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The Locus of Carthage: Compounding Geographical Logic

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Abstract

North Africa’s Phoenician city of Carthage was above all a logical place from which the well-informed maritime Phoenicians colonized and controlled the Western Mediterranean. The leading important factors affecting the founding of Carthage were mostly geographical: overall centrality along the southern coast of the Western Mediterranean; proximity to the island bridge of Italy via Sicily; nascent oceanographic knowledge of water currents and wind gyres as well as shoals such as the Gulf of Sidra and the shelter of the Gulf of Tunis itself; and important local topography and religious landmarks.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements are made to the National Geographic Society Expeditions Council for supporting my Tunisian fieldwork in 2007–2008, especially to Rebecca Martin, Director, also to Adria LaViolette and to the careful readers of drafts of this article as well as to Al Duncan at Stanford for images.

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    Patrick Hunt

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Hunt, P. The Locus of Carthage: Compounding Geographical Logic. Afr Archaeol Rev 26, 137–154 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-009-9051-7

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