The Ancient World Online: The Punic Stelae of Carthage at the Louvre Museum: Offerings to Tanit and Baal Hammon

Under the direction of Hélène Le Meaux

The Department of Oriental Antiquities of the Louvre Museum preserves one thousand three hundred and eighty-three Punic votive steles from Carthage dedicated to the deities Tanit and Baal Hammon.

Beyond their historical interest, these steles are imbued with a complex history which illuminatingly reflects the practices of archeology at the end of the xix^e
century. The constitution of the entire collection is retraced: from the discovery of thousands of fragments to the making of stampings of the inscriptions, then from the shipment of the works until their arrival in France and their exhibition to the public, or their deposit in reserves and stores of different museums over the decades.

The Louvre Museum set up a multidisciplinary research program in 2015. The study and restoration of all the steles, the analysis of the materials, the complete photographic coverage, the reconsideration of the inscriptions and fragments, which had not all been inventoried, thus make it possible to present an exhaustive catalog from historiographical, archaeological, epigraphic, iconographic, stylistic and technical points of view.

Chief curator at the Department of Oriental Antiquities and doctor in the history of ancient art, Hélène Le Meaux curated the exhibition “The Mediterranean of the Phoenicians from Tire to Carthage” (Institut du monde arabes, 2007-2008) and the publication of various works including The Sarcophagus of Eshmunazor (2019) et The Cippus of Malta (2024).

Catalogue

Annexes