Cartagine. Studi e Ricerche, 8 (2023) Rivista della Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Cartagine http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/caster/index issn 2532-1110; doi: 10.13125/caster/5532 Sezione: Saggi e Studi Articolo presentato il 23/02/2023 Accettato in data 17/07/2023 Pubblicato in data 23/10/2023 CaSteR, 8 (2023) Forbidden to Sacrifce Humans or Eat Dogs: Revisiting the Tophet Debate though a Demographic Lens Nathan L. Pilkington University of North Carolina - Wilmington, USA mail: pilkingtonn@uncw.edu cc-by-nd In the late 9 th - 7 th centuries BCE, Near Eastern colonists established new foundations throughout the Mediterranean. At certain locations in the central Mediterranean, the sett- lers, termed Phoenicians by the Greeks, constructed a burial ground for cremated infants and children shortly after the start of their new colonies, generally in the 8 th or 7 th century BCE. 1 Te most well studied of these archaic burial grounds, known as tophets from biblical analogies, have been recovered at Carthage, Sulcis (Sardinia), Tarros (Sardinia), and Mozia (Sicily). 2 Immediately after the discovery of the frst tophets, scholars inscribed the archaeo- logical data with information derived from Greco-Roman sources, a practice common in the early 20 th century, when archaeological evidence was sought to confrm or reject textual narratives. 3 One of the most persistent claims of Greco-Roman sources is that Phoenicians and Car- thaginians regularly practiced child sacrifce. As a result, reconstructions of Phoenician or Carthaginian religion often reproduce these claims. In the following, I reconsider these nar- ratives with reference to recent osteoarchaeological studies at various tophets. I illustrate that the practices recovered archaeologically at tophets bear little resemblance to the narratives of Greco-Roman sources, a position argued before but deserving restatement in light of recent historiographical developments. 4 Next, I ask whether any Phoenician colonial population 1 Quinn (2018) for a full discussion of the ethnonym. 2 For recent interpretations of archaic tophets, Orsingher (2015) and D’ Andrea, Giardino (2011). For the excavation history of all tophets in North Africa, D’ Andrea (2014). For excavations at specifc tophets, Hard- en (1937); Hurst, Stager (1978); Stager, Wolf (1984); Ennabli (1987); Ben Jerbania et al. (2020); Melchiorri (2009); Moscati (1987a); Ciasca (1971), Ciasca (1973), and Ciasca (1992). 3 For a complete historiography, D’Andrea (2018), 59-98. For recent intepretations of the tophet phenom- enon, Quinn (2012-2013) and Bonnet (2011). 4 Simonetti (1983); Moscati (1987b); Ribichini (1987); Ribichini (1990). More recently, Bonnet (2011) and Ribichini (2020). Other scholars, however, remain convinced that the archaeology of tophets and Gre- co-Roman texts cohere sufciently to continue to use the Greco-Roman sources as evidence, Xella (2009).