Let's face it, archeology is a very important profession but also kind of a boring one. Even archeologists would admit that.
Still, sometimes it has some pretty neat payoffs:
Excavations at the former island-city of Motya have revealed a large sacred pool that the ancient Phoenicians used for religious purposes and to track the movements of stars, according to new research.
New research in the science journal Antiquity presents a novel interpretation of an artificial basin, known as a "kothon," on the former island city of Motya in western Sicily. The authors of the new paper, led by archaeologist Lorenzo Nigro from Sapienza University of Rome, say the structure is not a military harbor as initially believed, but a "sacred pool at the centre of a monumental sanctuary with possible astronomical functions." The discovery is shedding new light on ancient Phoenician culture and their connection to nature.
Hard to believe that at one point we were using pools to chart the stars and now we use these:
We've come a long way, baby!
The purpose of the temple itself was, ah, not as honorable as we'd like:
The pool, watched over by a statue of Ba'al, also served as a surface for observing and mapping the movement of stars, as emphasised by the alignment of structures and features positioned around the sacred enclosure.
Yeah that's not good; Baal is not exactly the most favored name in the Bible, if you remember your Old Testament.
So that's cool about the star map but I can't say I'm sorry to see the Baal temple go.
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