L’ artisanat dans les cites antiques de l’Algérie

(Ier siècle avant notre ère –VIIe siècle après notre ère)

By (author) Touatia Amraoui

Book cover: L’ artisanat dans les cites antiques de l’Algérie

Extent: 452 pages

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing

Subjects: Classical Studies, Mediterranean Archaeology

Series: Archaeopress Roman Archaeology

Language: French

Paperback (Published)

(August 2017)

ISBN: 9781784916671

8.07 x 11.42 inches

Price: $100.00

In stock

This book is the first to examine the artisans of ancient North Africa as its core subject. Focusing on urban production in Algeria during Antiquity, this critical study brings together new documentation drawn up on the basis of field data and the consultation of archives from a long history of survey in Algeria and France.


Normally dealt with in a rather limited way, through the examination of a particular activity or geographical zone, the artisans of ancient North Africa are here, for the first time, the subject of an entire book. Focusing on urban production in Algeria during Antiquity, this critical study brings together new documentation drawn up on the basis of field data and the consultation of archives from a long history of survey in Algeria and France. This synthesis reviews the archaeological sites with workshops by defining their activities, at the same time as analyzing how they operated and looking at them typologically. Based on a comparison with documented workshops in the Western Roman world, the study of the techniques highlights the very strong similarities between the Roman regions but also the specific local variations of the methods used in Africa at this time. Maghreb ethnography shows the permanence of certain practices over time while attempting to reconstruct the “chaine operatoire”. Although it is still difficult to obtain an overall picture both from a spatial and a chronological point of view of the artisanal topography, the data reveals the existence of varied artisanal and commercial activities in urban areas throughout Antiquity. French description: Aborde generalement de facon ponctuelle a travers une activite particuliere ou une zone geographique donnee, l’artisanat en Afrique du nord antique fait ici pour la premiere fois l’objet d’un ouvrage. Centree sur la production urbaine en Algerie durant l’Antiquite, cette etude critique rassemble une nouvelle documentation elaboree a partir des donnees de terrain et de la consultation des archives a partir d’un long travail d’enquete en Algerie et en France. La synthese fait le point sur les sites archeologiques presentant des ateliers en definissant leur activite tout en analysant leur fonctionnement et leur typologie. En s’appuyant sur une comparaison avec les decouvertes d’ateliers dans le monde romain occidental, l’etude des techniques met en evidence les similitudes tres fortes entre les regions romaines mais aussi les specificites locales des methodes employees en Afrique durant cette periode. L’ethnographie maghrebine montre quant a elle la permanence de certaines pratiques a travers le temps tout en completant l’essai de restitution de la chaine operatoire. S’il est encore difficile d’avoir une vision d’ensemble tant d’un point de vue spatial que chronologique de la topographie artisanale, les donnees recensees revelent l’existence d’activites artisanales et commerciales variees incluses dans l’ensemble du domaine urbain tout au long de l’Antiquite.

  • By (author) Touatia Amraoui

Amraoui’s main achievement is to assemble and evaluate the evidence for the spectrum of different ancient crafts, hitherto scattered widely throughout multiple publications, archives, and museum collections. As her supervisors remark in their highly supportive preface, by making clear the current foundation of evidence and what still survives in the museums, she manages to draw a line under more than a century of previous research and provide the point of departure for future study of artisanal crafts in this region. This alone will make the reworked version of the thesis published here essential reading for anyone engaging with the issues of craft production and the economic organization of Roman-period North Africa for a long time to come.
— Matthew S. Hobson