Meninx (Djerba) in the light of new archaeological research: methods, results and perspectives

"Meninx (Djerba) in the light of new archaeological research: methods, results and perspectives" by Stefan Ritter and Sami Ben Tahar

The Tunisian-German archaeological research carried out in Meninx from 2015 to 2018 has considerably enriched our knowledge of the urban planning of this city from its Punic origins in the 4th century BC until its abandonment towards the end of the 7th century AD. In addition to the terrestrial investigations which unfolded a particularly rich city endowed with sumptuous public monuments, very open to the Mediterranean, underwater prospections allowed to locate the port: it consists of a jetty with platform located some 80 m off the current shoreline. In order to carry out this research, the team used an interdisciplinary approach which proved to be particularly fruitful. Thanks to modern scientific investigation methods, such as geophysical prospection, archaeobiological analysis and archaeometric research, our understanding of the ancient urbanism of Meninx has considerably improved.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Ritter is Full Professor (chairholder) at the Institute for Classical Archaeology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich (Germany) since 2008. After his PhD on representations of Heracles in Roman art, he has been continuously working on Greek and Roman visual culture, unfolding a vast panorama of publications on topics such as Greek vase painting, Roman coins, bronze statuettes, funerary art, and wall painting. From the late 1990ies onwards, he has been co-directing some field projects in North Africa, at Thugga, Henchir Bourgou, and Meninx. He has taught and published on pre-Roman to Late Antique urbanism in the Maghreb and has supervised various theses with topics on ancient North Africa. 

Dr. Sami Ben Tahar is Maître de Recherche at the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP) in Tunis and a renowned specialist for Ancient History and Archaeology of the Island of Djerba and its surrounding area. He obtained his PhD at the Université de Provence, Aix‐Marseille and has conducted various field projects in the Gulf of Gabès with a large chronological portfolio stretching from Prehistory to Late Antiquity. He has published extensively on ancient urbanism and on material culture (especially ceramics) and he currently co-directs the Meninx Archaeological Project, and other projects at Henchir Bourgou, Gightis, Zitha and Tacape. He has been teaching at the Institut Supérieur des Sciences Humaines de Médenine and the Universities of Sfax and Tunis, while his works also include the valorization and restoration of important cultural monuments on the Island of Djerba.