Kerkouane or Kerkuane ( ar, كركوان, ''Karkwān'') is the site of an ancient

Punic The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...

city in north-eastern

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, near Cape Bon. Kerkouane was one of the most important Punic cities, with

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...

Hadrumetum Hadrumetum, also known by many variant spellings and names, was a Phoenician colony that pre-dated Carthage. It subsequently became one of the most important cities in Roman Africa before Vandal and Umayyad conquerors left it ruined. In the earl ...

(modern Sousse), and Utica. This

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n city was probably abandoned during the First Punic War ( BC) and was not rebuilt by the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

. It had existed for almost 400 years.

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

declared the Punic town of Kerkouane and its necropolis a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

in 1985, citing among other things that the remains constitute the only example of a Phoenicio-Punic city to have survived. The name Kerkouane was given to the town by archaeologists. Its name in antiquity has not been preserved in any known historical documents.

Etymology

The name Kerkouane is a Libyco-Berber toponym deriving from Berber kkerker "to wall up", it is also found in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and the Sahel region.

Excavations

Kerkouane is a small town and was probably never home to more than 1,200 people, mostly fishermen and craftsmen. Based on the presence of many

murex ''Murex'' is a genus of medium to large sized predatory tropical sea snails. These are carnivorous marine gastropod molluscs in the family Muricidae, commonly called "murexes" or "rock snails".Houart, R.; Gofas, S. (2010). Murex Linnaeus, 175 ...

shells, it would appear that the town produced purple dye, in addition to salt and ''

garum Garum is a fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment in the cuisines of Phoenicia, ancient Greece, Rome, Carthage and later Byzantium. Liquamen is a similar preparation, and at times they were synonymous. Although garum enjoyed its gre ...

'' (a food product). Excavations of the town have revealed ruins and

coins A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

from the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Around the site where the layout is clearly visible, many houses still show their walls, and the coloured clay on the facades is often still visible. The town was built on a grid with wide streets and public squares. The houses were built to a standard plan, in accordance with a sophisticated notion of town planning. Traces of

red ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

found in excavated tombs are common also to native Libyan burial customs, but the religious and architectural traditions of the town are predominantly of Carthaginian style. A

black-figure Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are ...

wine jug decorated with a scene from ''

The Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

'' found with an Ionian cup, and Greek architectural elements like

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=f ...

courtyards and stucco plaster decorations found among the remains of upscale private homes, show the town was influenced by the culture of the greater Mediterranean world. A sanctuary has some columns preserved, and in a small atrium parts of mosaics are found. Curbstones, doorsteps, thresholds, and floors of simple mosaic layers are found all over the ruins. There is an area for ritual banquets and a sacrificial altar. While archaeologists are unsure precisely which deities the temple was dedicated to, they speculate based on artifacts found at the site that it may have been Melqart, Sid and

Tanit Tanit ( Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 ''Tīnīt'') was a Punic goddess. She was the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon. Tanit is also called Tinnit. The name appears to have originated in Carthage (modern day Tunisia), though it doe ...

. Terracotta heads showing two males wearing conical hats resemble Sid and Melqart iconography known from the

Temple of Antas The Temple of Antas is an ancient Carthaginian-Roman temple in the commune of Fluminimaggiore, southern Sardinia, Italy. It is located in an area colonised by the Carthaginians and then by the Romans, attracted by its silver and lead deposits ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

References

Gallery

Kerkouane .jpg, Floor of Kerkouane Kerkouane baignoire.jpg, A bath Kerkouane salle eau.jpg, A toilet Kerkouane maisons 2.jpg, Remains of houses Hauptabwasserleitung in Kerkouane, Tunesien Januar 2015 02.JPG, View of the archeological site Buvette a musee kerkwan.jpg, Outside Kerkouane museum Kerkouane Plan du site 2.jpg, Plan of the site Kerkouane-Tamezrat photo12 كركوان- تامزراط.jpg, Remains of Tamezrat Kerkouane-Tamezrat photo2 كركوان- تامزراط.jpg, Remains of walls Kerkouane1.JPG, Remains of columns Plaque du site archéologique de Kerkouane photo2 الموقع الأثري كركوان.jpg, Sign of the site Site Archeologique de Kerkouene (13).jpg, General view of the site

External links

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Lexicorient

Kerkounane Guide
{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Tunisia Carthage World Heritage Sites in Tunisia Former populated places in Tunisia Communes of Tunisia Berber