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A new votive inscription to Saturn cryptensis using vulgar and poor Latin, but with a very original content, enriches the corpus of Saturnian names with a new topical epithet and sheds light on a mystical aspect of the cult of the most revered god in Africa.

This article addresses the lack of literature on grinding and crushing techniques and its equipment in Africa Proconsularis. A new typology is presented, along with their geographical distribution. The types of stones used are also discussed, in relation to provenance, suitability and technological innovations. The conclusion questions what we know and what future research needs to address.

This paper analyzes a well-defined problem: that of relations between the Moors of Western Tripolitania (Tunisian part) and the Vandals. Notwithstanding the lack of textual sources, the subject will be addressed in an area that is both a border territory and pre-Saharan, namely Western Tripolitania. The period chosen is a poorly understood period and still debated by specialists. This work is based on two essential foundations: first, an attempt is made to demonstrate the main features and approximate boundaries of the Vandal State; and secondly the focus will be on the relations between the pre-Saharan Moors of Western Tripolitania and the Vandals. As a preliminary introduction, the nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of the Tunisian Chotts, Nefzaoua, the hinterland of Jeffara and Jebel will be discussed. The best known of the tribes in these regions are the Arzuges. They would have circulated, according to Orose, along the limes of Africa. As a result, they developed various relationships with the Arians depending on the political situation and its evolution under the Vandals.

The purpose of this paper is to present several avenues of reflection linked first to the onomastics of the African episcopate of the Byzantine period, then to its development. A quick overview of the most typical characteristics of onomastics of this period will be presented, followed by a description of the remarkable development of this African episcopate between the sixth and the beginning of the eighth century. It will conclude with observations on the African onomastic repertoire of the Protobyzantine era, which reflects the evolution of mentalities within the very interior of the African Christian people and the different circles within it.

Much work on recent unauthorized migration via Libya to Europe – often framed as a migration ‘crisis’ – is focused on linear movement, isolated snapshots and points of arrival on European shores. Migrants’ experiences along their journeys and prior to arriving in Europe, important for their future mobilities, are neglected. By highlighting multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Libya and Malta, this paper calls for an analytical focus on immobilities along the journey, so as to develop a more nuanced account of the lived experiences of mobile life. Immobility retrieves situations and relations erased by linear accounts of migration. When looked at in comparative terms through the journey, immobility reveals the variegated forces that shape mobile life.

Crossing literary evidence with archaeological data, we discuss the history of a site known as ‘Marsa Djazira’ by following the evolution of its toponym. During the Phoenician-Punic era, this site was described as a city/urban establishment with a harbour known as ‘Gaphara’. In late Roman times its name was most likely changed to ‘Minna Villa Marsi’, as the Marsi family of the aristocracy of Leptis Magna probably built a luxury residence (villa) and exploited the port to export olive products from its estates in the hinterland of Leptis Magna. In the Middle Ages, the site underwent another toponymic change to ‘Ras Chacra’ and became an official maritime station (port) on the shipping lanes. In the late Middle Ages, the ancient toponym ‘Gaphara’ reappeared again with a slight distortion as ‘Gasr Jafara/Djefara’. This last name was known when the site was already ruined and abandoned.

Situated on the westernmost corner of the Southern Necropolis, Tomb S181 is an important rock-cut monument, unlike any other thus far known in Cyrene. The presence of a Doric false peristyle running all around the chamber is unique in the context of the Cyrenean funerary culture, as it seems to elaborate and modify the model of the Internal Doric Frieze (seen in famous tombs of the near-by Western Necropolis) in a new, previously unpublished solution. Tomb S181 casts further light on the complicated relationship with the Alexandrian funerary world. This paper describes the tomb and considers it from multiple and different points of view: traditional art-historical comparisons are sought in order to cast light on the chronology but, on the other hand, the display strategies are also analyzed to reconstruct the importance of this monument for the Cyrenean monumental funerary tradition. Tomb S181 is certainly a hybrid entity, the product of a local culture accepting but also deeply modifying Alexandrian influences in terms of architecture and, possibly, also of funerary ritual behaviours. Tomb S181 clearly attests the vitality of rock-cut funerary architecture in Cyrene during the Hellenistic period.

During his four decades of rule, Genseric appears to many Africans – Catholic and pro-Roman – as the incarnation of the Antichrist. For the African municipal aristocracy he represented the image of a greedy barbarian obsessed with power, the persecutor and the gravedigger of Romanitas. If we look closely, Genseric had learned from the Romans how to manage strength and diplomacy, for negotiating with the Romans in particular. He sought to perpetuate his conquests by organising treaties with Ravenna and Constantinople, which did not prevent him from launching parallel plundering campaigns in Africa and along the coast that brought him respect and financial gain. First king of the vandals, he managed to create the first barbaric state on the territory of the empire. He was the type of leader who can be considered a visionary, bringing to fulfilment the material, political and spiritual conquests of a new era, the Spätantike. خلال فترة حكمه التي امتدت لأربع عقود، مثّلَ جينسريك للأفارقة الكاثوليك المؤيدين للكنيسة تجسيدًا للصورة التوراتية للمسيح الدجال. غير أنه مثل بالنسبة لاعيان المدن و وجهائها صورة البربري الجشع المهووس بتدمير الثقافة والهوية الرومانية أينما حَلّ . و إذا ما امحصنا النظر من خلال التدقيق في المادة المصدرية المتوفرة لدينا نلاحظ دور الذاكرة الجمعية لدى معظم الفاعلين خلال الفترة القديمة المتأخرة في رسم صورة تكاد تكون مشوهة لأول ملوك الجرمان المستقلين عن الادارة الرومانية.

This article reports on a new project to investigate the activities of early Homo sapiens in the area of the Chotts ‘megalake’ in southern Tunisia. Excavations in 2015 and 2019 at Oued el Akarit revealed one of a number of Middle Stone Age (MSA) horizons near the top of a long sequence of Upper Pleistocene deposits. The site identified as Oued el Akarit (Sondage 8) consists of lithic artefacts, bone fragments of large ungulates and pieces of ostrich eggshell. Many of the objects are burnt. Excavation of about nine square metres revealed that these were associated with a lightly trampled and combusted occupation surface. Amongst the identified artefacts were Levallois flakes some of which could be refitted, thereby indicating the generally undisturbed nature of the occupation. The lithic finds also included side scrapers and other tools diagnostic of the MSA but significantly no bifacial or tanged tools. OSL (Optically Stimulated Luminescence) dating of the sediments and AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) radiocarbon dating of ostrich eggshell have produced uncalibrated age determinations in the range 37,000–40,000 years ago, one of the youngest ages for MSA sites in the region. This is the first example of a securely dated later MSA occupation in a riparian environment in south-eastern Tunisia.

The evidence on the relationship of seamen at Sfax with holiness, absent or hardly mentioned in the written texts, is revealed through archaeological data and in particular by epigraphic inscriptions. The oratory of Sîdî al-Bahrî and the minaret of Sîdî ʿAmar Kammûn in the medina of Sfax illustrate this relationship and demonstrate religious honour and the spread of a marine piety, in particular by the gifts offered by the sailors for the building, enlarging, embellishing or restoring of these pious constructions. The maritime community's attachment to the saints can be explained only by its fear of the sea, where many dangers occur of a natural, climatic and conflictual nature, bad weather, storm, aggression, etc. The saints thus became the symbol of the invulnerability of this port city. ان الشهادة على اعتقاد البحارة بمدينة صفاقس بالأولياء، الغائبة أو بالكاد مذكورة في النصوص المكتوبة، تكشف من خلال المعطيات الأثرية وبالأخص النقوش الكتابية. توضح نقوش مصلى سيدي البحري ومئذنة سيدي عمر كمون هذه العلاقة وتظهر الشرف الديني واعتقاد البحارة بالأولياء ولا سيما من خلال بناء أو توسيع أو تجميل أو ترميم هذه الأبنية من قبل البحارة. لا يمكن تفسير تعلق المجتمع البحري بالأولياء إلا من خلال خوفه من البحر والأخطار التي يمكن أن تحدث فيه بسبب الصراع، وسوء الأحوال الجوية، والعواصف، والعدوان، الخ … فأصبح الأولياء لديهم رمزا للدفاع عن مدينتهم .