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Motya (Mozia)
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Unless
otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona
Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes,
but you have to acknowledge Livius. |
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The Phoenician town Motya, founded in the eighth century BCE as a commercial
center, is situated on a small island in a lagoon on the most western part
of Sicily.
It could only be reached by boat, although the inhabitants of Motya constructed
a remarkable paved road at the bottom of the lagoon, by which chariots
with large wheels could reach the town. This picture shows the island on
a map of the siege of Lilybaeum (modern Marsala) during the First
Punic War (264-241), in which the Romans conquered Sicily. At that
moment, Motya had already been eclipsed by Lilybaeum. |
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The island, locally known as San Pantaleo, seen from a boat arriving
from the east. Politically, Motya was always part of the Phoenician and
Carthaginian
world, but culturally, it was open to every civilization it traded with,
which explains a couple of objects in Egyptian style and many Greek artifacts. |
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The island is about two kilometers long and wide, and measures about
45 hectare. Today, it is hard to imagine that it was once a city, because
a Greek army, commanded by Dionysius, the tyrant
of Syracuse, sacked the city in 398 BCE (text).
The Carthaginians reoccupied the site, but from now on, Lilybaeum started
to grow rapidly. Stones and other building materials were transferred from
the old to the new town. Motya remained in use for agricultural purposes
only. |
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The Cappiddazzu sanctuary belongs to the oldest parts of the town.
First, it was a deposit for sacrificial offerings, which was overbuilt
in the second half of the seventh century, and surrounded with a wall in
c.550. There must have been a three-naved building too, which was completely
destroyed but rebuilt in the fourth century. This temple, to an unknown
deity, survived for centuries, until it was replaced by a Byzantine church.
(Satellite
photo) |
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At about the time of the construction of the wall surrounding the Cappiddazzu
sanctuary, the mid sixth-century, the town received its city walls too.
This was the age in which Greek tyrants like Phalaris
of Acragas started to build territorial states, and the construction
of defensive works must have been the logical response. This picture shows
Motya's northern city gate from the northwest... |
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And this one shows it from southwest. (And here
you see it from a satellite.) In the background is Mount Eryx
(modern Erice), where the Carthaginians venerated Melqart and a goddess
that was later identified with Aphrodite and Venus. The orientation of
this gate to the mountain is probably no coincidence. The walls surrounded
the entire island, were 2 meters thick and had square towers. |
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In front of the northern gate was a causeway, which now lies about
a meter under the sea level. The people on this photo are standing on it.
It was probably always below the waves, and flat-bottomed vessels were
able to cross the causeway. Here
you can see it on a satellite photo. |
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This picture shows the archaic necropolis,
in the northern part of the island. (Several tombstones can be seen here.)
The graveyard dates back to the eighth century; the most recent burials
were in the early fifth century. After this, people were entombed at the
mainland... |
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... like the lady in this beautiful sarcophagus, a very young woman.
The style is Greek, which again proves that the Phoenicians of Sicily were
not above employing foreign artists. The sarcophagus is now in the splendid
Museo Archeologico Regionale "Antonio Salinas" in Palermo. |
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The southeastern shore of the island. In the background, Mount Eryx
can be discerned. |
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