On: Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

[lelanthran]

> There is a trove of independent historic stories and tales about child sacrifice in Carthage from Plutarch, Plato and even the Bible.

So? Historic stories and tales from a time when those things weren't written down but handed orally from generation to generation are generally far removed from the truth.

After all, even in an age where almost everything is written down we still battle to separate baseless accusations from substantiated facts.

[ffgjgf1 → lelanthran]

> things weren't written

Why do you think they weren’t written done? Carthage and many other from which we have no surviving texts were highly literate societies and there is no reason to think that Greek or Roman historians did not use those sources.

[dan-robertson → lelanthran]

The bible was initially an oral tradition but I’m pretty sure Plutarch and Plato were written down from the start.

[fastball → dan-robertson]

Yes, but Plato and Plutarch weren't eyewitnesses, they were recording the claims of others, i.e. still rooted in oral histories.

[ffgjgf1 → fastball]

Or texts written by others. I’m sure there were way more punic or greek sources written down by eyewitness than we have now (by several magnitudes)