The Greeks mocked Phoenician “trinkets”. Excavations tell another story: specialised workshops blending Eastern, Egyptian and Greek models with African tastes.
Most finds come from necropolises excavated since the 19th century: grave goods reveal abundant and varied craftsmanship (Amadasi Guzzo).
12 objects shown
First cut in sandstone, then in limestone, they gain Greek-influenced motifs. The “sign of Tanit” spreads from the 5th–4th c.; once thought unique to the West, it is now also found in the Levant.
Deep wrinkles, twisted mouths, sometimes geometric patterns: these masks, probably of Levantine origin, were hung up to ward off demons.
Heavy, crowded necklaces, rings, ear and nose rings (nezem), amulet cases: an Eastern luxury that classical authors liked to mock.
For a long time, trade used ingots or barter. The first coins were struck in Sicily (Motya, Palermo) to pay mercenaries; Carthage opened its own mints only in the mid-4th c. Types: a female head inspired by Euainetos’ Syracusan coins, a horse, a palm tree (Dridi).
The Phoenician anthropoid model evolved in the West. In the 4th c., the lid bears a statue of the deceased: the “priest” blesses with his right hand, the “priestess” holds a dove; both carry an incense vessel.
Moulded busts in Egyptian style, then Greek from the 6th c., figurines with tambourines: coroplastic art spread from Africa to the Balearics. It outlived Carthage’s fall, as at the sanctuary of Thinissut (Cap Bon).
Pliny reports that the Phoenicians invented glass; above all they traded it on a large scale. A Punic signature: tiny human heads in glass paste, coloured throughout, strung on bead necklaces.
Common in tombs after the 7th c., they are linked to the purification of the dead and had a talismanic value (Lancel). From the 5th c. they were engraved with Egyptian or Aegean motifs, sometimes on both sides.
Kitchenware, oil lamps of standardised shapes, feeding bottles, “cake moulds” (Lancel), and even a model of a tabouna bread oven found in a tomb.
Mostly in the graves of women and children. Imported from Egypt or made locally, they show Bes, Horus or the wedjat eye.
Scarab bezels engraved in intaglio, often imported from Egyptian or Phoenician workshops. After the mid-4th c., humbler engravings on glass paste may point to local production.
Small carved plaques of Eastern or Egyptian inspiration; bone often replaces costlier ivory. Raw ivory found on the same sites suggests local workshops.
Few Punic buildings still stand: most of the story is read at ground level, at Kerkouane and on the slopes of Byrsa.
Wide streets, regular blocks: Kerkouane, like the “Mago” and “Hannibal” quarters of Carthage, follows an orthogonal plan. Each house is arranged around a courtyard and has its own cistern — water was a private matter.
Many hip baths have been found there. Some houses are richer, such as the peristyle house on the Rue de l’Apotropaion. For M’hamed Hassine Fantar, this is an Eastern model adapted to a Libyan substrate.
On the slope of Byrsa, a narrow entrance opens onto a long corridor leading to a courtyard with a soakaway. At the front, a room may have served as a shop; a staircase led upstairs.
Appian speaks of six-storey buildings. Archaeology confirms several levels, but not how many.
Chips of stone and marble set in red mortar: these floors, found at Kerkouane and on the south slope of Byrsa, sometimes bear the sign of Tanit.
Dated to the 3rd c. BC, they call into question the idea that mosaic was born in Greece.
“For this seafaring people, the heavenly City was the last port of call.”
François Decret, Carthage ou l’empire de la mer (1977)
The great collections are in Tunis and Carthage; others are scattered from London to Madrid, following 19th-century excavations and purchases.
Sarcophagi of the priest and priestess, jewellery, lamps, glassware, a model tabouna oven — next to the Punic quarter. (Image: the “Lady of Carthage”, a much later, late antique mosaic.)
Punic department: tophet stelae, a late 6th-c. grimacing mask, statuettes from Thinissut (Baal Hammon, lion-headed goddess), amulets and jewellery, the naiskos of Thuburbo Majus.
The Punic town itself, and a small museum displaying its finds: pottery, adornments, objects from the necropolises.
Near Eastern Antiquities: mask from Carthage (late 7th – early 6th c.), Egyptianising protomes, sarcophagi of the Rabs, bearded head in glass paste, stelae with the sign of Tanit.
The Libyco-Punic bilingual inscription from the mausoleum at Dougga, and a rich series of Carthaginian coins, including the Barcid elephant shekels.