Rust Family Foundation: Archaeology Grants Program
Deconstructing the Tophet in the Neo-Punic City of Zita, Tunisia
Principal Investigator:
Jessica I. Cerezo-Roman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma
The Zita Archaeological Site at Zarzis, Tunisia is a complex urban site including a significant mound of at least 35 hectares area positioned along an ancient trade route from Carthage to Tripoli (fig.1).
The site name “Zita” is known from ancient inscriptions recovered in the nineteenth century, as well as one historical reference in the Antonine Itinerary (Cagnat et al. 1923; CIL VIII 1-8; ILAfr 12). The Latin epigraphic finds recount some of the pivotal events in Zita’s cultural history, indicating construction and renovations of the Roman forum between 40-57 CE, with the latest inscription attributed to the reign of Marcus Aurelius from 161 until 180 CE (Fantar 1973; Reinach and Babelon 1886).
Fig.1: Location of Zita in southeast Tunisia (map by Hans Barnard).
Two other Neo-Punic inscriptions recall the Phoenician character of the site, with one referring to the Carthaginian goddess Tanit in her Latinized name “(Juno) Caelestis”, and the other tantalizingly mentioning a “house of Dagon” which suggests the import of this ancient Mesopotamian god to Zita and North Africa (RES 558; Berger 1905). The major distinctive monument of Phoenician-Punic culture at Zita excavated to date is the tophet burial area.
Circumstantial evidence based on the presence of stelae, urns filled with cremated infant remains, and urns filled with cremated animal remains in Phoenician and Punic settlements in the Mediterranean have prompted archaeologists to label this type of cemetery feature as a tophet, or ritual precinct where infants were sacrificed, burned and interred (Brown 1991; Gras et al. 1989; McCarty 2013; Mosca 1975; Schwartz et al. 2010, 2017; Smith et al. 2011; Stager 1980; Stager and Wolf 1984; Xella 2009, 2013; Xella et al. 2013). Many of the arguments of whether infanticide occurred in tophets were based upon broad assumptions of infanticide, and general comparisons between the identified “tophets”. The current project seeks to contextualize tophet burials at the archaeological site of Zita, Tunisia.
Previous Work at the Site:
The tophet area at Zita is fairly large, well preserved, and has largely escaped major modifications and destruction. The zone was initially identified by the almost 600 votive stelae found on the surface just southeast of the main urban residential area (Drine 1991; Drine and Ferjaoui 1991). Preliminary ground penetrating radar analysis conducted in the summer of 2016 revealed that there are hundreds of urn burials in the area, precinct walls and a possible altar area, an unprecedented finding to date in tophet archaeology (Fenn et al. In Prep). Limited targeted excavations of this area in 2013 and 2014 (one 3x3 m and one 5x5 m trench) yielded small ceramic urns containing human remains, stelae, “libation” basins, and other offerings.
The excavations also revealed that the area was preserved throughout the Roman era, with iconography and Latinized inscriptions to ancient Semitic deities gathered from excavation and surface collection, as mentioned above (Barnard et al. 2015; Berger 1905; Kaufman 2013; Kaufman et al. 2015). Both trenches excavated in the Zita tophet reached culturally sterile geological substrata in the deepest portions of the trenches. These two test-trench excavations yielded more than 20 undisturbed urns associated with upright stelae, pit features, some containing burned bone, unguentaria, and bowls, and plastered basins (fig.2).
In summer 2015, X-radiography of 20 tophet urns was performed revealing that some of the urns were filled with burned fragments of human remains, while others did not contain any bones. With the help of these images, Cerezo-Román undertook micro-excavation of the contents of the urns for two weeks in the summer of 2016, and again for two weeks in the summer of 2017. The excavation and documentation of the urns and remains included a detailed description of excavation of each urn, accompanied by scale drawings and photographs. Careful micro-excavation of the urns allows for reconstructing how individuals were specifically placed inside the urn, the individual stages of decomposition, and if there was intentionality in the placement of the remains. Excavation and analysis of a portion of the recovered urns revealed an unprecedented level of information and dramatically expanded the picture of tophet burials, the results will be published in full in a scientific peer-review journal.
Fig.2: Several stele, urns, and vessels exposed during 2014 excavation of the tophet at Zita.
2018 Funded Research (RFF-2018-53)
Goals:
The objectives of the research proposed for winter 2018 were to conduct an osteological analysis of the remains excavated from the urns during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. An osteological analysis was needed to reveal the extent of health conditions, elucidate any evidence of trauma, and document aspects of thermal alterations. These data are critical for reconstruction of the quality of life and health conditions of the individuals at their time of death. Additional analysis and documentation of thermal alteration allowed for reconstructing how and under what conditions the individual’s body was burned on the pyre.
Methodology: Methods for the Osteological Analysis
The following data were collected for all of the cremated remains: 1) documentation of the complete human skeletal remains themselves; 2) documentation of evidence for posthumous treatment of the dead; and, 3) contextualization of these data within the archaeological context information. A variety of skeletal data were obtained for each individual analyzed.
The protocols for osteological data collection are mainly based on those of Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994), and subsequent revisions (e.g., Langley-Shirley and Jantz 2010; Scheuer and Black 2000). First, a skeletal inventory of each burial was generated. Second, age-at-death was estimated using dental development, calcification and eruption, diaphyseal length of unburned and complete long bones, and appearance and union of epiphyses in subadults, among other methods, which can provide a physiological age range at death following accepted standards (AlQahatani et al. 2010; AlQahatani et al. 2014; Buckberry and Chamberlain 2002; Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994; Cunningham et al. 2016; Osborne et al. 2004; Schaefer et al. 2009; Scheuer and Black, 2000).
Evidence of pathological conditions (Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994; Ortner 2003), and traumas on the skeletal material (e.g., Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994; Webel and Galloway 2014), were recorded when present using accepted protocols. Variables analyzed from the human skeletal material allow for examination of specific biological aspects, diseases and physiological changes observed in the body that could play an important role in the social construction of personhood and how the individuals were treated at death.
Posthumous Treatment of Bodies
The posthumous treatment of the body was analyzed using both primary and secondary data. The primary data were generated by analyzing posthumous practices performed directly or indirectly with the body by the mourners or persons in charge of the burials that are evidenced in the human skeletal remains. Secondary data were collected from archaeological reports, field notes, and micro-excavation information. Thermal alterations and body manipulation were analyzed to produce a detailed reconstruction of the posthumous practice of handling the cremated bones in the deposits These datasets allowed an analysis of how the bodies were treated in the cremation ritual and, in the case of burned and secondary burials, transformation of the person/body after death. These will later be correlated with the biological data, and the analysis will be written as a research article for publication.
Results:
The objective to conduct an osteological analysis of the remains excavated from the urns during the 2016 and 2017 seasons were accomplished, and a detailed inventory and photographic documentation of all the human remains was undertaken in December 2018 at the Zarzis Museum, Institut National du Patrimoine, Zarzis, Tunisia. These results are planned to be published in full in scientific journals and a book-length monograph.
Conclusions:
The winter 2018 study season funded by the Rust Family Foundation was the first step toward contextualizing tophet burials at the Zita archaeological site, Zarzis, Tunisia. Circumstantial evidence based on the presence of stone stelae, urns filled with cremated infant remains, and urns filled with cremated animal remains in Phoenician and Punic settlements around the Mediterranean have prompted archaeologists to label this type of cemetery feature as a tophet, or ritual precinct where infants were sacrificed, burned and interred (Brown 1991; Gras et al. 1989; McCarty 2013; Mosca 1975; Schwartz et al. 2010, 2017; Smith et al. 2011; Stager 1980; Stager and Wolf 1984; Xella 2009, 2013; Xella et al. 2013).
Many of the arguments of whether infanticide occurred in tophets were based upon broad assumptions of infanticide based on historic text and general comparisons between cemeteries identified as “tophets”.
A final report of these excavations with precise dates, analysis data and results, and interpretations currently is in preparation for publication as a monograph.
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eology. Smithsonian Institution, Taraxacum, Washington.
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