Exploring Past Ontologies: Bodies, Jugs and Figurines from the Phoenician-Punic Western Mediterranean

Abstract

This paper focuses on ideas of body construction in the Phoenician-Punic western Mediterranean. I concentrate on the study of ‘bottle-shaped’ terracottas and examine their connections with anthropomorphized and zoomorphic jugs and the bottle-shaped idol, a symbol engraved on the stelae of tophets. Exploring the Phoenician-Punic isomorphism between jugs, figurines and bodies introduces us to the study of the creation of a specific body world in terms of fluids: a world in which bodies were perceived as containers of liquids. I argue that this way of defining bodies is materialized in the figurines in two ways: first, via the transformation of the body into a bottle-shaped form, and second, via the emphasis on representing mouths, noses, breasts or genitalia, all parts of the body through which fluids circulate. I also examine the social and ritual contexts of the figurines and discuss issues of personhood and relational identities.