Economic resilience of Carthage during the Punic Wars: Insights from sediments of the Medjerda delta around Utica (Tunisia)
Hugo Delile
(1, 2)
,
Elisa Pleuger
(1, 3)
,
Janne Blichert-Toft
(4)
,
Jean-Philippe Goiran
(1)
,
Nathalie Fagel
(3)
,
Ahmed Gadhoum
(5)
,
Abdelhakim Abichou
(6, 7)
,
Imed Ben Jerbania
(5)
,
Elizabeth Fentress
(8)
,
Andrew I. Wilson
(9)
1
Archéorient -
ARCHEORIENT - Environnements et sociétés de l'Orient ancien
2 MOM - Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée - Jean Pouilloux
3 AGEs - Argiles, Géochimie et Environnements sédimentaires - AGES (Liège, Belgium)
4 LGL-TPE - Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement
5 INP - Institut National du Patrimoine - Tunisie
6 Université de Tunis
7 Faculté des Sciences Humaines et Sociales de Tunis
8 EFR - Ecole française de Rome
9 University of Oxford
2 MOM - Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée - Jean Pouilloux
3 AGEs - Argiles, Géochimie et Environnements sédimentaires - AGES (Liège, Belgium)
4 LGL-TPE - Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement
5 INP - Institut National du Patrimoine - Tunisie
6 Université de Tunis
7 Faculté des Sciences Humaines et Sociales de Tunis
8 EFR - Ecole française de Rome
9 University of Oxford
Hugo Delile
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- Fonction : Auteur correspondant
- PersonId : 1181103
- IdHAL : hugo-delile
- ORCID : 0000-0002-4711-035X
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Janne Blichert-Toft
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 738546
- IdHAL : janne-blichert-toft
- ORCID : 0000-0002-4932-4079
- IdRef : 111062624
Jean-Philippe Goiran
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1930
- IdHAL : jean-philippe-goiran
- ORCID : 0000-0003-4797-5799
- IdRef : 059908459
Nathalie Fagel
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 870768
Résumé
While the Punic Wars (264–146 BC) have been the subject of numerous studies, generally focused on their most sensational aspects (major battles, techniques of warfare, geopolitical strategies, etc.), curiously, the exceptional economic resilience of the Carthaginians in the face of successive defeats, loss of mining territory, and the imposition of war reparations has attracted hardly any attention. Here, we address this issue using a newly developed powerful tracer in geoarchaeology, that of Pb isotopes applied to paleopollution. We measured the Pb isotopic compositions of a well-dated suite of eight deep cores taken in the Medjerda delta around the city of Utica. The data provide robust evidence of ancient lead–silver mining in Tunisia and lay out a chronology for its exploitation, which appears to follow the main periods of geopolitical instability at the time: the Greco-Punic Wars (480–307 BC) and the Punic Wars (264–146 BC). During the last conflict, the data further suggest that Carthage was still able to pay indemnities and fund armies despite the loss of its traditional silver sources in the Mediterranean. This work shows that the mining of Tunisian metalliferous ores between the second half of the fourth and the beginning of the third century BC contributed to the emergence of Punic coinage and the development of the Carthaginian economy
Domaines
Archéologie et Préhistoire Archéologie et Préhistoire Environnement et Société Environnement et Société Milieux et Changements globaux Milieux et Changements globauxFormat du dépôt | Fichier |
---|---|
Type de dépôt | Article dans une revue |
Résumé |
en
While the Punic Wars (264–146 BC) have been the subject of numerous studies, generally focused on their most sensational aspects (major battles, techniques of warfare, geopolitical strategies, etc.), curiously, the exceptional economic resilience of the Carthaginians in the face of successive defeats, loss of mining territory, and the imposition of war reparations has attracted hardly any attention. Here, we address this issue using a newly developed powerful tracer in geoarchaeology, that of Pb isotopes applied to paleopollution. We measured the Pb isotopic compositions of a well-dated suite of eight deep cores taken in the Medjerda delta around the city of Utica. The data provide robust evidence of ancient lead–silver mining in Tunisia and lay out a chronology for its exploitation, which appears to follow the main periods of geopolitical instability at the time: the Greco-Punic Wars (480–307 BC) and the Punic Wars (264–146 BC). During the last conflict, the data further suggest that Carthage was still able to pay indemnities and fund armies despite the loss of its traditional silver sources in the Mediterranean. This work shows that the mining of Tunisian metalliferous ores between the second half of the fourth and the beginning of the third century BC contributed to the emergence of Punic coinage and the development of the Carthaginian economy
|
Titre |
en
Economic resilience of Carthage during the Punic Wars: Insights from sediments of the Medjerda delta around Utica (Tunisia)
|
Auteur(s) |
Hugo Delile
1, 2
, Elisa Pleuger
1, 3
, Janne Blichert-Toft
4
, Jean-Philippe Goiran
1
, Nathalie Fagel
3
, Ahmed Gadhoum
5
, Abdelhakim Abichou
6, 7
, Imed Ben Jerbania
5
, Elizabeth Fentress
8
, Andrew I. Wilson
9
1
Archéorient -
ARCHEORIENT - Environnements et sociétés de l'Orient ancien
( 619 )
- Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean-Pouilloux 7 rue Raulin 69365 LYON Cedex 07
- France
2
MOM -
Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée - Jean Pouilloux
( 446193 )
- 5/7 rue Raulin 69365 LYON cedex 07
- France
3
AGEs -
Argiles, Géochimie et Environnements sédimentaires - AGES (Liège, Belgium)
( 237177 )
- Belgique
4
LGL-TPE -
Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement
( 153787 )
- Université Claude Bernard, Lyon1 - Campus de la Doua, bâtiment Géode - 2, rue Raphaël Dubois - 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex
École Normale Supérieure de Lyon - 46, Allée d'Italie - 69364 Lyon cedex 07
Université Jean Monnet - Faculté des Sciences et Techniques - 23 rue du Dr Paul Michalon - 42023 Saint Étienne Cedex 02
UMR CNRS 5276
- France
5
INP -
Institut National du Patrimoine - Tunisie
( 537244 )
- 04, place du château 1008 Tunis
- Tunisie
6
Université de Tunis
( 51213 )
- 92, Avenue 9 avril 1938, Tunis - 1007
- Tunisie
7
Faculté des Sciences Humaines et Sociales de Tunis
( 501668 )
- Tunisie
8
EFR -
Ecole française de Rome
( 300505 )
- 67, place Farnèse
I - 00 186 Rome
- Italie
9
University of Oxford
( 302612 )
- Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JD
- Royaume-Uni
|
Langue du document |
Anglais
|
Nom de la revue |
|
Vulgarisation |
Non
|
Comité de lecture |
Oui
|
Audience |
Internationale
|
Volume |
116
|
Numéro |
20
|
Page/Identifiant |
9764-9769
|
Licence |
Paternité - Pas d'utilisation commerciale - Pas de modification
|
Date de publication |
2019-05-14
|
Date de publication électronique |
2019-04-29
|
Domaine(s) |
|
Données associées | |
Projet(s) Européen(s) |
|
Financement |
|
Mots-clés |
en
Paleopollution, Mining resources, Medjerda river, Punic Wars, Utica
|
DOI | 10.1073/pnas.1821015116 |
Origine :
Accord explicite pour ce dépôt
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