open on the world

mÍY.C

Í&&«'fl

December 1970 (23rd year) - U.K.: 27-stg - Canada: 40 cents - France: 1

W^'i

Kï&.-ty

H

w

CARTHAGE

MUST NOT

BE DESTROYED

.

-w**

I .i?:;;-''.""

MSM

<Jr

.*>

*> /

i^h

,««

TREASURES

OF

WORLD ART

China

Celestial musicians

Detail of a painting from one of the 469 Buddhist cave chapels hewn from the rock at Tun-huang in the GobiDesert of Central Asia. A composition dating from the 7th-8th century T'ang period in China, it depicts a groupof celestial musicians. "The overwhelming impression of T'ang painting at Tun-huang," writes Anil de Silvain Chinese Landscape Painting in the Caves of Tun-huang (Methuen, London; Crown Publishers,New York, 1967), "is its strength and powerful vitality. ..In these murals the brush strokes seem charged witha dynamic life of their own." Founded in the 4th century A.D., the Tun-huang cave complex at one timenumbering over a thousand grottoes became a centre of Buddhist learning in China and the repository of anunbroken tradition of 1,500 years of Chinese painting. Detail is from a work in the National Palace Museum,Taipei (Republic of China).

CourierDECEMBER 1970

23RD YEAR

PUBLISHED IN 13 EDITIONS

English JapaneseFrench Italian

Spanish HindiRussian Tamil

German Hebrew

Arabic Persian

U.S.A.

Published monthly by UNESCO

The United Nations

Educational, Scientific

and Cultural Organization

Sales and Distribution Offices

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, Paris-7"

Annual subscription rates: 20/-stg.; $4.00(Canada): 12 French francs or equivalent:2 years : 36/-stg. : 22 F. Single copies : 2/-stg. ;40 cents ; 1 .20 F.

The UNESCO COURIER is published monthly, exceptin August and September when it is bi-monthly (11 issues a/ear) in English, French. Spanish, Russian, German Arabic,Japanese, Italian, Hindi, Tamil, Hebrew and Persian. In the

United Kingdom it is distributed by H.M. Stationery Office,P.O. Box 569, London, S.E.I.

Individual articles and photographs not copyrighted maybe reprinted providing the credit line reads "Reprinted fromthe UNESCO COURIER", plus date of issue, and three

voucher copies are sent to the editor. Signed articles re¬printed must bear author's name. Non-copyright photoswill be supplied on request Unsolicited manuscripts cannotbe returned unless accompanied by an internationalreply coupon covering postage. Signed articles express theopinions of the authors and do not necessarily representthe opinions of UNESCO or those of the editors of theUNESCO COURIER.

The Unesco Courier is Indexed monthly in The Read¬ers' Guide to Periodical Literature, published byH. W. Wilson Co., New York, and in Current Con¬

tenta - Education, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

Editorial Office

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy Pans-7», France

Editor-in-Chief

Sandy Koffler

Assistant Editor-in-Chief

René Caloz

Assistant to the Editor-in-ChiefLucio Attinelli

Managing Editors

English Edition: Ronald Fenton (Paris)French Edition: Jane Albert Hesse (Paris)Spanish Edition: Francisco Fernández-Santos (Paris)Russian Edition : Georgi Stetsenko (Paris)German Edition: Hans Rieben (Berne)Arabic Edition: Abdel Moneim El Sawi (Cairo)Japanese Edition : Takao Uchida (Tokyo)Italian Edition: Maria Remiddi (Rome)Hindi Edition: Kartar Singh Duggal (Delhi)Tamil Edition : T.P. Meenakshi Sundaran (Madras)Hebrew Edition: Alexander Peli (Jerusalem)Persian Edition: Fereydoun Ardalan (Teheran)Assistant Editors

Page

14

17

21

29

34

45

46

English Edition:

French Edition

Howard BrabynNino Frank

Photo Editor: Olga Rodel

Layout and Design : Robert Jacquemin/// correspondence should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief

CARTHAGE MUST NOT BE DESTROYED

By Jellal El Kafi

GRANDEUR AND DECLINE

OF THE PUNIC CITY-STATE

By Hedi Slim

THE ADVENTURES OF HANNO

THE NAVIGATOR

EIGHT CENTURIES

OF CARTHAGINIAN CIVILIZATION

By Gilbert-Charles Picard

TWELVE PAGES IN FULL COLOUR

CARTHAGE THROUGH THE EYESOF GREECE AND ROME

By Mhamed Fantar

TUNISA JEWEL OF ISLAM

By Georges Fradier

JEAN PERRIN

A pioneer of modern physics

By Pierre Auger

UNESCO NEWSROOM

TREASURES OF WORLD ART

Celestial musicians (China)

Cover

This little masterpiece of Punic artgraces the handle of a bronze ewerunearthed from a Carthaginian tomb.The object is believed to date from the5th or 6th century B.C. whenCarthage was at the height of itsgreatness and glory.

Bardo Museum. TunisPhoto Luc Joubert © Archaeologia Viva

If there is one symbol that typifies Carthage,it is certainly the so-called "sign of Tanit",which has received a host of interpretationsdown the centuries. Originally, the signof Tanit was a trapezium crowned by ahorizontal line with a circle above it.

Later the trapezium became a simple isoscelestriangle. One variant is shown on right.A crescent moon and sun were often

depicted above it. Tanit was the femaleconsort of Ba'al Hammon, a leading deityof ancient Carthage. She was thegoddess of fertility and protector of the dead.She may also be symbolized on miniatureobelisk (centre photo) of 4th century B.C.Breasts symbolizing fertility surmountlunar and solar emblems. Other Tanit

motifs are published on page 40. Right,"nezem" (nose-ring) terracotta mask usedin religious ceremonies (6th-7th centuryB.C.). Eye pupils and lashes werepainted black and the face bright red. Inancient Carthage, men as well as womenwore nose-rings. Other masks with grimacingdemon faces were worn by cult dancers(see colour photo page 24).

t,

V

Photo Georges Viol Ion© Rapho, Paris

4

Two thousand years ago the Roman

Senate rang with Marcus Porcius

Cato's fanatical cry " Delenda est

Carthago " (Carthage must be

destroyed). Not long thereafter the

Roman legions sacked the Punic

capital and razed it to the ground.

Today, on the shores of the

Mediterranean, only a few miles from

Tunis, the remains of ancient

Carthage and the lovely Medina of

Tunis itself are threatened by a newmenace : submersion and destruction

in a sea of urban concrete. Unesco

and the Tunisian Government are

facing the challenge and have just

embarked on an ambitious programme

for the safeguard and development

of the Carthage-Tunis region. It

is to the story of Carthage's glorious

past and the cultural legacy that theMedina represents that this issue ofthe " Unesco Courier "is devoted.

CARTHAGE

MUST NOT

BE DESTROYED

by Jellal El Kafi

JELLAL EL KAFI of Tunisia is co-director of the project for the developmentof the Tunis-Carthage region (Unesco and U.N. Development ProgrammeSpecial Fund). A specialist in urban planning, he is director of the Asso¬ciation for the Protection of the Tunis Medina, and has written numerous

studies and articles on the problems involved in preserving the Medina.

i

mmtmmmÊm

ho

Ji

Vh

IN the history of Tunisia

an ancient crossroads of civilizations

in the Mediterranean world Carthageis one of the peaks rising from a cul¬tural landscape that stretches backover several thousand years. Yet wewho live in Carthage have seen thestart and now watch the advance of a

process that threatens to destroy thecity and its site, so that one dayCarthage may be no more than amemory.

The plight of Carthage is not unique.In all parts of the world, dozens ofancient sites and cities seem doomed

to disappear. These irreplaceabletreasures of man's cultural heritagedemand to be reprieved, to be savedfrom obliteration by the tentacularspread of cities and industries.

This is something that all of us musthave realized, whether we have stud¬ied the problems of urban develop¬ment or whether one day we simplynoticed that the trees in a familiar

square had been chopped down tomake way for a car park.

The damage we are doing to ourenvironment has become a world-wide

issue. Each day we read of newacts of violence against nature, andeveryone who witnesses this continu

ing process of destruction, whetherscientist or layman, feels a senseof personal injury and loss from thesedepredations.

Yet the defacement of sites of natu¬

ral beauty and the blotting out of his¬torical and archaeological remainsseems to go on unabated, until publicopinion finally comes to accept theprocess of deterioration that accompa¬nies the spread of cities. This passiveresignation leads us to hand overarchaeological sites to be exploited bythe kind of uncontrolled urban develop¬ment that quickly covers them with achaotic sprawl of houses and hotels.

The effects of this destruction are

everywhere apparent, yet public opin¬ion seems to assent to this urban and

industrial aggression, which ends byradically modifying man's relationshipto his natural environment and effacingthe vestiges of his historic past.

Today, the city of Carthage and thesurrounding area is reduced to littlemore than a handful of scattered ruins,fast disappearing, and a countrysidemarred by unattractive buildings. Theancient Punic ports still reflect thegrandeur of the Carthage of old, butfuture generations may find no traceof the Punic and Roman towns, buried

Photos Luc Joubert © Archaeologla Viva, Paris

as they seem likely to be under thebricks and mortar of a modern housingcomplex.

Not long ago, when the temples ofAbu Simbel in Nubia were threatened

by the waters of the Nile, Unesco'sDirector-General, René Maheu, declar¬ed that it was inconceivable that the

men of today should fail to preserve,for themselves and for posterity, theheritage handed down by their ances¬tors. Unesco launched an international

campaign and Abu Simbel was saved.

But what of Carthage, another trea¬sure of man's cultural heritage, whoseimportance in the history of Tunis andto our knowledge of the early Medi¬terranean world is recalled in this

issue of the "Unesco Courier"?

And how is Carthage to be saved?This is a question which the Tunisiangovernment and Unesco, co-operatingin the Tunis-Carthage project, aretrying to answer. They have begunby systematically surveying the pre¬sent state of sites and monuments

prior to drawing up a plan of restorat¬ion and conservation.

In cultural rescue operations, whe¬ther the site is Venice threatened byfloodwaters or the Tunis Medina faced

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

5

CARTHAGE MUST NOT BE DESTROYED (Continued)

From Tunis to the walls of Carthage

the spectrum of concrete

with the pressures of urban expansion,the basic problems are identical, andthe methods and scope of conserva¬tion vary only in relation to the resour¬ces available.

Damage to the environment seemsmost often to result from rapid growthwhich state or local authorities have

failed to meet with a coherent policyof urban planning. Whatever the site,the same problems arise: a populationexplosion that sets off uncheckedurban expansion; the chaotic anduncontrolled use of land by industry;the relentless spread of road networks.

There are, of course, other problemsmore specific to buildings and monu¬ments such as stone decay and disea¬ses of wood aggravated by theeffects of time and weather. But stone

can better withstand the aging pro¬cess than the lack of planning for itscare, or even worse, laws that pros

cribe any kind of development at all,good or bad.

Carthage is a typical example. Pho¬tographs taken at the beginning ofthe century show the Punic ports inunspoilt surroundings flanked byprotective ramparts of land. Today, ahaphazard sprawl of roads and housesencircles the two basins which form a

site that any promoter or hotel con¬structor would be eager to convertinto a tourist centre.

It would be absurd to reject outrightany form of tourist development. Butit would be tragic if the remarkablecomplex formed by the Punic portsshould end up as a site for tourist res¬taurants and bungalows, especiallywhen due to lack of funds, archaeolo¬gical research on the site is nowherenear complete.

The remarkable remains of a civili¬

zation which left its imprint on the

soil of Tunisia thousands of years agoare too important to be merely record¬ed in books. They should be studiedscientifically and above all protected sothat future generations may continuethe research. For this, a coherentprogramme of archaelogical studies isneeded together with regulations forthe work of excavation and an ade¬

quate budget.

But when it comes to deciding whichresearch methods to use we face a

serious problem. Isolated research,undertaken without a methodical planof campaign, has often led to amateu¬rish efforts and produced pitiful results.It is better for a site to remain pro¬tected by its covering of earth thanfor it to undergo piecemeal dissection.

We have the example of Punic andRoman objects found on sites in Tuni¬sia. Some, although widely dispersed,are safely housed in local museums or

Photo © Archaeologia Viva, Paris Photo © André Martin, Pari!

Right, ruined splendoursof Roman Carthage.These columns, carvingsand truncated walls are

the remains of a palatialvilla built at the start of

the 3rd century A.D. in thecolony founded by Romeafter its destruction of

Carthage in 146 B.C.

in those of Europe and elsewhere.But others have passed into the handsof antique dealers or, worse still, oftraders to whom the tourist, as if guid¬ed by some sixth sense, goes to buyhis "souvenirs".

In this way, objects of archaeologi¬cal interest have acquired a commer¬cial value to the detriment of theirimportance as sources for historic and

ethnographic studies. All along theTunisian coast, punie stelae, tear-bottles and Roman pottery can be hadfor the asking at a price.

Here we see the failure of an out-

Master shipbuilders, the Carthaginianswere no less skilful port engineers.To house their vast fleet of merchant

ships and the galleys that protectedthem, they built two ports at Carthage.Their military port still retains itsoriginal circular shape (photo left).Two hundred and twenty ships couldanchor in its waters. Connectingit to the outer commercial portwas a narrow channel that could be

blocked by massive chains whendanger threatened. From the island atthe centre, the Carthaginian Admiraltypassed its orders to the ships bytrumpet calls or signals flashed bymirrors reflecting the sun's rays.Today, houses of the small town ofLe Kram cover the peninsula thatruns southwards away from the port.At top right is the Tunis Lake, cut offfrom the open sea by a long causewaythat stretches to Tunis (just out ofsight on top right). Air photo (far left)shows entire Carthage area almostcompletely covered with modernbuildings. Lagoon below circular portat Salammbô is presumed site offormer commercial port. Left of placename "Carthage" is the Hill of Byrsa,the acropolis of ancient Carthage,on which the city was born.

moded archaeological method that hasall the appearance of a treasure hunt,concerned primarily with the search forartefacts and often far removed from

any real interest in the ancient cityitself. Once the thesis has been pub¬lished and the artefacts are stored in

a museum, what does it matter whathappens to the excavation site, leftunprotected and in disorder?

Despoiled of its treasures and aban¬doned, Carthage is finding it hard toresist the pressures of urban develop¬ment. The conflict between the needs

of the archaeological zone and thoseof urban space is everywhere apparent.Not a month goes by without the foun¬dations of a new building being laidon an archaeological site that is ofessential interest to the study of theancient city.

By the early 1930s, Tunis was begin¬ning to break out from its city bounda¬ries. The spread to the coastal areabegan, soon to be followed by en¬croachment on the site of Carthageitself which became dotted with villas

and bungalows.

It is now clear that the problem ofurban development is even more acutethan that of the archaeological sites,although the two are closely linked,and that If the Tunis-Carthage projectis to work effectively, the deteriorationthroughout the area has to be studiedand priorities established.

Unless a plan of integrated develop¬ment is adopted, the present encroach¬ment on archaeological, historic andnatural sites will result in their total

destruction by about 1985. Carthage,the Tunis Medina, the picturesque areaof Sidi bou Said and the hills, dunesand olive groves of the Tunisian coast¬line will have been irreparably spoiltby an urban sprawl sparked off bypopulation pressure.

By 1985, the population of Tuniswill number between 1,600,000 and

2,000,000at least twice the presentfigure. By that time, the coastal areawill have become a landscape of brickand concrete in the midst of which the

archaeological site will occupy a tinyplace devoid of all interest. In thatcase it would perhaps be better if itdisappeared completely.

Moreover, the disappearance of thearchaeological zone would have aserious effect on the Tunis area. Cen¬

tralization would increase to a dangerpoint whilst the surrounding countrywould be defaced by haphazard spreadof new suburbs, and the exhaustingdaily round of commuting would be¬come part of the Tunis way of life.

An archaeological zone or greenspace would do much to maintain anequilibrium in the city and in its envi¬ronment. The dangers of the megalo¬polis and the monotony of endlessrows of concrete blocks have been

described too often by town plannersfor us to be excused for failing to heedtheir warning. Open spaces andarchaeological sites should be preserv¬ed and harmoniously integrated withthe Tunis urban complex, so as tobring the values of nature and historyinto its daily life.

Integration of the archaeologicalzone into the urban area may, at firstsight, seem of secondary importanceto the urgent task of economic de¬velopment. But the zone constitutesa powerful tourist attraction and its im¬provement can be fully justified as afactor in economic development aswell as on purely cultural grounds.

Indeed, abandon of the Carthagesite would have the effect of hamper¬ing economic development, since tour¬ism, which brings the country muchneeded foreign currency, would in allprobability decline.

Within this framework of integrateddevelopment, the Tunis-Carthage pro¬ject proposes a plan for the organi-

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

7

The first coins made in

Carthage were struck earlyin the 4th century B.C. whena mint was set up on Byrsa Hill.Left, a war horse, the martialemblem of Carthage on a 3rdcentury B.C. coin. Above thehorse is a solar disc with two

stylized representations of thesacred asp. Known as a uraeus,it often served ancient rulers

as a symbol of sovereignty.

The great Punic maritimetraditions live on in

this fragment of a mosaic(right) decorating arainwater cistern in a 3rd

century Roman villa not farfrom Tunis. As two fishermen

draw in their net, a thirdhurls a spear at an octopus.Mosaic and coin (left)are both from the Bardo

Museum, Tunis.

Photo © Pierro Mele, Paris

CARTHAGE MUST NOT BE DESTROYED (Continued)

8

zation of the area which takes into

account:

The archaeological and historiczones (Carthage and the Tunis Me¬dina),

The hotel development required forthe promotion of cultural tourism,

Population pressure and the irre¬versible process of rapid urbanexpansion.

These three factors are inseparable;it would be meaningless to tackle onewithout the others. If we accept thatsaturation of the site is likely to bereached in 1985, we might just aswell plan for systematically structuredurban unit developments which wouldinclude archaeological sites and openspaces, both as an aid to economicdevelopment and to give balance tothe area.

The Tunis-Carthage project's fore¬cast of population distribution in 1985is:

Tunis 1,300,000 inhabitants,

Northern coastal area220,000,

Southern coastal area 170,000,

a total capacity of 1,690,000 inha¬bitants in 1985.

In the Tunis urban unit, a policy ofre-vitalization would restore to the

Medina its rightful role as city centreand focus of activity. The division

between the "colonial town" and the

"Arab quarter" would disappear andthe spread of "shanty-town" dwellingswould be halted and reversed.

In the northern coastal area, the .development of the archaeologicalzone accompanied by controlled andorganized urban growth, could wellhave favourable economic results pro¬vided that the archaeological remainscan be combined with a historical evo¬

cation of Carthage in such a way asto present a coherent whole.

The southern coastal urban area,

adjoining the industrial zone, wouldstretch out towards the magnificentbeaches of Cap Bon, linking Tuniswith the vast tourist facilities the coun¬

try possesses.

In contrast to these natural tourist

attractions, Tunis itself would offerthe visitor cultural interest in an urban

setting.

Cultural resources can be looked

upon as consumer goods or as rawmaterials whose development justifiescapital investment. Profits accrueboth directly, in the tourist economysector, and indirectly, in the sideeffects on urban development.

Thus although the re-establishmentof the Tunis-Carthage heritage ofmonuments is intended primarily toencourage economic development, thisapproach is the only one which can

provide an answer to the archaeolo¬gical problem of saving Carthage andensuring continued research on thePunic and Roman cities.

Even now measures can be taken

to protect the archaeological zonewhile waiting for more extensiveresearch to begin. Some sites canbe classified as temporarily or per¬manently barred to builders and otherslisted as requiring restrictive develop¬ment. As soon as funds become

available, a systematic, overall plan ofresearch relating to the variousperiods of the city's history woulddetermine which sites were of real

archaeological value and thus allowthe others to be released for building.

This brief survey gives some ideaof the task facing the internationalteam of experts and their Tunisiancounterparts who are attempting toanalyse the process of deterioration ofthe archaeological site, Carthage, andthe historic town, the Tunis Medina.

Their proposals for Integrated deve¬lopment can, however, only become areality when an international campaignhas provided the funds required forthe work of excavation, conservationand development.

Unesco's co-operation, at therequest of the Tunisian Government,will be a decisive' factor in the rescue

of Carthage.

Grandeur & decline

of the Punic city-stateby Hedi Slim

THE rise of Carthage as a

maritime power is the most illustriousepisode of Phoenicia's imperial ven¬ture in the western Mediterranean.

By the end of the second milleniumB.C., the Phoenicians had already wona place in history by their invention ofthe alphabet and their vigorous promo¬tion of navigation and internationaltrade. They then began to explore theNorth African coastline, and pressedon to the heart of the legendary realmof Tartessos, of fabulous wealth, insouthern Spain. Before long the routefollowed by these intrepid explorerswas studded with trading posts.

Utica was the first Phoenician settle¬ment in Tunisia, founded in 1101 B.C.:

Carthage came into being threecenturies later, in 814 B.C. Its royalorigin, the events that led to itscreation, and the very meaning of itsname (new town or capital) all seemedto point towards a glorious future.

For many years, it is true, Carthageacknowledged the prior claims of Tyreand Utica, only to supplant them whenthe time was ripe. It owed itsascendancy to its own vigorous expan¬sion, aided by the disasters that rockedPhoenicia and the East.

Tyre eluded the grasp of Babylononly to fall under the sway of Persia,and Carthage then took the place ofits ill-fated parent city as capital ofthe empire.

Carthage occupied a privilegedsituation at the heart of the Medi¬terranean world, and had inherited theTyrian sea-going and trading traditions,backed by a vast empire with a chainof trading posts. It was thus able to

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

HEDI SLIM Is a noted Tunisian archaeologist.He is assistant-director of the National Insti¬tute of Archaeology and the Arts, Tunis,and director of archaeological studies atthe Roman site of El Jem in Tunisia. Hehas written a number of studies on exca¬vations at this site and has published manyarticles on Tunisia and its civilization. Heis the author of "La Tunisie, des originesà la conquête romaine" (Tunisia, from theorigins to the Roman conquest) in "L'Anti¬quité", volume I of a history of Tunisiapublished in 1969 by the Société Tunisiennede Diffusion, Tunis.

9

GRANDEUR AND DECLINE (Continued)

A flourishing trade across the Mediterranean

10

give fresh impetus to Phoenicianexpansion in the western Medi¬terranean, and itself evolved into a

formidable power able to play aleading part on the political stage, andeven to influence the destiny of theworld.

Carthage's first concern was toorganize the considerable empirebequeathed to it. It seems to havehad no great difficulty in getting itsleadership accepted by the variousPhoenician cities of the West, which

agreed to surrender a large part oftheir sovereignty in return for thecapital's vital protection from theavaricious designs of its many Medi¬terranean rivals.

The second step was to enlarge thebounds of the empire, after consolid¬ating its position in Sicily.

From Motya, the Carthaginian forcesmoved north under the command of

General Malchus to subdue the local

population of Mount Eryx and occupythe sites of Segesta, Palermo andSolonto. They reached Himera andSelinus, on the border of Greek Sicily.

Carthage then turned its attention toSardinia, where it obtained a footholdin the 6th century B.C.; the cities ofNora Tharros and Caralis formed the

bridgeheads for a victorious expeditioninland. The island still retains manyvestiges of the Punic civilization whichflourished for centuries on its soil.

About the same period, Carthageset about consolidating its positionfarther to the West. Two Phoenician

cities already existed at Lixus inMorocco and Gadès (now Cadiz) inSpain; a new colony was establishedat Ibiza in the Balearics.

Thus, towards the end of the

6th century B.C., Carthage had suzer¬ainty over all the Phoenician coloniesin North Africa, from Tripohtania tothe Atlantic, and over sizeable areasof Sicily, Sardinia, Spain and theBalearic Isles.

Thanks to its empire, Carthagebecame the wealthiest city-state in thewestern Mediterranean. A treaty ofalliance with the Etruscans, then apowerful nation, consolidated its posi¬tion. When their common enemy theGreeks came on the scene, the tiesbetween the two allies were further

strengthened.

The Phocaeans, founders of Massalia(Marseilles) about 600 B.C., had soonbecome a force to be reckoned with;they had won the goodwill of therenowned King of Tartessos, lord ofthe silver mines, and contemplatedforming another Phocaean colony inthat part of Spain (now Andalusia);they had also obtained a foothold inCorsica, and thus constituted a serious

threat to Carthage.

A combined Punic and Etruscan fleet

succeeded in halting the Phocaean

advance after the Battle of Alalia

(Aleria in Corsica) in 535 B.C. TheGreeks were expelled from Corsicaand Spain; only the Gulf of Lionsremained in their possession. Fromthat time onwards, Carthaginians andEtruscans were constantly bound bytrade and military treaties to protecttheir common interests.

However, the subsequent decline ofEtruria induced Carthage to seek acloser alliance with Rome, and three

treaties were negotiated, the firstdating back to 509 B.C. Yet evenwhile the two powers were ostensiblyallies, Carthage distrusted any attemptby Rome, in any form, to penetrate itsspheres of influence. Coming eventscast their shadows before, and it is

not surprising that later on, the twopowers were to confront each otherin what was perhaps the most ruthlessand bloody struggle of Antiquity.

The first treaty granted the Romanstrading concessions in Sardinia, Sicilyand Africa, but barred their ships fromskirting the traditionally fertile areasof central and southern Tunisia. In

the second, the Carthaginians imposedstiffer terms, expressly forbidding theRomans to land in Sardinia, Africa orAndalusia, unless compelled to do soby circumstances beyond their control.Carthage was thus unsparing in itsmilitary and diplomatic efforts toconsolidate its position and extend thebounds of its empire.

THE rise of Carthage was

next to be challenged by the powerof Greece, which was at its height inthe 5th century B.C. Greece inflicteda crushing defeat on the Punic forcesin 480 B.C., near Himera in Sicily; thismarked the turning-point of Carthage'ssupremacy as a sea power.

The Greeks' mounting domination ofthe eastern and western Mediterranean

led to many changes in the Car¬thaginians' way of life, which wasthenceforth marked by severe austerity.Archaeologists have been struck bythe scarcity of imported objects suchas Corinthian and Attic pottery andEgyptian grave furnishings in the tombsof that period.

At the same time, Carthage's isola¬tion and depleted trade raised supplyproblems for various commoditieswhich were by no means luxuries. Tosolve its difficulties, renew its fightingforces and be capable of resistingany attacks from Greece, Carthageresolved to conquer a hinterland inNorth Africa, roughly corresponding tothe present territory of Tunisia.

The conquest, effected at the costof bitter fighting with the localpopulation, turned the Carthaginians

"from Tynans into Africans." At thesame time, it made a considerable

contribution to the Punic economy,mainly in the shape of a copious agri¬cultural output, and to the army, whichhad a large contingent of tried warriorsat its command.

The conquest also marked thebeginning of a new era for the Tunisiaof Antiquity, which began to enjoy abigger share of the benefits of Puniccivilization. The common inheritance

and national identity of present-dayTunisia are indelibly stamped with theCarthaginian influence.

The development of Tunisia, the newmarkets opened up in the Africancontinent, the flourishing trade rela¬tions formed with the eastern states

emerging from Alexander's conquests,and the dogged will to recovery,restored Carthage to its former vigourat the very time when the Greek cities,weakened by interminable civil strife,showed signs of irreparable decline.

Carthage seized every opportunityto retrieve all it had lost in Sicily. Invain did Agathocles, Tyrant of Syra¬cuse try to bar the way, though heinvaded North Africa and reached the

ramparts of Carthage; in vain didPyrrhus, King of Epirus and championof a rapidly waning Western Hellenism,fly to the help of the Greek cities ofSicily; the cause was hopeless, andCarthage succeeded in extending itsinfluence to practically the wholeisland.

With added effort, it could havedominated the situation well before

the middle of the 3rd century B.C.;but it dallied too long, and did notinvest Messina until 269 B.C. to find

itself face to face with Rome, now agreat Mediterranean power. The twogiants were soon locked in mortalcombat; the three phases of the

CONTINUED PAGE 13

MINIATURE MASKS

A funeral necklace pendant, this tinymask wrought in glass paste(3rd century B.C.) measures only2.5 by 3 centimetres. Carthaginianglassmakers became masters at the artof miniaturizing these expressivemulticoloured masks which were

placed in tombs to protect the deadfrom evil spirits. (See also colourphotos page 12.)

Bardo Museum, Tunis

Photo Luc Joubert © Archaeologia Viva

\

**%

m1

r5Jflp

.

" TT

T* ^JL

GRANDEUR AND DECLINE (Continued)

One of the great fleets of Antiquity

MASTER GLASSMAKERS

OF CARTHAGE

Three examples of the glass pasteamulet masks "mass produced" inancient Carthage. The predominatingcolours of these tiny pendants arewhite, dark blue and yellow. The oldest(top), of Syrian inspiration, is whiteand brown, and dates from the endof the 4th century B.C. The man'sbeard is suggested by a rougheningof the surface, but in most casesthe chin is covered by skilfully workedcorkscrew curls. The master

glassmakers of Carthage also workedwith pearls and wrought delicateperfume flasks, bibelots andjewellery of elegant craftsmanship.

Bardo Museum, Tunis

Photo Luc Joubert © Archaeologia Viva

protracted struggle assumed thedimension of world wars, measuredby the scale of antiquity.

The last phase of Carthage'sdevelopment as a Mediterraneanpower occurred between the first andsecond Punic Wars. After losing thefirst war, Carthage was compelledto withdraw from Sicily completely.Some germs of weakness werealready sapping its strength; its rulingcaste was often blinkered by self-interest, and morbidly hostile to truegreatness or reforming zeal.

oNE Carthaginian general,

Hamilcar Barca, was clear-sightedenough to detect the causes of hiscountry's ills, and draw a lesson fromall its recent misfortunes. To him

belongs the credit for the renewedexpansion of the Carthaginian empirein the Mediterranean. The measures

he adopted were revolutionary bycomparison with the Carthaginians'conception of their imperial role.

He borrowed his remedies from the

Hellenist kings, who combined regalpower with military authority; but amonarchy at Carthage was unthinkable.It was not, therefore, at home that

Hamilcar was to found his kingdom,but in Spain, where the Phoeniciansand Carthaginians had already madetheir fortunes; it was at once farenough from Rome and Carthage toallay their suspicions, and wealthyenough to offset the isolation of thePunic economy in case of war.

Hamilcar realized that in Spain hecould lay the foundations of a strongmonarchic and military power, whilefinding at hand all the economic andhuman resources he needed. He

promptly set about the conquest ofthe country, and soon subdued a partof it.

He modelled his approach on suchempire-builders "as Alexander, andbased his rule on military power,fostering the legend of the inspiredand invincible leader. At the same

time, he enlisted defeated troopsand encouraged mixed marriages toassimilate the local population.

His successor Hasdrubal followed in

his footsteps, and founded a second"new capital", Carthagena, whichrobbed Carthage of the distinction ofbeing the one and only "new Tyre";he built a palace there and assumedthe title of king.

The benefits of the Spanish conquestwere soon felt throughout the Punicworld. In less than twenty yearsHamilcar, Hasdrubal and Hannibal (allof the Barcid family) had succeededin replenishing the coffers and renovat¬ing the economic and military strength

of Carthage. Vast horizons werere-opening before the Carthaginianempire when Rome, fearful of theinevitable developments that lay ahead,hastened to declare war on Carthage.

Hannibal's defeat on African soil in

202 B.C. sounded the knell of Carthageas a Mediterranean power. Thence¬forth, until its destruction in 146 B.C.,the unfortunate city could barely claima measure of autonomy in the conductof its internal affairs.

The chief credit for the long andsuccessful expansion of the empirenaturally belongs to the Carthaginiannavy, which was heir to the seamanshipof the Phoenicians, and used it to

some purpose.

The Punic fleet consisted of heavyvessels with rounded hulls, mainlyused as merchant shipping, and long,narrow, fast galleys, easy to handlewhen manoeuvring in face of anenemy fleet.

Polybius describes these as being"so constructed as to move in everydirection with the greatest of ease;their oars were manned by experts . . .If any of the vessels were hard-pressedby the enemy, they fell back withoutrunning any risk; it was easy for suchlight craft to make for the open sea.If the enemy advanced in pursuit, theyturned about, hovered around them or

approached them on the flank andrepeatedly rammed them . . ." Galleyswere used for the battle fleet; the

merchant vessels were usually lessmanoeuvrable sailing craft.

T.HE several thousand

vessels of the Carthaginian fleet werebuilt by skilful and experiencedcraftsmen; the dockyards were amongthe most celebrated in the ancient

world. The mariners had a profoundknowledge of the sea, and althoughthe compass was unknown to them,steered with unerring sureness. Inwartime the State requisitioned mer¬chant vessels, fully manned, to carrytroops and stores; in peacetime, thenaval vessels protected merchantconvoys from pirates, or guarded theapproaches to Carthage's exclusivetrading areas.

Carthage was heir to a long traditionof seafaring and exploration. ThePhoenicians had distinguished them¬selves by sailing round Africa, at thebehest of Nechao Pharaoh of the

26th dynasty. Setting out from theRed Sea, they negotiated what is nowthe Cape of Good Hope, and returnedto Egypt through the Straits of 1 9Gibraltar (or "Pillars of Hercules"). lu

Little information can be gleanedfrom Carthaginian sources except

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

THE ADVENTURES

OF HANNO

THE NAVIGATOR

Few records of voyages made by Phoenician and Car¬thaginian navigators have survived. The most famous isthe Odyssey of Hanno the Navigator, King of Carthage,who sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules out into theAt/antic and down the west coast of Africa. Thenarrative of this epic journey comes from a 3rd centuryB.C. Greek translation of the Punic record of Hanno's

voyage engraved in the Temple of Chronos at Carthage.Pliny's mention of the expedition as belonging to theperiod "while the power of Carthage was at its height"suggests, but does not prove, that it took place in the5th century B.C. Below we publish the highly readableadventure story of the Periplus of Hanno, as told bythe ancient navigator himself.

The routes shown on this map are more or lesshypothetical and based on the writings of Antiquityand archaeological remains.

3rd MILLENIUM B.C.

Between Troy and Crete, the gold route; fromByblos to the Nile, the cedar route; to India via thePersian Gulf, the luxury trade route (Mesopotamianmetals, Indian ivory, etc.); via the Red Sea, thefrankincense route between Egypt, Arabia, Somalia.

2nd MILLENIUM B.C.

to 4th CENTURY B.C.

From Greek mainland, the emigration routes; routeto Troy of heroes of Homer's Iliad; route of Argonautsto the Black Sea; Ulysses' routes to Sicily, Italy;Greek routes to Corsica, Marseille, Spain, Gibraltar,northern Europe; branch of amber route via Adriatic.

+ + + + + VOYAGE OF HANNO

Hanno the Carthaginian (5th Century B.C.), route viaStraits of Gibraltar to west coast of Africa.

3rd CENTURY B.C.O O O O O to 2nd CENTURY A.D.

New maritime routes in central Mediterranean;

western routes from Carthage to Sicily, Sardinia,Corsica, Balearic Islands, Gibraltar, Atlantic seaboard.

Map by Willem van Malsen © Archives Robert Laffont, Pans

I HE Carthaginians decided that Hanno should gopast the Pillars of Hercules and found Carthaginian cities.He set sail with sixty ships carrying thirty thousand menand women with provisions and other necessities.

After passing the Pillars of Hercules and sailing for twodays beyond them we founded the first city, which wasnamed Thyrrsaterion. Around it was a large plain.

Next we went on in a westerly direction and arrived at

the Libyan promontory of Soloeis, which is covered withtrees; having set up a shrine to Poseidon, we set sail againtowards the rising sun for half a day, after which we arrivedat a lagoon close to the sea covered with many tall reeds.Elephants and large numbers of other animals were feedingon them. Leaving this lagoon and sailing for another day,we founded the coastal cities named Carian Wall, Gytte,

Acra, Melitta and Arambys.

Leaving this place we arrived at the great river Lixoswhich comes from Libya. On the banks nomads, the Lixites,were feeding their flocks. We stayed for some time withthese people and made friends with them. Upstream from

them lived the unfriendly Ethiopians whose land is full ofwild beasts and broken up by high mountains where theysay the Lixos rises. They also say that about thesemountains dwell the strange-looking Troglodytes. TheLixites claim that they can run faster than horses.

Taking Lixite interpreters with us we sailed alongside thedesert in a southerly direction for two days, then towardsthe rising sun for one more day. We then found at the farend of an inlet a little island five stades in circumference.

We named it Cerne and left settlers there. Judging by ourjourney we reckoned that it must be opposite Carthage,since we had to sail the same distance from Carthage to thePillars of Hercules as from the Pillars of Hercules to Cerne.

From there, sailing up a big river named the Chretes, wearrived at a lake in which there were three islands, all larger

than Cerne. Leaving these islands, we sailed for one dayand came to the end of the ¡ake, which was overshadowedby high mountains full of savages dressed in animal skinswho threw stones at us and thus prevented us from landing.From there we entered another river, which was broad and

14

GRANDEUR AND DECLINE (Continued)

about the two coasting voyages carriedout in the 5th century B.C. along theAtlantic seaboard. An account of the

first voyage, under the command ofHanno, has been handed down by theGreeks. Its purpose was twofold:first, to visit and reinforce the Puniccities on the Moroccan coast, andfound new colonies; the second stageappears to have been a voyage ofdiscovery, far along the shores ofwestern Africa (see story aoove).

The account of Hanno's voyage is anendless source of speculation; manyattempts have been made, with littlesuccess, to identify the places des¬cribed. The most generally acceptedopinion is that the "Chariot of the

Gods" was Mount Cameroun, and that

the farthest point reached lay in theGulf of Guinea.

But some historians are inclined to

think the distance covered was muchshorter. The difficulties of identifica¬

tion have also given rise to thesuggestion that Hanno may himselfhave enbroidered the truth, to avoidgiving away any precise informationabout an itinerary which opened theroad to the gold trade.

Our knowledge of the secondvoyage, under the command of Himilco,is even more uncertain. We onlyknow that he explored the Atlanticcoast of western Europe in search ofsilver and tin, and perhaps went as

far north as the British Isles.

The Carthaginians, those indefatiga¬ble "sea hauliers", aimed to improvetheir trade by these expeditions. Theylong enjoyed a virtual monopoly of theAtlantic traffic, which mainly led themin two directions: first, to the shoresof tropical Africa and secondly to thecoasts of Europe, especially Brittany,England and Ireland. Himilco and theCarthaginian traders pressed on tothese far shores mainly in search ofsilver and tin.

Yet Carthage had far more sustaineddealings with the Mediterraneancountries, especially with Greece.Although trading relations were almostcompletely broken off in the 5th

wide, full of crocodiles and hippopotamuses. Then weretraced our journey back to Cerne.

From there we sailed south along a coast entirelyinhabited by Ethiopians, who fled at our approach. Theirlanguage was incomprehensible even to the Lixites, whomwe had with us. On the last day we disembarked by somehigh mountains covered with trees with sweet-smellingmulticoloured wood. We sailed round these mountains for

two days and arrived in a huge bay on the other side ofwhich was a plain; there we saw fires breaking out atintervals on all sides at night, both great and small.

Having renewed our water supplies, we continued ourvoyage along the coast for five days, after which we arrivedat a huge inlet which the interpreters called the Horn of theWest. There was a big island in this gulf and in the islandwas a lagoon with another island. Having disembarkedthere, we could see nothing but forest by day; but at nightmany fires were seen and we heard the sound of flutes

and the beating of drums and tambourines, which madea great noise. We were struck with terror and our sooth¬sayers bade us leave the island.

We left in haste and sailed along by a burning land fullof perfumes. Streams of fire rose from it and plunged intothe sea. The land was unapproachable because of the heat.Terror-stricken, we hastened away. During four days'sailing we saw at night that the land was covered with fire.In the middle was a high flame, higher than the others, whichseemed to reach the stars. By day we realised that it wasa very high mountain, named the Chariot of the Gods.

Leaving this place, we sailed along the burning coast forthree days and came to the gulf named the Horn of theSouth. At the end of it was an island like the first one,

with a lake in which was another island full of savages.The greater part of these were women. They had hairybodies and the interpreters called them Gorillas.

We pursued some of the males but we could not catch

a single one because they were good climbers and theydefended themselves fiercely. However, we managed totake three women. They bit and scratched their captors,whom they did not want to follow. We killed them and

removed the skins to take back to Carthage. We sailedno further, being short of supplies.

and 4th centuries B.C., they wereresumed more briskly than ever afterAlexander's victorious campaign. Thisfact is attested by numerous Alexand¬rian objects and Rhodian amphoraefound in Punic burial-grounds.

A steady trade was also carried onwith other areas such as Campania,Etruria, Spain, Sicily, Delos. Carthageexchanged raw materials, artefactsand agricultural produce with thesecountries.

The prosperity of Carthage mainlyrested on its trade; consequently theState watched jealously over thesafety of the routes followed by itsships, and surrounded the itinerariesto certain "trading preserves" with

mystery to confound their rivals.

As we have seen, Carthage some¬times took diplomatic or military actionto protect the interests of its citizens,and the Carthaginian seamen went togreat lengths to shake off pursuers,or scare them off by spreading horrificrumours about the sea roads leadingto certain areas where trade was in

effect a Punic monopoly.

A striking example of the vigilanceexercised is to be found in an anecdote

recorded in the classics; a Carthagin¬ian vessel, tracked by Roman rivalsseeking to spy out Carthage's tradingpreserves, was grounded by the cap¬tain without hesitation, as he saw noother way of shaking off his persistent

followers. In doing so, he lured theRoman ship on to the sandbank.

Thus, the Carthaginian Empire, withits many colonies scattered around thewestern Mediterranean and on the

shores of the Atlantic, exercised astrong influence on events in theancient world. The Punic cities of

North Africa and elsewhere were

centres of fruitful contact and exchangewith the different Mediterranean

cultures. The Carthaginian merchant,a familiar figure in towns of the eastand west alike, made his own contri¬bution to this interchange.

Carthage, the great metropolis ofantiquity, nurtured on Oriental, Africanand Mediterranean traditions, was a

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

15

Carthage was knownin the world of Antiquityas a centre par excellencefor the importation andexportation of cultural as wellas commercial enterprise.Left, a mask painted on afragment of ostrich egg shell.Many such masks to protectthe dead have been found

in Carthaginian tombs in Sicily,Sardinia and Spain. Below left,a 3rd century B.C. Iberian statueclosely Influenced by the Punicart style. (Prado Museum, Madrid.)It is named the "Lady of Elche"from the site where it was found

in Spain. Centre and right,two terracotta statuettes from

Punic sites in Tunisia:

an Egypto-Phoenician sphinx(6th century B.C.) and amother-goddess figurein the Ionian (Greek)style of the same period.These works were either importedor copied by artists in Carthage.(Carthage National Museum)

16

GRANDEUR AND DECLINE (Continued)

powerful civilizing force in the ancientworld. Its contribution, long under¬estimated, is beginning to be betterappreciated, thanks to the widespreaddevelopment of archaeological excava¬tion and historical research.

In 146 B.C., the Roman generalScipio Aemilianus, allotted the task ofdestroying Carthage, it would appear,unwillingly, could not restrain his tears.He recited aloud the well-known lines

of Homer: "A day will come when Ilium,the sacred city, will perish; when Priamand the subjects of Priam, skilful inhandling the spear, will perish . . ."He must have been equally distressedby the tragic spectacle of the burningcity and by the disappearance of agreat and influential metropolis.

Few vestiges of Carthage escapedthe destructive fury of its enemies.Today they adorn a peaceful residentialdistrict, greatly appreciated for itstranquillity and the subtle charm whichsurrounds it. The site is one of the

most beautiful in the world, located ona promontory at the far end of theGulf of Tunis, with white houses setin vast gardens stretching towardsthe sea.

At the foot of the promontory areremnants of the Punic ports with theirtwo harbours, one enclosing an isletwhich seems to have held the Admiraltybuildings. Here one of the greatestfleets of the ancient world rode at

anchor; here was the starting pointfor the intrepid Punic navigators andempire builders.

The ports are silted up, and nowgive only a remote and hazy idea oftheir historical importance. If they andthe other remains of Carthage wereworthily restored, this shrine of historymight regain a semblance of its formerglory.

Photo © Roger-Viollet. Paria

byGilbert-Charles Picard

EIGHT CENTURIES

OF CARTHAGINIAN

CIVILIZATION

GILBERT-CHARLES PICARD Is head of the

French archaeological mission at Mactar (Tu¬nisia). He Is professor of Roman Archaeo¬logy at the Sorbonne, Paris and director ofHistoric Antiquities for central France. From1941 to 1955 he was director of Antiquitiesin Tunisia, where he supervised the exca¬vations at Carthage, In particular at theAntonine Baths. He Is the author of several

studies on the history and archaeology ofCarthage. Two of these have been publishedIn English: "The Life and Death of Carthage"(in .co-authorship with Colette Picard), Sidg-wick and Jackson Ltd., London, 1968; and"Carthage", Elek Books, London, 1964, andF. Ungar Publishing Co., New York, 1965.

^^^ARTHAGE occupies a uni¬que place in history. It was a colonyestablished in the western Medi¬

terranean by a Semitic people fromAsia, in itself an unusual circumstance,although colonization of the East byEuropeans has been a frequentoccurrence throughout the ages. Afew similar cases of westward coloniza¬

tion did occur in historical times the

most remarkable example being theMoslem colonization of Spain andthere may have been other cases inpre-history though there is no clearevidence of this.

But though in Spain the Caliphate ofCordova and the Kingdom of Granadawere largely instrumental in bringingelements of Islamic civilization to the

West, they did not become a part ofthe life of medieval Europe, remainingalien enclaves on its southern fringe.The peoples of Europe never acceptedtheir presence and, concentrating alltheir energies into the struggle, finallyexpelled them.

Carthage, however, lived for five orsix centuries in close and constant

contact with the inhabitants of

northern Africa, with peoples of Italy

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

Photos Luc Joubert © Archaeologia Viva

CARTHAGINIAN CIVILIZATION (Continued)

The legendary voyage of Princess Elissa

of diverse origins and civilizations,with Iberians and with Celts. Its

destruction was not the outcome of a

century-old crusade; it was a purelypolitical event in which racial orcultural hatreds played no part.

Contrary to what happened in16th century Spain, the destruction ofCarthage was not followed by asystematic uprooting of its civilization;Punic culture died out slowly andwithout violence, merging graduallywith that of Rome.

T

18

HE very special role thatCarthage was to play had clearly notbeen foreseen by its founders. It re¬sulted from a historical evolution ex¬

tending over at least six centuries inthe course of which the very basis ofthe city's existence underwent severalfundamental transformations.

During the first phase, of whichvery little is known, Carthage appearsto have been no more than one of

many Phoenician trading-posts scatter¬ed along the tin route. The inventionof bronze, an alloy of copper and tin,had forced the men of the second

millenium B.C. to establish tradinglinks that were astonishingly far-ranging considering their limited meansof communications.

Copper was to be found in fairlylarge quantities in the countries ofwestern Asia which, with Egypt, werethen the centres of Mediterranean

civilization. But there was virtuallyno tin in the countries bordering theeastern Mediterranean. It was mined

in western and north-western Europe,in Spain, in Brittany and the BritishIsles. In these regions bordering theAtlantic had grown up the far-famed,mysterious Megalithic civilizationwhich maintained trading and evencultural ties with peoples of the East.

The chief point of contact wassituated in the kingdom of Tartessos,(present-day Andalusia,) whose mineralwealth was still a source of wonder to

the Greeks of the 6th century B.C.There the traders met, some havingcome from the north along the coasts,others having travelled from theAegean and from Asia.

At the end of the second millenium

B.C., this trade, long controlled by theMycenaeans, was taken over by thePhoenicians. They began to establishsmall trading settlements at theirregular stopping places.

The dates of the establishment of

the chief settlements have been

handed down by tradition.

Surprisingly enough, the mostremote, Gadès, present-day Cadiz,was reputedly the most ancient, beingfounded in about 1200 B.C. Utica, onthe northern coast of. Tunisia near the

mouth of the Medjerda, was a closecontemporary (1178 B.C.), while Car¬thage appeared later, in 814 B.C.

Unfortunately, these dates have notbeen confirmed by modern archaeo¬logical research. Whereas the objectsdiscovered on the sites of the Greek

colonies can be dated to about the

time the Greeks were traditionally saidto have established their settlements,those unearthed at the sites of

Phoenician towns are clearly of a laterorigin than the date of founding givenby texts.

At Carthage, for example, leadingspecialists have dated the oldestceramics found in sanctuaries and

tombs to around 750 B.C. at the ear¬

liest more than sixty years after thedate given by the writers of antiquityfor the arrival in Africa of Dido (thePhoenician princess Elissa, reputedfounder of Carthage). In the case ofUtica and Gadès the gap is widerstill, amounting to three or four cen¬turies at least.

This conflict in dates raises a thornyproblem which has long been debatedby archaeologists and to which nosatisfactory solution has as yet beenfound. Are the texts incorrect?

Should more exhaustive archaeologicalexplorations be made? Should the dat¬ing of the "fossil remains" berevised? In all honesty it must beadmitted that the issue remains prob¬lematical.

Fragmentary information has beenhanded down by a literary tradition ofdubious worth, in which ancient reli¬gious myths, rationalized to someextent, inventions of writers and possi¬bly a few authentic historical facts areinextricably entwined. It suggeststhat Carthage, unlike other settlements,was not founded for primarily eco¬nomic reasons. It appears to havebeen established by a banished prin¬cess as a refuge for political exiles.

But according to the same "Didomyth", the colonists' resources failedto match the scale of their ambitions.

Much hard bargaining seems to havetaken place before the Libyans wouldconcede them sufficient space toestablish the "new town" the

meaning of the Phoenician words"Qart Hadasht", deformed by theRomans into "Carthage" and this onlyon payment of a tribute.

In fact, the few archaeological re¬mains recovered from diggings in thesanctuaries and tombs of the first

Carthage of the 7th and 8th centuriesB.C., give no indication that the settle¬ment could act as an independentstate, let alone as an imperial power.

Its economy remained dependentupon the parent city, although beautifuljewellery and fine ivory carvings bearwitness to a fairly high standard ofliving. Geographical factors, however,

gave Carthage greater opportunitiesfor expansion than the other Phoeni¬cian colonies. The latter were

generally established on small islandsnear the coast or at the extremities of

rocky promontories, sites which gua¬ranteed their security but not theirlivelihood which continued to dependalmost exclusively upon the sea.

Carthage, however, had been builton the eastern shore of a peninsulawhose "head" embraced an area of

about twenty square kilometres ofsmall, fertile, well-watered plains oneither side of a curving chain of hills.Control of the sandy isthmus linking itto the mainland between the Lake of

Tunis and the Ariana lagoon was allthat was required for full commandover this little, self-sufficient world.

Although no precise date is known,it seems likely that the Carthaginiansachieved this essential control fairlyquickly, thus acquiring liberty of actionvis-à-vis both the local population andtheir parent city.

This explains how Carthage wasable to take over the role played byTyre when, weakened by its unendingstruggle against the kings of Assyriaand Babylon, it was no longer strongenough to protect the Phoenicians ofthe west effectively against the grow¬ing pressure of Greek competition,then making itself felt on all sides.

Tyre itself had taken advantage ofthe collapse of Mycenaean power, des¬troyed around 1200 B.C. by the Dorianinvasion, to build its maritime empire.But the poets kept alive among theGreeks, throughout their centuries-long "Middle Ages", the memory ofthe bold maritime exploits of theirheroes.

IN about 800 B.C., the

Achaeans, the Euboeans, the men ofRhodes, soon followed by the Corin¬thians and the lonians of Anatolia, hadundertaken the re-discovery and there-occupation of the ports of call oncevisited by Ulysses and the Argonauts.At first they were content to settle onshores that the Phoenicians had recon¬

noitred without establishing firmbases: the coasts of Cyrenaica, ofsouthern Italy and, above all, Sicily.

But large scale emigration sooncaused these colonies to be crampedfor space and newcomers were forcedto move farther and farther on tothe coasts of Gaul, where Marseilleswas founded in 600 B.C., to Cataloniaand farther south on the Spanish coasttowards the kingdom of Tartessos withits fabulous riches. Friction grew atall the points of contact between theGreek and Phoenician possessionsthe Gulf of Syrte, western Sicily, Cor¬sica the Iberian Levant leading tolimited but repeated conflicts.

This striking bronze bust of Hannibal, the great Carthaginiangeneral and statesman (247-183 B.C.) was discovered in 1944in the Roman ruins of Volubilis, north of Meknès, Morocco.Hannibal's portrait has also come down to us on coins struck between221 and 219 B.C., and two marble busts of himhave been identified. When the Second Punic War

with Rome broke out in 218 B.C., Hannibal and his army crossedthe Alps and Invaded the Italian peninsula. After winning numerousvictories, he was called home to Carthage where he was finallydefeated by the Roman general Scipio at Zama in 202 B.C.

To hold their own, the Phoeniciansof the west had to unite, to create a

military force and seek alliances withpeoples who, like themselves, werethreatened by Hellenic imperialism.This involved a complete revision of atraditional trading policy which, apartfrom a few piratical raids, had beenlargely pacific. The transformationwas undertaken under the guidance ofthe first of the Carthaginian politicalleaders of whose personality historyhas some notion king Mago, whoreigned from about 550 to 530 B.C.

Mago created an army consistingessentially of mercenaries the Car¬thaginians themselves were too few innumber to do more than man an élite

regiment and provide officers backedup by a large and well-trained fleet.He set out to gain control of bases atcarefully selected points which wouldbe entirely dependent, both politicallyand militarily, upon Carthage.

One of these bases had long beenestablished (in 654 B.C. according totradition) at Ibiza in the Balearics.Mago established others, at Motya onthe western tip of Sicily, and espe¬cially in Sardinia where Phoeniciancolonists had gained a foothold asearly as the 9th century B.C.

In the diplomatic field he strengthen¬ed the existing treaty with the Etrus¬cans. This people, perhaps originallyfrom Asia Minor, and at any ratestrongly influenced by oriental trad¬ition, were themselves disturbed by theGreek incursion. The first result of

this collaboration between the Etrus¬

cans and the Carthaginians was todeny the Greeks of Phocaea, in AsiaMinor, a foothold in Corsica.

Mago's actions also had importantrepercussions on internal political andcultural affairs. Very little is knownof the nature of the government of Car¬thage at this period. The head of statewas a king with essentially religiouspowers perhaps, yet among a peoplewhose gods dominated every aspectof their lives, these powers were con¬siderable. But the king had to payregard to the aristocracy, and theassembly of citizens could be calledupon to decide any dispute arisingbetween these two authorities. Hav¬

ing become the military as well as thespiritual leader, the king gained in¬creased power.

Without in principle being hereditaryor even held for life, the kingship wasin practice reserved for the members ofa single family, and during this periodthere was no instance of any holder ofthe office being deposed during hislifetime. Mago and his successors had,in effect, managed to surround theirpower with a mystic aura by skilfullyplaying upon nationalism and religiousfanaticism.

Carthage had inherited from Tyre areligion which was a mixture of oftenuncivilized and bloody naturalistic rites,designed to ensure the fruitfulness ofnature, and the highly refined theolo¬gical speculations of a learned andintelligent priesthood. The priests

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

CARTHAGINIAN CIVILIZATION (Continued)

20

from different towns and temples form¬ed schools which held widely varyingviews as to the powers and the rela¬tionships between the gods of an ela¬borate pantheon.

Thus the theologians of Tyre stres¬sed the importance of the city's patrongod Melqart, a vigorous and muchtravelled deity whom the Greeks sawas the counterpart of Herakles.Other sects, however, worshippedtranscendental divinities such as El,

the king and father of all gods. Themajority of the priests of Carthagetended to follow the latter belief.

Although Melqart was honoured inDido's city, the god El held pride ofplace. In keeping with a customcommon among Semitic peoples, thegod's real name, too charged withsacred power, was not spoken. In¬stead the name Ba'al Hammon, mean¬

ing "Lord of the Furnace", was used,according to an interpretation by theFrench scholar James G. Février.

This name recalls that Ba'al Hammon

presided over the sacrifices which havecloaked the name of Carthage with asinister reputation. In his honouryoung children, their throats havingprobably first been cut, were throwninto a furnace at the foot of his statue.

The efficacy of a sacrifice being indirect proportion to the victim's worth,it is not to be wondered at that all

ancient peoples, from the Greeks andRomans onwards, should have practis¬ed human sacrifice.

Indeed, many peoples had a ritualwhich consisted in the king, whosefunction it was to link the human with

the supernatural world, being put todeath when his powers began to failhim. In this way this energy couldpass on to a successor.

The Phoenicians in general and theCarthaginians in particular were not,therefore, alone in the practice of hu¬man sacrifice and the immolation of

their kings. But at Carthage thesepractices long remained widespreadwhereas among other nations, exceptamong the Gauls who practised humansacrifice for so long as they remain¬ed independent, they became rare andvirtually died out. Moreover, the sacri¬fice of adults was avoided by substitut¬ing as victims their infant children.

The ashes of the victims were buried

in holy precincts known as tophets,and stone monuments were erected

commemorating the sacrifice. The dis¬covery of these tophets at Carthageitself, in the port area today called Sal¬ammbô, and in all the other Punic citiesof Africa and Sardinia, leaves no doubtthat such holocausts did take placeand that they continued up to the fallof Carthage, though towards the endthe priests would sometimes accepta sacrificial lamb in place of a child.

The Magonid period, which extendsfrom the middle of the 6th to the be¬

ginning of the 4th century B.C. marksthe apogee of the Ba'al Hammon cult.

CONTINUED PAGE 42

Colour pages

Page 21

THE ANTONINE BATHS. The remains of the imposing baths builtby the Roman emperor Antonius Pius In the middle of the2nd century A.D. reflect the splendour of Carthage, when itbecame the capital of the Roman empire in Africa. Restoredduring the 4th century, the baths were in great part destroyed byVandal invaders of the 5th century. They are now to berestored and preserved with the aid of a United NationsDevelopment Programme-Unesco project.

Photo Michel Desjardins © Réalités, Paris

Page 22

PRAYERS IN STONE. Neo-Punic stelae erected in Carthage tocommemorate animal sacrifices to the god Saturn. After theRoman conquest, Saturn replaced the Carthaginian god Ba'alHammon who, with the goddess Tanit, had dominatedCarthaginian religious life for eight centuries.

Photo Michel Desjardins © Réalités, Paris

Page 23

LUXURIES IMPORTED. Dating from the 6th century B.C.,these three pieces of pottery were brought to Carthage fromthe wealthy Greek city of Corinth, destroyed by the Romansat the same period as Carthage. The two at the top areperfume jars, decorated with a swan and a siren, while the bowlbelow bears a bird motif.

Bardo Museum, TunisPhotos Luc Joubert © Archaeologla Viva

Pages 24-25FOR THE LAST JOURNEY. Three Punic

terracotta masks. Left, mask with grimacingdemon face (4th century B.C.) recalls theatremasks of the same period In Sparta. Thistype of mask was hung at the entrance to asanctuary or on mortuary urns perhaps to

! drive away evil spirits. Centre and right," masks (5th and 6th century B.C. respectively)found In the oldest tomb so far unearthed in

Carthage. Their serene expressions contrast. sharply with the mask on left. They offer a1 picture of the ideal of feminine beauty of their

day, and may represent a female deity. Unlike Egyptian or Mycenaean masks whichwere placed on the faces of the dead, Punic masks were put on or under the coffin.

Photos Luc Joubert © Archaeologia Viva

Page 26DECORATIVE CRAFTSMANSHIP. A bronze vase handle made in

Carthage and discovered in a 4th century B.C. Carthaginian site.Similar Carthaginian objects have been found in Sicily and on theItalian peninsula.

Photo Luc Joubert © Archaeologla Viva

Page 27

THE TEMPTATION OF ULYSSES. Fragment of a3rd century A.D. Roman mosaic discovered at Dougga,Tunisia. It illustrates the incident In Homer's Odyssey inwhich Ulysses has himself lashed to the mast by hiscompanions who block their ears with wax so as not tosuccumb to the irresistible songs of the sirens.Mosaic art reached great heights in Rome and its colonies

| of Africa. In Carthage, mosaics often illustratedsecular as well as religious themes. The Unesco World ArtSeries In 1962 devoted an entire album to these mosaics.

Entitled "Tunisia: Ancient Mosaics" it was published bythe New York Graphic Society with Unesco support.

Carthage National Museum. Photo Unesco © World Art Series

I4*.

i r?ß

jL~*¡é.\

-i-

-.

w±

ittnlpMftfsfiKt.

^^TOfträl^

«ííía

Pí \V£/

SMiflKíApKWfíA'ííljS ¡

/.«iff

CARTHAGE

through the eyes

of Greece

and Rome

by Mhamed Fantar

P

HANNIBAL TROPHY? This bronze

breastplate may be a trophy broughtback to Carthage from Italy by aveteran of one of Hannibal's

campaigns towards the close ofthe 3rd century B.C. It representsa typical piece of workmanship ofthe Campania region not far frompresent day Naples. It is decoratedwith the head of Minerva, theRoman version of the Greek goddessPallas Athena. The object wasuncovered in a wooden coffin nearSousse in Tunisia.

Bardo Museum, Tunis

Photo Luc Joubert © Archaeologla Viva

HILO of Byblos, a Greekhistorian of the 2nd century A.D., tells

us the legend of the first Phoenicianseafarer.

Caught in a forest fire, Usos stripp¬ed a tree of its branches, straddled

the trunk and pushed off into the seato escape the flames. This was thefirst Phoenician venture into Mediterra¬

nean waters.

The Iliad, the Odyssey, the Torah,the Tablets of Ugarit and many otherequally famous writings have pre¬served for us a record of the Phoen¬

ician navigators, their remarkable

voyages and the riches they gainedfrom their trading ventures, particularlyin the country known as Tarshish,located, in all probability, in southernSpain.

Tarshish, with its plentiful supplies ofcopper, silver, lead and tin became the

MHAMED FANTAR is a Tunisian specialistin Punic archaeology and epigraphy. He issecretary-general of the Archaeological andHistorical Research Commission of the Na¬

tional Institute of Archaeology and the Arts,Tunis, and professor of Archaeology atthe Faculty of Literature and the Social

Sciences of the University of Tunis. Hehas written many studies on archaeologicaldiscoveries in Tunisia. His most recent

publications are. "Carthage, la prestigieuse

cité d'Elissa" (Carthage, the illustrious cityof Elissa), Tunis, 1970; "Eschatologie Phéni¬cienne-Punique" (Phoenician-Punic Eschato-logy), Tunis, 1970; and "lugurtha", in Arabic(Maison Tunisienne d'Edition, 1970).

goal of Phoenician maritime expedi¬tions from Tyre and Sidon. Describ¬ing its vast mineral wealth, the Greekhistorian Diodorus Siculus writes:

"The country of the Iberians has themost plentiful and the richest silvermines that are known. The Iberians

were ignorant of the value of silver,and the Phoenician traders were able

to buy it in exchange for a very smallquantity of merchandise; they took it toGreece, Asia and other countries, andthus amassed great wealth. Thistrade, which they plied for many years,brought them power and enabled themto establish numerous colonies in

Sicily and the neighbouring islands, inLibya, Sardinia and Iberia."

On their voyages westward to Tars¬hish, the Phoenicians became familiarwith the North African coastline. Soon

they set up small trading stationswhere their ships could put in to restthe crews and take on supplies. Car¬thage was undoubtedly the largest andmost important of these Phoenician

outposts in the west. A legend thatappears to explain the reasons andevents that led to its foundation is

recorded by the writers of Antiquity.

According to this version, Carthagewas founded by Elissa, sister of Pyg¬malion, King of Tyre, who was marriedto Acerbas, the high-priest of Melqart.Acerbas was murdered by Pygmalionwho coveted his wealth. The grief-stricken princess decided to flee from

Tyre, and with skill and diplomacy

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

29

SEEN BY GREECE AND ROME (Continued)

A city open to all men and gods

30

The finely -engraved decoration on thissacred razor, with its handle in the formof the head and neck of a bird,shows the Egyptian influence thataffected Punic art. The Carthaginiansinherited a long tradition ofcraftsmanship in metal from theirPhoenician ancestors and many Punicinscriptions testify that metalworkersand jewellers flourished in Carthage.Talismans of eternity, the sacredrazors were placed in the tombstogether with necklaces and glasspendant masks.

succeeded in deceiving her brotherand lulling his suspicions. Accompa¬nied by a group of Tyrian nobles, shewent to Cyprus where she was wel¬comed by the high-priest of Jupiter.She and her followers then sailed for

Africa and disembarked at the site of

the future Carthage.

It would be difficult to accept this asan authentic record but the facts it

relates fit to some extent into the pic¬ture of the Phoenician world, and thus

may shed some light on the history ofCarthage and the Carthaginian civili¬zation.

The date most commonly acceptedfor the foundation of Carthage is 814B.C. But some historians believe that

this is too early: archaeologicalremains recovered from excavations at

Carthage do not appear to be olderthan the 7th century B.C., which farfrom confirms the ancient texts.

Yet can we be sure that we have

reached the oldest level of the city?

Who knows what surprises may awaitus during future excavations! Per¬haps we shall find remains even moreancient than the terracotta vases

unearthed in the little "Cintas Chapel".

These are in the sub-geometric styleof the Cyclades and cannot be olderthan 750 B.C.

THE archaeologist, as we

know, needs to be patient, scrupulousand cautious. The historian, for his

part, should not regard data on far-offtimes handed down by tradition asinfallible, nor should he systematicallydistrust them. Archaeology oftenconfirms the writings of the Ancients.Indeed, in the case of Carthage,archaeological studies and literarytradition can perhaps be reconciled.

The Phoenicians, in 814 B.C., mayhave founded a small outpost similarto the many others they establishedalong both shores of the Mediter¬ranean, where they replenished theirstores and perhaps traded with thelocal population. But their principalobjective seems to have been themineral wealth of Tarshish.

In the 8th century B.C., two dangersthreatened the seafarers of Tyre.

This was the period of expandingGreek colonization in the western

Mediterranean. In 750 B.C. Greek

colonists founded Cumae in the Bay ofNaples, through which was sent the

copper ore from the mines of Etruria

and Campania. Seventeen years later,the Greeks founded Syracuse. ThePhoenicians must have realized the

danger from these new Greek settle¬

ments which threatened their shipp¬ing and trade routes. Something hadto be done to check and contain the

Greek expansion.

The second danger to the Phoenicianmerchants came from Assyria. Thewealth of the Tyrian cities quicklyroused the greed and envy of theAssyrian rulers. Assurnasirpal II(883-856 B.C.) speaks of "the tributeof the kings of the sea coasts thecountry of the Tyrians, the countryof the Sidonians, the country of theGibilites. . . and the town of Arvas in

the midst of the sea. . .silver, gold,lead, bronze, vases of bronze, gar¬ments of many colours, linen tunics. . .I received their tribute and they kissedmy feet. . ."

The Assyrian greed was insatiableand the Phoenicians lived in fear of

seeing their wealth seized by thesepowerful and unscrupulous overlords.A Phoenician colony in the westernMediterranean, they felt, would checkGreek expansion and also provideshelter from the Assyrian danger.Such considerations probably explainthe spectacular rise of the "new town"

in the middle of the eighth century B.C.

At all events, the foundation of

Carthage is an established fact, so letus see what is known about it by ex¬amining sources that throw some lighton Carthage, its history and culture.

Firstly, what can we learn from thewriters of Antiquity? The Greeks andthe Romans were both well acquainted

with Carthage and its people. Theymet as enemies on the battlefield and

as rival traders in the ports of theMediterranean, which has seen the rise

and fall of so many civilizations. Itwould take too long to enumerate hereall the classical writers who tell us

about Carthage, but we may quote afew of them.

There is, for instance, the famous

passage in Herodotus, which describesthe trading ritual used by Carthaginianmerchants seeking gold in Africa.

"The Carthaginians spread out theirmerchandise on the beach," writes the

Father of History, "return to theirships and make smoke to attract theNegroes. The Negroes come down tothe sea, place their gold beside themerchandise and withdraw. The Car¬

thaginians then return and if they find

a sufficient quantity of gold, they takeit. If not, they return to their shipsand wait, and in this case the Negroesadd more gold until the traders aresatisfied. They do each other nowrong: the Carthaginians do not touchthe gold until the quantity seems tocorrespond to the value of their wares;the Negroes do not touch the goodsuntil the traders have taken the gold."

Another Greek historian, Polybius ofMegalopolis, wrote a great deal aboutCarthage. He watched the army ofScipio destroy the city of Elissa, andas an observer of the Third Punic

War he had a special interest in therelations between Rome and Carthage.Two treaties were signed betweenthese 0ueens of tne Mediterranean,and Polybius records their dates andterms. To the same historian we owe

the story of Hannibal's oath at thetime of his alliance with Philip ofMacedonia.

DIODORUS SICULUS is an¬

other historian who should be mention¬

ed. He was born in Sicily and de¬scribes the wars between the Greeks

and the Carthaginians for the conquestof the island.

From his pen comes an account ofhuman sacrifices, a practice that was

known among all Canaanites. Caughtunprepared by the invasion andshattering victories of Agathocles(310 B.C.), says Diodorus, writing inthe Ist century B.C., "the Carthaginianshastened to repair their errors anddecreed the public sacrifice of 200children from noble families. Some

citizens facing accusations voluntarilyoffered their own children, numberingno fewer than 300."

Of the Roman historians, three in

particular come to mind: Livy, whowrote a vivid account of the Second

Punic War, with a striking pen-portraitof Hannibal; Sallust, whose "Bellum

Jugurthinum" tells of the Phoeniciansand the Carthaginians; and Justin,whose story of the fabulous adventureof the Tyrian princess Elissa hasalready been quoted.

Greek and Latin literature thus

abounds in references to Carthage.But the history of Carthage was notthe primary concern of the classicalauthors; they were obliged to dealwith it because it was an integral partof the events they described, namelythe Greek and Roman wars againstCarthage.

Classical sources thus give us aportrait of Carthage painted by her

enemies, and what they wrote shouldbe interpreted with the greatestcaution. This is not to say that weshould be systematically sceptical;objectivity, in any case, is a verymodern concept for the historian. Butas they failed to understand certainaspects of Punic civilization, the

ancient historians may give us adistorted picture.

The ¡deal, of course, would be to

have the viewpoint of the Phoeniciansthemselves, but most of Punic

literature Is lost. The Library of Car¬thage was famous and was referredto by classical writers, some of whomappear to have consulted Punic works;Sallust, Servius and Festus Avenius,

to name three, refer to Punic books

(libri Punici) and the Punic records.

According to Pliny the Elder, thelibrary was handed over to the Numid-

ian princes and disappeared withouttrace. Only fragments of some veryfamous Punic writings were saved,such as the agricultural treatise ofMago. "Our Senate," says Pliny,"did him great honour. After the fallof Carthage, it presented the librariesof the city to the African princes; butit decreed that exceptionally the28 books of Mago would be translatedinto Latin, although Cato had alreadywritten a similar treatise. The task was

entrusted to persons familiar with the

Punic tongue, the principal translatorbeing D. Silanus, of noble birth."

The north African climate is

probably to blame to a large extentfor the disappearance of the Punicmanuscripts; the humidity of Tunisiadoes not favour the preservation ofpapyrus.

But there is a Semitic source which

can help us to trace some elements

of Punic civilization, namely the Torah.Carthage was the daughter of Tyreand Tyre seems to have had a

profound influence on the history andcivilization of the Beni Israel.

The Book of Kings tells us of Hiram,King of Tyre, and Solomon, son ofDavid, King of Israel. We read inChapter V: "And Hiram king of Tyresent his servants unto Solomon; for

he had heard that they had anointedhim king in the room of his father;for Hiram was ever a lover of David.

"And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,Thou knowest how that David myfather could not build an house untothe name of the Lord his God for the

wars which were about him on everyside, until the Lord put them underthe soles of his feet. But now the Lord

my God hath given me rest on everyside, so that there is neither adversarynor evil occurrent. And, behold, I

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

SEEN BY GREECE AND ROME (Continued)

But where is the Carthage of yesteryear?

PHOENICIAN

1 2th- 1 Oth

cent. B.C.

PUNIC

7th-5th

cent. B.C.GREEK LATIN

K < A Ai 3 B B* 0 r 6¿2 A A J>3 3 E E

y Y V

L ¡n A L

<* *H tA M

1 ^ IV N

O o O 0

7 7 7\ P? °? <P Q1 <\ P R

w w Z S+ f T T

From "Les Phé

(Robert Laffont,niciens' by

Pans)Jean Mazel

THE ALPHABET

REVOLUTION

We owe to the Phoenicians, some

33 centuries ago, one of the mostrevolutionary achievements in thehistory of human civilization: theinvention of an alphabet of 22 signs.Table above shows how 15 Phoenician

alphabetic signs evolved down thecenturies. In second column, Punicsigns (Punic was a Phoenician dialectspoken in Carthage) have been slightlymodified. Further changes are shown inGreek version, column 3, and familiarLatin alphabetic symbols in last column.

32

purpose to build an house unto thename of the Lord my God. . . Nowtherefore command thou that they hewme cedar trees out of Lebanon. . ."

The Bible contains many referencesto Phoenician civilization which un¬

doubtedly help us to penetrate intothe world of Carthage.

But literary sources are quite in¬adequate to answer all the questionsabout Carthage. We have to seekelsewhere, and turn naturally to thearchaeologists.

At the end of the Third Punic War,

the Roman Senate decreed the des¬

truction of Carthage and the order wascarried out by the army of ScipioAemilianus in 146 B.C. After their

pillaging and destruction, the Romansoldiers ploughed salt into the soil ofCarthage to destroy all fertility and allgrowth.

But for the archaeologist a muchgreater calamity was the later decisionof the Senate to rebuild. The first

attempt was made in the secondcentury B.C. when the Senate ratifiedthe Lex Rubria founding a "coloniaJunonia Carthago", which was to have6,000 colonists. This was a false

start a year later the Lex Minuciarepealed the previous law as a seriesof unfavourable circumstances had

made them drop the project.

Under the Caesars, however par¬

ticularly Augustus a complete Romantown was built on the site of the

ancient colony of Tyre. This was thereal disaster for Punic archaeology.Whatever had escaped the ravagerswas demolished by the builders. La¬bourers, surveyors and architects allcontributed to the final destruction of

the ruins of the great city. Materialsfrom Punic buildings were used in thefirst Roman constructions, which were

to disappear in turn in the fire thatravaged Carthage in the secondcentury.

A few fragments survive. . . Excava¬tions in a villa of the late Roman

period on the road from the sea toLa Malga revealed a fine Punicinscription unfortunately incomplete.About one-third is missing, so that itis difficult to read and understand the

text. But this in no way detracts fromthe exceptional value of the find.

These are the sort of difficulties

with which archaeologists have tocontend when seeking Punic remains.In 1857 Flaubert visited the site,

seeking traces of the principal monu¬ments palace walls, temples, etc.

but was bitterly disappointed. Otherarchaeologists have followed eachother to Carthage and have discoveredvery fine Roman monuments butwhere is Punic Carthage?

ON April 7, 1878, Father

Alfred Delattre discovered the necro¬

polis of Carthage. The tombs contain¬ed rich funerary objects ceramics,jewels, amulets, masks, etc. In some,incriptions were found. Historiansstress the inadequacy of such data,not without reason. "But we must

not claim," writes the French archaeo¬

logist, Stéphane Gsell, "to reconstructthe economic history [of Carthage]solely from the pottery buried in thesetombs."

Pottery is nevertheless of greatvalue, even when reduced to mere

shards, which were ignored in the daysof such 19th century historians asErnest Renan. "And yet," writes theFrench orientalist, Georges Contenau,"these humble shards buried in the

ruins often tell us the precise datesof the monuments where they arefound."

Burial furnishings, of course, bearwitness to belief in life after death.

The Carthaginians, like most ancientpeoples, placed beside the body orhuman ashes, ceramics, pitchers,dishes, bowls, lamps, gems, earrings,rings, buckles, etc. Women's tombsoften contain necklaces and bronze

mirrors, but unfortunately with noornamentation.

Traces of two small chapels havebeen found, one at Salammbô and the

other near Amilcar. Although notextensive, these remains, togetherwith the plentiful material (stelae, urns,

etc.) found in the sanctuary, give ussome insight into the Carthaginianreligion.

Domestic architecture is less well

known. Some ancient writers speakof houses with several storeys in thePunic capital. Recent excavations inthe Byrsa hillside and on the shoreat Gammarth have revealed traces of

Carthaginian dwellings similar to thosewe have explored at Kerkouane, thefamous Punic site on the Cap Bon

peninsula.

And so with the aid of these literary,archaeological and epigraphic sourcesthe historian seeks to reconstruct the

Carthaginian past.

MAGIC SQUARE

Seven times seven motifs figure on this tiny Carthaginiantablet (4 cm. square) discovered in a tomb, and datingfrom the 3-4th century B.C. Made of limestone pastecoated with green enamel, it is divided into49 squares, with the same motif repeated seven timeson each row. These are (from top): Ptah (Egyptianartisan god assimilated by Carthage); fish; Bes(Egyptian god of recreation, wearing a crown of feathers,also adopted by Carthage); water lily; frog; antelope,crocodile. Belief in the magic properties of the figureseven and its absolute multiple symbols of harmonyis affirmed in the religions and theologies of manyancient peoples. Like the Punic masks, the squaremay have served as a talisman or amulet to protect thedead. A unique relic, it is now in the Carthage museum. 'V*-

TANIT THE MYSTERIOUS

Below, the sanctuary of Tanit (4-5th century B.C.) atSalammbô, Carthage. The chief female deity ofCarthage, Tanit is sometimes named "Oum" (the mother)but her origins are mysterious. She did not belongto the Phoenician pantheon, but may have been anAfrican deity or foreign goddess assimilated by theCarthaginians. She became the Punic "Mother-goddess"

"She who gives". The stone carving in theforeground is a model of a temple, reduced to aflight of steps leading to an altar. The stele immediatelybehind is engraved with the "bottle sign" whichis associated with Tanit. The goddess herself isalways depicted in abstract form (see pages 5 and 40).Below right, a minor female deity and guardian of thesanctuary of Tanit, with lion's head and costumeimitating a bird's plumage (1st century B.C.). The deityfigures on Roman coins of the time on which she isdescribed as "Spirit of the Lands of Africa".

* ff*

Photo Georges Viollon © Rapho, Paris

S x

* ?

*^ mTJr*&

Photos Luc Joubert Ö Archaeologia Viva

This striking aerial photo shows the Medina, the old Moslem town of Tunis.With its great religious monuments, palaces. Inns and markets, and its network ofnarrow bustling streets, the Medina Is the historic heart of the capital of Tunisia.

Photo © André Martin

by Georges Fradier

TUNIS-A JEWEL

OF ISLAM

TVWENTY- EIGHT centuries

of civilization standing layer upon layerand covering an area of barely60 square miles: a site Carthage ; acity Tunis.

Carthage is a name that has fasci¬nated the great of literature from Vir¬gil to Flaubert, and which can be con¬jured up by a few brief images: thegenius of Hannibal with his Numidians

from northern Africa, Jiis Gauls and hiselephants, his "immortal" yet short¬lived victories. Then the Romans inAfrica; the aging Cato "Delenda estCarthago" (Carthage must be destroy¬ed). In 146 B.C. it was well and trulydestroyed, its remains razed to theground and its site declared accursed.

But economic necessity, it seems, ismore powerful than a conqueror's cur¬ses. The Roman colony of Carthago,founded on the ancient site in 44 B.C.,took less than a century to become alarge and powerful city of 300,000 in¬habitants, dealing, like its predecessor,in oil, wine and purple and importingGreek statuary.

The new Carthage was built with theRoman town-planner's geometric pat¬tern of streets, with aqueducts andforum, apartment buildings and villas,and complete with circus, theatre,odeon, temples and baths the famousAntonine Baths which were the mostluxurious in the world outside Rome.

This was truly a city to dream of forthe Italian merchants and their Puniccounterparts, for the orators and scho¬lars, the bishops and generals of theRoman colony and later for the Van¬dal chieftains with their own retinuesof orators and bishops; and later stillfor the Byzantine admirals.

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

GEORGES FRADIER is director of the pro¬ject for the development of the Tunis-Car-thage region (Unesco and U.N. DevelopmentProgramme Special Fund). He joined Unescoin 1947 and has been head of the UnescoPress Division and chief of the Unescomission to Mali. He is the author of "En¬counters and Celebrations", on the mutualappreciation of Eastern and Western culturalvalues, 1963; and "East and West, towardsmutual understanding" , 1959, both publishedby Unesco, but now out of print. He hasbeen a frequent contributor to the "UnescoCourier".

35

TUNIS (Continued)

Birth of a capitalat the Mosque of the Olive Tree

Carthage was a city dreamed over,renewed and remodelled during thecourse of seven centuries. When the

city was captured by Hassan IbnNoman in 698 A.D., still arrogant andstill confident in its power, Pompeii bythen had slept so long in its bed oflava that it had been forgotten.

Carthage, less fortunate than Pom¬peii, had no volcano to wrap it in awinding-sheet to await the century ofenlightenment and the scholars andstudents of antiquity. Like London,Treves, Lyon, Nîmes, like Rome it¬self, it became little more than aquarry. But the quarrymen who fil¬ched its stones, unlike those whodemolished the monuments of these

European cities, built nothing upon thesites of its abandoned temples.

Hassan and his successors used its

stones to build elsewhere as far awayas Kairouan. Not just for one year,nor even ten, but throughout thirteencenturies they took pillars and capitalsfor the mosques, palaces and souks,statues to feed the lime-kilns, sarco¬phagi to pave the streets. None ofthis was done maliciously life mustgo on, and this is how each wave ofcivilization builds upon its predeces¬sors. However, some monuments

were still standing, at times providingshelter to enemy forces. In 1270, fol¬lowing the crusade led by Saint Louis,the sultan, El Mostaneir, gave the orderto destroy the last remains.

Y

36

ET the traveller who wand¬

ers along a coast not yet seriouslydisfigured, climbs the partly-defacedhills and threads his way between thevillas and their tiny gardens stillcomes face to face with the old

Carthage. For here and there a fewcolumns still point to the skies, marbleand mosaics peep out from the grass,and overthrown buildings, whose buri¬ed walls lie flush to the ground, seemto thrust upwards, piercing throughsand and rubble, a bleak reminder ofthe once orderly plan of the ancientcity.

The hill of Byrsa, on which stood thefortress-sanctuary, last refuge of thePunic gods and their defenders, hasnever been explored. The bare spa¬ces, still awaiting excavation, covermore than 370 hectares (900 acres).

Like a newly deciphered language,ancient Carthage could be re-discover¬ed, restored to life, given new mean¬ing and depth. But first, those wholove Carthage and who are responsiblefor the city will need the means anddetermination to resist the invasion ofthe villa constructors before it is too

late, before the population squeeze and

housing boom have covered every¬thing with a thick coat of plaster.They will need the help of administra¬tive and legal measures no less thanfinancial resources. But once they havethe legal powers, there is little doubtthat the funds they need will be forth¬coming.

It may seem strange that an articledealing with cultural rescue should beconcerned with both an ancient, anni¬hilated city and a strongly flourishing,exuberant capital. Carthage finallyperished in giving birth to Tunis, butthe heart of Tunis is threatened by asuperabundance of life. Only citieswhom history has passed by escapethis paradoxical fate. But Tunis sim¬mers with history in the making. Theadministrative, industrial, commercialand tourist centre of a country of fivemillion inhabitants, Tunis jsing a period of great expansion and,as we say of teenagers, is sufferingfrom growing pains.

IIN 1925, Tunis had a popu¬

lation of 186,000in 1966, 470,000.But for some years now the directorsof the urban development plan havebeen aware that it would be pointlessto consider the city alone without plan¬ning for the surrounding communitiesof the residential suburb near the sea.

Four years ago this "Greater Tunis"had a population of nearly 800,000 andby the end of the century it is esti¬mated that it will have risen to two

million.

Yet these figures fail to tell thewhole story. Although they indicatea rate of growth that to some mustappear colossal, they reveal nothing ofthe fundamental aspects of this urbangrowth. Yet even a brief outline ofthe history of the city provides aglimpse of these aspects. It gives usan idea of the pressures and impera¬tives, the interplay of poverty anddevelopment, the dangers of routinesolutions and the horizons that can be

opened up by clear-sighted decisions.

At the foot of a small hillock, on anarrow strip of land between a marshand the big lake which separates itfrom the sea, lay a small village as oldas time. It was this country market¬place and caravan crossroads that Has¬san and his successors chose first as

the setting for the Djama Zitouna, ormosque of the olive-tree, and then asthe site of a town.

From this great house of prayer ariver of brick and stone spread outto the north, the south, the west andthe south-west, spawning marketstreets, great men's houses, hostel-ries, cisterns, wells, warehouses, work¬shops, schools, sepulchres, gardens.

Two suburbs, protected by rampartslinked to the fortress that soon came

to overshadow the great mosque,offered a welcome to caravans andfarmers.

The domes and square minarets(later to be replaced by fine octago¬nal towers) of other mosques rearedtheir heads to the sky. The brightterraces of the closely-huddled hou¬ses looked out to sea or over the

sacred hills, shielding the patios ofthese vast, secretive dwellings which,from century to century, retained theinward-looking Roman style as adaptedby Moslem Egypt.

The history of Tunis, as one disco¬vers with relief, is less a saga of gen¬erals, of messianic dictators, of sheiks,deys and beys, than a fairy tale forarchitects. It is the history of the slowgrowth of a hive, the patient multipli¬cation of honeycomb cells, inter¬mingled and interdependent like thecells of a living organism. There were,of course, enough party rivalries, sie¬ges, brawls and free-for-alls to satisfyconnoisseurs of old style drama, ifany still exist. But the impressionremains that the real history of Tunis,of the Medina of Tunis, wisely placedin the hands of the builders and confin¬

ed to the 760 acres within its walls,

unfolded over eleven hundred yearsquite apart from these colourful buttrivial occurrences.

It is true that this capital of theolo¬gians, jurists, craftsmen and mer¬chants, peaceful by inclination and byrepute, did not entirely escape thehand of violence. In about 1050 came

the invasion of the Beni Hilal Bedouins,let loose, according to the historian IbnKhaldoun, like a swarm of voracious

CONTINUED PAGE 39

PLEASURES

OF THE CHASE

Hunting is a recurring theme inCarthaginian mosaics of the Romanperiod. In the 2nd century A.D.,influenced by emperor Hadrian's passionfor hunting wild beasts, the sportbecame the favourite pastime of theRoman aristocracy. Above right,fragment of a hunting scene from a5th century Carthaginian mosaic. Belowright, a perfectly preserved 6th centurymosaic baptismal font decorated withhunting scenes. Dedicated to SaintCyprian, one of the fathers of theChristian church who lived in the

3rd century, it indicates that huntinghad been taken up by the Christiansof Carthage.

Bardo Museum, TunisPhotos © Luc Joubert

,

r I

to

¿mV

^4- 4- #' 'f

v'ÍSfem

*7Vl

k».'«'/V

»1

wî O.

>(?

C-B r

KJr.

r?<c- ~^

i <

'<v

BUS\-.,*'

5£~ i

¿tte

3È

^j

ff^>^ 7*

^|4- -è-

J*

i fl LASsV-^t:?

¿fl

t«

s 3

TUNIS (Continued)

The Medina: 11 centuries

of architectural splendour

locusts by the Caliph of Egypt. Andthree centuries later came the occupa¬tion by the Merinids, another nomadictribe, this time from Algeria.

Then, in 1534, followed Khairad-DinBarbarossa's Turkish soldiers, syste¬matic pillagers like Charles V's Spa¬nish soldiery a year later. The endof the 17th and the beginning of the18th centuries saw further Algerianincursions, but these were less serious

and more quickly forgotten.

All in all there was little destruction,no vengeful sacking, sacrilegiousdemolition or fanatical incendiarism.

Warfare, generally the repercussion ofthe wars of other nations, periodicallyhalted, for brief periods, the city'sgrowth and embellishment. After theseintervals, masons, carpenters, sculp¬tors,- tilers, plasterers and glass-blowers resumed their toil.

Almost all their works are there, andin this town, still shut in by its invisiblewalls (the vanished ramparts still leavetheir imprint on the boulevards), theshortest walk becomes an endless pil¬grimage through street and alley, soukand cul-de-sac, leading not only topalaces and places of worship (or evento mere facades and arches or the

pure volumes of the skyline), but alsoto the very vision of their builders whoseem close at hand and ready to wel¬come the visitor.

Yet if, today, it were suddenly to beannounced that bulldozers were readyto raze these wonders to the ground,it would surprise but few; too manyexamples can be quoted of European

FLORAL GEOMETRY

Complicated floral decorations (left) area motif typical of Tunisian faience andare to be seen on many of the wallsof Tunis's Dar Hussein palace, builtin the 19th century. Today the palacehouses the National Institute of

Archaeology and the Arts, and theArab-Islam Museum. For long merelya suburb of Carthage, ancient Tunisbecame the capital after the Arabconquest in the 7th century AD. Theold quarter contains a multitude of artand architectural treasures. From

Babylon the art of faience spread toPersia and was taken up by the Arabswho carried it to North Africa and the

West. To this day it provides a vehiclefor some of the most delicatedecorative work in Arab-Islamic art.

Photo © Magnum - Inge Morath

Right, a delicately carved doorwayto an ancient mansion in the Medina

of Tunis, one of the many treasuresof Islamic art and architecture of

this city within a city.

cities, once the cradles of art, that arebeing openly destroyed at this verymoment by hard-headed building pro¬moters, deaf to the helpless cry of"culture", to be replaced by their me¬diocre modernism.

Indeed, some enthusiasts for PublicWorks have already put forward plansfor the disembowelling of Tunis, point¬ing to the traffic problem, which thiskind of surgery would anyway do littleto solve. The good sense of thelocal authorities has restrained them.

However, words such as "pilgrimage","visitor", "enclosed city", deliber¬ately used above, hint at another kindof danger. Is the Medina of Tunisthen no longer a town like any other?

Is it reserved for the curiosity seek¬er? What has happened?

In about 1860, the Christian Europeanmerchants, whose "fondouks" (ware¬houses) had crowded in upon eachother over two centuries in the lower

part of the town near the sea gate,also called the Porte de France, movedout and installed their warehouses and

dwellings outside the town walls. Theysettled themselves in an agreeabledisorder that was harmless enough,yet which heralded the great trans¬formation of Tunis and, it has beensaid in moments of pessimism, the endof eleven centuries of peaceful history.

Twenty years later came the FrenchProtectorate. But it was not destruc-

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

MAGIC SYMBOLS

THAT ENDURE

,'/''

The mother goddess Tanit finally displaced Ba'alHammon as undisputed head of the Carthaginianpantheon towards the middle of the 4th centuryB.C. On stelae erected in sanctuaries dedi¬cated to her, two of the signs used to symbo¬lize the divine presence are the open hand withoutward facing palm (top of photo left), and,(centre photo) the "sign of the bottle" sur¬mounted by a crescent with tips turned downwards(see also page 33). The modern Tunisian orna¬mental clasp (below) incorporates both the cres¬cent and the open hand and signifies good luck.Today in much of the Mediterranean world thismotif is known as "the hand of Fatima" and

demonstrates how ancient magical symbols per¬sist although their religious significance may havelong been forgotten.

Photos 0 Luc Joubert

¿f '^>>

1

1

RMMNNHHMMHHflI

1.

40

TUNIS (Continued)

tive. On the contrary, the Frenchwere builders and modernistic build¬

ers. Starting with the scattered ware¬houses beside the Porte, the colonists,

at no great cost but with a certainpride, built a colonial town conceivedin grandiose style.

Facing away from the old Tunis,henceforward no more than an Arab

quarter, the straight avenues, the right-angled streets, the plain chequer-boardof the military camp of the new townspread out beside the lake. Year byyear new administrative buildings,banks, houses, shops, apartmenthouses, cafés, hotels, theatres andcinemas were added.

In 1970, the lake is still not entirelysurrounded and the avenues stretch

out to north and south, a skyscraperhas sprung up, new centres areappearing, smoke rises from a few fac¬tories and a multi-storey hotel domi¬nates a cluster of luxurious villas.

The hotel also overlooks, on theother side, a newly built and regret¬table shanty-town, but this subtractsnothing from the charm of Tunis, amodern "European" city that no onewould wish to find fault with. In fact,

it has a great deal of charm, like 19thcentury Milan or the suburbs of Tou¬louse.

But in thus displacing the administra¬tive and business centre, in changingradically the criteria of modern urbanlife, in giving a new orientation to itsevolution, the heart of the town hasbeen unwittingly drained of life.

THE Medina held out for

some time. Retaining its intellectualprestige it remains, indeed, the reli¬gious centre. But most of its leadingcitizens, the descendants of greatfamilies, have left their palaces whichbrought life to whole sections of thetown, and have rented them to the

impoverished migrants who come fromthe country districts, in an unendingstream, lured by the mirage of thecapital.

Far away in their modern apartmentsthey have no inclination to botherthemselves with the dirt of the slums

that have developed under their ances¬tral roofs. And no doubt they haveno time to worry about this constant

Photo © André Martin

influx or about the occasional exploi¬tation of these landless peasants orthe crowds of unemployed.

Luckily there are others who areconcerned about this trend, who rea¬lize that the Medina of Tunis is one

of the finest in North Africa which

means one of the finest in the world

and that it provides an example of anastounding continuity of architecturaldevelopment, the unsullied fruit ofeleven hundred years of creation.

Above all, they know that with itssuburbs, despite the defection of somewealthier citizens, despite abuses andindifference, it retains a highly originallife, a captivating mixture of traditionand adaptation to the present age.

Knowing all this, these Tunisianswho are now responsible for theirtown have refused to accept the roleof placid defenders of "old stones",content to restore a few monuments

here and there and to turn a district

or two into museums and empty shells.This would be a cheap way to appeasetheir consciences.

They understand clearly that theywill have to take care of the whole

Medina in its relationship to the capi-

A Tunisian jeweller at work. Handicrafts remain an importantfactor in Tunisian life; some 16,000 to 20,000 craftsmen and

artisans keep alive the old skills and traditions which havebeen handed down for generations.

tal as a whole: Tunis and its suburbs.

The dangers which beset the historicheritage and which are sapping it fromwithin arise from social and economic,from human causes which are just theones that any urban development pro¬gramme worthy of the name shouldtackle.

If these causes are forgotten, theMedina, behind its austere facades, willhouse nothing but shanties, famousschools debased, mausoleums trans¬formed into cattle-sheds, while at the

same time Carthage will be coveredwith motorways, with villas for middle-class executives, with tourist "palaces"and supermarkets. This would, with¬out doubt, be the easy solution.

It is a solution that must be rejected.And perhaps such crimes will neverbe committed. In 1969, prompted bythe Association for the Protection of

the Medina and the National Institute

of Archaeology and the Arts, the Tuni¬sian government launched a pilot pro¬ject for the safeguarding and restora¬tion of the country's heritage of monu¬ments in the Tunis-Carthage region aspart of its plans for economic develop¬ment, and asked for help from Unesco

under the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme. Final approval of thescheme by the UNDP is expected inJanuary 1971.

The resources in men and materials

to be deployed would be derisory ifthe intention were to excavate the site

of Carthage and to put its ruins ondisplay in a fitting manner, or to buyup the palaces in danger in the Medinaand restore their woodwork, marble

and stucco facings.

However, the immediate objective isless spectacular yet no less ambitious.A team made up of internationalexperts and representatives of UNDPand Unesco, will first study and ana¬lyse the problems of Tunis and Car¬thage in economic as much as inarchaeological terms and propose thebest solutions and an order of priorityfor the work of restoration.

Under the auspices of an inter-minis¬terial committee, the team has a pri¬ority task to provide the Tunisianauthorities with a scientifically basedplan for coherent and co-ordinatedurban development of the region. It isonly within this context that one canhope, and there is already ground for

hope, that generous international aidwill be forthcoming for the safe¬guarding and restoration of the mo¬numents and sites.

A few months ago, a leading town-planning specialist wrote in a Frenchnewspaper: "Paris is in danger. Sheseems to be following a path of selfdestruction, destroying those veryfacets that give her her character andvalue. No one, it seems, is aware ofthe danger and nothing is yet beingdone to halt the process."

Other newspapers in Europe andelsewhere could equally bewail the lotof many other cities. It would indeedbe a great achievement if Tunis, thecapital of a country in which the annualrevenue does not exceed 100 dollars

per head, should give the lead thatreason demands; should give the leadbecause its leaders have become

aware in time of the destructive

process of haphazard urban develop¬ment and because its lovers of historyand archaeology have quickly andclearly grasped the fact that inorder to safeguard stones one mustfirst see to the needs of men andwomen.

41

EIGHT CENTURIES OF CARTHAGINIAN CIVILIZATION

(Continued from page 20)

The tophet filled up with monumentswhich were miniature reproductionsof some of the buildings (all nowvanished) of .the city as it existedthen small Egyptian-style temples,chapels rising above a high stairwaybefore which stood altars on which

perfumes were placed.

The kings set an example of piety,indeed even of fanaticism. Two of

them, Hamilcar in 480 B.C. and Himil¬co in 396 B.C. made ritual sacrifices

of themselves to expiate defeats. Dur¬ing the Sicilian wars, many humanvictims, especially prisoners, weresacrificed to Ba'al Hammon and other

gods. Some of these princes, likeHannibal, the son of Gisco, who reign¬ed in 409 B.C., were animated by aracial and religious hatred of theGreeks.

But these hard, intolerant men pos

sessed savage energy and were drivenby a patriotic fervour. They made theircountry the greatest power in the wes¬tern Mediterranean and mistress of an

empire as extensive and as rich asthe empire being built at the same timeby Athens in the Aegean.

Fortune did not always favour them.During an initial phase, between 550and 480 B.C., Carthage gained masteryof Sardinia, destroying in the processthe local civilization to which we owe

the nuraghs and some fine smallbronzes (see "Unesco Courier", Sep¬tember 1966). The Phoenician citiesof Sicily and Spain accepted its hege¬mony. A Punic colony establishedin the Etruscan city of Caere (Cervetri,60 kilometres north of Rome) and inthe port of Pyrgi played a leading rolein local political affairs. When Romefreed itself from the Etruscans, in509 B.C., its first concern was to con

clude a treaty of alliance with Car¬thage.

In both the east and the west, how¬

ever, the dynamic expansion of Hel¬lenism was in evidence. At the begin¬ning of the 5th century the great kingsof Persia, Darius and Xerxes, resolvedto crush it. It is quite probable thatHamilcar, the Magonid ruler of Car¬thage, concerted his action with theirs.But the Persian and Punic armadas

were both annihilated, the latter at

Himera, Sicily, according to traditionon the same day as the Persian defeatat Salamis.

Carthage then turned away from theworld and retired within itself for

seventy years but only to renew itsstrength by once more altering thebases of its power. King Hanno theGreat first wrested from the Libyans aterritory vaster than that held by anyother Mediterranean city: the north¬eastern half of present-day Tunisia asfar as a line drawn from Sfax to Ta-

barga.

This task scarcely completed, helaunched ambitious maritime exped¬itions to ensure control over the trade

with the far west which had givenbirth to Carthage, but whose mosteffective guardians until then had beenthe Phoenicians of Spain.

While Carthage was growing everstronger Greece was being torn bythe Peloponnesian war, and in 409 B.C.Hanno's successors judged the timeripe to take revenge for Himera. Asavage lightning attack destroyed Seli-nonte and Agrigento, but the Punicoffensive ground to a halt before Syra¬cuse. A bloody and exhausting strug¬gle ensued with neither side able toseize a decisive advantage. War-weari¬ness spread in Carthage and a grow¬ing faction began to oppose the warand the dynasty that was conducting it.In about 370 B.C. this faction finallywrested control from the last of the

Magonids.

The aristocratic regime that was torule Carthage until the end of the firstwar against Rome gradually becameestablished, although not without somesetbacks. The nature of this regimeis known to us thanks to an analysis ofit made by Aristotle in about 330 B.C.Real power was in the hands of com-

This mask Is more than 2,500years old. It dates fromthe Magonid dynasty ofCarthaginian history(6th-5th centuries B.C.)which marks the zenith of

the manufacture of pottery masks.Masks like this one,with lips drawn back ina sardonic grin, were usedin many religious ceremoniesin Carthage.(See also colour photo, p. 24)

WESTWARD HO! These slender little terracotta figures wearing high peaked bonnets depictthe ancestors of the Carthaginians. Dating from the 12th century B.C.,the statuettes were unearthed from the ruins of a temple at Byblos,the chief city of Phoenicia until about 1200 B.C., when its prosperity as a tradingcentre declined and passed to the Phoenician port of Tyre.Thus, at the time when a. sculptor of Byblos was modelling these figuresof his contemporaries, the navigators of Tyre were setting out westwardsto explore the whole of the Mediterranean as far as the Iberianpeninsula and the western tip of North Africa.

mittees of nobles and above all laywith the notorious Tribunal of the One

Hundred and Four which mercilesslyeliminated anyone suspected of wish¬ing to re-establish personal rule aswell as those accused of treachery orincompetence.

So close were the links between re¬

ligion and royalty that the revolutionwas inevitably accompanied by reli¬gious reform. From the end of the 5thcentury a hitherto obscure goddessbegan to appear at the side of Ba'alHammon. She was to become the

"Lady of Carthage" and even took pre¬cedence over her fellow deity. Tanitreigned over the heavens and espe¬cially over the moon. She granted thegift of fertility and watched over thesleep of the dead. Less cruel thanBa'al Hammon, she may be likened tothe Greek Hera or the Roman Juno.

One of the reasons for her climb

to ascendancy was undoubtedly thedesire of many Carthaginians to bringtheir religion more into line with thosepractised in Sicily and southern Italywhere Mother Goddesses played animportant role. In 396 B.C. they evenintroduced officially into Carthage theGreek corn goddesses Demeter andKore, who in their mysteries taughttheir worshippers how to avoid thesnares of the next world.

The decorations found on the stelaein the tophet give some idea of theintensity and complexity of religiousactivity in Carthage during the 4thcentury B.C. The most frequently re¬curring symbols, such as the "sign ofTanit", a triangle surmounted by a barand a circle, express with geometricausterity the ineffable power of thedivinity.

Carthage reached the height of itsprosperity around the year 300 B.C.

Greek influence was on the decline in

Sicily and Italy. In the east, Alexan¬der's successors, who had planned toadd all Africa to his empire, wastedtheir energies by quarrelling amongthemselves.

The Carthaginians managed to esta¬blish friendly relations with one of theDiadochi (the generals who succeededAlexander) the Lagide dynasty whichruled in Egypt and in old Phoenicia,now almost completely hellenized.Whilst retaining their own languageand culture, they readily accepted thenew thought and art forms born ofthe marriage of Greek culture and theold civilizations of the Nile, of Syriaand Asia Minor, and propagated themin the west.

Meanwhile, during the second halfof the 4th century B.C., Italy had wit¬nessed an extraordinary political de¬velopment. Within a few decades, a

43

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

CARTHAGINIAN CIVILIZATION (Continued)

The death of two cities

city hitherto of scant importance, back¬ward in its economic and cultural life,had subjugated both the ancient civiliz¬ed peoples of Etruria, Campania andGraecia Magna and the half-savagetribes of the Apennines.

The Punic government had not con¬sidered that the sudden rise of Rome

constituted a danger; nor can it beaccused of lack of foresight. The newagricultural and military state had noapparent reason to quarrel with thegreat trading and maritime republicwith which, indeed, it was linked bya long tradition of friendship sanction¬ed by many treaties.

But the Italian confederation includ¬

ed associates, more advanced than

Rome itself, who sought compensationfor the restriction of their indepen¬dence in the profits their trade andindustry might gain from their asso¬ciation with the most redoubtable

military power of the age.

These were the Campanians whosechief city was Capua. They belongedto the Osean nation, related to theLatins, a few of whose tribes had tried

to infiltrate into Sicily as far back asthe 4th century. B.C.

The Campanians had inveigled someof the more adventurous of the Roman

senatorial families, such as the Claudii,into joining them in their enterprise.This Romano-Campanian party sidedwith a band of Campanian pillagerswho had treacherously seized Messinaand whom the Greeks and Cartha¬

ginians sought by common consent toneutralize. It was thus that, in 264 B.C.,a few intriguers and the interplay ofsomewhat shady interests sparked offa conflict which was to decide the fate

of the entire Mediterranean and bringCarthage to ruin.

T

44

HE war, which like the Ro¬mans, we term the First Punic War,was to show that the Punic oligarchy,similar in many respects to the parlia¬mentary regimes of the 19th century,was incapable of sustaining a longstruggle.

During the very first years the Ro¬man legions easily proved themselvessuperior to the Carthaginian merce¬naries by conquering almost all ofSicily. The Roman fleet also soonshowed itself to be a match for itsrival. At first sight this appears aston¬ishing; but although the Romans hadno naval tradition, they had at theirdisposal the shipyards and the sea¬men of the Greek cities in Italy.

However, the Campanian Regulus'attempt to gain a foothold in Africaended in complete disaster and mostof the Punic strongholds held out, evenin Sicily. What really decided thedefeat of Carthage after more than

twenty years of war (241 B.C.) wasthe breakdown of its economy, thetimidity of its diplomacy and the im¬potence of a command paralyzed bythe terror that the One Hundred and

Four held for the generals.

The ruling class was responsibleand it paid dearly for its errors. Itwas nearly swept away by a socialrevolution led by the under-paid de¬mobilized mercenaries who carried

with them the Libyan peasant prole¬tariat, for long ruthlessly exploited bythe great landowners.

The republic owed its salvation toHamilcar Barca, a young general whohad distinguished himself as a com¬mando leader during the war in Sicily.But he had no intention of restoring aregime which he rightly held respon¬sible for the defeat. Instead, Hamilcarbuilt, up an independent power inSpain, sufficiently far away as not tobe hampered, at least in the early sta¬ges, by the surveillance of the RomanSenate.

When he perished in 228 B.C., heleft his son-in-law Hasdrubal and his

sons a kingdom of which the Barcidsbecame the sovereigns, a treasurysupplied by the inexhaustible mines ofthe sierras and a seasoned army ent¬irely loyal to its leaders.

Hannibal, who was to inherit these

resources less than ten years later,after the murder of his brother-in-law,had perfected his father's plan whichreally aimed at taking revenge onRome.

He was extremely well informedabout internal politics in Italy. Heknew that the Greeks and Campa¬nians, after benefiting handsomelyfrom the victory that had opened upfor them the markets of the entirewestern Mediterranean, were becom¬ing apprehensive about Latium's eco¬nomic progress and the greed ofRoman businessmen. They wouldgladly have withdrawn from the part¬nership if they had been able to do sowithout risk. Their defection would

deprive Rome of its naval strength andrender it powerless outside Italy.

The legions had to be neutralized ifthis defection was to be broughtabout. This Hannibal proposed to doby using the formidable manpowerresources of the Celtic world as a

battering ram. Every part of the planfitted logically into place, including theseemingly romantic escapade that wasto lead the young Barcid with hisSpanish-African army and his elephantsthrough the Pyrenees, across theRhone and beyond the Alps (219 B.C.).

Why the great plan failed aftercoming so close to realization withina bare three years cannot be explainedhere. After his victory at Cannae,Capua opened its gates to him (216B.C.), but the Italian confederation held

together. Meanwhile Spain, which hadbeen quickly conquered by the Bar¬cids, fell just as quickly into thehands of the Scipios.

Perhaps the situation could havebeen saved with the assistance of the

Greeks if the kings of Macedonia andSyria had been more far-seeing anddecisive. Once these opportunitieswere missed the outcome was inevit¬

able Rome's patient re-conquest ofItaly, Scipio's successful landing inAfrica, and Carthage compelled toaccept the victor's terms after thebattle of Zama (202 B.C.).

Contrary to what is often believed,these terms were relatively mild.Scipio and the majority of the Senatewanted to confine Carthage to Africaand to make it, once and for all, sub¬ject to Rome; they did not want todestroy Carthage. It was not untilabout 170 B.C. that Cato and his partymanaged to impose the idea that thedestruction of Carthage was essentialto Roman policy.

ANY explanations for thissudden change of attitude have beenadvanced. In my opinion it was dueto the internal political situation inCarthage. Ever since Hamilcar Barcahad restored power to the people, thecity had moved steadily towards amore and more progressive form ofdemocracy.

Hannibal himself had contributed to

this evolution when, after Zama, heattempted to govern his country for awhile. But at this stage in its history,Rome could not tolerate the emergenceanywhere of popular regimes capableof disturbing the very harsh socialsystem which, directly or indirectly,produced enormous profits for itsruling classes. The Senate destroyedCorinth and Carthage in the same year(146 B.C.) because they had becomehotbeds of revolution.

Such is the picture that we have ofthe often obscure and sometimes

paradoxical destiny of this Asiatic cityclinging to the shores of Africa. Somuch tenacity, such extraordinarycapacity for adaptation; were theyexpended for nothing? It could easilybe shown that Carthage, whoselanguage and civilization did not finallydie out until the 4th century A.D.,continued to play an important role inthe Roman empire that destroyed it.

Its heritage has been passed onelsewhere too to the Berbers who

had been pupils as well as subjectsand, through them, some part hasdoubtless been handed down to

present-day Tunisia, now more thanever confirmed in its role as bridgebetween the Moslem east and theChristian west.

T

JEAN

PERRIN

A PIONEER

OF MODERN

PHYSICS

by Pierre Auger

PIERRE AUGER is head of the permanent com¬mittee for the creation of an International Scien¬

tific Foundation. The committee is being set upwith Unesco's assistance. A leading Frenchphysicist, he was formerly Director-General ofthe European Space Research Organization,which he helped to set up, and President of theInternational Computation Centre, Rome. From1948 to 1959 Professor Auger was Director ofUnesco's Department of Natural Sciences.Among his books is an important work publishedby Unesco, "Current Trends in ScientificResearch" (3rd edition, Unesco, Paris, 331-,$6.75, hard cover).

HE final years of the 19th century and thefirst decades of the 20th were marked by tremendous advances of know¬ledge in the world of physics. Radioactivity, the electron, energy quanta,relativity and the atomic nucleus came upon the scene, in turn openingup new areas of science each of which alone could have constituted anew and distinct discipline.

Jean Perrin, the French physicist whose centenary is being commemo¬rated this year, played a leading role in this remarkable development.

It was Perrin who, at the turn of the century, demonstrated the particlenature of cathode rays, identifying them as the elementary carriers ofthe negative charge, in other words, as the electrons that have revolu¬tionized all branches of industry and communications.

This discovery was remarkable for two reasons; it was made by a young,twenty-five year old scientist, who had just completed his universitystudies; it settled a debate that had divided the great physicists of theday for over ten years.

The demonstration of the particle nature of electricity, "the atoms ofthe electric charge", led Jean Perrin to undertake an even more extensiveinvestigation, this time a study of the atoms constituting all matter.

Prior to Perrin's work physicists spoke of the atomic hypothesis and thekinetic theory of gases; after it there remained no doubt as to the realexistence of atoms, so convincing was his demonstration.

He started from the notion, held by Boltzmann, Maxwell and Van derWaals, that all individual particles of matter contained in a fluid must be

subject to the same laws of energy, whether they be atoms, molecules orgrains of emulsion. It was merely a question of a change of scale, butthe kinetic energies would be the same and consequently the same lawsof motion would hold good.

One particular case was that of the Brownian movement which can be

detected even with a student's microscope when observing mushroomspores floating in water. By a vast change of scale, amounting to afactor of sixty million, it was possible to compare the distribution ofemulsion grains over a height of a tenth of a millimetre with that of mole¬cules of air up to an altitude of six "kilometres.

Measurements with the microscope thus made possible the calculationof the number of molecules contained in a litre of air. In fact, whatJean Perrin was thus to measure directly for the first time was what wenow know as Avogadro's number the number of molecules in a gramme-molecule (for example, two grammes of hydrogen) and which has avalue of approximately six hundred thousand million million million.

Perrin turned his attention to the investigation of several other atomicand molecular phenomena, demonstrating, for example, the existence oflayers a single molecule thick in the thin films of soap bubbles andsurface coatings on water. He published numerous papers on fluores¬cence, surface electrification and colloids in which he repeatedly demon¬strated his powerful imaginative capacity and his great talent as an expe¬rimenter.

His ideas were often much ahead of his time he proposed a planetarymodel of the atom as early as 1901 and, in 1921, he postulated that theenergy of the stars resulted from thermonuclear reaction.

Endowed with great personal magnetism, he was able, as professor andlaboratory director, to inspire many students to take up research careers.

Jean Perrin's brilliant scientific work earned him the Nobel Prize for

physics in 1926, but it was not his only claim to the recognition of thoseconcerned with pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. His vigorousand skilful campaign led to the creation before the Second World War of

the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique which was toserve as a model for other countries. He was also responsible for thefoundation of the Palais de la Découverte in Paris, which has become aneffective centre for the popularization of science.

Believing that science was the result of contributions from all sources,and therefore the common property of mankind, he strove throughout hislife, with truly democratic purpose, to make science accessible to all andto promote its advancement for the .good of all.

45

G3 'lü

-

G3 GSGermán help

for Borobudur

The Federal Republic of Germany is tocontribute over half a million dollars

towards the restoration of the 1,100 yearold Buddhist temple of Borobudur in Indo¬nesia. This represents the first gift in aplan for the restoration and tourist deve¬lopment of the site with Unesco's help.Total cost is estimated at 5.5 million dol¬

lars for restoration and between 2 and

3 million dollars for the development of thesite, of which Indonesia will provide1 million dollars.

Unesco tribute

to Maria Montessori

Unesco recently commemorated thecentenary of the birth of Maria Montessori,the distinguished Italian educator. During.a ceremony at Unesco headquarters onOctober 30, M. Atilio Dell'Oro Maini, Presi¬dent of Unesco's General Conference, then

meeting in Paris, and other speakers paidtribute to the work of Maria Montessori

whose teaching methods and materials havebeen incorporated into many modern edu¬cational systems.

TV violence

and the teenagerA 3-year survey into the effects of TV

violence on the adolescent boy is beingmade by the Survey Research Centre ofthe London School of Economics. It will

make comparative studies on two repre¬sentative groups of 1,000 boys each onegroup having seen a great deal of TV vio¬lence, the other, relatively little. A majorproblem for the researchers is to assemblea representative control group of childrenwho have seen little television.

World watch

on air pollutionAn international network for the moni¬

toring and study of air pollution set upby the World Health Organization willoperate from next month. Two internationalcentres, London and Washington, threeregional centres, Moscow, Nagpur andTokyo, and twenty laboratories in variousparts of the world, will report on

46

The world

behind

a mask

The photographs published in our Octo¬ber 1970 issue (Exploring the World behinda Mask, page 27) illustrating an educa¬tional experiment by the Cantini Museum,Marseilles and schools in southern France,were taken by Mr Louis Fulconis, of theCentre de Documentation Pédagogique, inMarseilles.

levels of air pollution due to sulphur dioxideand dust particles, making it possible toobserve and compare trends in variouscountries and to issue warnings wherenecessary.

Boosting cholera controlThe first WHO sponsored cholera con¬

trol courses for health officials from

English-speaking and French speakingAfrican countries were recently held res¬pectively in Ibadan, Nigeria, and Bobo-Diou-lasso, Upper Volta. They were run by"flying faculties" sent by the WHO Regio¬nal Office for Africa, in Brazzaville.

1,000 Unesco fellowshipsawarded annually

Well over 1,000 men and women everyyear travel abroad under a Unesco fellow¬ship scheme for raising educational stan¬dards, spreading specialized skills and pro¬moting understanding of other cultures.The fellowships cover training in education,science, the social sciences, culture, thecreative arts and communications. In

1970 nearly a quarter of the participantshave been women. Some 12,000 fellow¬ships have been awarded since the schemebegan in 1948.

Antidote to heat pollutionHeat pollution of lakes and rivers by

water released from electric power plantscould be eliminated by air-cooling systemsutilizing large fans blowing over finnedtubes to replace conventional water cool¬ing towers. This design change, says Pro¬fessor J.T. Davies of Birmingham University,in a recent report on trends in engineeringresearch prepared for Unesco, would alsofree electric power plants from their presentdependence on large supplies of water.

Israel's summer

science school

Ninety-one teenagers from Europe andthe U.S. recently joined Israeli studentsin a seven week programme of scientificexploration and cultural experience at thesecond annual Science Summer Institute

for High School Students, at the Weiz-mann Institute of Science, Israel. The

students studied biology, chemistry, phy¬sics and mathematics, including computerprogramming, under the guidance of Israelispecialists.

Flashes...

One person out of every four in Taiwanis a student. Ninety-eight per cent of allschool-age children in Taiwan are attend¬ing school.

Unesco recently sent two missions toCambodia to supervise the protection ofcultural property and the storage of valua¬ble exhibits from Cambodian museums.

Most Japanese who live to be more than90 are cheerful by nature and continued towork late in their career reports a surveyby Japan's Health and Welfare Ministry.

Ten million dollars allocated to the

World Food Programme for emergencyrelief in 1970 had been exhausted by July,by which time the programme had faced11 emergency situations and had extendedfour previous operations.

BOOKSHELF

UNESCO'S TRANSLATION SERIES

INDIA

Ghalib Volume ILife and Letters

Translated and edited

by Ralph Russell andKhurshidul Islam

George Allen and Unwin Ltd.,London, 1969 (70/- stg.)

The World of Premchand

Translated by David RubinGeorge Allen and Unwin Ltd.,London, 1969 (35/- stg.)

PERSIA

M Mystical Poems of RumiTranslated by A.J. ArberryUniversity of Chicago Press1968 ($6, 54/- stg.)

JAPAN

The Manyoshu1,000 Poems

Translated by a committee of theNippon Gakujutsu ShinkokaiForeword by Donald KeeneColumbia University PressHardcover, 1965

($12.50); Paperback edition1969 ($4.95, 45/- stg.)

CHINA

Records of the Grand Historianof China

Chapters from the Shih Chiof Ssu-ma Ch'ien

Translated by Burton WatsonColumbia University PressTwo volume hardcover edition

1961 ($20); paperback edition1969 ($4.50, 40/6 stg.)

ROMANIA

A Gamble with Death

by Zaharia Stancutranslated by Richard HiliardPeter Owen, Ltd., London1969 (40/- stg.)

RECENT UNESCO BOOKS

An Introduction to

Lifelong EducationBy Paul Lengrand1970 ($2.50, 15/- stg.)

Literacy and Developmentby H.M. Phillips1970.

Television for highertechnical education

of the employed(a first report on a pilotproject in Poland)Reports and Papers on MassCommunication, No. 551969 ($1.25, 7/- stg.)

The Planning of Libraryand Documentation Services

By C.V. Penna1970 ($4.00, 24/- )

<cc

C3

5

cc

o

UNESCO COURIER INDEX 1970

January

EDUCATION AT THE CROSSROADS. 1970, International EducationYear (L. Fernig). Education... for whom? and how? (P. Rondière).Race between education and catastrophe (H. Brabyn). Cost of worldarmaments. The student of tojmorrow (R. Habachi). Too many tea¬chers? (J. Chesswas). New look in Soviet schools (I. Nekhamkin).Education put to the question (P. Lengrand). Art treasures (40)Encyclopedic scribe (Iran).

February

NEW STRATEGY FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT (Lester B. Pearson).Strategy in a nutshell. Kaleidoscope of underdevelopment. No moreunwanted children. Rising spiral of unemployment. Green revolu¬tion. 1970, International education year (R. Maheu). Art treasures(41) Stone Age 'cat' (Cyprus).

March

SPIN-OFF: THE FRUIT OF SPACE RESEARCH (G. Gregory). Is thespace effort a waste of money? Spin-off from satellites. Space-agetechnology. Benefits to medicine. New space-age materials andpower sources. Electronics and pocket computers. The 'systemsapproach'. Beyond Babel: the first global society (A.C. Clarke). Arttreasures (42) Neolithic goggles (Japan).

April

PAESTUM. Discovery of Greek frescoes (M. Conil Lacoste). Cairo(Abdel-Rahman Zaky). Al-Azhar university. Cairo's museums. SanAugustin, mystery of prehistoric Colombia (F. Sanz). Lepenski Vir,prehistoric Danubian village (J. Vidal). Non-scientists dissect science.Art treasures (43) Mulla, the onion eater (Pakistan).

May

CANCERWHERE WE STAND (J. Higginson). Cigarettes and cancer(Sir G. Godber). Case against smoking (R.M. Taylor). Secret of thecell (N. Odartchanko). False notion: cancer is incurable (E.C. Easson).'Geography' of cancer (N. Willard). Air pollution and lungcancer (R.E. Waller). Art treasures (44) Reclining Buddha (Ceylon).

June

MAN IN QUEST OF WATER (R.L. Nace). Pantanal hydrological project(N.V. Cordeiro). American Culture (CC. Mark). The eagle, 'space

craft' of Antiquity (J. Patrocinio de Souza). Crises of the university(J.A. Perkins). Modern art at Unesco. Art treasures (45) Celticcollar (Fed. Rep. of Germany).

July

LENIN (1870-1970). ART OF JAVA. Lenin and education, science,culture (M.P. Herzog). Development of science (M. Keldysh). Educa¬tion and social change (V. Stoletov). Lenin and cultural rights ofminorities (L.A. Posti). Art of Java (H. Daifuku). An ancient super-continent (D. Behrman). Art treasures (46) Women of Palmyra (Syria).

August-September

MAN AND VIOLENCE. Understanding man's aggressiveness (D.Behrman). A density problem (P. Leyhausen). War not in our genes(S. Carrighar). Man killer of nature (U Thant). The concrete cage(R.J. Benthem). Europe's industrial pollution (R. Passino). Year ofthe whale (H. Brabyn). Tower of Babel (F. Ragette). Art treasures(47) Ancestor figure (Hawaii, U.S.).

October

CRISIS IN DEVELOPMENT. Harsh facts of the .1960s; second chancein the 1970s (M.S. Adiseshiah). Palestine refugee schools. Goldenhoard of the Scythians (A. Kirpichnikov). Museums for modems (D.F.Cameron). United World colleges (T. Sylte). Art treasures (48) IronAge 'roundhead' (Ireland).

November

100 ARMED CONFLICTS SINCE WORLD WAR II. The arms race

(P. Noel-Baker). Nuclear mushrooms. Sequel to the 'Lucky Dragon'.Super-arms for developing countries. Biological and chemical wea¬pons. Peace research (B.V.A. Röling). 10th anniversary of U.N.declaration on independence of colonial peoples. Education in LatinAmerica (M. Soler Roca). Art treasures (49) Matriarchal mask (Brazil).

December

CARTHAGE MUST NOT BE DESTROYED. Conservation of Tunis

and Carthage (J. El Kafi). Rise and fall of a city (H. Slim). Eightcenturies of Punic civilization (G.C. Picard). Graeco-Roman portraitsof Carthage (M. Fantar). Unesco's Tunis-Carthage Project (G. Fradier).Jean Perrin (P. Auger). Art treasures (50) Tun-huang fresco (China).

Where to renew your subscriptionand order other Unesco publications

Order from any bookseller, or write direct tothe National Distributor in your country. (See listbelow ; names of distributors in countries notlisted will be supplied on request.) Payment ismade in the national currency ; the rates quotedare for an annual subscription to THE UNESCOCOURIER in and one language'.

AFGHANISTAN. Panuzai, Press Department. RoyalAfghan Ministry of Education, Kabul. AUSTRALIA.Publications : Educacional Supplies Pcy. Ltd , P.O.Box 33, Brookvale, 2100, NSW; Periodicals :Dominie Pty. Limited, Box 33, Post Office, Brook¬vale 2100, NSW. Sub-agent. United Nations Asso¬ciation of Australia, Victorian Division, 4th Floor,Askew House, 364 Lonsdale St, Melbourne (Vic¬toria), 3000 (S 2 75). AUSTRIA. Verlag GeorgFromme & C*., Spengergasse 39, Vienna V (AS 82).

BELGIUM. Editions "Labor", 342, rue Royale,Brussels, 3. Presses Universitaires de Bruxelles, 42,avenue Paul-Héger, Brussels 5. NV Standaard-We-tenschappelijke Uitgevenj Belgielei 147, Antwerp, I.Jean de Lannoy, 112, rue du Trône, Brussels 5. CCP3380 00. BURMA. Trade Corporation N- (9), 550-5 52 Merchant Street, Rangoon. CANADA. InformationCanada, Ottawa, Ont. ($ 4,00). CEYLON. Lake HouseBookshop, Sir Chittampalam Gardiner Mawata, P.O.B. 244Colombo, 2. (Rs 12.50). CHINA. World Book Co.Ltd , 99 Chungking South Rd., Section 1, Taipeh,Taiwan (Formosa). CYPRUS. " MAM ", ArchbishopMakarios 3rd Avenue, P O. Box 1722, Nicosia.CZECHOSLOVAKIA. S N.T L., Spalena 51, Prague 1(permanent display); Zahranicni literatura 11 SoukenickaPrague 1. For Slovakiaonly : Nakladatelstvo Alfa, Hurba-novo nam. 6 Bratislava. - DENMARK. Ejnar MunksgaardLtd.. 6. Norregade. 1 1 65,Copenhagen K. (Dan. Kr. 1 9 00).

ETHIOPIA. National Commission for Unesco, P.O.

Box 2996, Addis Ababa. FINLAND, AkateemmenKirjakauppa, 2 Keskuskatu, Helsinki (Fmk. 11.90).FRANCE. Librairie de I'Unesco, place de Fontenoy,Paris- 7«. CCP. 12598-48 (1 2 F) GERMANY. Allpublications : Verlag Dokumentation, Postfach 148,Jaiserstrasse 13, 8023 Munchen-Pullach. For theUnesco Kurier (German ed only) Bahrenfelder-Chaussee 160, Hambourg-Bahrenfeld, CCP. 276650(DM 12). GHANA. Methodist Book DepotLtd., Atlantic House, Commercial Street, POB 1 00,cape Coast - GREAT BRITAIN. See United Kingdom.

GREECE, Librairie H. Kauffmann, 28, rue du Stade,Athens; Librairie Eleftheroudakis, Nikkis 4, Athens.HONG-KONG, Swindon Book Co., 13-15, Lock Road,Kowloon. HUNGARY. Akadémiai Konyvesbolt,Vaci u. 22, Budapest V; A.K.V. Konyvtarosok Boltia,Népkoztársaság utja 16, Budapest VI. ICELAND.Snaebjorn Jonsson & Co., H.F., Hafnarstraeti 9, Reykjavik.

INDIA. Orient Longman Ltd., Nicol Road, Ballard.Estate, Bombay 1 ; 17 Chittaranjan Avenue, Calcutta 13;3 6a, Mount Road, Madras 2; 3/5 Asaf Ah Road, NewDelhi 1 ; Sub-Depots; Oxford Book & Stationery Co.17 Park Street, Calcutta 16 and Scindia House, NewDelhi; Publications Section, Ministry of Education andYouth Services, 72 Theatre Communication Building,Connaught Place New Delhi 1. (Rs. 1 3 50). INDONE¬SIA. Indira P.T., Djl. Dr. Sam Ratulangie 37, Djakarta.

IRAN. Iranian National Commission for Unesco, 1/154avenue Roosevelt, B.P. 1533, Teheran. IRAQ. McKen-zie's Bookshop, Al-Rashid Street, Baghdad; UniversityBookstore, University of Baghdad, P.O. Box 75, Baghdad

IRELAND. The National Press, 2, Wellington Road,Ballsbridge, Dublin, 4. ISRAEL. Emmanuel Brown, for¬merly Blumstein's Bookstores, 3 5 Allenby Road and 48,Nahlat Benjamin Street,Tel-Aviv (IL. 1 5). JAMAICA.Sangster's Book Stores Ltd., P.O. Box 366, 101 WaterLane, Kingston. JAPAN. Maruzen Co. Ltd., P.O. Box5050, Tokyo International 1 00-31. Joseph I.Bahous & Co., Dar-ul-Kutub, Salt Road P.O B 66, Am¬man. KENYA. The E.S.A. Ltd.. P.O. Box 30167, Nai¬robi. KOREA. Korean National Commission for Unesco

:0. Box Central 64, Seoul. KUWAIT. The Kuwait

Bookshop Co., Ltd., P.O. Box 2942, Kuwait. LIBERIA.Cole and Yancy Bookshops Ltd., P.O Box 286.Monrovia. LIBYA. Agency for Development ofPublication & Distribution, P.O. Box 261, Tripoli.LUXEMBURG. Librairie Paul Brück, 22, Grand-Rue,Luxembourg (F.L. 170). MALAYSIA. Federal Publica¬tions Sdn Bhd., Balai Berita, 31, Jalan Riong, Kuala Lum¬pur. MALTA. Sapienza's Library, 26 Kingsway, Vallet¬ta. MAURITIUS. Nalanda Company Ltd , 30, BourbonStreet, Port-Louis. MONACO. Br.tish Library, 30,Bid des Moulins, Monte-Carlo. NETHERLANDS.

N. V. Martinus Ni|hoff, Lange Voorhout, 9, the Hague,(fl. 10). NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. G. C. T.Van Dorp & Co. (Ned Ant.) N. V , Willemstad, Cura¬cao. N A. (NA fl. 5.25). NEW ZEALAND. Govern¬ment Printing Office, Government Bookshops at: RutlandStreet, P.O. Box 5344, Auckland; 130, Oxford Terrace,P.O. Box 1721, Christchurch: Alma Street, P.O. Box 857,Hamilton; Princes Street, P.O. Box 1104, Dunedin;

Mulgrave Street, Private Bag, Wellington (S 2.15).NORWAY. All publications: A/S Bokhjornet, Josefi-nesgate 37, Oslo 3. For Unesco Courier only: A.S.Narvesens Litteraturjeneste, Box 6125, Oslo 6 (K.2.75). PAKISTAN. The West-Pak Publishing Co.Ltd., Unesco Publication House, P.O. Box 374 G.P.O. ;Lahore ; Showrooms : Urdu Bazar, Lahore, and 57-58Murree, Highway, G/6-1, Islamabad. Pakistan Publi¬cations Bookshop, Sarwar Road, Rawalpindi; Panbagh,Dacca. PHILIPPINES. The Modern Book Co , 928.Rizal Avenue, P O. Box 632, Manila. POLAND. Allpublications: ORWN PAN Palac Kultury i Nauki, War¬saw For the Unesco Courier only: RUCH, ul. Wronia, 23,(Warsaw 10. PORTUGAL. Dias & Andrade Lda, Livra-ria Portugal, rua de Carmo 70, Lisbon. PUERTO RICO.Spanish English Publications, Eleanor Roosevelt 115.Apartado 1 91 2, Hato Rey. SINGAPORE. Federal Pu¬blications Sdn Bhd., Times House, River Valley Road, Sin¬gapore 9. SOUTHERN RHODESIA. Textbook Sales

(PVT) Ltd, 67 Union Avenue, Salisbury. SUDAN.AI Bashir Bookshop, P O. Box 1118, Khartoum.SWEDEN. All publications: A/B CE. Fritzes Kungl.Hovbokhandel, Fredsgatan, 2, Box 16356, 103 27, Stock¬holm 16 For the Unesco Courier : Svenska FN. For-

bundet, Vasagatan 15, IV 10123, Stockholm 1 Post-giro 18 46 92 (Kr. 18). SWITZERLAND. Allpublications: Europa Verlag, 5 Rámistrasse, Zurich.Librairie Payot, rue Grenus 6, 1211, Geneva 11,CCP. 1-236. TANZANIA. Dar-es-Salaam Book¬

shop, P.O.B. 9030 Dar-es-Salaam. THAILAND.

Suksapan Panit, Mansion 9, Rajdamnern Avenue, Bangkok.(37.50 baht). TURKEY. Librairie Hachette, 469 IstiklalCaddesi, Beyoglu, Istanbul. UGANDA. Uganda Book¬shop, P.O. Box 145, Kampala. SOUTH AFRICA.All publications: Van Schaik's Bookstore (Pty). Ltd.,Libn Building, Church Street, P.O. Box 724, Pretoria.For the Unesco Courier (single copies) only: CentralNews Agency P.O. Box 103 3, Johannesburg. UNI¬TED ARAB REPUBLIC (EGYPT). Librairie KasrEl Nil, 38, rue Ksar El Nil, Cairo. Sub-agent: La Re¬naissance d'Égypte, 9Sh. Adly-Pasha, Cairo. UNITEDKINGDOM. H M. Stationery Office, P.O. Box 569,London, S.E I., and Government Bookshops in London,Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham(20/-). UNITED STATES. Unesco PublicationsCenter, P.O. Box 433, New York, N.Y. 10016($ 5). U.S.S.R. Mezhdunarodnaja Kniga, Moscow,G-200. YUGOSLAVIA. Jugoslovenska Knpga, Te-razije, 27, Belgrade; Drzavna Zaluzba Slovemje MestniTrg. 26, Ljubljana.

SPLENDOURS OF TUNISWâàm

The Medina of Tunis with its mos¬

ques, markets, inns and dwellings isa treasure house of Islamic art and

architecture encompassing a periodof more than 11 centuries. Unesco

and the Tunisian Government are

embarking on a vast programme forthe preservation of the Medina and

its development as a major culturalresource for Tunisia. (See pages 4and 35). This minaret crowns the17th-century Yussef Dey mosque.

Photo Jacques Perez, A.S.M., Tunis

*" «-«'""A<

... S