Carthage was a Phoenician colony located in what is now the country of Tunisia about 15 kilometers from the capital city of Tunis. It was founded about 814 BC, by colonists from Tyre—the Roman poet Vergil's "the Aeneid" says it was founded by Dido the Wanderer. Carthage was sacked at the end of the Punic Wars by Rome in 146 BC and then colonized again in 105 BC by Augustus.
Intact elements of the Roman occupation are still standing, and excavations have identified archaeological remains from the Punic, Roman, Byzantine and Vandal occupations. Excavations in the suburb of Hamman Lif revealed mosaics dated to the earliest Roman settlement about 50 BC.
Francis W. Kelsey is probably the archaeologist most commonly associated with Carthage, for his excavations there in the 1920s. Publication of the excavations at Carthage by the British Mission were published in the 1990s.
Carthage Sources
The glossary entry for Carthage is a part of the About.com Guide to the Phoenicians, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Hunt, Patrick 2009 The Locus of Carthage: Compounding Geographical Logic. African Archaeology Review 26:137–154.
Hurst, H.R. and S.P. Roskams. 1994. Excavations at Carthage: The British Mission. Two volumes. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
Wilson, R.J.A. 1996. Carthage. In Brian Fagan (ed). 1996. The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
