Zarapath, where Elijah raised the widow\u2019s son to life (1 Kings 17), continues to produce fascinating discoveries. (For earlier reports, see our Winter 1972 and Winter 1973 issues.) During the 1974 season, a find was made which links the site to the goddess Tanit and the practice of child sacrifice.<\/p>\n
The Iron Age city of Zarapath as it is being uncovered by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania<\/i><\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 4:1 (Winter 1975) p. 22<\/p>\n
The Carthaginians<\/b><\/p>\n
The Canaanites who lived on the Mediterranean coast, in what is today modern Lebanon, were proficient seamen. Known to the Greeks as Phoenicians, these coastal Canaanites engaged in trade throughout the Mediterranean. In so doing, they established colonies at strategic coastal locations. The most prosperous of these was Carthage, located on the northern coast of Africa, opposite the toe of Italy\u2019s boot. Settled in the eighth century B.C., Carthage became powerful and eventually replaced the homeland Phoenecians as the great sea power in the Mediterranean. The Carthaginians were famous in history for their wars with Rome in the third and second centuries B.C. (The \u201cPunic\u201d Wars, so-called because the Romans referred to the Carthaginians as \u201cPoeni,\u201d or Phonecians.)<\/p>\n
It has long been known that the primary deity of Carthage was the goddess Tanit and that the Carthaginians showed their reverence to her with a supreme offering \u2014 their children. But where and when the bizarre cult began has been a mystery to scholars. Some have proposed that the goddess was a Libyan divinity, taken over by the Phoenicians after their arrival in the Western Mediterranean. Others have maintained that she was imported directly from the Phoenician homeland. The 1974 excavation at Zarapath, the first Phoenician homeland city to be excavated, has provided evidence that the latter theory is probably the correct one.<\/p>\n
Inscription Found<\/b><\/p>\n
In the 1971 season a small shrine dating to the Iron Age (1200-600 B.C.) was discovered at Zarapath. This was the first homeland Phoenecian shrine to be found. In 1974, excavations in the shrine produced an assortment of votive objects and cultic equipment, including figurines, carved ivory, beads, masks, amulets, cosmetic equipment and saucer lamps. Among the objects found in the shrine was an ivory plaque with an inscription on it. The plaque was probably originally fastened to a wooden statue.<\/p>\n
The four-line inscription of the plaque, written in ancient Phoenician characters, reads \u201cThis statue made (by) Shillem, son of Mabaal, son of Inai for Tanit-Ashtart.\u201d This is the oldest reference to Tanit found to date and it identifies the shrine and cultic objects as dedicated to Tanit and another Phoenician deity, Ashtart or Astarte, goddess of fertility. Astarte is mentioned in the Bible at a number of places, e.g. Judges 10:6, 1 Kings 11:5, 33 and 2 Kings 23:13. This <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 4:1 (Winter 1975) p. 23<\/p>\n
Did Elijah walk here? This thoroughfare served as the major artery from the center of Zarapath to its port during the Iron Age<\/i><\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
inscription, then, is evidence that Tanit was first worshipped in Canaan and that the Carthaginian practice of child sacrifice probably had its beginnings there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis short text would occasion no surprise in its context were it not for the dedication to Tanit, which has hitherto been found only in the Phoenician colonies of the West, never in the homeland,\u201d said Dr. Pritchard, director of the expedition.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Pritchard, who is the Associate Director and <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 4:1 (Winter 1975) p. 24<\/p>\n
Inscription to Tanit carved on an ivory plaque is the earliest reference to the goddess ever found<\/i><\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
Curator of Biblical Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s University Museum, the 32-letter inscription is important for another reason, too. \u201cPhoenician inscriptions on ivory are extremely rare,\u201d he explains. Those found previously have come not from Phoenicia proper, but from distant sites in Assyria, Palestine and Northern Syria. And, as ivory was used most frequently for inlay work, other inscriptions have generally consisted of a single Phoenician letter, serving as a fitter\u2019s mark.<\/p>\n
During the 1974 season, the team also uncovered the main street of the bustling Iron Age city of Elijah\u2019s time. Dyes, metal products and pottery were produced along this street. A store room containing 24 storage jars set in rows was discovered in the area near the shrine.<\/p>\n
The worship of Tanit-Astarte was flourishing in Elijah\u2019s day and the discoveries at Zarapath give us some idea what the Old Testament prophet was up against. It is significant that Zarapath, where the first evidence for child sacrifice in Phoenicia has been found, was the very place to which a man of God was sent \u2014 not to demand sacrifice, but to raise a child to life!<\/p>\n
The spade of the archaeologist has again provided dramatic evidence of the sharp contrast that exists between a religion conceived by man and Biblical Faith.<\/p>\n
(University of Pennsylvania news release dated November 14, 1974)<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 4:1 (Winter 1975) p. 25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zarapath, where Elijah raised the widow\u2019s son to life (1 Kings 17), continues to produce fascinating discoveries. (For earlier reports, see our Winter 1972 and Winter 1973 issues.) During the 1974 season, a find was made which links the site to the goddess Tanit and the practice of child sacrifice. The Iron Age city of … Continue reading “EVIDENCE
\nOF CHILD SACRIFICE FOUND AT ZARAPATH”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}