Death, gender, and sea shells in Carthage

Sea shells were typical offerings in Carthaginian burials, yet archaeologists have rarely paid any attention to them and have therefore written very little about them. Given the Phoenician adoption of various Egyptian funerary customs and motifs, moreover, sea shells in Carthaginian burials are typically attributed the same meaning as those in Egyptian burials. Given our understanding of the Phoenician association with the sea and our understanding about specifically Carthaginian funerary customs and offerings, however, it is likely that there are distinctively Carthaginian reasons for the inclusion of sea shells in their burials.Il est courant de retrouver des coquillages marins dans les tombes puniques carthaginoises, mais ceux-ci ont rarement suscité l’intérêt des archéologues. Parce que les Phéniciens ont adopté des pratiques funéraires égyptiennes, on a tout simplement prêté à ces coquillages dans les tombes carthaginoises la même signification qu’à ceux des tombes égyptiennes. Mais étant donné les rapports que les Carthaginois entretenaient avec la mer, il est vraisemblable qu’ils aient eu des raisons propres pour placer des coquillages dans leurs tombes