The Prehistory Period in Tunisia

Spanning 200000 (Paleolithic inferior) and 1200 BC (the day before of the arrival of the first Phoenicians), Tunisian Prehistory is rich in cultural sites, the oldest of which were found in Sidi Zine and Koum el-Majene in the northwest; in A?n Brimba, side of Kebili, in the area of Nefzaoua; in Chott el-Djerid and El-Guettar (Gafsa), in the southwest; and in Oued el-Akarit in the southeast.

Many traces of human industry dating from the Paleolithic inferior affirm the age of the settlements. By the coast, a civilization known as Ibero-Maurusian and another – Civilization Capsian of Capsa (the ancient name of what is currently known as Gafsa) – succeeded the Neolithic era to the II E thousand year old. However, what is generally known about the history of the first inhabitants of the country, the Berber (the name derives from barbaroi, what the Greeks called people who did not speak their language), is that of their conquerors.

The evidence found at the Tunisian prehistoric sites are physical and spiritual; indeed, in addition to Paleolithic tools such as arranged rollers, points and scrapers, traces of spiritual effects were found in el-Guettar. This constitutes, without doubt, the oldest sanctuary known in the world – the Herma?on – where the museum of Bardo houses a beautiful reconstruction!

Civilization Ibero-Maurusian (18000 – 8000)

The population of Mechta el-Arbi (now the town of Cheghoum-Ugly in Wilaya de Mila, once Chateaudun-du-Rhumel) occupied the coast and surrounding areas. They manufactured objects; tools and parts that, when fitted with wooden or bone handles, made effective instruments or weapons. Anthropologists in North Africa acknowledge a direct lineage that continues today, from the Men of Djebel Irhoud until Cro Magnon man, who are the Men of Mechta el-Arbi while by-passing an intermediary, the Man Atérien of Dar be Soltane. The Men of Mechta were tall (1.74 m) with a robust skeleton, rectangular orbits and strong frown arcades. They remained until the Neolithic era. In time, they were pushed back, little by little, by a new prehistoric civilization called Capsian.

Civilization Capsian (8.000 – 4.500)

The Man of Ain Dokkara (Tebessa) was also tall (1.75 m for the men). He was characterized by a less robust, slimmer bone structure, squarer orbits, a narrower nose, and a more harmonious ratio of cranium to face. Undoubtedly hailing from the near East, the Civilization Caption gradually occupied the Maghreb except for Morocco and Western Algeria. Starting from the chotts, its civilization takes the Latin name, Caspa, of the principal town of the area (Gafsa) where it was first identified. Gatherer, hunter and cultivator of snails, in addition to lithic materials, the Capsian left traces betraying their aesthetic interests. For example, the fragments of ostrich egg found engraved, often drilled, to make collars and ornaments and the use of blood-red stone to paint the walls of tombs etc.

If you are really interested in knowing more about this period I would recommend you read the works of our Professor, Ali Mtimit (Doctor in Prehistory at the University of Manouba).

The History of Tunisia

Some time after this and the Neolithic period – the era of agriculture and ceramics – Tunisia slipped out of history; it re-emerged during the 12th century BC, when Utica surrendered to the Phoenicians.

I – The Antiquity

Tunisia re-entered history with the expansion of the Phoenicians who, seeking to develop their sales network, established a series of settlements in the western basin of the Mediterranean and beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. Of these, the one that experienced the most considerable development was Carthage, founded on the Tunisian coast in 814 BC (the traditional date).

1- Empire of Carthage:

At the end of the 9th century BC, the Phoenicians, Iberian experts in commerce, gave up the policy of temporary settlements – points of damping, counters – to create true colonies along the routes leading to the mines of Andalusia. This legend accredits Elissa, the sister of Pygmalion, king de Tyr, founder of Carthage circa 814 BC. After the assassination of her husband, the princess was obliged to flee, and chartered a ship with members of the Tyr aristocracy. At the end of a trip lasting several months, she reached the coast of Africa where she founded Qart Hadasht (" City"). The Latin authors largely contributed this version of the facts. Most famously, Virgil has in "Aeneid" associated Didon (another name of Elissa) with Enée, the legendary hero founder of the Roman world. Beginning as a modest village, Carthage was obliged as a sign of allegiance, to pour a dime with Tyr and, for a century and half, had to pay a tribute to the Libyans. But, during the second half of the 7th century, the city benefited from the decline of Tyr, which was unable to contain the progression of the Greeks in the Western Mediterranean, and the dependence was gradually brought to an end.

The empire rested on the control of the seas. The Carthaginians had a reputation as excellent navigators – heirs in this field to the Phoenicians – and their empire as of the 12th century BC reached Spain skirting the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands, and those of North Africa.

For nearly eight centuries, Carthage also disputed the Mediterranean with the Greeks then with the Romans, attracted by the mines of Spain, the Attics of Sardinia, the essential Sicily and fought battles at sea for commercial control. Between 750 and 600, the Greeks, inhabitants of an exiguous and poor territory, launched out to conquer the Mediterranean – like "frogs around a pond" according to Aristophane. They founded colonies in Southern Italy (Tarente, Crotona, Naples), in Sicily (Agrigente, Syracuse), in Nice, Marseilles, Agde and in Corsica. They also had ambitions to settle in Sardinia and reach the Iberian trade. These objectives were incompatible with commercial policy and, at since the 6th century, the territorial expansion of Carthage. In 580, Carthage defended Motyé and Palermo against the Greeks, and demolished their armies with the help of Sélinonte, on the southwestern coast of Sicily.

Carthage dominated all the Mediterranean half a century later. It combined with the Etruscans of western Italy and expelled the Phocéens of Marseilles from Corsica. With the Libyans in 510, it prevented the Spartans from founding a colony in Tripolitaine. From now on, Carthage dominated all the western Mediterranean and the large islands, leaving its Etruscan allies the control of continental Italy, as confirmed by a gold sheet found in Pyrgi (in the north of Rome), inscribed with a dedication to Astarté by the Etruscan king, after the victory of Alalia (535) over the Greeks. However, Gélon – tyrant of Froze and Syracuse (which became the most prosperous city of the Hellenic world) – combined with the powerful Théron d’ Agrigente to take attack again. Beaten in Homer in 480, Carthage succeeded however in safeguarding the coveted territories, on the Gulf of Gab?s, but were obliged to pay a heavy allowance of 2000 talents.

After their victory at Homer, the Greeks continued their progression in the Mediterranean and gained victories during the Medic wars against the Persians and their Phoenician allies, and also against the Etruscans of Italy. Consequently, the African background is important in the economic policy of revival engaged by Carthage.

Maritime Expeditions:

This period was made profitable by the exploration of the west coast of Africa at the instigation of King Hannon, the supposed founder of the dynasty of Magonides. The account of the tour of Hannon reported by Herodotus (430) is still the subject of controversy. Did the expeditions really take place? Did they reach the Gulf of Guinea or did they stop in Essaouira, as seems to be indicated by archaeological research? Was it possible that Carthage found gold? Even if this text is a forgery, it demonstrates the will of the Carthaginians to establish their monopoly on the West African coasts while making their adversaries believe that they were already there. During the 5th century, Himilcon, the Carthaginians’ general, led an expedition to the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Brittany, perhaps even reaching the Cassitérides islands (now known as the Scillies). Its goal was to divert towards Carthage, by sea, the tin produced in these areas and which up to that point had passed by Gaulle.

Carthage is united with Rome:

While it fought the Greeks, Carthage was united with Rome, as testified by agreements exchanged in 508, 348 and 306, as well as the treaty of mutual defense signed in 279. The interests of the two states seemed convergent. But once the Greeks were eliminated from the Western Mediterranean in the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman and Punic imperialisms faced up to each other, "the Romans, according to the Greek historian Polybe, noting that Carthaginians had extended their domination not only on the shores of Africa, but still on a good part of Spain and that they were moreover Masters of all the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, thought with concern that, if Sicily also fell between their hands, they would have excessively cumbersome and dangerous neighbours there, by which they would be encircled, and who could directly threaten all the parts of Italy."

The first Punic War:

It was around 264 BC, in the city of Messina, Sicily, which passed from the yoke of the Carthaginians to that of the Romans’, that the first confrontation took place. After twenty-two years of war, Carthage was definitively overcome at the naval battle of the Egates islands. It had to evacuate Sicily and Sardinia, pay a heavy tribute of 4400 talents, restore the prisoners of war, give up any hostility towards Rome and its allies, abstain from sailing ships in Italian waters and engaging mercenaries in the peninsula. The balance of the Mediterranean was drastically changed. For the first time during its history, Carthage lost naval supremacy. The Romans took Punic technology as a starting point and enriched it by creating a footbridge, which attached to the enemy ship and on which one fought as on firm ground. Carthage faced enormous financial problems; its ports were plundered and its campaigns were devastated. In 240, several tens of thousands of Libyans, overpowered by the effort of war, together with African and Sardinian mercenaries, who had gone several months without wages, rose up, occupied the isthmus of Carthage, and besieged Utica and Bizerte. It took four years, but the bloody methods used by General Hamilcar Barca to gain the upper hand were described by Flaubert in Salammb? as "war inexpiable".

The second Punic:

Carthage prepared for revenge; this time starting from Spain, where, in 237, Hamilcar Barca conquered a prosperous state, well managed and equipped with an army of more than 50000 men. In 221, his son Hannibal Barca reached maturity. Raised in the Carthaginian army camp in Spain, nourished by Greek culture and equipped with great physical courage, his military tactics were peerless. Through his conquests, he widened the boundaries of the Punic Empire and reorganized the army so as to draw on the best mix of cultural and military talents of each people: Numides; Ib?res; Gallic; the Libyans ceased fighting like Greek Hoplites and replaced the spade with the sword which was more adapted to close combat. In 219, Hannibal took Sagonte, an ally of Rome, who then broke the truce and started the second Punic War in 218. Hannibal crossed ?bre and the Alps with elephants to penetrate Italy, where he crushed several Roman armies and gained victories at Lake Trasim?ne (217) and Cannes (216). However, Rome avoided head-on combat and in 209 conquered Carthage’s Spanish territories. Hannibal, half-compartment of its backs, poorly supported by the Carthaginian senate and facing the hostility of the remaining population faithful to Rome, was forced to give up his base at Capoue and regain Carthage.In 201, Cornelius Scipion, known as the African, joined forces with Masinissa, the chief of east Numides, to defeat the Punic army at Zama, Africa, thus emulating the exploits of Agathocle. Once again, the conditions of peace (201) were draconian for the Punic army. On returning to Carthage, Hannibal tackled economic recovery, exploiting agricultural resources in particular, in spite of the aggressions of his old enemy, Masinissa, the Numide. But the hostility of the aristocracy forced him into exile in 195, and his subsequent suicide in 183. However, Carthage became so prosperous again that Rome, motivated by political currents more than extremists, decided to destroy it: delenda is Carthago (" must be destroyed"). The third Punic War (148-146) destroyed the city of Elissa, but Punic civilization survived Roman domination.

Destroyed in 146 BC, its ground dedicated to the execration, Carthage should forever have disappeared.

2- Roman Period:

However, a century later, Caesar, resuming the old "popular" project of a Carthaginian colony, decided to resurrect it. Consequently, Roman Carthage succeeded. It supplanted its rival, Utica, to quickly regain its former prosperity. All the emperors of the High Empire regarded it with uneasiness from Hadrian, who built a monumental aqueduct almost 130 km long, to Antonin, who built many sumptuous thermal baths there. During the Lower Empire, a period of economic depression and all kinds of difficulties, the city, already converted to Christianity, attracted imperial displeasure; however this prolonged persecution made Carthage grow. The site of an African church famous for its many ecumenical councils and rich in charismatic figures – Tertullien, Saint Cyprien, Saint Augustin – it became one of the largest spiritual capitals of the West in the 4th century.

3- The Vandals:

Carthage fell to the Vandals in 439, its walls cut down by the soldiers of Genséric. During this long episode of almost a century, the city, although retaining its role as capital, fell into decline; the Church was destroyed, victim of the Ariennes’ persecution. In 533, when it was taken by a Byzantine expedition, Carthage found a new period of prosperity; Justinian made it the seat of the diocese of Africa, rebuilt its walls and restored its monuments, but this solicitude quickly will appear transitory.

The Vandal kingdom of Africa:

The Vandals invasion of Africa was brutal. In 439, the Vandals seized Carthage, the capital of Roman Africa, and invaded current Tunisia. In 442, Rome had to agree to yield these territories to them, the richest in North Africa.

The confiscation of grounds:

The Vandals confiscated the grounds necessary to establish themselves and evicted the owners. It was only the barbarian people who could not accommodate the process of dividing the land between the new and old owner. Admittedly, all the Roman owners were not dispossessed: the Vandals were not more than 80000. Moreover, the Roman habits were preserved, in everyday life as well as in the utilization of land: the Albertini shelves, documenting the years 493-496, describe an agrarian mode identical to that of the Lower Empire.

The Mediterranean policy of the Vandals:

As masters of the Western Mediterranean, did they want to establish a maritime empire based on corn? The question is asked because they seized the cereal-producing areas that supplied Rome and Italy: Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, as well as Corsica and the Balearic Islands (although less interesting for corn). They carried out plunder raids along the Spanish, Italian and Greek coasts, ransacking Rome in 455. To some, the Vandals were only pirates, in which case, one understands their determination to seize Sicily. For others, the Vandals quickly understood that, thanks to their fleet, they held Rome at their mercy; this assumption (that of a conscious seizure policy of areas with corn) makes the Vandals responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire in the west. As they were unable to carry out the conquest of Italy, as perhaps they wished, the Vandals could plan to suffocate it economically.

The failure of the Vandals:

After the death of Genséric, the Vandal kingdom was weakened. Competition between the heirs to the throne (the system of succession known as tanistry, as imagined by Genséric, initially entrusted the role to other relatives of the late king, the children having to wait their turn), the inconsistency of religious policy and the resurgence of the threat of the Berber people that Rome had succeeded in containing, made it a state which could only count on force to survive. Also, when Justinian undertook to reconquer the West, it started in Africa. In 533-534, the Vandals were overcome, captured in Asia, and integrated into the armies of Byzance. They disappeared as people. No trace of their passage remains in Africa. They did not leave anything, except their name.

4- Byzance:

Following the monotheist crisis, triggered by the ceaseless Byzantine discussions on human nature and the divinity of Christ, Justinian and his successors, opposed to the Church of Africa, left Carthage. The city, undermined by the plague, declined little by little, and, in 698, the Arab conqueror Hassan ibn Numan prefers the site of future Tunis.

Wars:

During the 5th century, the western part of the Empire fell into the hands of cruel chiefs, who sought their legitimating near the Master of Constantinople, and who would exert all the real power. However, in accordance with the principle according to which a former Roman territory must return to the Empire, the emperors considered retaking these Western territories. In 468, the failure of the first offense against the Vandals of Africa revealed difficulties. However, under Justinian 1st an army of well-trained mercenaries, under the great generals Bélisaire and Nars?s, re-conquered Africa in a flash (533-534), then Ostrogothic Italy (535-552) with more difficulty, and finally recovered the southeast of Wisigothic Spain. This is not as good as it sounds; the Italian wars devastated the country and a large proportion of the local population were angry with the Empire. In spite of the construction of many fortresses, the Danube border was taken by Slavic bands. In the East, the peace bought in Sassanides remained precarious. Lastly, the financial cost proved very high at a time when the economy began a phase of stagnation, if not decline.

Invasions:

However, the imperial government could not envisage the new wave of invasions that took place along almost all the borders. In 568, the Lombards invaded the Italian peninsula, reducing the Byzantine territories to Sicily, the south of Italy and the Exarchate of Ravenna, territory that they conquered in 571. In the Balkans, the Avars subjugated the Slavs. These people dominated all of Central Europe during the 6th century, but fell to Constantinople into 626. In the East, the Persian Sassanides, taking advantage of internal disorder, took Antiochus, conquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and invaded Asia Minor, arriving in Chalcedony, the whereas Avars encircled the capital. At the beginning of the 7th century, the emperor Hercules reformed then reconstituted the army and pushed back the Persians to Ctésiphon, their capital, located at the southeast of Baghdad, earning a triumph denied to all his predecessors since the Trojan War. But the Arabs, unified by the preaching of Muhammed and the hope of important spoils, tackled the two empires who were now exhausted by their long fight. On the one hand, the fortifications along the syro-Palestinian border were few as there had been little threat up until now; in addition, the population of the provinces, the majority of whom were Monophysite, did not support the empire as they were Orthodox. The military superiority of the Arabs, shown by the battle of Yarmouk (636), was the final straw, and the provinces of Syria, Palestine and Egypt were, definitively, lost again, even before the death of Hercules (641).

Author

This article was kindley researched for Tunisia.com by Makrem Ben Salem.

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