Les Stèles puniques de Carthage

Written in French

The Louvre Museum's Department of Oriental Antiquities holds 1,383 Punic votive steles from Carthage dedicated to the gods Tanit and Baal Hammon.

Beyond their historical interest, these steles are imbued with a complex history that sheds light on archaeological practices at the end of the 19th century. The history of the entire collection is traced: from the discovery of thousands of fragments to the creation of casts of the inscriptions, then the shipment of the works to France and their exhibition to the public, and finally their storage in the reserves and warehouses of various museums over the decades.

In 2015, the Louvre Museum launched a multidisciplinary research program. The study and restoration of all the steles, the analysis of materials, the complete photographic coverage, and the reconsideration of inscriptions and fragments, not all of which had been inventoried, have made it possible to present an exhaustive catalog from historiographical, archaeological, epigraphic, iconographic, stylistic, and technical perspectives.