North Africa (909 BCE – 819 CE) Early Iron and Antiquity — Phoenicians and Carthage, Numidian–Mauretanian Kingdoms, Rome, Garamantes, and Late Antique Transitions

Geographic and Environmental Context

North Africa includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia (Ifriqiya), Libya (Tripolitania–Fezzan–Cyrenaica), and Western Sahara.

Anchors: the Atlas ranges (High/Middle/Anti-Atlas; Tell Atlas; Aurès), the Tell and Sahel coasts (Atlantic Morocco, Rif/Alboran, Kabylia, Ifriqiya, Syrte/Gulf of Sidra, Cyrenaica), the Saharan platforms and sand seas (Erg Chech, Grand Erg Occidental & Oriental, Tanezrouft), the oases and basins (Tafilalt, Draâ, Touat–Gourara–Tidikelt, M’zab, Wadi Igharghar, Fezzan (Wadi al-Ajyal, Ubari and Murzuq dunes)), and the trans-Saharan corridors toward Lake Chad, Niger Bend, and the Nile.

• Coasts: Phoenician and later Punic ports (Carthage, Utica, Hippo Regius, Leptis Magna, Sabratha, Oea/Tripoli, Lixus, Mogador); Greek Cyrenaica (Cyrene).

• Interior: Garamantes in Fezzan; Numidia (Aurès–Constantine) and Mauretania (Rif–Atlas) uplands.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

• Mediterranean coasts temperate; interior arid but stable around engineered oases.

Societies & Political Developments

• Phoenician colonization (from 9th–8th c. BCE) culminated in Carthage (trad. 814 BCE); Punic hegemony fostered trade and urbanism.

• Numidian and Mauretanian kingdoms crystallized (2nd–1st c. BCE), later client to Rome; Cyrenaica Greek cities flourished in the east.

• Rome created Africa Proconsularis, Numidia, Mauretania Caesariensis/Tingitana, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica; roads, aqueducts, ports (grain, olive oil, garum).

• Garamantes (ca. 500 BCE–500 CE) dominated Fezzan, controlling desert trade with foggaras, walled towns, and chariot/camel trails.

• Late Antiquity: Vandals (5th c. CE) seized coastal Africa; Byzantines reconquered (6th c.); Berberconfederacies expanded inland; Islamic polities advanced in the 7th–8th c. CE, establishing Kairouan and early dynasties; by the 8th–9th c., Idrisids rose in Morocco.

Economy & Trade

• Coastal exports: grain, olive oil, wine, salted fish, purple dye; interior trade: salt, dates, gold, slaves, ivory; oasis produce and transshipment (Fezzan, Touat).

• Caravan systems matured between Fezzan ↔ Niger Bend/Lake Chad and Tripolitania/Cyrenaica ↔ Nile.

Technology & Material Culture

• Iron widespread; Roman engineering (roads, bridges, aqueducts; port moles).

• Oasis technologies: foggaras/khettaras, cisterns, terrace gardens; wheel-made ceramics, glass.

• Urban mosaics, Punic and Roman inscriptions; desert fortlets and tumuli fields.

Belief & Symbolism

• Punic religion (Baal Hammon–Tanit) across ports; Greek/Roman polytheism then Christianity in cities; Judaism in port communities;

• Amazigh (Berber) cults of springs, mountains, and ancestors persisted; Garamantian funerary landscapes extensive; Islam spread in the late centuries of this epoch.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Coastal breadbasket + oasis waterworks + caravan redundancy ensured stability; mixed agrarian–pastoral portfolios buffered shocks.

Transition

By 819 CE, North Africa was a polycentric frontier: Punic–Roman urban legacies, Garamantian oasis know-how, and rising Islamic–Amazigh polities formed the launching pad for the 9th–14th-century Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid/Hafsid/Zayyanid transformations to come.

Assyrian rule (875-608 BCE) deprives the Phoenician cities of their independence and prosperity and brings repeated, unsuccessful rebellions.

Tyre has grown as a Levantine power: one of its kings, the priest Ithobaal (887–856 BCE) rules Phoenicia as far north as Beirut, and part of Cyprus.

Phoenicians meanwhile explore the Mediterranean as far as Spain and into the Atlantic, establishing colonies on the Tunisian coast at Carthage, beyond the Strait of Gibraltar at Cádiz, and elsewhere, transforming the Mediterranean, from the Levant to Gibraltar, into a great maritime trading arena.

The collection of city-states constituting Phoenicia comes to be characterized by outsiders and the Phoenicians as Sidonia or Tyria.

Phoenicians and Canaanites alike are called Sidonians or Tyrians, as one Phoenician city comes to prominence after another.

Two geneticists educated at Harvard University and leading scientists of the National Geographic Genographic Project, Dr. Pierre Zalloua and Dr. Spencer Wells, in 2004 identified "the haplogroup of the Phoenicians" as haplogroup J2, with avenues open for future research.

The male populations of Tunisia and Malta were also included in this study.

They were shown to share "overwhelming" genetic similarities with the Lebanese.

Scientists from the Genographic Project announced in 2008 at "as many as 1 in 17 men living today on the coasts of North Africa and southern Europe may have a Phoenician direct male-line ancestor."

Spencer Wells of the Genographic Project has conducted genetic studies that demonstrate that male populations of Lebanon, Malta, Spain, and other areas settled by Phoenicians share a common m89 chromosome Y type.

Male populations in areas associated with Minoan or with the Sea People settlement have completely different genetic markers.

This implies the probability that Minoans and Sea Peoples have no ancestral relation with the Phoenicians.

The Phoenicians, pressed for space for their growing population, establish major colonies on the North African littoral, the most notable of which is Carthage.

In the process of founding new city-states, they discover the Atlantic Ocean.

North Africa (909–766 BCE)

The Libyan Dynasties and Phoenician Expansion

The Rise of the Libyan Pharaohs

Beginning around 909 BCE, Berber influence in Egypt reaches a historic zenith with the emergence of the so-called Libyan dynasties. Originating from influential Berber tribes such as the Libu and Meshwesh, these groups, initially depicted by Egyptian chronicles as troublesome invaders, steadily integrate into Egyptian society. By approximately 945 BCE, a prominent Berber military leader, Sheshonk I, seizes control of Egypt, inaugurating the Twenty-second Dynasty, known as the Libyan Dynasty (945–730 BCE). Sheshonk I consolidates his authority, successfully extending Egyptian influence into Palestine and Syria, a notable achievement documented in biblical and Egyptian sources.

Sheshonk’s successors maintain varying degrees of power and authority over Egypt, relying heavily on Berber military elites. These Berber Pharaohs significantly impact Egypt’s political structure and contribute substantially to interconnected cultural exchanges across North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

Phoenician Consolidation and the Founding of Carthage

Concurrent with the Libyan dynastic presence in Egypt, Phoenician influence along the North African coast intensifies considerably. According to Roman sources, Phoenician colonists from the Levant establish Carthage around 814 BCE near modern-day Tunis in Tunisia. However, archaeological evidence indicates settlement activity beginning no earlier than approximately 740 BCE, suggesting uncertainty around the city's precise founding date. Ancient historians offer varying timelines for Carthage's establishment, ranging from 1215 BCE to coinciding with the end of the Trojan War. Despite these discrepancies, the most credible estimates place the founding between 846 and 813 BCE.

Legend attributes Carthage’s establishment to Queen Dido (Elissa or Alissar), an exiled princess from Tyre. According to various sources, including the historian Timaeus of Tauromenium, Elissa fled Tyre following her husband’s assassination by her brother, King Pygmalion. She subsequently founded Carthage, laying the foundations for what would become a powerful mercantile and naval state. Roman poet Virgil dramatizes this legend in the Aeneid, significantly embellishing the story to reflect Roman attitudes toward Carthage.

Phoenician settlers introduce significant innovations to North Africa, including advanced shipbuilding techniques, improved agricultural practices, and notably, the worship of their city-god Melqart. The Phoenician phonetic alphabet becomes the basis for future writing systems in the region, adopted and adapted by local Berber communities. Although Carthaginian primary historical sources largely vanish following the city’s destruction by Rome during the Third Punic War, Greek and Roman historical texts provide the principal surviving accounts, often colored by rivalry and hostility.

Berber Cultural Continuity and Societal Development

During this period, Berber societies continue to flourish independently in interior regions, particularly around the Atlas Mountains and Saharan oases. Tribal structures, based primarily on clan and family affiliations, remain central, underscoring resilient cultural identity amid external influences. Despite lacking centralized political institutions, Berber communities maintain robust internal coherence through shared linguistic and cultural traditions.

Interactions with Phoenician coastal settlements like Carthage promote economic prosperity and cultural exchange, but they also reinforce clear distinctions between coastal mercantile communities and autonomous interior Berber tribes, distinctions that will significantly influence North Africa’s subsequent historical trajectory.

Legacy of Integration and Cultural Exchange

By 766 BCE, North Africa stands at the intersection of indigenous Berber resilience and burgeoning Phoenician commercial power. The Berber-led Libyan dynasties in Egypt underscore North Africa’s role in broader Mediterranean geopolitics, while Phoenician-founded Carthage emerges as a potent regional force, eventually known as the "shining city" controlling hundreds of settlements around the western Mediterranean. Together, these dynamics establish foundations profoundly shaping the region’s historical evolution in the centuries to come.

Phoenician colonists from the Levant establish Carthage in 814 BCE, according to Roman sources.

Archaeological evidence of settlement on the site of Carthage before the last quarter of the eighth century BCE has yet to be found.

Historians over the centuries will give various dates, both for the foundation of Carthage and the foundation of Rome.

Appian, in the beginning of his Punic Wars, will claim that Carthage was founded by a certain Zorus and Carchedon, but Zorus looks like an alternative transliteration of the city name Tyre and Carchedon is simply the Greek form of Carthage.

Philistos of Syracuse will datethe founding of Carthage to about 1215 BCE, while the Roman historian Appian will date the founding fifty years prior to the Trojan War (i.e., between 1244 and 1234 BCE, according to the chronology of Eratosthenes).

The Roman poet Virgil will imagine that the city's founding coincides with the end of the Trojan War.

However, it is most likely that the city was founded sometime between 846 and 813 BCE.

The Phoenicians brought with them the city-god Melqart.

The historical study of Carthage is problematic.

Because its culture and records were destroyed by the Romans at the end of the Third Punic War, very few Carthaginian primary historical sources survive.

While there are a few ancient translations of Punic texts into Greek and Latin, as well as inscriptions on monuments and buildings discovered in North Africa, the main sources are Greek and Roman historians, including Livy, Polybius, Appian, Cornelius Nepos, Silius Italicus, Plutarch, Dio Cassius, and Herodotus.

These writers belonged to peoples in competition, and often in conflict, with Carthage.

Greek cities contested with Carthage for Sicily, and the Romans fought three wars against Carthage.

Not surprisingly, their accounts of Carthage are extremely hostile; while there are a few Greek authors who took a favorable view, these works have been lost.

Legend has the founding Carthaginians as followers of Queen Dido (Elissa, or "Alissar"), an exiled princess of Tyre.

The person of Dido can be traced to references by Roman historians to lost writings of Timaeus of Tauromenium, who lived in Sicily from about 356 to 260 BCE.

Timaeus made Carchedon's wife Elissa the sister of King Pygmalion of Tyre.

Elissa's brother, King Pygmalion of Tyre, had murdered her husband, the high priest.

Elissa escaped the tyranny of her own country, founding the "new city" of Carthage and subsequently its later dominions.

Details of her life are sketchy and confusing, but the following can be deduced from various sources.

According to Justin, Princess Elissa was the daughter of King Matten of Tyre (also known as Muttoial or Belus II).

When he died, the throne was jointly bequeathed to her and her brother, Pygmalion.

She married her uncle Acherbas (also known as Sychaeus), the High Priest of Melqart, a man with both authority and wealth comparable to the king.

This led to increased rivalry between religion and the monarchy.

Pygmalion assassinated Acherbas in the temple and kept the misdeed concealed from his sister for a long time, deceiving her with lies about her husband's death.

At the same time, the people of Tyre called for a single sovereign, causing dissent within the royal family.

In the Roman epic by Virgil, the Aeneid, Queen Dido, the Greek name for Queen Elissa, is first introduced as an extremely respected character.

In just seven years, since their exodus from Tyre, the Carthaginians have rebuilt a successful kingdom under her rule.

Her subjects adore her and present her with a festival of praise.

Her character is perceived by Virgil as even more noble when she offers asylum to Aeneas and his men, who have recently escaped from Troy.

A spirit in the form of the messenger god, Mercury, sent by Jupiter, reminds Aeneas that his mission is not to stay in Carthage with his newfound love, Dido, but to sail to Italy to found Rome.

Virgil ends his legend of Dido with the story that, when Aeneas tells Dido, her heart broken, she orders a pyre to be built where she falls upon Aeneas' sword.

As she lay dying, she predicted eternal strife between Aeneas' people and her own: "rise up from my bones, avenging spirit" (4.625, trans. Fitzgerald) she says, an invocation of Hannibal.

The details of Virgil's story do not, however form part of the original legend and are significant mainly as an indication of Rome's attitude towards the city she had destroyed.

At its peak, Carthage will come to be called the "shining city," ruling three hundred other cities around the western Mediterranean and leading the Phoenician (or Punic) world.

Atlantic Southwest Europe (909–766 BCE): Consolidation of Agricultural Communities and Emerging Regional Identities

From 909 to 766 BCE, Atlantic Southwest Europe—comprising northern and central Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and parts of northern Spain—entered a significant period of societal consolidation and regional differentiation. Agricultural communities expanded and became more sophisticated, strengthening trade networks and fostering distinctive local cultures, notably including early proto-Basque societies and the emergence of the significant Castro culture in northwestern Iberia.

Societal and Economic Developments

Agricultural Expansion and Settlement Consolidation

• Agricultural practices improved significantly, with innovations in crop rotation, plowing, and livestock management enhancing productivity and food security.

• Populations steadily increased, prompting the expansion and consolidation of settlements in fertile valleys along rivers such as the Minho, Douro, Tagus, and Ebro.

Strengthening Regional Trade Networks

• Regional trade intensified, linking inland agricultural areas and coastal communities, facilitating the exchange of cereals, textiles, salt, metals (bronze and copper), ceramics, and early luxury items.

• Maritime trade grew steadily along the Atlantic coast, connecting local tribes to early Mediterranean trading networks, including indirect contacts with Phoenician and emerging Carthaginian traders, laying groundwork for future significant maritime interactions.

Cultural and Technological Developments

Emergence and Influence of the Castro Culture

• The distinctive Castro culture arose prominently during this period in northwestern Iberia, notably Galicia and northern Portugal, characterized by fortified hilltop settlements (castros), circular stone houses, sophisticated metalworking, and distinctive pottery.

• The Castro settlements served as vital centers for agriculture, craftsmanship, trade, and defense, significantly shaping the cultural and social organization of the region.

Continued Influence of Late Bronze Age Cultures

• The later stages of the Urnfield culture (c. 1300–750 BCE) continued influencing burial practices, metalworking techniques, and settlement patterns, reinforcing social complexity and regional cultural identities.

• Local adaptations and innovations increasingly differentiated regional cultures, paving the way for distinctly Iberian and proto-Celtic cultural expressions in subsequent centuries.

Advances in Metalworking and Material Culture

• Bronze metallurgy became widespread, with skilled artisans producing sophisticated tools, weapons, jewelry, and ceremonial items that displayed increasing regional stylistic variations.

• Emerging iron-working technologies began appearing, slowly introducing transformative innovations that would significantly shape subsequent eras.

Cultural Identity and Proto-Basque Consolidation

Development of Proto-Basque Societies

• The proto-Basque communities consolidated their settlements and cultural practices, primarily in regions surrounding the western Pyrenees, southwestern Aquitaine, and northern Iberian valleys.

• Linguistic, cultural, and social distinctions became increasingly pronounced, shaping a durable regional identity that clearly differentiated them from neighboring Iberian and emerging Celtic-speaking communities.

Ritual and Religious Practices

• Ritual practices grew more complex, with increasing numbers of burial mounds, megalithic structures, and sacred sites marking landscapes and emphasizing social hierarchies and collective religious beliefs.

• Communities engaged extensively in ancestor veneration and nature-based rituals, reinforcing communal bonds and cultural continuity.

Notable Early Settlement Patterns

• Fortified Villages and Castros: Communities constructed fortified settlements, reflecting concerns with defense, regional control, and social organization. Prominent among these were the distinctive castros characteristic of northwestern Iberia, marking the advent of the Castro cultural complex.

• Coastal and Riverine Trading Centers: Early proto-urban communities emerged strategically along river valleys and coastal regions, serving as nodes for trade, cultural exchange, and emerging administrative organization.

Long-Term Significance and Legacy

Between 909 and 766 BCE, Atlantic Southwest Europe:

• Experienced significant agricultural and demographic growth, laying foundational economic and social structures.

• Intensified interactions with Mediterranean cultures, notably early Phoenician and Carthaginian trade contacts, strengthening interregional economic integration.

• Saw the consolidation of distinct cultural identities, particularly among proto-Basque communities and the emergent Castro culture, shaping the enduring regional diversity characteristic of Atlantic Southwest Europe.

This period laid crucial economic, social, and cultural foundations for the intensification of Mediterranean interactions and further regional differentiation in subsequent eras.

Kart-Hadasht (Carthage) is supposedly founded on the Tunisian coast of North Africa under Pygmalion of Tyre (820–774 BCE) as a way station and trading post for merchants in 814 BCE (the traditional date; archaeology confirms no date earlier than around 740 BCE.)

Sidon rebels during the seventh century BCE and is completely destroyed by Esarhaddon (681-668 BCE), and its inhabitants are enslaved.

Esarhaddon builds a new city on Sidon's ruins.

Assyrian oppression of Phoenicia continues unabated, and Tyre rebels again, this time against Sargon II (722-05 BCE), who successfully besieges the city in 721 BCE and punishes its population.