Utica

Although the ancient site of Utica has been studied since the 19th century,
the location of its harbors remains unresolved as they were buried under sediments
as the Mejerda delta prograded and left Utica 10 km inland. Using relief
data and a coring survey with sedimentological analysis, we identify the dynamics
of the delta’s progradation, which produced a double system of alluvial
fans. These show that the ancient bay of Utica silted up faster and earlier than
was thought, probably before the end of the Punic period. Combined with the
radiocarbon dates from coring, this suggests that the harbor lay on the northwestern
side of the Utica promontory, communicating with the sea by a marine
corridor west of the northern compartment of the delta. As the infilling of the
ancient bay progressed, this corridor narrowed until it disappeared completely
in the early 5th/mid-6th century A.D., when a peat bog developed on the
northern side of the promontory, sealing the fate of Utica as a port. This relative
environmental stability ended in the 9th–10th century A.D. when about
4 m of sediment, probably of fluvial origin, covered the peat bog, leaving the
site more than 4.5 m above the local sea level.

The progradation of the Medjerda delta has been the subject of many studies since the 19th century. The scale and the rapidity of this phenomenon interested researchers in various fields early on, such as geomorphology, geology, palaeogeography, history, archaeology, or geoarchaeology. Indeed, the delta prograded by around 10 km over 3 millennia. At the time of its foundation supposedly at the end of the 12th century BC, the Phoenician city of Utica was located on a promontory bathed by the sea, but the sediments carried by the Medjerda progressively sealed the bay, leaving the tip of the Utica promontory now 10 km inland. This area is therefore an exception to the general pattern along the Tunisian coast, since as over the same period everywhere else there is a regression of the coastline, owing to a sea level rise of several decimeters. Based on multi-proxy analyses of two coring transects, this paper aims to reconstruct the palaeoenvironments and the palaeogeography of the Medjerda delta's progradation since the mid-Holocene, some aspects of which are described in ancient sources. The results highlight in particular an episode of high-intensity flooding around the 4th century AD, which is consistent with episodes of high floods and an increase in sedimentation rates recorded in the watershed at the end of the Roman period. The gradual abandonment of the city of Utica can certainly be related to the activity of the Medjerda River, but our results show that it is because of an increase of fluvial sediment contribution in connection with an erosive crisis in the headwaters, and not because of the change of course of the river, which had occurred long before.

The Majerda delta formation has been the subject of many studies since the late XIXe century. The reconstruction of the fluvial palaeo-environments of the lower Majerda valley is significant as it is critical to understand the decline of Utica following the siltation of the harbor,
3
which is presently buried under sediments. The progression of the delta across the corridor separating the Southern and the Northern compartments of the ancient Utica bay is the cornerstone of our research on the delta. On the basis of a GIS we propose to identify hydro- and morpho-sedimentary processes of the deltaic progradation dynamics. They lead to innovative ways of considering the initial implantation site of Utica, the conditions of harbor siltation and the Majerda River itself across the Northern compartment. Observations and analysis from the GIS allowed highlighting a double system of alluvial fans over the whole delta. The first component which may be described as “torrential” is present throughout the delta fringe, while the second category of flat alluvial fans occurs at the Majerda defluviation sites, forming coalescing alluvial lobes. The ancient merging of these two morphological systems close to Utica could reflect a process of harbor silting more complex than previously considered, the Majerda River being considered as the unique factor of change so far.

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.

Las excavaciones en Útica (Túnez) llevadas a cabo por un equipo hispano-tunecino desde 2012 han documentado los restos de dos edificios monumentales superpuestos fenicio-púnicos cercanos a una fuente de agua caliente. El más antiguo, denominado Edificio A, fue erigido en la segunda mitad del siglo VII a.C. y las evidencias del mismo se limitan, hasta el momento, a dos muros de sillares de piedra probablemente pertenecientes a un podium, un pozo de agua de planta cuadrada construido con sillares y los restos de una cisterna. El Edificio A fue desmontado y sus sillares fueron reutilizados en la construcción de otro complejo arquitectónico, el Edificio B, con un nuevo podium hacia la segunda mitad del siglo IV a.C. Esta construcción fue destruida en el período tardorrepublicano por la construcción de una escalera monumental que formaba parte de una reorganización urbana. De acuerdo con los hallazgos y los paralelos arquitectónicos se puede proponer como hipótesis la interpretación de ambos edificios como templos.

Recent excavations at Útica (Tunisia) conducted by a
Tuniso-Spanish team from 2012 have discovered the remains of two superposed Phoenician and Punic monumental buildings near to a hot water well. The oldest was named Building A and was erected in the second half of the 7 th century BC. The traces excavated for the moment of this building consist in two block stone walls which most likely were the remains of a podium, a square water pit constructed with regular stones and the remains of a cistern. Building A was dismounted and the stones reused to build another architectural complex towards the second half of the 4 th century BC, named Building B on a new podium to hold pated chambers. Building B was destroyed in late Roman Republican period by a monumental stairs which were part of an urban reorganization. According to the findings and architectural parallels it is possible to propose the hypothesis of the interpretation as temples for both buildings.]