The Museum of Carthage: A Living History Lesson

The fabled city of Carthage has fired the imagination of artists and poets since its very beginning more than 2,000 years ago. A rival of ancient Greece, then of Rome, Carthage has been razed and pillaged by invaders jealous of its fortunes, only to be reborn time after time. In the twentieth century, creeping urbanization and a tide of concrete threatened to submerge it once and for all until the international community responded to the ‘Save Carthage’ appeal launched by UNESCO in 1972. Teams of archaeologists from ten countries – more than 600 in all – worked to uncover layer after layer of history and to study and preserve this unique site. Abdelmajid Ennabli played a key role in the international campaign and has been curator of the Museum of Carthage since 1973. He is the author of several articles and publications on Carthaginian history and archaeology and is director of research at Tunisia’s National Heritage Institute.