In 2007 we found a stone head of the goddess, but it was ruined, totally eroded. The one found is now perfectly preserved, as new, with its colors and a brilliant, white, luminous face", Lorenzo Nigro, head of the team of archaeologists in Mozia, full professor of Archeology and Art History of the Ancient Near East and Phoenician-Punic archaeology.
She's a beautiful woman, then? "Beautiful", adds Nigro, who has dug far and wide across the Mediterranean, from Sicily to Lebanon, from Jordan to Egypt, and seems to have already fallen in love with her: "Astarte is a messenger of peace - he adds smiling - but she can also be vindictive, as all those who get involved in love affairs know. The face of Astarte - companion of the god Baal, the main deity of the Phoenicians, lord of marine and underground waters, god of storms and fertility - was hidden. just outside the sacred enclosure, in an easily identifiable and well protected point, in "one of the largest and most fascinating sanctuaries of the ancient Mediterranean, that of the sacred area of Kothon".
Department of Cultural Heritage of the Sicilian Region - Lorenzo Nigro, director of the archaeological mission in Mozia
The Phoenicians feared an attack from the Greeks, with whom they traded but whom they did not entirely trust. And they were right, given that in 397/6 BC Dionysius of Syracuse launched a very violent attack that destroyed the island, one of the most fascinating places in the world yesterday as today, in the center of the Marsala lagoon, where the spectacle of the sunset on the salt pans it is the backdrop to the excavations. The face of Astarte found in Motya was created more or less a hundred years earlier, between 520 BC and 480 BC, the latter being a crucial date for the birth of Greek Sicily, when the Carthaginians were defeated in the terrible and decisive battle of Himera.
The Phoenicians of Mozia knew their hours were numbered. And they knew that Carthage would not defend them. "The head was made in Selinunte or Gela, purchased from the Greeks, since in the 5th century BC the best craftsmen were the Greeks. The Phoenician society was a cosmopolitan society, where the two communities lived together, so much so that one of the inscriptions in the temple to which this head refers is in Phoenician, and names 'Astarte', and the other indicates 'Aglaia'". "The Phoenicians and the Greeks - continues Nigro, author, among other things, of two archaeological mysteries for Il Vomere editions - were rivals in trade, and between them there were clashes and wars, but in Sicily, in Mozia, there was a Greek community that had integrated. Mozia was a very open city, and precisely because of this openness it saw itself substantially abandoned by Carthage, which seemed to reproach it for this contact with the Greeks 'If you were such friends of the Greeks - I sentence' Carthage facts - well now get them!".
The people of Mozio hid Astarte in a circular pit of about one meter in diameter, next to two other objects, also in terracotta: a disk with the representation of a rosette in relief and a mold depicting a dolphin with a large naïve eye, which led to the discovery of the face. The effigy was located in the center of the stack, placed, upside down, on the ocher layer. The rosette, with traces of gilding, is one of the most widespread and popular symbols in the East and the Mediterranean.
Department of Cultural Heritage of the Sicilian Region - The sacred area of Khoton. The effigy of Astarte was just outside this one.
This "confirms to us that she is the Phoenician goddess". "The ritual of hiding is extraordinary - underlines Nigro - and we have reconstructed it: perfume was poured over the head upside down on a red ochre, then this was covered with symbolic offerings. The burial took place shortly before the final siege of Dionysius of Syracuse. This statue was in use for about eighty years, and was then buried before the enemies arrived: for us archaeologists it was lucky, because it was buried outside the sacred enclosure, in a recognizable place because there is a walled anchor which Sebastiano Tusa, on the basis of similar finds in Byblos and Ugarit, dated to around the 2nd millennium BC. It was not in the temple that was looted, one of the three in the sacred area of Khoton".
Lady of life, reproduction, love, but also of the sea and navigation, of fresh and marine waters, Astarte is a "goddess with a thousand faces", who will be at the center of an upcoming exhibition at the Sapienza museum in Rome "will reconstruct the history of this divinity from the Sumerian era, when she was called Inanna, goddess of love and revenge, and all the faces that the 'Lady' has assumed over the centuries: Isthar of the Akkadians and the Assyrians and Babylonians, Hathor and Isis of the Egyptians, Phoenician Astarte, Aphrodite but also Hera and, in some cases Demeter, for the Greeks She was a female divinity who was successful because in the prehistory of the Mediterranean there were many mother goddesses, who a at a certain point they found themselves in her, capable of descending into hell and undressing to save her beloved Baal or Adonis or Osiris and bring him back to life".
Photo by Gianclaudio Marino
License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en - Lo Stagnone di Marsala
The investigations of Nigro's team in the southernmost area of Mozia began in 2002, following the identification of a large rectangular pool 52.5 meters long: it was the center of a large sacred area, with the three major temples arranged radially along the perimeter. It is from this discovery that the hunt for Astarte began: first a headless terracotta cult statue emerged and then the head sculpted in calcarenite, heavily eroded. In a small temple, called the Tophet and dedicated to the Tanit of the Carthaginians, painted votive ostrich eggs were found, a symbol of life that continues, and numerous statuettes of faithful, made of terracotta. Finally, in the oldest temple, a pomegranate-shaped vase was found, the plant sacred to the goddess Astarte because it is very rich in seeds, a symbol of fertility. "The statues - explains Nigro - were washed in the sacred basin, where there is fresh water, a precious resource for the ships of the Phoenicians. Then they were adorned with jewels and votive offerings, a bit like our Madonnas today: In the temple we found some jewels years ago."
During the excavations, a bread mold, a loom weight, a flute made from a goat metacarpus, a bronze harpsichord, and deliberately archaic musical instruments ritually broken in half emerged in a large offering deposit. And also, a jug for pouring flavored wine and objects sacred to the goddess, used in cult actions, such as a turtle carapace bearing the inscription l-rbt, i.e. "to the Lady". "The Moziesi - concludes Nigro - use the universal language of the 5th century BC, that of Hellenized Sicily, to represent the most identifying element that exists: religious worship. They teach us the ability to assimilate and allow ourselves to be assimilated, to translate and transmit without betray, which was typical of the ancients and, in particular, of Sicily".
The wall of a Roman domus in Herculaneum was scarred
The archaeological treasure discovered in a private home on the outskirts of Rome
Operation Symes, the archaeologist: "There are still deposits today where anyone can enter and exit"
Everything changes for pensioners: the "zero worries" loan arrives
Check if you are eligible, all you need is your postcode to get started
Concessions for pensioners
Do you want to renovate your bathroom and pay only half for it?
Too much fat on the waistline? Do this before bed (watch!)
30-second evening routine that stimulates even the slowest metabolism (to lose weight while sleeping)
Pension Loan. €75,000 and above, INPS agreement
Rates in INPS agreement with minimum retirement pension of €700.
Get €9,000 in installments of €139 over 120 months - Fixed rate
In the warehouse of the future: how cloud technologies revolutionize corporate logistics
Eat this before sleeping, and you will see the first result after 7 days without any effort!
The amazing thing about miracles is that they happen. Even on ice
The Italian way for effective, secure and legal by design document management
If you have joint, knee and hip pain, read this
Innovation, efficiency and sustainability with Aruba Cloud MotoE Racing Team at the Mugello GP
Incredible! A calculator shows the value of your home instantly.
Everything changes for pensioners: the "zero worries" loan arrives
Check if you are eligible, all you need is your postcode to get started
Concessions for pensioners
Too much fat on the waistline? Do this before bed (watch!)
30-second evening routine that stimulates even the slowest metabolism (to lose weight while sleeping)
Pension Loan. €75,000 and above, INPS agreement
Rates in INPS agreement with minimum retirement pension of €700.
Pension Loan. up to 82 years of age, INPS agreement
Rates in INPS agreement with minimum retirement pension of €700.
Get €9,000 in installments of €139 over 120 months - Fixed rate
