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  Kerkouane Shown within Tunisia | |
| Location | Nabeul Governorate,Tunisia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 36°56′47″N11°05′57″E / 36.946389°N 11.099167°E /36.946389; 11.099167 |
| Official name | Punic Town of Kerkuane and its Necropolis |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iii |
| Designated | 1985(9thsession) |
| Reference no. | 332 |
| UNESCO Region | Arab States |
Kerkouane orKerkuane (Arabic:كركوان,Karkwān) is the site of an ancientPunic city in north-easternTunisia, nearCape Bon. Kerkouane was one of the most important Punic cities[dubious –discuss], withCarthage,Hadrumetum (modernSousse), andUtica. ThisPhoenician city was probably abandoned during theFirst Punic War (c. 250 BC) and was not rebuilt by theRomans. It had existed for almost 400 years.
UNESCO declared the Punic town of Kerkouane andits necropolis aWorld Heritage Site in 1985, citing among other things that the remains constitute the only example of a Phoenicio-Punic city to have survived.
The name Kerkouane was given to the town by archaeologists. Its name in antiquity has not been preserved in any known historical documents.[1]
The name Kerkouane is a Libyco-Berber toponym deriving fromBerber kkerker "to wall up", it is also found inAlgeria and theSahel region.[2]
Kerkouane is a small town and was probably never home to more than 1,200 people, mostly fishermen and craftsmen. Based on the presence of manymurex shells, it would appear that the town produced purple dye, in addition to salt andgarum (a food product).[1]
Excavations of the town have revealed ruins andcoins from the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Around the site where the layout is clearly visible, many houses still show their walls, and the coloured clay on the facades is often still visible. The town was built on a grid with wide streets and public squares. The houses were built to a standard plan, in accordance with a sophisticated notion of town planning.
Traces ofred ochre found in excavated tombs are common also to native Libyan burial customs, but the religious and architectural traditions of the town are predominantly of Carthaginian style. Ablack-figure wine jug decorated with a scene fromThe Odyssey found with anIonian cup, and Greek architectural elements likeperistyle courtyards andstucco plaster decorations found among the remains of upscale private homes, show the town was influenced by the culture of the greater Mediterranean world.[1]
A sanctuary has some columns preserved, and in a small atrium parts of mosaics are found. Curbstones, doorsteps, thresholds, and floors of simple mosaic layers are found all over the ruins.[3]
There is an area for ritual banquets and a sacrificial altar. While archaeologists are unsure precisely which deities the temple was dedicated to, they speculate based on artifacts found at the site that it may have beenMelqart,Sid andTanit. Terracotta heads showing two males wearing conical hats resemble Sid and Melqarticonography known from theTemple of Antas inSardinia.[1]
Due to its coastal location, Kerkouane is vulnerable tosea level rise. In 2022, theIPCC Sixth Assessment Report included it in the list of African cultural sites which would be threatened byflooding andcoastal erosion by the end of the century, but only ifclimate change followedRCP 8.5, which is the scenario of high and continually increasinggreenhouse gas emissions associated with the warming of over 4 °C.,[4] and is no longer considered very likely.[5][6] The other, more plausible scenarios result in lower warming levels and consequently lower sea level rise: yet, sea levels would continue to increase for about 10,000 years under all of them.[7] Even if the warming is limited to 1.5 °C, global sea level rise is still expected to exceed 2–3 m (7–10 ft) after 2000 years (and higher warming levels will see larger increases by then), consequently exceeding 2100 levels of sea level rise under RCP 8.5 (~0.75 m (2 ft) with a range of 0.5–1 m (2–3 ft)) well before the year 4000. Thus, it is a matter of time before Kerkouane is threatened by rising water levels, unless it can be protected by adaptation efforts such assea walls.[8]
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Media related toKerkouane at Wikimedia Commons36°56′47″N11°05′57″E / 36.94639°N 11.09917°E /36.94639; 11.09917
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