A team of Tunisian / Italian archaeologists has exhumed, near Nabeul, on the Tunisian coast, the vestiges of Neapolis, a Roman city. For years, archaeologists from the INP National Institute of Tunisian Heritage and the University of Sassari-Oristano in Italy were searching the Gulf of Hammamet, in search of the port of Neapolis.
A commercial counter
Thanks to perfect weather conditions, their quest finally came to fruition, divers discovered the vestiges of this Roman city engulfed by the waves in the 4th century BC. They discovered, spreading over twenty hectares, streets, monuments, as well as hundreds of curing vats. Before his Roman domination, Neapolis was a Carthaginian counter, indispensable for commercial relations, which explains the presence of these amphorae. The garum fish meat or fish viscera, fermented for a long time in a large quantity of salt and used as a condiment for the production of many dishes was stored in these containers and then shipped throughout the Mediterranean, and the notables of the city owed it their fortune!
Victim of an earthquake
As the Greek historian, Ammien Marcellin v.330-v.395 wrote, an earthquake would be at the origin of the immersion of the port of Neapolis. According to him, the Mediterranean basin was shaken by an earthquake on 21 July 365 AD. The shocks would then have provoked a tsunami that would have partially immersed Neapolis.
All that remains is to preserve these remains and make them an archaeological reserve.
