Posted on 02/28/2006 11:37:16 AM PST by blam
Phoenician temple found in Sicily
Site believed to be 'unique', archaeologists say
(ANSA) - Palermo, February 28 - An ancient Phoenician temple unearthed in Sicily is "unique" in the West, the head of the Italian dig team claims.
"You have to go all the way to Amrit in Syria to find a similar one," said Lorenzo Nigro of the Rome University team.
The temple came to light last year after a portion of a lagoon surrounding the Phoenician city of Motya (present-day Mozia) was drained.
The pool began to fill up again and a fresh-water spring was found - a fact Nigro believes proves it was used as a holy place.
"The Phoenicians placed their cities on the coast near water springs, which for them meant that there was a divine presence there." Digs at the site, on the westernmost tip of Sicily near Marsala, have brought to light the ruins of a "monumental" temple including columns of a type used by the Phoenicians on Cyprus - as well as fragments of an obelisk.
"The similarity with the Temple of the Obelisks at Byblos, Lebanon, is clear," Nigro said.
Nigro believes the pool flanking the temple was used for water rituals and offerings to Baal, the Phoenician god of the sea and the underworld.
However, other Italian archaeologists do not agree with him.
"The pool is without doubt merely a dock used for repairing ships," said Sebastiano Tusa of Naples University, head of marine archaeology for the Sicilian regional government.
Motya - whose name means "wool-spinning centre" - was founded in the 8th century BC, about a century after the foundation of the most famous Phoenician colony in the ancient world, Carthage in Tunisia.
Greeks also began to colonise Sicily at the same time as Motya's foundation and conflicts broke out between Greek and Phoenician settlements. The Greek tyrant ruler of Siracusa, Dionysius I, destroyed Motya in 397 BC. Half a century later, Rome's intervention in the Greek-Carthaginian conflicts led to the Roman conquest of Sicily, which became Rome's first province.
The Phoenicians were a trading people who formed a massive commercial empire across the Mediterranean from their bases in modern-day Lebanon.
Among the Italian cities they founded is today's capital of Sicily, Palermo.
Other colonies included Cadiz and Malaga in Spain, Tangiers in Morocco and Tripoli in Libya .
GGG Ping.
Very interesting!
Interesting capital on top of the column.
How cool is that? I've only ever seen the big 3 in capital styles, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Now we have the Phoenician?
Can't wait to read more on this discovery..and the new one in Egypt as well!
They should keep digging. They just might find those missing WMDs.
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Of course, now we know that Ba'al is a Gould!
Carthage.
Ring a bell?
I notice more and more articles breathlessly announcing things we learned in high school.
The Romans also had a couple of capitals, the Tuscan, simpler than any of the Greeks and the Composite , which was sort of a convoluted Corinthian.
The Egyptians had a capital on top of their columns which may have been called Papyrus.
Yes. Deleta est Carthago.
Divine presence? Like a fresh water supply isn't a good enough reason! :)
Best Phoenician website. :)
http://www.phoenicia.org
I thought it was: Carthage dalenda est.(????)
Phoenicians were seafaring people. I would not be surprised if they went to Europe and even Australia.
The Phoenicians probably went to Britain for trade in some metals. They may also have made it to America, whether on purpose or not.
"The Phoenicians probably went to Britain for trade in some metals. They may also have made it to America, whether on purpose or not."
I agree.
Would not surprise me if Phoenicians went to America. I believe Indians have legends about those encounters. This pre-dates Columbus.
And then there’s the enigma of prehistoric mining. There are approximately 5,000 prehistoric pit mines11 of unknown age and origin found in northern Michigan that extend for about 100 miles along the south shore of Lake Superior. Also known as the Arcadian Copper Mines, this is one of the only places on Earth where copper can be found in large quantities in its raw form, as chunks and nuggets. A massive amount, anywhere from 100 million to 500 million pounds, of pure copper appears to have been extracted from these sites. There are still several copper mines functioning in the area and every one of them is located on a site that had been mined in the prehistoric past. However, there has been almost no evidence of any human habitation or settlements, nor any animal bones or human burials anywhere in the area. And yet, the technical engineering that was employed in the construction of some of the mines indicates a highly specialized and organized civilization. In addition, there have been some unusual idol-like artifacts that have been found in the region; some of these can still be found at a private museum in Marble, North Carolina.
Native Americans had no interest in the mines, besides, few aborigine tribes had much use for copper. There are several so-called "Indian" burial mounds, notably in Fall River, MA and Walkerton, IN, that when excavated in the 19th century yielded skeletal remains (up to 9 feet tall) which wore copper artifacts, including copper and/or bronze armor. Dr. Eiler, an archaeologist from Carleton College in Minnesota, has hypothesized that Near-Eastern explorers might have been in the area to mine metals. While commenting on the Indian theory as to the origins of the copper workings Charles Fort wrote: "I think that we’ve had visitors [and] that they have come here for copper, for instance."
http://www.lostartsmedia.com/mysteryofamerica.html
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