Plant Assemblage of the Phoenician Sacrificial Pit by the Temple of Melqart/Herakles (Motya, Sicily, Italy)

ABSTRACT

Archaeobotanical remains from the Phoenician – Punic site of Motya, set in the Marsala Lagoon in Western Sicily (Italy), were collected through flotation and sieving during the excavation campaigns of 2017–2019. Analyses focused on a sacrificial favissa, on the SW side of the Temple of Cappiddazzu, dedicated to Melqart/Herakles, where the buried remains of seven bovines were also found. Plant remains, preserved mostly by mineralisation, provide information about ritual practices. The retrieval of toxic plants to livestock (some Boraginaceae and Euphorbiaceae, and Anagallis arvensis) suggests their use to stun animals before sacrificing them. Additionally, remains referable to fruit (Vitis vinifera) and flower offerings (Verbena officinalis), as well as ornamental (Cupressus cf. sempervirens) and officinal plants (Borago officinalis) were also found.

KEYWORDS:

• Phoenicians
• temple of Cappiddazzu
• sacrificial deposit
• carpology
• poisonous plants
• Boraginaceae

Acknowledgements

This article is a product of the PeMSea Project [Prin2017] (A.3. Food traditions & food plants) funded by the Italian Ministry of Scientific Research and University. The Archaeological Expedition to Motya of Sapienza University of Rome operates in cooperation and under the aegis of the Regional Superintendence of Trapani (Sicily), and thanks to the hospitality and collaboration of G. Whitaker Foundation, Palermo. Archaeological investigations are funded by Sapienza University of Rome Special Grant for Great Excavations, and the Ministry of University and Scientific Research (PRIN 2017). Excavations in the ‘Cappiddazzu’ area were directed on the field by Pierpaolo Bigini and Sharon Sabatini. The authors would like to thank Agnese Tilia from the Herbarium of Sapienza University of Rome for providing modern samples of selected taxa.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Rome ‘La Sapienza' [grant number SA11715C7D7BF225]; Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita’ e della Ricerca [grant number PRIN 2017EYZ727].

Notes on contributors

Claudia Moricca

Claudia Moricca is a PhD student in Earth Sciences, curriculum Environment and Cultural Heritage, at Sapienza University of Rome. She is an archaeobotanist and is currently working on her project titled ‘Palaeonvironmental reconstruction of a Phoenician site: Archaeobotany at Motya (Sicily, Italy)’. She also studies plant remains from the excavation of Tell es-Sultan/Jericho, directed by Prof. Lorenzo Nigro.

Lorenzo Nigro

Lorenzo Nigro is a Professor of Near Eastern and Phoenician Punic archaeology at the Faculty of Letters, Dept. of Oriental Studies at Sapienza University of Rome. He is an archaeologist with twenty-five years of experience in the field of the Near East and the Mediterranean. Since 2002 he is the Director of Sapienza University Expedition to Motya, and of the Expedition to Palestine and Jordan (2004–2019) carrying on projects at the sites of Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho), Tell Abu Zarad (ancient Tappuah), and Bethlehem in Palestine, and Khirbet al-Batrawy and Rujum al-Jamous in Jordan. He has coordinated several programs for Cultural Heritage protection in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. His studies address pre-classical societies in the Levant and the Mediterranean, with a major focus on contextual archaeology, as well as on historical and cultural synchronisation and conceptualisation of Levantine and Mediterranean civilisations as part of human cultural heritage.

Federica Spagnoli

Federica Spagnoli is a Post-Doc researcher of Phoenician and Punic archaeology at Sapienza University of Rome. She is a senior member of the Sapienza University Expedition to Motya, and director of the Laboratory for the record and study of ceramic and non-ceramic finds. She dealt with the study of the Phoenician and indigenous material culture in colonial contexts, in order to highlight the dynamics of contact and integration between newsettlers and native population.

Sharon Sabatini

Sharon Sabatini is a PhD researcher at Sapienza University of Rome. She held a research about olive tree cultivation and olive oil production in Southern Levant during the Bronze Age. She is a senior member of the Sapienza University Expedition to Motya, where she is recorder of small finds and photographer, logistic assistant of excavations, and field co-director of the ‘Cappiddazzu’ area.

Laura Sadori

Laura Sadori is a Professor at the Department of Environmental Biology at Sapienza University of Rome. She is a palynologist and archaeobotanist who carries out palaeoecological studies, devoting herself to researches aimed at palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstructions in the Mediterranean basin. She aims to evaluate the degree of human impact and of the changes induced by climate. She cooperates with archaeologists, geologists and architects in the study of a number of Italian and foreign historical and prehistorical sites.