Motya

Origins

Motya was founded by Phoenicians in the late 8th century BCE on the small island of San Pantaleo, off the western tip of Sicily. Like other Phoenician sites, it chose an offshore island with sheltered anchorage close to a native hinterland, here the Elymian towns of Segesta and Eryx. It soon came within Carthage's sphere.

Rule and society

Motya was a busy port and craft centre, with dye works, potteries and a small artificial basin. A causeway linked it to the mainland, and walls with towers enclosed the island in the 6th century BCE. Its tophet, a sacred precinct for child burials, and its temples show Phoenician religion; the marble Motya Charioteer, a Greek masterpiece of about 470 BCE, was found there in 1979.

Decline and legacy

In 397 BCE Dionysius I of Syracuse besieged Motya, building a mole across the lagoon and using siege towers and catapults; the city fell after fierce street fighting. Carthage did not rebuild it and moved the survivors to Lilybaeum on the mainland. The island was bought by Joseph Whitaker, who began its excavation in the early 20th century.