__NOTOC__ Bithia or Bitia was a

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n, Carthaginian, and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

town located near Chia in the extreme south of

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Most of the ruins have been submerged underwater.

History

Bithia was founded by the

ns in the 8th centuryBC as Bitan (, ,. "Palace"). It fell under Carthaginian control until the

Punic Wars The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Ancient Carthage, Carthaginian Empire during the period 264 to 146BC. Three such wars took place, involving a total of forty-three years of warfare on both land and ...

, when it became

. Punic culture survived well into the Roman period. It was abandoned in the early 7th century, when the population fled inland to escape Arab raids. In 1963, following heavy storms, some ruins of the city came to light. Still observable are the remains of a Punic temple on the island of Cardolinu, on which are also found artifacts that seem to indicate the presence of a

tophet In the Hebrew Bible, Tophet or Topheth (; ; ) is a location in Jerusalem in the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), where worshipers engaged in a ritual involving "passing a child through the fire", most likely child sacrifice. Traditionally, the sacrifice ...

. Additional remains of houses and a second temple dedicated to Bes are located at the foot of the promontory on which stands the Spanish tower called "Chia", the current name of the modern village.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * . Phoenician colonies in Italy Former populated places in Sardinia Archaeological sites in Sardinia {{Phoenicia-stub