Eaux et cultes en Phénicie à l'époque perse

The cultic use of water in Phoenicia is well documented, especially from the Persian age. It is particularly evident, for instance, in the celebrated extra-urban sanctuaries of Amrit, in Syria, and Bostan esh-Sheikh, in Lebanon, where important and articulated hydraulic systems - basins, bathtubs, pools, channels - have been brought to light, becoming in some ways the main hallmarks of the sanctuaries themselves. The main goal of the present paper is to investigate the ways in which the water supplies and use were organized, specifically with religious purposes, as well as the related symbolic dimension. Through archaeological and textual documentation, it will attempt especially to answer some fundamental questions: is water to be understood as the object and purpose of worship? Or is it to be conceived as a means and instrument of cultic actions? Or, again, are it the setting and the place chosen for the performance of rituals in the sanctuary? And, above all, to what extent is possible to separate, in practice and symbolism, these different connotations?