Editing Death by burning (section)

====Ritual child sacrifice in Carthage====
{{further|Tophet|Moloch}}
[[File:Bardo National Museum tanit.jpg|left|thumb|100px|Tanit with a lion's head]]

Beginning in the early 3rd century BC, Greek and Roman writers commented on the purported institutionalized [[child sacrifice]] the North African [[Carthaginians]] are said to have performed in honour of the gods [[Baal Hammon]] and [[Tanit]]. The earliest writer, [[Cleitarchus]], is among the most explicit. He says live infants were placed in the arms of a bronze statue, the statue's hands over a brazier, so that the infant slowly rolled into the fire. As it did so, the limbs of the infant contracted and the face was distorted into a sort of laughing grimace, hence called "the act of laughing". Other, later authors such as [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Plutarch]] say the throats of the infants were generally cut before they were placed in the statue's embrace<ref>On ritual description, Plutarch, and in general, see ''Markoe'' (2000), [https://books.google.com/books?id=smPZ-ou74EwC&pg=PA132 pp. 132–136] On Diodorus, see ''Schwartz, Houghton, Macchiarelli, Bondioli'' (2010), [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009177 Skeletal remains..do not support] on phrase "the act of laughing", see ''Decker'' (2001), [http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_decker_carthrel3.htm p. 3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315024147/http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_decker_carthrel3.htm |date=15 March 2009 }}</ref> In the vicinity of ancient Carthage, large scale graveyards containing the incinerated remains of infants, typically up to the age of 3, have been found; such graves are called "tophets". However, some scholars have argued that these findings are not evidence of ''systematic'' child sacrifice, and that estimated figures of ancient natural infant mortality (with cremation afterwards and reverent separate burial) might be the real historical basis behind the hostile reporting from non-Carthaginians. A late charge of the imputed sacrifice is found by the North African bishop [[Tertullian]], who says that child sacrifices were still carried out, in secret, in the countryside at his time, 3rd century AD.<ref>'''Generally accepting''' the tradition of child sacrifice, see ''Markoe'' (2000), [https://books.google.com/books?id=smPZ-ou74EwC&pg=PA132 pp. 132–136] '''Generally skeptical''', see ''Schwartz, Houghton, Macchiarelli, Bondioli'' (2010), [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009177 Skeletal remains..do not support]</ref>