2023 Collections Fellowship Report: Exploring Punic Religious and Social Life in Coastal Tunisia
Helen Dixon, Assistant Professor of History at East Carolina University
In the early centuries of the first millennium BCE, some Phoenicians left their homes along the Levantine coast, selected sites on nearly every Mediterranean island and coastline, and made a new life for themselves. They learned from local populations, adapting their religious and cultural practices to new environments. Carthage would become the most famous Phoenician diaspora community, but it was one of many Punic settlement sites in modern Tunisia. Thanks to the ASOR Collections Fellowship, I conducted research in archaeological collections from Utica, Carthage, Kerkouane, and Sousse that tells the stories of Levantine Phoenicians (and Sidonians in particular) as they joined existing regional networks and made their mark on coastal Tunisia.
I had planned to explore two research projects during my ten days in residence in Tunis: first, to investigate ca. 70 Carthaginian votive stelae featuring images of ships known from the infant cremation site often referred to as a “tophet.” I was also on the lookout for contemporaneous maritime images from other religious or funerary contexts to better understand these votive images. The second project was for my current book manuscript, Death in Sidon: a study of nine Carthaginian funerary stelae commissioned by men and women “of Sidon” – settlers who still identified with their Levantine city of origin. Many (but not all!) of the stelae from both projects were published in Latin in the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum (1881-1962), but the tiny thumbnail images were not sufficient to clearly make out the details of the iconography, and I was excited to see what traces of paint might remain.
When I arrived at the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP) offices in Tunis, I learned that the Carthage National Museum had just undertaken a new collections inventory, which would lead to improved photographs and perhaps a searchable catalogue in the future. Unfortunately for me, this meant specific research requests like the one I had made could not be accommodated, as the museum was mostly closed and staff time redirected. With the guidance and generosity of Dr. Imed Ben Jerbania, I was able to rethink my research plans. I focused on understanding 7th-4th c. BCE life in the Punic settlements along the Tunisian coast, visiting ongoing excavations at Utica and Carthage, archaeological parks throughout Carthage, Sousse, and Kerkouane (including both the Punic town and the necropolis), and archaeological collections in the Utica, Sousse, and Kerkouane Museums. This will allow me to offer a nuanced picture of these communities’ values, self-representation, and maritime orientation in future publications, while awaiting the reinstallation of the Carthage National Museum in 2026. I am grateful to the INP for the hospitality and assistance I received and to ASOR and East Carolina University for making these connections possible.
Friends of ASOR present the next webinar in the 2023-2024 season on January 11th at 6:00pm EST presented by Dr. Yorke Rowan, moderated by Dr. Chad Hill. During the 9th to 8th millennia BCE, climatic conditions created environments that fostered increasing cereal and pulse farming, animal husbandry, and population growth. The “Neolithic Revolution” that occurred across southwest Asia during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic was followed by a much less well-understood period, the Late (or Pottery) Neolithic. Even more obscure, the deserts and steppes beyond the Fertile Crescent were considered underpopulated and of little significance to the larger neolithization process. Through the pioneering field work of people like Alison Betts, Svend Helms and Andrew Garrard, a few structures were known in the steppes and desert of eastern Jordan, an inhospitable region of basalt cobbles and insufficient rainfall for permanent farming. However, recent field research demonstrates that areas such as the Black Desert of eastern Jordan witnessed a sharp uptick in population and building, particularly during the Late Neolithic.
New data indicates this region was much more hospitable than at present, evident in the clusters of hundreds of permanent structures and extensive chains of hunting traps known as ‘desert kites’. Other enigmatic desert features such as petroglyphs, “wheels” and paths are of unknown date and function, but attest to the recurring use of the region. Join Yorke Rowan as he presents the latest discoveries from the Black Desert of eastern Jordan.
Yorke Rowan is Research Professor in the Archaeology of the Southern Levant at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the OI) at the University of Chicago. He co-directs the NSF funded Kites in Context and the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project, both archaeological field programs in the Black Desert of eastern Jordan. In addition, he directs the Galilee Prehistory Project in northern Israel. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan and NEH Fellow at American Center for Overseas Research in Amman and the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. His most recent volumes include “The Social Archaeology of the Levant: from Prehistory to the Present” (with A. Yasur-Landau and E. Cline) and recently submitted the proofs for “Shiqmim II: The Phase II Excavations at a Chalcolithic settlement center in the Northern Negev Desert, Israel (1987-1993)” with T. E. Levy and M. M. Burton.
J.P. Dessel is the Steinfeld Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the Department of History, and an affiliated member of the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also the president of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. He earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona in 1991. He has over 40 seasons in the field working in Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and North America, and co-directed the excavations at Tell el-Wawiyat and Tell ‘Ein Zippori in the Lower Galilee. His research interests include Egypto-Canaanite relations in the fourth millennium, rural complexity in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages, and ceramic technology. Currently he is a senior staff member on the Tayinat Excavation Project in Turkey, and the Tell Abel Beit Ma’acah Excavations. When Dr. Dessel isn’t in the field, he can be found in his kitchen trying to perfect the recipe for red lentil soup, he is very close.
Sophie Vo recently graduated Emory University in May 2023 with a BS in Biology and a BA in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. Having never excavated before, she was eager to learn about the animal remains on the site and learn alongside the project’s zooarchaeologist. Afterward, Sophie continued to explore her interest in archaeology at the Brooklyn Museum in Egyptian, Classical, and Near Eastern Art. There, she utilized her excavation experience to research and examine Egyptian archaeology reports for the objects housed in the collection
ASOR, the American Society for Overseas Research, condemns in the strongest possible terms Hamas’ vicious massacre of more than a thousand innocent non-combatant Israelis on Saturday, October 7, 2023.
Trustee Nominations Committee has selected seven highly qualified members to stand for election for four open positions on the Board of Trustees. The Board sets the direction for ASOR and provides oversight for our organization. Among other responsibilities, members of the Board agree to attend two meetings each year, to participate thoughtfully in the governance process, and to contribute financially to ASOR.
