A major project which has reinterpreted the archaeological evidence of the Phoenician island site of Motya ( now San Pantaleo ) just off the western coast of Sicily has been making news on the Internet. What had been previously understood as a secure enclosed artificial harbour or Kothon has now been revealed as part of a sanctuary dedicated to Ba’al. This included not just temples and votive images but the sacred pool around the statue of Ba’al, which also served as an observatory of the movement of the stars.
The new interpretation is set out in Antiquity and the full article can be read online at The sacred pool of Ba'al: a reinterpretation of the ‘Kothon’ at Motya.
There are also news reports deriving from that account from Live Science at Ancient sacred pool lined with temples and altars discovered on Sicilian island and from the MailOnline at Huge artificial lake in Sicily is identified as an ancient sacred pool which sets the site in the context of the rise and fall of Carthage and the Punic Wars.
There is also a longer and more detailed article from Haaretz which looks, amongst other things at the cult of Ba’al, and which can be seen at Monumental structure in Sicily isn’t a Phoenician harbor – it’s a huge sacred pool of Baal
Wikipedia has an article about a fifth century BC statue of a charioteer found on the island in 1979 and thought to come from the sanctuary. The illustrated article can be seen at Motya Charioteer
This research shows not only that we can continue to learn about the lives of past civilisations by a close study of the surviving evidence and by interpreting it correctly. We can also discover that, when we do so, we gain an insight into the richness and complexities - physical and metaphysical - of their ways of life and thought.
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