Tunisia National Archaeology, Hammamet (2024)

02/06/2023

On Sunday, June 4th, access to archaeological sites, monuments and museums will be free of charge.
Not to forget that free access to those sites is also available:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dpYE-R81xhgbehoHfUpkwbIpHN34hbGH/view?usp=sharing

✅First Sunday of every month
✅April 18: International Day for Monuments and Sites
✅May 18: International Museum Day
✅Official Holidays

Discover your history, your country and don’t miss your chance to visit museums, archaeological sites and historical monuments.
https://tunisiannationalarchaeology.blogspot.com/

31/05/2023

Once Again in this Amazing amphitheatre 🏛

25/12/2022

Une équipe de l'Institut national du patrimoine s'est lancée dans une fouille de sauvetage suite à la découverte de vestiges archéologiques de plusieurs citernes romaines susceptibles d'avoir fait partie des monuments de la ville romaine de Maxula, sous la supervision scientifique du chercheur Nizar bin Suleiman et les conseillers des conservateurs du patrimoine de Saad Zamzami et Amina Al-Ferjani. L'Institut est intervenu après le début des travaux de construction d'un complexe culturel dans l'église de Radès, et lors du creusement des fondations, des vestiges archéologiques ont été découverts spontanément, les travaux ont donc été arrêtés pour permettre l'intervention de l'Institut national du patrimoine.

20/08/2022

A Siliana la découverte d'un moulin datant de l'époque romaine :
Le chercheur et représentant de l'Institut National du Patrimoine à Siliana, Shukri Touahri, a déclaré que dans le cadre des interventions de terrain de l'Institut National du Patrimoine et de l'impact des fouilles urgentes en conséquence de fouilles aléatoires dans certains sites archéologiques de la région de Sija au sud de Siliana, un fossile datant de la période romaine et byzantine a été découvert et mis en valeur.

La découverte est représentée, selon l'équipe de recherche archéologique, dans une presse et une habitation rurale, notant que la plupart des artefacts sont constitués de poterie faite à la main, de pierres polies et de récipients en poterie de grande taille, qui ont été transférés sur le site archéologique de Pyjama, où ils seront restaurés.

Les travaux sur le site se sont poursuivis pendant trois semaines, espérant être programmés d'une excavation de décombres à une excavation programmée pour révéler le reste des fouilles d'excavation.

05/06/2022

Iraq: a 3,400-year-old city emerges from underwater.

-In northern Iraq, the dry season has brought to light the ruins of an ancient city dating from the Bronze Age, previously buried under the waters of the Mosul Dam. A race against time to excavate and document the site has just been launched by a team of Iraqi and German archaeologists, before the city disappears again under water.
More than 100 cuneiform tablets, perfectly preserved despite the decades spent under water, have also been unearthed. Dated to the Medio-Assyrian period, its antiquities are of interest to researchers who hope to discover information about the city and the beginnings of the Assyrian occupation in the region.

-The site is now submerged again by water. However, precautions have been taken to protect the excavated buildings. Hermetically sealed tarpaulins cover the remains, in order to preserve their condition until their next rise above the water level. Moreover, according to Dr. Qasim, head of the archaeological excavations, more than 500 archaeological sites have been brought out of the water due to the lowering of the water level on the eastern bank of the Tigris. These sites, still untouched, promise to be rich in history.

23/04/2022

Byzantine era Baptismal from a 4th century AD parish church outside of Tunis.
Location : Bardo Museum

21/04/2022

Triumph of Neptune standing on a chariot pulled by two sea horses (Latin_ hippocampus).
Dating : the mid-third century AD.

19/04/2022

Folio from the Blue Quran with the first three verses of the chapter Fatir, Kufic script, 31 x 41 cm.
This Blue Quran is an early Quranic manuscript written in Kufic script.Its dating, location of origin and patron are unknown and have been the subject of academic debate, though it is generally accepted that the manuscript was produced in the late 9th to mid 10th-century in either Kairouan, Tunisia or Cordoba in Umayyad Spain.

14/04/2022

Stèle en forme de signe de Tanit, (ive siècle av. J.-C.).
Tanit a Punic goddess, was the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon.

11/04/2022

Neptune and the Pirates North African Roman mosaic, dated 2nd century AD :
Panther-Dionysus scatters the pirates, who are changed to dolphins, except for Acoetes, the helmsman.
It is located in the Bardo National Museum of Tunis, Tunisia.

28/03/2022

Face reconstruction of Hannibal Barca :
(a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War) based on a bust found in Capua (Campania, Southern Italy), which is believed to have been made during his lifetime.

25/03/2022

Statue of Louis IX of France :
commonly-known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint.
He was the King of France from 1226 to 1270, and the most illustrious of the Direct Capetians. He was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the death of his father Louis VIII.
He led the Seventh Crusade to the Holy Land in 1248–50 and died on a Crusade to Tunisia on 25 August 1270.

07/03/2022

Une réserve archéologique enfouie sous Terre au Kasserine :
Un expert de l'Institut National des Antiquités a confirmé, dans une sur les ondes de Radio Mosaïque,
le vendredi dernier 4 mars 2022 que le gouvernorat de Kasserine contient une immense réserve archéologique terrée qu'elle n'a pas été encore révélée.
La même source a souligné que la faiblesse des fouilles et les capacités dédiées au soin des antiquités en Tunisie ont empêché la découverte de ces précieux monuments historiques et culturels.
Il a parlé du site de "Talabt", qui remonte aux périodes romaine et byzantine, c'est-à-dire vieux de plus de 2 000 ans, et qui contient des monuments archéologiques précieux et importants : des églises, des thermes romains et un château byzantin.
La même source a également indiqué que le site "Psyllium",remontant à l'époque romaine, contient un théâtre, une église et un arc de triomphe, qui comprend des églises historiques et un marché archéologique, souterrain.
Il a souligné que d'autres sites archéologiques à Hassi El-Farid, El-Ayoun et Sbeiba, dans l'Etat de Kasserine, contiennent également des antiquités souterraines, qui n'ont pas encore été découvertes, en raison des faibles capacités allouées à cet effet.
Le gouvernorat de Kasserine contient des centaines de sites archéologiques précieux qui s'étendent de la civilisation Capsitane (environ 10 000 ans) jusqu'à la période byzantine ; En passant par les Vandales, les Puniques et les Romains, des sites souterrains cachés, dont on n'a pas encore pris soin.

02/03/2022

Church of Blessed Antoine Neyrot in Hammamet:
The parish of Hammamet, like that of the neighbouring town of Nabeul, was created in 1884. The two parishes remain linked for a long time since that of Hammamet depends on Nabeul from 1927 to 1931 while that of Nabeul depended on Hammamet from 1933 to 1946.
The first place of worship is set up on the ground floor of a private house. In 1894, the decision was taken to build a church. If the land was quickly found thanks to the donation of a local family, it took nearly fifteen years to collect the sufficient sum for the er****on of the building. It was Father Gillan, holder of the office in 1901, who managed to raise the funds by appealing to benefactors in Canada where he was born. To complete the interior ornamentation of the building, it is in Belgium that he finds the financing.
It was destroyed in 1971 to build a Tunisian post office on its site.

27/02/2022

Carthaginian coinage:
The silver of Jenkins-Lewis Group III

23/02/2022

From our last visit to Carthage Byrsa

22/02/2022

Carthaginian coinage:
The gold of Jenkins-Lewis Group III (ca. 350-320 BC), electrum shekel.
-Obverse(picture 1): wreathed female head.
-Reverse(picture2) : Standing horse.
It is dated by stylistic parallels with the obverse design of the earlier coins in the silver Series II, suggesting a date in the 340s BC, but it might actually begin earlier. Jenkins-Lewis, Group III is absent from the Avola hoard deposited around 360 BC and must therefore post-date it. The subsequent Jenkins-Lewis Group V occurs in the Scoglitti hoard (IGCH 2185a), deposited in the 290s BC, so Group III and Group IV were probably minted between c. 350 and 310 BC. The date of the bronze is indicated by archaeological finds in the western portion of Sicily.

20/02/2022

Hercule de Massicault :
The 2.02m tall statue is made of white marble.
The statue of Hercules, known as Massicault, found at Borj El Amri, is one of the most realistic works in the Bardo National Museum: the man is standing, wearing a tunic and a lion skin on his back and on his head. He holds wheat and poppy; a Cerberus dog is at his side. He also carried a club that no longer exists.
The body is treated without relief while the face is remarkably realistic (second half of the 3rd century )

17/02/2022

Incense burner depicting Baal-Hammon AvL :
Baal Hammon, sometimes nicknamed the "African Saturn", is the central deity of the Carthaginian religion to whom the sacrifice of the molk is offered.

14/02/2022

Civil registration of Carthage :

The Carthage aedilatory inscription is a lapidary inscription in the Punic language, using the Phoenician alphabet, discovered on the archaeological site of Carthage in the 1960s and preserved in the National Museum of Carthage.
Found among elements from the Roman period, this inscription is fundamental for the knowledge of the institutions and town planning of Carthage during the Punic period ; it evokes magistrates and a whole fringe of the population, coorporations and craftsmen.
Its dating varies , according to specialists, ranging from the 4th to the 2nd-century B.C. The text evokes works carried out in the city but their exact nature is not established with certainty because of the difficulty of reading the Phoenician language and the gaps in the document.

This is the translation of the registration but it is not completed :

"Opened and made this street, in the direction of the Place de la Porte Neuve which is in the southern m[ur (?), the people of Carthage, in the year]
of the suffets Šafat and Adonibaʻal, at the time of the magistracy (?) of Adonibaʻal son of Ešmounḥillèṣ son of B[…… and of …… son of Bodmel]
qart son of Ḥanno and their colleagues. (Were) in charge of this work: ʻAbdmelqart [son of …… son of…, (as) master builder (?)];
Bodmelqart son of Baʻalḥanno son of Bodmelqart, (as) road engineer; Yeḥawwiʼélôn brother [of Bodmelqart, (as) quarry(?)]. [And all worked at it]
the merchants, the porters, the packers (?) who are in the plain of the city, the weighers of small change (?), and [those] who have neither [silver (?) nor gold ( ?) and also]
those who (have it), the gold founders, and the vase craftsmen (?) and (the personnel) of the kiln workshops, and the sandal makers (?), (all) together. And [if someone erases this inscription],
our accountants will punish this man with a fine of one thousand (shekels) of silver — 1 thousand —, in addition to [X] minas (?) [for the price of the registration (?)]

22/01/2022

Statuette en terre cuite de Baal Hammon trônant flanqué de deux Sphinxes et la tête coiffée d’une haute couronne de plumes. 1er siècle ap.J-C (Thinissut).

03/01/2022

Mosaic of Virgil and the Muses (Clio [history, on left] and Melpomene (tragedy, on right]. 8th verse of Aeneid written on the volume.
Period: Roman
Date: 3rd – 4th Century
Current Location: Bardo Museum, Tunisia
Virgil was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid
also best known for his epic poem, “The Aeneid”. Virgil (70 – 19 BC) was regarded by Romans as a national treasure. His work reflects the relief he felt as the civil war ended and the rule of Augustus began. Born a peasant, Virgil was raised on a farm before being educated in the Greek and Roman authors.

02/01/2022

Ulysses and the Sirens:
-The ship of Odysseus (Roman Ulysses) sails past the island of the Sirens. The hero is bound to the mast of his ship so as to be able to hear their song unharmed. The creatures are depicted as women with the legs and wings of birds, equipped with a variety of musical instruments.
-The mosaic is discovered in the peristyle of the “house of Ulysses and the pirates” in Dougga where the mosaic of Neptune and the pirates was also discovered. The work is dated around 260 - 268 B.C

23/12/2021

Located in the Northwestern part of Tunisia in Jendouba governorate, Bulla Regia is one of the most fascinating and well preserved Roman Sites in the country most known for its unique architecture.
Bulla Regia was first a Berber settlement; traces of a very old civilisation were found notably in large cemeteries located to the south of the site. Ceramics imported from Greece dating back to the 4th century were also found on the site. During the 3rd century BC, the city fell under the control of Carthage and became a Punic town.

03/12/2021

The Ksour Essef cuirass: discovered in 1909, Tunisia. Found in a Punic soldier's grave dated to the 3rd-2ndC BC. This cuirass could of possibly belonged to one of Hannibal's men killed by Romans at Zama, although there is no evidence for this. Now it is in the Bardo museum, Tunis.

26/11/2021

Thuburbo Majus est un site archéologique situé au nord de la Tunisie, à une soixantaine de kilomètres au sud-ouest de Tunis, près de l’actuelle ville d’El Fahs. On peut admirer ses ruines depuis les rives de l’oued Miliane à Henchir Kasbat.

Identifié au milieu du XIXe siècle, les fouilles y sont restées incomplètes malgré plusieurs campagnes qui ont livré un matériel important déposé au musée national du Bardo, notamment des mosaïques et les fragments d’une statue colossale de Jupiter.

De par ces fouilles inachevées, en dépit de vestiges importants, en particulier ceux du Capitole, une grande partie des quarante hectares du site reste à dégager.

Et pourtant, Thuburbo Majus est le troisieme plus grand site archeologique de la region de Tunis, Utique et Carthage. Ses édifices imposants comme ses mosaiques qui furent pour la plupars transportées au musée du Bardot a Tunis témoignent de l’importance de cet metropole provinciale d’origine berbere dont l’epoque de la fondation est inconnue.

La ville de Thuburbo Majus, existait avant l’arrivée des romains, elle était avant berbère puis carthaginoise. Pendant l’époque romaine, cette cité a connu une prospérité surtout en 128 quand elle reçut le statut de municipe suite à la visite de l’empereur Hadrien. Thuburbo Majus, connut un déclin au milieu du IIIe siècle avant une brillante renaissance au IVe siècle, la conduisant jusqu’à se proclamer Respublica Felix Thuburbo Majus. L’invasion vandale, au milieu du Ve siècle, mit fin à la prospérité de la ville et la ramena au rang d’une bourgade qui ne tarda pas, après la conquête arabe, à être désertée.

22/11/2021

"I will either find a way or make one."
Hannibal Barca Statue was exposed in Bardo Museum, Tunis on the 27th of May 2016. The statue is located in the Naples National Archaeological Museum, Italy.

14/11/2021

The Punic port of Carthage: Today, only the shape of these legendary ports, the coveted basis of Carthage’s power and prosperity, remains. A narrow channel linked the southern, oblong merchant port to the northern circular naval port. This arrangement meant that the military port was hidden from outside, but the Carthaginian navy could see out to sea. The military base had moorings for an incredible 220 vessels in dry docks and around the quay-lined edge. The 7-hectare commercial port was bordered by quays and warehouses.

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