Molk

The molk indicates in the Semitic world and Carthaginian the Sacrifice strapping consisted the offering of the first steps which they are newborns of the Troupeau X, of the first Fruit S of the Récolte or of the Enfant first-born.

This sacrifice can be offered to Ba' Al Hammon, or to its Parèdre Tanit, then, by substitution, with Saturn known as African .

Marcel Leglay, in his thesis African Saturn emphasizes the significance of this sacrifice and later of the process of substitution which must replace it. This sacrifice, or voluntary gift, is at the same time an insurance for the dédicants, the expression of the paternity of the divinity and a total gift or deification of sacrificed. He is composed of a sacrifice strapping and a Crémation.

The ceremony which frames the sacrifice is often the support of charges of cruelty and cruelty towards the Carthaginians on behalf of the Romains then fathers of the Église. If its seniority is attested by the Archéologie, it is however replaced by a sacrifice of substitution, indicated in Latin under the term of molchomor (ritual act par excellence of the Saturn worship).

According to Leglay, “the punic rite was not abolished after the destruction of Carthage but we also know that it was established in the population Indigène of the Africa. Archeology seems to ensure of the reality of the sacrifices of children after three centuries of Roman domination”.

The same author describes the five stages which constitute the sacrifice:

the iussus dei and the votum : the order or the divine injunction of the sacrifice
preliminaries with the sacrifice: ornamentations, ornament of the victim and procession
handing-over of the victim and its dedication
the sacrifice itself
the deposition of the remainders, or depositio , the erection of the stele and the burial of the remainders.

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