no other known relief like it. The monster could be identified as Baal or another Carthaginian-Phoenician god, but without further evidence it is difficult to say.

Thus the primary source evidence appears to confirm that human sacrifice played a role in the religion of the Phoenicians and their Carthaginian descendants. How big that role was is open to debate. It should be noted that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians were the enemies of the Israelites and the Romans respectively, so the latter’s accounts may have been biased to a degree. With that said, the archeological evidence, at least in the case of the Carthaginians, corroborates those claims to some extent.