While excavating the Punic site of Mozia in July 2025, archaeologists from the University of Palermo unearthed part of an ancient Greek statue in the area of the ceramic workshop. The statue consists of a female figure carved in marble which appears to be moving forward, dressed in a chiton (sleeveless tunic), with the upper torso and head missing. It was made by an expert craftsman and measures 72 centimetres, ending with bare feet on a small pedestal. The statue was originally created in two sections, demonstrated by a cut in the stone with holes for metal pins to hold them in place. It dates from the 5 th century BC, the greatest artistic period of ancient Greece.
The find is important as it confirms the presence of valuable Greek statuary in the ancient Carthaginian city. In 1979, the Greek statue of a youth was discovered here, identified as a charioteer by his athletic stance, and described by the British Museum as “one of the most admired and celebrated of all ancient Greek or Greek-style statues that have survived”. Both these statues had been buried in the ground, probably to protect them, during the siege of the city in 397 BC by Dionysius I. These are two of the very few original Greek statues from antiquity to be found in Sicily. Most of the Greek-style artefacts to be seen today are in fact Roman copies of Greek originals which were looted by the Romans.
Mozia is the Italian name for the site of the Punic settlement which lies just off the west coast of Sicily. It is situated on a small island, called San Pantaleo, in a protected lagoon known as the Stagnone. Named Motya in ancient times, it was the principal Phoenician and Carthaginian settlement in Sicily from around 720 to 397 BC. Motya was a victim of the Carthaginian-Greek wars for in 397, in revenge for the Carthaginian destruction of Greek cities, it was captured and sacked by an army led by the Syracusan warlord, Dionysius I. It was never rebuilt, for the Carthaginians moved their base to nearby Lilybaeum (Marsala).
The island was bought in the early twentieth century by Joseph Whitaker, a member of Sicily’s British community, whose fortune came from the wine trade. Whitaker carried out extensive excavations on the island and in 1921 published an authoritative account of Motya’s history and archaeology. The island remains the property of the Whitaker Foundation.
The Mozia site gives an insight into a little-known culture as the Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians after them, left few historical records. When the Romans destroyed Carthage in 146 BC, any surviving archives were lost. As it was not built over, the site in Sicily provides a model of a Phoenician settlement which grew into a fully-fledged Carthaginian city, with its outline and remains of fortifications still intact. For archaeologists, Mozia is one of the most important Phoenician sites in the central Mediterranean. Excavations have revealed much about the inhabitants’ way of life with the findings displayed in the local museum.
The site is reached by a boat service which operates from the coast road some eight kilometres north of Marsala. It lies on unspoilt, low-lying land surrounded by the sea and recalls a thriving maritime city destroyed at its peak.
(For the full story of Mozia, see Sicily, Island of Beauty and Conflict, chapter 24, page 186).
