Trittoia, or the meeting of Thassos (The)

From Genesis, Demosthenes or Homer and Xenophon, we were aware of the existence of a ritual where three animals, a sheep, a pig and an ox are sacrificed, what is called trittoia. In Thassos, an island of northern Greece, a random discovery of the remains of a pig, an ox and earlier a sheep, dated around IVth century B.C., the science of archaeozoology adds the missing piece of the puzzle: the rear partof the sheep.

The three animals were immolated, cut in half and buried in a hole in the ground, in two separated stacks. For the firs time we discover the remains of a ritual mentioned in texts which foreshadows the fate of the man who does not comply with his commitments.