The Carthaginians had a high degree of religious syncretism, incorporating deities and practices from the many cultures they interacted with, including Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Italy; conversely, many of its cults and practices spread across the Mediterranean via trade and colonisation. Their cults attracted priests and priestesses from high ranking Carthaginian families, and the Carthaginians placed enough importance on their veneration to enlist Greek residents to ensure their rituals were conducted properly. The Carthaginians worshiped numerous gods and goddesses, each presiding over a particular theme or aspect of nature. In their treaty with Macedon in 215 BC, Carthaginian officials and generals swore an oath to both the Greek and Carthaginian gods. Like nearly all Phoenician cities and colonies, Carthage was primarily settled along the coast; evidence of settlement in the interior dates only to the late fourth century BC, several centuries after its founding. Feudal lords who were leaving England to join Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries trusted their estates and their serfs to a friend while they were away. An intelligent and efficient leader who gets the job done without much need of praise.

Surviving Punic texts indicate a very well-organized priesthood class, who were drawn mostly from the elite class and distinguished from most of the population by being clean shaven. After the Second Punic War, Hannibal promoted agriculture to help restore Carthage’s economy and pay the costly war indemnity to Rome (10,000 talents or 800,000 Roman pounds of silver), which proved successful. The Greek goddesses Demeter and Kore became prominent in the late fourth century, following the war with Syracuse, and were worshiped into the second century AD. His awakening rite may have persisted in Numidia as late as the second century AD. Sceptics contend that if Carthage’s critics were aware of such a practice, however limited, they would have been horrified by it and exaggerated its extent due to their polemical treatment of the Carthaginians. Carthaginians in the sixth and fourth centuries BC, respectively. The excavation team also found evidence of how boats and goods were moved through the city’s channels of water: the Carthaginians built quay walls that served as foundations for ship sheds used to drydock and maintain their ships. Diodorus shares an eyewitness account from the fourth century BC describing lush gardens, verdant plantations, large and luxurious estates, and a complex network of canals and irrigation channels.

Temples were also important to the economy, as they supported a large number of specialised personnel to ensure rituals were performed properly. Carthage also shipped large quantities of raisin wine, known in Latin as passum, which was popular in antiquity, including among the Romans. In the Third Punic War, the Romans identified her as Carthage’s protector. Astarte, a goddess connected with fertility, sexuality, and war, seems to have been popular in early times, but became increasingly identified through Tanit. They have tested it on a number of products. Polybius, writing of his visit during the same period, claims that a greater number and variety of livestock were raised in Carthage than anywhere else in the known world. Carthage’s North African hinterland was famed in antiquity for its fertile soil and ability to support abundant livestock and crops. The ubiquity of her symbol, and the fact that she is the only Carthaginian deity with an icon, strongly suggests she was Carthage’s paramount deity, at least in later centuries. A strong indication of agriculture’s importance to Carthage can be inferred from the fact that, of the few Carthaginian writers known to modern historians, two-the retired generals Hamilcar and Mago-concerned themselves with agriculture and agronomy.

Roman envoys visiting in the mid-second century BC, including Cato the Censor-known for his fondness for agriculture as much as for his low regard of foreign cultures-described the Carthaginian countryside as thriving with both human and animal life. Initially, the Carthaginians, like their Phoenician founders, did not heavily engage in agriculture. The Hebrew Bible mentions child sacrifice practiced by the Canaanites, ancestors of the Carthaginians, while Greek sources allege that the Phoenicians sacrificed the sons of princes during times of “grave peril”. However, archaeological evidence of human sacrifice in the Levant remains sparse. Carved stone human figures support the altars in what is left of this building. Most of them were set up over urns containing cremated human remains, placed within open-air sanctuaries. That’s the question Japanese phone maker Kyocera set out to answer when they created the Urbano Progresso, a smartphone unveiled in spring 2012. The phone does away with a traditional speaker receiver in favor of the Smart Sonic Receiver, which transmits sound directly into the bones of the inner ear using vibrations on the screen. The 443-foot observation wheel is situated along the South Bank of London’s River Thames and was the prominent landmark symbol of the August 2012 Olympic Games.