New article on the subject, which has been a live issue.
I studied the Phoenicians in a seminar in college. Then, the going theory was that child sacrifice was probably Roman propaganda, but in any case could not be proven from the remains at hand. Now it seems the pendulum has swung the other way.
The lecturer quoted in the article notes: “This was not a common event, and it must have been among an elite because cremation was very expensive, and so was the ritual of burial. It may even have been seen as a philanthropic act for the good of the whole community.”
Imagine going all in for the sacrifice of a child, for the sake of the town. We only do this in slow motion nowadays, in small high-school-football-centric towns in the Midwest and South, where the boys are sacrificed to sport by CTE and the girls are sacrificed to the boys. To be fair, it’s much more civilized than the flame-pit with the bronze ramp.
(Note: comparing things you don’t like to Carthaginian child sacrifice is a very old trope and I should be ashamed.)
L.T. Patridge 