CNRS UMR 5133 Archéorient, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, Université de Lyon 2, 69365 Lyon Cedex 7, France;
CNRS UMR 5133 Archéorient, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, Université de Lyon 2, 69365 Lyon Cedex 7, France.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 May 14;116(20):9764-9769. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1821015116. Epub 2019 Apr 29.
While the Punic Wars (264-146 BC) have been the subject of numerous studies, generally focused on their most sensational aspects (major battles, techniques of warfare, geopolitical strategies, etc.), curiously, the exceptional economic resilience of the Carthaginians in the face of successive defeats, loss of mining territory, and the imposition of war reparations has attracted hardly any attention. Here, we address this issue using a newly developed powerful tracer in geoarchaeology, that of Pb isotopes applied to paleopollution. We measured the Pb isotopic compositions of a well-dated suite of eight deep cores taken in the Medjerda delta around the city of Utica. The data provide robust evidence of ancient lead-silver mining in Tunisia and lay out a chronology for its exploitation, which appears to follow the main periods of geopolitical instability at the time: the Greco-Punic Wars (480-307 BC) and the Punic Wars (264-146 BC). During the last conflict, the data further suggest that Carthage was still able to pay indemnities and fund armies despite the loss of its traditional silver sources in the Mediterranean. This work shows that the mining of Tunisian metalliferous ores between the second half of the fourth and the beginning of the third century BC contributed to the emergence of Punic coinage and the development of the Carthaginian economy.
虽然布匿战争（公元前 264-146 年）已经成为众多研究的主题，但通常集中在其最具轰动性的方面（主要战役、战争技术、地缘政治策略等），奇怪的是，迦太基人在连续战败、采矿领土丧失和战争赔偿的情况下表现出了异常的经济弹性，但几乎没有引起任何关注。在这里，我们使用地球考古学中新开发的强大示踪剂——铅同位素，来解决这个问题。我们测量了位于乌提卡市周围的迈杰尔达三角洲的八个深核的一组经过良好日期的铅同位素组成。这些数据为突尼斯古代铅银矿的开采提供了有力的证据，并制定了其开采的时间表，这似乎与当时主要的地缘政治不稳定时期相吻合：希腊-布匿战争（公元前 480-307 年）和布匿战争（公元前 264-146 年）。在最后一次冲突中，数据进一步表明，尽管迦太基失去了地中海地区传统的银矿资源，但仍能够支付赔偿金并为军队提供资金。这项研究表明，公元前四世纪后半叶至三世纪初，突尼斯金属矿的开采促进了布匿货币的出现和迦太基经济的发展。
