Replies

"The Tophet, the sacred precinct in Carthage. Here, from the eighth century B.C. until the second century B.C., mothers and fathers of Carthage buried the bones of their children sacrificed to the god Ba'al Hammon and to the goddess Tanit. By the fourth century B.C. the Tophet may have been as large as 64,800 square feet (6,000 square meters), with nine levels of burials. Archaeologists today group these levels into three periods designated Tanit l, ll, and lll."

Biblical Archaeology Review.
January/February 1984, Vol. X,#1.P-32
Biblical Archaeology Society-Washington , D.C.

"Firstborn sons and daughters were offered by Carthaginian parents as living sacrifices in times of great calamities-war, famine, drought and plague. On a moonlight night, ancient writers say, a priest placed a child mercifully killed moments earlier, on the outstretched arms of a statue of Baal. As the infant's body rolled into a flaming pit-entering the company of the gods- flutes,tambourines, and lyres drowned out the parents' cries. Later the ashes and bones were collected in a small urn and placed with thousands of others in the sacrificial precinct, or tophet, of the goddess Tanit at Carthage... Archaeologists have found evidence of human sacrifice also in Sardina and Sicily."

National Geographic Magazine
August 1974. P-166.

"Out of reverence for Kronos ( Baal), the Phoenicians, and especially the Carthaginians, whenever they seek to obtain some great favor, vow one of their children, burning it as a sacrifice to the deity, if they are especially eager to gain success...When the flames fall on the body, the limbs contract and the open mouth seems almost to be laughing, until the contracted body slips quietly into the brazier."

Source: Dr. John Currid, Archaeologist
Associate Professor of Old Testament.
Reformed Theological Seminary
5422 Clinton Ave.,
Jackson, Ms. 39056

NOTE: THIS RITUAL BURNING OF CHILDREN WAS CALLED "THE ACT OF LAUGHING."