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Tophet is a noun that refers to a place in the valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed to Moloch in the Old Testament. It can also mean hell or a place like hell. Learn more about its origin, usage and examples.
Tophet is a noun that means hell or gehenna, derived from a shrine where human sacrifices were offered to Moloch in ancient Jerusalem. Learn more about its synonyms, examples, word history, and related entries.
Tophet is a location in Jerusalem where child sacrifice was practiced in the Hebrew Bible. The term is also used to describe similar rituals in Phoenicia, Carthage, and other ancient cultures.
- Function of The Tophet
- Geographical Spread of The Tophet
- Child Sacrifice
- Archaeological Evidence
- Conclusion
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One of the rituals of the Phoenician religion was to sacrifice humans, especially children, according to ancient sources. The victims were killed by fire, although it is not clear precisely how. According to the ancient historians Clitarch and Diodorus, a hearth was set before a bronze statue of the god Baal (or El) who had outstretched arms on whi...
Although there is no archaeological evidence from Phoenicia itself of tophets, their presence in so many of its colonies across the Mediterranean attests that this cultural practice almost certainly did come from the home Phoenician cities such as Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. One of the nearest tophets to Phoenician territory was at Tell Sukas on the S...
Western Classical writers, describing little-understood eastern practices, gleefully recounted tales of child sacrifice holocausts, which gave the Phoenicians a blood-thirsty reputation throughout antiquity. Roman writers, eager to show that the defeated Carthaginians were barbaric, also exaggerated their Phoenician-inspired cults to better illustr...
Analysis of remains within the tophet at Carthage reveals that internment of urns was regular and individual, i.e. not en masse. From the 7th to 6th centuries BCE the deceased were newborn babies while those dating from the 4th century BCE were mostly up to 3 years old. There are also, right from the beginning of the tophet, burnt remains of animal...
In conclusion, it seems that the reputation of the Phoenicians, and then the Carthaginians after them, as blood-thirsty child murderers lacks substantial physical evidence to support it. That child sacrifice did occur, as it did in other ancient religions, seems without doubt. However, the position that this was done only in times of great social s...
A tophet was a sacred precinct where human and animal sacrifices and burials were made, especially of young children, in the Phoenician and Carthaginian religion. Learn about the function, geographical spread, and archaeological evidence of the tophet, and the controversy over child sacrifice in ancient sources.
- Mark Cartwright
Tophet is a biblical term for a place where human sacrifices were offered to Moloch, or for hell. Learn the etymology, synonyms, and usage of the word from various dictionaries and sources.
Tophet is a noun that refers to a place in the Old Testament where human sacrifices were offered to Moloch, or to hell in general. Learn more about its origin, synonyms, and usage examples from Collins English Dictionary.
May 22, 2024 · Tophet. (biblical) A location near Jerusalem in the valley of Gehenna where children were burned alive as sacrifice. Hell, Gehenna. Categories: English terms borrowed from Biblical Hebrew. English terms derived from Biblical Hebrew. English 2-syllable words. English terms with IPA pronunciation. English lemmas.
