¿Quién parte y reparte? Análisis de la disposición urbana en la Cartago fenicia

Abstract

In this paper I would like to highlight the significant architectural regularity which characterizes the pre-Roman archeological remains registered in Carthage. Despite having been repeatedly interpreted from a preconceived logical and spatial point of view, these remains allow us to set out that the Tyrian foundation was established in the Carthaginian peninsula according to a model that is referred to as per strigas in archaeological literature because it was documented better at the Archaic Greek colonies in Sicily. To defend this idea, I will indicate which architectonic remains make up its material basic, paying special attention to the remains found underneath the crossroads of the decumanus maximus and the cardo x-east, and I will try to summarize the state of the current issue on the urban shape of Phoenician Carthage. I will then go over several documentated examples of orthogonal land division in urban spaces from the Ancient Near East. This information will provide insight on the possible technical and practical context of Phoenician societies in the 9 th and 8th centuries BC and, more specifically, the socio-political context of the Carthaginian founders. Finally, in light of these elements, I will put forward a proposal of a reconstruction of the urban layout of Phoenician Carthage as a whole.