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Draft:Sacred area of the Kothon, Motya

Coordinates: 37°51′53″N 12°27′57″E / 37.86472°N 12.46583°E / 37.86472; 12.46583
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Sacred pool of Baal
Aerial view image showing a rectangular pool
Aerial view of the sacred pool of Baal
LocationMotya (San Pantaleo island), off the coast of Sicily, Italy
Coordinates37°51′53″N 12°27′57″E / 37.86472°N 12.46583°E / 37.86472; 12.46583
Founded9th century BC
Built forCultic, part of a monumental religious complex
DemolishedDestroyed in 550 BC by Punic general Malco, and in 396 BC by Dionysius the Elder, the Despot of Syracuse
RebuiltSecond half of the 6th century BC after its destruction by the Carthaginians
Architectural style(s)Phoenician
Governing bodySuperintendence for Cultural and Environmental Heritage of Trapani
Sacred area of the Kothon, Motya is located in Sicily
Sacred area of the Kothon, Motya
Location of the sacred pool of Baal in Sicily

The Sacred area of the Kothon is a Phoenician religious PRECINCT/ sanctuary situated in the southwest of the island of Motya, Sicily.

Motya is a mediterranean island, known to be occupied since xxx,

The sanctuary comprises multiple temples and cultic installations surrounding the Sacred pool of Baal, a large rectangular man-made basin used for ritual purposes. The pool, formerly called Kothon, was believed to be an artificial harbor used as a dry dock for ship careening, until excavations revealed its religious function in connection with its surrounding temples.

The sacred area of the Kothon is delimited by a circular temenos, a sacred enclosure xxx in diameter. The temenos connects with the sea from the west and the south. The sacred pool of Baal occupies a central location within the complex and is surrounded by three temples. To the west of the pool lies the Temple of Baal, to its east, the temple of Astarte, and a third, smaller temple, is dubbed Sanctuary of the holy waters.

Motya

for pool of Baal is a large basin used for ritual purposes. The pool was a central part of a large religious complex that included multiple temples and shrines, including the grand temple of the chief Phoenician deity, the god Baal.

Due to its large size, the pool was mistaken by archeologists for a kothon, an artificial inland harbor.

History

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Historical background

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The acropolis of Motya presented evidence that the earliest settlement occurred in 2000 BC.

Phoenicians established a settlement on the island around the beginning of the eighth century BC.[1] They successfully integrated with the Elymians, the island's indigenous occupants.[2] Nigro and Spagnoli describe the effect of this integration in creating a “distinctive West Phoenician cultural identity” on Motya.[3]

The settlement, located at a strategic position at the center of the Mediterranean, developed into a flourishing Punic trading city during the seventh century BC.

Its trade network spanned Central and Western Mediterranean, resulting in conflict with Carthage. The Carthaginians, led by general Malco, attacked and sacked the island in 550 BC.[2] The city was rebuilt shortly after, complete with a massive city wall which, according to Nigro, was “one of the earliest such structures in the Central Mediterranean”.[4][5] The renewed status of the city was exemplified by the construction of monumental religious areas at the north and south sides of the island.[6]

Decline (MERGE WITH PREVIOUS)

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In 397–396 BC, the Greek despot of Syracuse Dionysius the Elder destroyed the Phoenician colony in an epic siege, leaving the island completely ruined and effectually uninhabited.[7] From the third century BCE until the seventh century CE, the sacred pool was spoliated and used as a salt evaporation pond.[8]

First excavations
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The island of Motya, which piqued scientists' interest in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, was not the subject of comprehensive research until the beginning of the twentieth century.[7]

The first ... to .... 1875 Schliemann (downloaded)[9]

Discovery

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In the early 1900s, Anglo-Sicilian ornithologist and archaeology aficionado Joseph Whitaker purchased the small island and began partial excavations, revealing a circuit of defensive walls, remains of a large public building or temple, two monumental gateways, and cemeteries.[10] He also uncovered the most distinctive of the site's features, a large rectangular basin, and a channel leading to the sea which he mistook as a causeway to access the lagoon.[11][12]

Later excavations

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In 1955 a small Oxford University expedition arrived in Motya and conducted exploratory digs.[13] Subsequent excavations were undertaken by the British Expedition at Motya under the leadership of Benedikt Isserlin between 1955 and 1970.[14] Isserlin concentrated his work on the 'cothon' in 1968, and three years later he published a synthesis of the expedition findings.[14] Isserlin revised the previous interpretation of the basin, arguing that it was a dry dock for ship repair and careening.[12]

Image of a foot carved in stone.
Carved foot of the above statue found on the edge of the sacred pool in Motya

SINCE WHEN

Excavation work was resumed by the Sapienza University of Rome and the Superintendence for Cultural and Environmental Heritage of Trapani. The Italian mission undertook extensive excavations that led to the reinterpretation of the function of the pool and its surrounding complex, and helped establish an accurate, site-wide chronology.[15][12]

Architecture and description

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it comprised, around the sacred pool, three main temples, and various other cultic constructions and installations. At the center of the pool stood a larger than life-sized statue of the foremost Phoenician deity, the god Baal. The pool's architecture and layout also suggested a sacred astronomical function.[16][12]


37 m × 52.5 m (121 ft × 172 ft) stone-lined rectangular structure rectangular, made from massive ashlar blocks.[12]

Function

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Original interpretation

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When Whitaker discovered the large basin and the channel connecting it to the sea, he misidentified it as an inland harbor, which he labeled a "Carthaginian cothon".[11][12] Whitaker borrowed the classical term “kothon” (cothon) that was used[a] to describe the man-made circular military harbor of Carthage.[17][18] This until the Scholars believed that the basin was a kothon, an ancient artificial inland ship harbor.[19]

In 1971 Isserlin published a synthesis of his expedition's findings,[14] and revised the previous interpretation of the basin, arguing that it was a dry dock for ship repair and careening.[12]

Reinterpretation of the function of the basin

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The Italian mission's most recent excavation campaigns, undertaken between 2002 and 2020, focused on the southern part of the island, particularly the large water basin.[12] These uncovered fresh evidence allowing a full reinterpretation of the function of the construction as a sacred pool of great religious importance.[20] The pool held at its center, a statue of Baal, and it may have been used for ritual ablutions.[21]

A circular temenos, discovered in 2009 confirmed the central location of the pool.[20] The temenos was 0.7 to 1.5 m (2.3 to 4.9 ft) wide and 3 m (9.8 ft) high.[22] Within the temenos, and around the pool stood three structures: a temple dedicated to the foremost Phoenician god Baal, another to his consort Astarte, and a third building located on the western side of the complex. The latter was labeled the "Sanctuary of the Holy Waters" by Lorenzo Nigro and his team, because of the cult-related and hydraulic facilities it contained.[21][22]



discovery of multiple temples surrounding the pool, and of

Further excavations between 2009

and 2021 revealed the temenos wall, 0.7–1.5m wide and 3m high, which encloses the ‘Kothon’

and the Temple of Ba’al within a circular, 118m-diameter area (Nigro 2018: 262–68, 2019a:

1650–52)

that occupied a central location within a massive religious sanctuary.

Dating

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The religious complex dates back to 550 BC, and remained in use until the island's destruction in 396 BC.[12]

How the date was known, how it was confirmed


an archaeo - astro nomical reconstruction of the sky at the time the temple was rebuilt, circa. 550 BC[23]



Location

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Map showing a small, central island
Position of Motya

Motya (Mozia modern San Pantaleo) is an island located in a shallow lagoon about 1 km (0.62 mi) or six stadia from Sicily in the Bay of Stagnone. It is framed by the Isola Lunga to the West and the Sicilian coast to the East. The island measures about 750 m × 850 m (2,460 ft × 2,790 ft), and it was joined to the mainland in ancient times by a causeway.[24][25] The island provided natural resources such as salt, fish, and fresh water, as well as a safe harbor in a strategic location between North Africa, Iberia, and Sardinia.[26]





Artifacts and finds

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.

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  • Excavations at Motya

Notes

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  1. ^ by Appian, Strabo, and Horace

Citations

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  1. ^ Isserlin 1958, p. 4.
  2. ^ a b Nigro 2022, p. 1. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNigro2022 (help)
  3. ^ Spagnoli & Nigro 2017, p. 113.
  4. ^ Nigro 2019a.
  5. ^ Nigro 2020, pp. 1–2.
  6. ^ Nigro 2022, p. 3. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNigro2022 (help)
  7. ^ a b Isserlin et al. 1958, p. 1.
  8. ^ Nigro 2022, p. 2. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNigro2022 (help)
  9. ^ Pappalardo 2018.
  10. ^ Isserlin 1958, p. 1.
  11. ^ a b Whitaker 1921, p. 185.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nigro 2022, p. 4. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNigro2022 (help)
  13. ^ Isserlin 1958, p. 2.
  14. ^ a b c Isserlin 1971.
  15. ^ Nigro 2018, p. 254.
  16. ^ Nigro 2012, p. 381–383.
  17. ^ Biffi 1999.
  18. ^ Vecchio 2004, p. 35.
  19. ^ Carayon 2005.
  20. ^ a b Nigro 2022, p. 5–6. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNigro2022 (help)
  21. ^ a b Nigro 2021, p. 149.
  22. ^ a b Nigro 2022, p. 5. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNigro2022 (help)
  23. ^ Nigro 2022, p. 11. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNigro2022 (help)
  24. ^ Diodorus Siculus xiv. 48.
  25. ^ Nigro 2022. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNigro2022 (help)
  26. ^ Spagnoli & Nigro 2017, p. 111.

References

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  • Biffi, Nicola (1999). L'Africa di Strabone. Libro 17° della Geografia. Testo italiano e latino [Strabo's Africa. 17th Book of Geography. Italian and Latin text] (in Italian). Modugno: Edizioni dal Sud. ISBN 9788875530259.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  • Carayon, Nicolas (2005-04-01). "Le cothon ou port artificiel creusé. Essai de définition" [Defining the cothon or artificially dug harbour]. Méditerranée (in French) (104): 5–13. doi:10.4000/mediterranee.1892. ISSN 0025-8296 – via Open Edition Journals.
  • Isserlin, B. S. J.; Culigan, W.; Brown, W. L.; Cutroni, Aldina Tusa (1958). "Motya: 1955: Report of the 1955 Trial Excavations at Motya near Marsala (Sicily) Undertaken by the Oxford University Archaeological Expedition to Motya". Papers of the British School at Rome. 26: 1–29. doi:10.1017/S0068246200007042. ISSN 0068-2462. JSTOR 40310595. S2CID 251374417.
  • Isserlin, B. S. J. (1971). "New light on the 'cothon' at Motya". Antiquity. 45 (179): 178–186. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00069477. ISSN 0003-598X. S2CID 160341402.
  • Isserlin, B.S.J. (1973). "Some common features in Phoenician-Punic town planning". Rivista di Studi Fenici. 1: 135–152.
  • Nigro, Lorenzo (2012). Afeiche, Anne Marie (ed.). "L'Histoire de Tyr au témoignage de l'archéologie: actes du Séminaire International, Tyr 2011" [The History of Tyre as witnessed by archaeology: proceedings of the International Seminar, Tyre 2011]. Bulletin d'Archéologie et d'Architecture Libanaises (in French). Hors-Série 8. Beirut: Lebanese Ministry of Culture, Directorate General of Antiquities: 375–384.
  • Nigro, Lorenzo (2018). "La Sapienza a Mozia 2010-2016 : il primo insediamento fenicio, l'area sacra di Baal e Astarte, il tofet, la necropoli, l'abitato, i nuovi scavi alle mura : una sintesi" [La Sapienza in Mozia 2010-2016: the first Phoenician settlement, the sacred area of Baal and Astarte, the tophet, the necropolis, the town, the new excavations on the walls: a summary]. Folia Phoenicia (in Italian). 2 (2). Fabrizio Serra Editore: 253–277. doi:10.19272/201813201038 – via Torossa.
  • Nigro, Lorenzo (2019a). "Mozia, scavi alle mura (2014-2019)" [Motya, excavations at the walls (2014-2019)]. Analysis Archaeologica (in Italian). 5. Edizioni Quasar: 21–42 – via Torossa.

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Further reading

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