Phoenician cities and water: the role of the sacred sources in to the urban development of Motya, western Sicily

Water played a primary role in Near Eastern religious beliefs and cults. The Phoenicians, one of the foremost populations living in the Levant at the beginning of the first millennium BC, erected their cult buildings close to natural spring waters, and the water was collected inside huge sanctuaries, such as Bostan esh-Sheikh in Lebanon, Amrit in Syria, and many other sacred compounds. Moreover, the presence of fresh water has been one of the necessary conditions for the rising of a city since early urbanization. This chapter aims to present and discuss the case study of the Phoenician site of Motya, where a sacred compound, named “Temple of the Kothon” was erected close to a freshwater spring by the first settlers coming from the homeland. This highlights how the creation of this sacred area molded the later urban plan of the city. The Temple is strictly linked to an artificial basin, the so-called “Kothon,” which collects the water of the under-hearth spring. This arrangement has close similarities to some of the most important sacred compounds of the Phoenician homeland, both from an architectural and a cult point of view. After a brief introduction about the Phoenician origins of the city of Motya, the main architectural phases of the Temple of the Kothon and the principal finds will be described, and the cult installations found inside the Temple, and the role the water held in the cult, will be interpreted in light of the results of recent excavations.