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Motya was an ancient and powerful city on San Pantaleo Island off the west coast of Sicily, in the Stagnone Lagoon between Drepanum (modern Trapani) and Lilybaeum (modern Marsala). It is within the present-day comune of Marsala, Italy.
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Motya has become known for the marble statue of the Motya Charioteer, found in 1979 and on display at the local Giuseppe Whitaker museum.
Motya is the latinization of the island's Greek name, variously written Motýa (Μοτύα) or Motýē (Μοτύη). The Greeks folk etymology the place was named for a woman named Motya whom they connected with the myths around Hercules.Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. The town's Italian language name appears as both Mozia and Mothia; its Sicilian name is Mozzia.
The island first received the name San Pantaleo in the 11th century from Basilian monks.
The confined space on which the city was built agrees with the description of Diodorus that the houses were lofty and of solid construction, with narrow streets (στενωποί) between them, which facilitated the desperate defence of the inhabitants.Diod. xiv. 48, 51. Much of the walls, with those of two gateways, can be seen whose circuit is about .
The island of Motya is owned and operated by the Whitaker Foundation (Palermo), known for . The museum has artifacts that display Ancient Egypt, Ancient Corinth, Attica, Ancient Rome, Punic and Ancient Greece influences.
The Tophet, a type of cemetery for the cremated remains of children, possibly (but not entirely proven) as sacrifice to Tanit or Baʿal Hammon is exposed. Many of the ancient residences are open to the public.
By 650 BC the settlement had grown into a busy port-city with maritime trade extending to the central and western Mediterranean. This prosperity caused rivalry with powerful Carthage nearby on the North African coast, despite their ancient common ancestry. This led to Carthage defeating and demolishing Motya in the mid-sixth century BC. Motya recovered and the population quickly rebuilt the city on a monumental scale and, after two centuries without them, built the first defensive walls, some of the earliest in the central Mediterranean.Nigro, L. 2019d. Mozia, scavi alle mura (2014–2019). Analysis Archaeologica 5: 21–42 & 298–303
Motya is first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus, ap. Stephanus of Byzantium s. v.. and Thucydides notes it among the chief colonies of the Phoenicians in Sicily at the time of the Athens expedition in 415 BC.Thuc. vi. 2. A few years later (409 BC) when the Carthaginian army under general Hannibal Mago landed at the promontory of Lilybaeum, he laid up his fleet for security in the gulf around Motya, while he advanced with his land forces along the coast to attack Selinunte.Diod. xiii. 54, 61. After the fall of the latter city, we are told that Hermocrates, the Syracusan exile, who had established himself on its ruins, laid waste the territories of Motya and Panormus. Id. xiii. 63. During the second expedition of the Carthaginians under Hamilcar (407 BC), these two harbours became the permanent stations of the Carthaginian fleet. Id. xiii. 88.
As the Greek colonies in Sicily increased in numbers and importance, the Carthaginians gradually abandoned their settlements in the east and concentrated themselves in the three principal colonies of Soluntum, Panormus (modern Palermo), and Motya.Thuc. l. c. Motya became one of the chief Carthaginian strongholds, as well as one of their most important commercial cities in Sicily due to its proximity to Carthage and its opportune situation for communication with North Africa, as well as the natural strength of its position.Diod. xiv. 47.
Dionysus garrisoned it under an officer named Biton, while his brother Leptines of Syracuse made it the base of his fleet. But the next spring (396 BC) Himilcon, the Carthaginian general, having landed at Panormus with a large force, recovered possession of Motya with comparatively little difficulty. Ibid. 55. Motya was not destined to recover its former importance for Himilcon was struck with the superior advantages of the promontory of Lilybaeum and founded a new city there to which he transferred the few remaining inhabitants of Motya.Diod. xxii. 10. p. 498.
Archaeology has shown (e.g. the House of the mosaics) that it continued to be inhabited, including by wealthy Greeks.
In 2006 archaeological digs uncovered a house built against the town's walls, the finds from which have shown that the town had a "thriving population long after it is commonly believed to have been destroyed by the Ancient Greeks." Discovered items include cooking pans, Phoenician-style vases, altars, and looms.
Its superb quality implies that it was made by a leading Greek artist in the period following their defeat of the Persians, but its style is unlike any other of this period. It is believed it must have been looted from a Greek city conquered by Carthage in 409-405 BC.
At Ieast two thirds of the ìsland were still left free for agriculture.
Although thought at one time to be a harbour, in ancient times sea level was about lower than today (which is also shown by the depth of the causeway to the island) and entry of large ships into the basin would have been impossible.
Instead it is the largest known sacred pool in the ancient Mediterranean world and the area all around the Kothon, the Temenos or temple area, was also sacred and was enclosed by a semicircular wall which has been exposed.
Next to the Kothon are three temples, the Temple of Baal, the Temple of Astarte and the "sanctuary of the Holy Waters".Nigro, Lorenzo. (2019). Rome "La Sapienza" Excavations at Motya 2007-2009: the Temple of the Kothon, the Circular Temenos, and Astarte's Shrine, Conference: La Vie, la Mort et la Religion dans l'Univers Phénicien et Punique. Actas du VIIéme congress international des études pheniciennes et puniques. Hammamet, 9-14 november 2009 Volume: VOL. III The temples of Baʿal and Astarte date to the first Phoenician settlement 800–750 BC. At this time, the site of the later Kothon was a natural spring-fed pool with a block-lined side.
The Kothon was rebuilt as a monumental pool with the rest of the city between 550 and 520 BC after the destruction of the city by the Carthaginians. The Kothon had a platform in the centre as a base for a statue of the Phoenician god Baʿal.
Only after the destruction of the city in 397/6 BC was a section of the nearby city wall dismantled and a small channel opened in the Kothon wall towards the sea. In the later Roman period (2nd to 4th c. AD) it was used for fish farming and the production of salt.Mozia tra IV e III sec. a.C. Nuovi dati dagli scavi della Sapienza, S. Tusa & C. Buccellato (ed.) La battaglia delle Egadi: atti del convegno (20–21 novembre 2015): 15–25
In 1874 the area of the North Gate was discovered where a large sculpture ornamented the double-arch passage. The city walls were revealed further by G. Whitaker at the beginnìng of the last century. Their systematic exploration started in the 1960s by the Brltish Expeditlon who focused on the North and South Gates. From 1974 to 1992 La Sapienza University of Rome carried out yearly campaigns on walls, especially along the eastern and northern shores. Four major construction phases were identified. They resumed excavation in 2002 with the identification of the West Gate and the excavation of the western fortress. Since 2015 archaeology was resumed on the walls between the East Tower and the North Gate.
On the lower level in the southwestern part of the house are 6 service rooms with three large pithoi (food storage vessels).
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