Archaeology has made significant advances in the last 20 years. This can be seen by the remarkable increase in specialised literature on all archaeology-related disciplines. These advances have made ...it a science with links to many other sciences, both in the field of experimental sciences and in the use of techniques from other disciplines such as engineering. Within this last issue it is important to highlight the great advance that the use of photogrammetry has brought for archaeology. In this research, through a systematic study with bibliometric techniques, the main institutions and countries that are carrying them out and the main interests of the scientific community in archaeology related to photogrammetry have been identified. The main increase in this field has been observed since 2010, especially the contribution of UAVs that have reduced the cost of photogrammetric flights for reduced areas. The main lines of research in photogrammetry applied to archaeology are close-range photogrammetry, aerial photogrammetry (UAV), cultural heritage, excavation, cameras, GPS, laser scan, and virtual reconstruction including 3D printing.
Economic resilience of Carthage during the Punic Wars Delile, Hugo; Pleuger, Elisa; Blichert-Toft, Janne ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
05/2019, Letnik:
116, Številka:
20
Journal Article, Web Resource
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
While the Punic Wars (264–146 BC) have been the subject of numerous studies, generally focused on their most sensational aspects (major battles, techniques of warfare, geopolitical strategies, etc.), ...curiously, the exceptional economic resilience of the Carthaginians in the face of successive defeats, loss of mining territory, and the imposition of war reparations has attracted hardly any attention. Here, we address this issue using a newly developed powerful tracer in geoarchaeology, that of Pb isotopes applied to paleopollution. We measured the Pb isotopic compositions of a well-dated suite of eight deep cores taken in the Medjerda delta around the city of Utica. The data provide robust evidence of ancient lead–silver mining in Tunisia and lay out a chronology for its exploitation, which appears to follow the main periods of geopolitical instability at the time: the Greco-Punic Wars (480–307 BC) and the PunicWars (264–146 BC). During the last conflict, the data further suggest that Carthage was still able to pay indemnities and fund armies despite the loss of its traditional silver sources in the Mediterranean. This work shows that the mining of Tunisian metalliferous ores between the second half of the fourth and the beginning of the third century BC contributed to the emergence of Punic coinage and the development of the Carthaginian economy.
The new researches undertaken at Utica made it possible to better localize the production place of old African amphorae, that the last discoveries authorized their attribution to the north-eastern ...area of Northern Tunisia. Indeed, among the ceramic findings delivered by the recent excavation of a kiln built out of mud bricks according to the Phoenician tradition, and the excavation of a ceramic dump well delimited by adobe walls, are several shards of edges, handles and feet classified in this ovoid-shaped amphora type. The petrographic analysis of certain samples confirmed the homogeneity of the clay and suggests that these amphorae belong to only one same group of a local production.
According to ancient literary tradition, Utica is considered to be one of the first three Phoenician foundations in the Western Mediterranean, supposedly founded in 1101 BC by Levantines from Tyre. ...In the Phoenician and Roman periods, it was an important merchant coastal town, on a promontory facing the sea. Over the centuries Utica lost its access to the sea, and its ports silted up as a consequence of the activity of the wadi Medjerda, which flowed to the south of the city. Despite over a century of investigation by archaeologists and associated researchers, the location of the city's harbour structures from the Phoenician and Roman periods remains unknown, buried under sediments resulting from the progradation of the Medjerda. Based on the study of sedimentary cores, the research presented here highlights the existence of a long maritime façade to the north of the Utica promontory in Phoenician and Roman times. A deep-water marine environment is attested in the former bay from the 6th mill. BC and the depth of the water column along the northern façade was still 2 m around the 4th – 3rd c. BC. Another core to the east of the Kalaat El Andalous promontory showed the possibility that this sector was a sheltered harbour during the Phoenician and Roman periods. This paper illustrates the contribution of geoarchaeology to address this archaeological problem and to understand the relations of this important port city with the sea.
Le tophet de Salammbô à Carthage n’a pas cessé, depuis sa découverte en 1921, de faire l’objet d’une controverse dont on perçoit le reflet dans les différents travaux qui lui ont été consacrés. Il ...demeure dans ce sens un espace particulièrement intéressant pour l’étude de la mentalité religieuse des Carthaginois. Lieu sacré bénéficiant d’une longévité depuis l’époque archaïque jusqu’à la chute de la métropole punique, ce site présente un échantillonnage remarquablement ample de mobilier, d’in...
Les nouvelles recherches menées à Utique ont permis de parvenir à une meilleure définition du lieu de production des amphores Africaines anciennes, que les dernières découvertes ont permis ...d’attribuer à l’aire nord-occidentale de la Tunisie. En effet, parmi le matériel céramique livré par la récente fouille d’un four construit en briques selon la tradition phénicienne, et d’un dépotoir céramique bien délimité par des murs en adobes, figurent plusieurs tessons de bords, d’anses et de pieds classés dans ce type amphorique à profil ovoïde. L’analyse pétrographique de certains échantillons a confirmé l’homogénéité de la pâte, et suggère que ces amphores appartiennent à un seul groupe de production locale.
Since 2010, a team from the Tunisian Institut National du Patrimoine and the University of Oxford
1
has been investigating Utica’s monumental centre, located at the tip of the promontory on which the ...city is built (fig. 1). The range and scale of architectural elements littering this area were remarked upon by most antiquarian investigators of the site. Nathan Davis, working at the site in 1858, noted that, despite the fact that it “had been ransacked for building materials”, this part of the city was covered with “marble and granite shafts, capitals, and cornices, of every order, size, and dimension”.
2
Alfred Daux even observed that local residents referred to the largest building of the zone as the “Dar Es Sultan” (Palace of the Sultan), such was its magnificence.
3
Aerial photographs commissioned by A. Lézine in the 1950s (fig. 2) show the area at the head of the promontory almost completely robbed out during and immediately after the Second World War, giving it a rather desolate aspect.
This article clarifies aspects of the production of amphorae in the Punic tradition. Material collected from the dump of a potter’s workshop at Mnihla near Tunis comprised two main types of amphorae ...: Maña C and the type usually known as «Ancient Tripolitanian » . The presence of wasters and archaeometric analysis of selected sherds indicate local or regional production for both types.
Cet article présente une mise au point sur la production d’amphores de tradition punique. Le matériel recueilli dans un dépôt d’atelier céramique situé à Mnihla près de Tunis comporte deux principaux types amphoriques : Maña C et le type jusqu’à présent connu comme «Tripolitaine ancienne » . La présence de rebuts de cuisson et l’examen archéométrique de certains tessons favorisent l’idée d’une production locale ou régionale.
Abstract
Recent excavations, undertaken since 2014 at the sanctuary of Ba‘l Ḥammon in Carthage, have had as their objective the identification of various stratigraphic sequences that testify to ...changes in the spatial extension and chronological stratification of this precinct. The different categories of material artifacts, including urns and
stelae
, will be published with precisely dated archaeological contexts for the first time. Our stratigraphic controls will allow for a better understanding of how the sanctuary was used, including how various ritual gestures were carried out within the precinct.
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