Hammamet hosts 7th International Conference on Phoenician and Punic studies
TUNISIAONLINENEWS- The coastal town of Hammamet is hosting these days the 7th international congress of “life, religion and death in the Phoenician and Punic world”.
The event is organized by the National Heritage Institute (INP) and the National Agency for Revival of Heritage and Cultural Development as well as the Research Unit: Punic Carthage and culture dissemination.
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More than 300 researchers and experts from 22 countries representing 52 universities from Western and Arab countries namely Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Greece, Lebanon, Libya, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Japan, the United States, Spain, and Italy took part in the event.
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The event will be an occasion to reveal new heritages discovered by archeologists in the Punic site in the Sahel region of Kerkouane and statues of pottery were discovered in EL Djem dates back to the Punic era.
Tunisia - Participants in International Congress on Phoenician and Punic Studies congratulates President Ben Ali
(Isria)
Participants in the 7th International Congress on Phoenician and Punic Studies paid tribute to President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali for the attention he lavishes on material and intangible heritage, historical monuments, archaeological sites, museums and researches, as well as culture and youth centres, the 8th point of the Head of State's new electoral programme.
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Phoenician historical research center opens in USThe website is at http://phoenicia.org/ and the full press release about this Center is here. This looks to be a popular rather than specialist enterprise.
[Lebanon] Daily Star staff
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
BEIRUT: A new body has been established in the US to research ancient Phoneician history. Habib Chamoun, president of the newly incorporated Phoenician International Research Center for The Study Of Canaanite, Phoenician And Punic History (PIRC), announced the official establishment of the group during his address to the 16th World Lebanese Cultural Union World Congress in Mexico City, that ended on October 26. ...
Italian 3 D movie re-enacts Trasimeno battle between Rome and CarthageA trailer for the film is at the bottom of the article as well as here. Note also the Vin Diesel movie on Hannibal which is currently in the works.
TUNISIAONLINENEWS- A remarkable 3D movie screened on Tuesday at the 7 th international conference on Phoenician and Punic studies in Hammamet, retraces Hannibal’s journey through the Alps and his victory at the Trasimemo Battle in 217 BC where he defeated the Roman army led by Flaminius.
The film dubbed “Annibale al Trasimeno” was directed by Luca Palma and Ernesto Vigneri. The film was followed by a debate on the latest theories concerning the battle, which was used as a platform for a scientific documentary featuring the costumes and armors used at the time.
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Finally – tangentially related – here's a recent travel piece in the Financial Times on Tunisia and its Phoenician and Punic heritage:
History’s mark on Tunisia
By John Julius Norwich
Published: November 6 2009 23:23 | Last updated: November 6 2009 23:23
Everybody, perhaps, has their own Tunisia. For many, it is the sheer exoticism of north Africa, hundreds of miles further to the west yet infinitely more oriental than the Middle East: the brilliant blue doorways set in dazzling white walls, the elderly gentlemen with their little round red hats and long robes – which always seem to stop a bit too high, revealing anticlimactic ankle-socks. For some, the lure may be the cobalt sea of the Barbary Coast, home to the great corsair captains of the 15th and 16th centuries. Others feel the call of the desert in the far south, or of the west’s oases and palm groves, or the beaches of Hammamet and Cape Bon. But for us, Tunisia began with Carthage.
Virtually nothing remains of the old Phoenician Carthage of Hannibal and the Punic Wars. The city had cost Rome perhaps one-quarter of a million of her best men; no wonder the statesman Cato the Elder ended every speech he made with the words Delenda est Carthago, “Carthage must be destroyed”. In 146BC it was; not one stone was left atop another.
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