Who built this brilliant civilization in ancient Tunisia? What was the phenotype of those men and women who have erected this harbor which dominated the west Mediterranean? Who was the people that ruled upon Spain and from which came the regent Hannibal, who almost destroyed the Roman Empire?
Carthaginians were from Djahi (Phoenicia); and Phoenicians told us where they came from. In addition, the Swiss anthropologist Eugene Pittard and the French Stephane Gsell, Lucien Bertholon and Ernest Chantre have, in the turn of the 20th century, opened sarcophagus, collected the Carthaginians’ skeletons and analyzed the skulls they found. Their conclusions, we will see, don’t leave the shadow of a doubt.
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Phoenicians – who were Carthaginians’ ancestors – located in the antique texts of Ras Shamra their origins in Africa, at the very frontiers of Egypt [1]. Their religion that was the same as the Carthaginians’ was copied from the gods of the Egyptian pantheon [2]. Phoenicians were Blacks who lived in the Near East. It was those Phoenicians who, with the Egyptians, civilized Europe by introducing writing in Greece around 2786 of the African era, it is to say 1450 before the Christian era [3]. They founded Carthage 2800 years ago [4].
Before reading the European anthropologists conclusions, first it’s necessary to know the difference between a typical white skull be it Semite or European, and a Black one.
The Black skull is long from the front to the rear, this is called Dolichocephalism. It has a protruding jaw, a characteristic named Prognathism. Plus it has a short face from top to bottom. The White one has a short head from the front to the rear, this is called Brachycephalim. Its jaw is vertically on the same line as the forehead, that is to say Orthognathic. Finally, the face is long from top to bottom.
Knowing that the Phoenicians – who were great merchants and civilizers – have been everywhere on the Mediterranean, their skulls were found in multiple locations and here is the description made by the Swiss anthropologist Eugene Pittard (1867-1962) – founder of the Museum of ethnography and the first awarded of the anthropology chair of the Geneva University – about the skulls found in Syracuse in Italy: ‘the examined skulls were compressed on the temples, with an almost rhomboid form; a very prominent dental apparel and well-conditioned…; they are dolichocephalic and prognathic. That is the feature of the buried race (skulls of the west of Syracuse)’ [5].
Lucien Bertholon (1854-1914), founder of the Institute of Carthage, has examined skulls from Carthage. 100% had short face and/or dolichocephalism [6]. Stephane Gsell (1864-1932), director of the museum of Alger, said the following about Bertholon’s work: ‘several skulls, collected in the cemeteries present Negroid features’ [7].
Eugene Pittard says about the discoveries of Bertholon and also the description the latter made about the Basque whom he thought were a branch of the Carthaginians: ‘he gave men he considered were the current living descendants of the ancient Carthaginians, describing the following: those subjects had brown skin (not to say Black). This has to do with the fact that Phoenicians used to paint their statues with a brown-red color in order to imitate the color of the teguments…their noses is sometimes slightly concave. It is very often fleshy and sometimes with the point of their noses loaded. The mouth is medium sized, sometimes large. The lips are very often thick, the cheekbones are low’. [5]
Bertholon said about a sarcophagus of a member of the Carthaginian elite: ‘another sarcophagus (n°4), found in the bottom of a well 14 meters deep, contained along with a rich funerary furniture a female skeleton which presented as Negroid features a low skull, arched and ogival-shaped, microsemic eye orbit, an almost platyrhinian (flat) nose, an average prognathism, with a dental arch curb almost parabolic’ [5]
And Pittard concluded the subject with the description of the members of the Carthaginian elite as follows: ‘Other bones found in the Punic Carthage taken to the Museum of Lavigerie, come from subjects discovered in particular sarcophagus and in all probability belong to the Carthaginian elite. The skulls are almost all dolichocephalic and with a rather short face’ [5].
Finally he said the following regarding the great Priestess of Tanit, one of the highest, if not the single highest ranking official of Carthage at her time: ‘Those who, during these last years have visited the Museum of Lavigerie in Carthage, remember this magnificent sarcophagus of the Priestess of Tanit, discovered by professor Delatre. This sarcophagus, which is the most adorned, the most artistic, among all that have been discovered, and which external image probably represents the goddess herself, must have been the sepulcher of a very high religious person. Yet the woman who was buried in it presented Negroid features. She was of African race!’ [5]
As for Stephane Gsell, he concludes the following ‘The anthropologic examination of the skeletons found in tombs in Carthage proves that there is no racial or ethnic unity… the so-called Semitic type, characterized by the long, perfectly ovale face, the thin aquiline nose (…) has not been found in Carthage. On the other hand, another cranial form, with a fairly short face, prominent parietal bumps, farther forward (prognathism) (…) is common in Lebanese burial grounds and in those of the new Tyre (match with the negroid Phoenicians in their main settlement in Lebanon)… most of the Punic population in Carthage had African and even Negro, ancestors’ [8].
Conclusion: Carthage was a Black civilization, of African culture and spirituality, even though the Phoenician language was a Semitic language, because of the contact with Whites from Asia.
PS : We have also demonstrated within this second article that Hannibal was black.
PS 2 : There is a DNA study of a young man found in Carthage, which showed that he was a white man probably from Spain. The skeleton of this man, discovered in the 90s, is to our knowledge the first White exhumed, and does not have more significance than that of an Indian for example within the British population. Carthage was a black civilization.
Hotep!
By : Lisapo ya Kama © (All rights reserved. Any copying or translation of the text of this article is strictly forbbiden without the written approval of Lisapo ya Kama)
Notes :
- [1] Nations Nègres et Culture, Cheikh Anta Diop, page 170.
- [2] Idem, pages 169, 170.
- [3] Idem, pages 171.
- [4] Idem, pages 183,
- [5] Idem, page 187.
- [6] Recherches anthropologiques dans la Berbérie orientale, Lucien Bertholon and Ernest Chantre, pages 280 and 281.
- [7] Histoire ancienne de l’Afrique du nord, Stephane Gsell, page 174.
- [8] African presence in Early Europe, Ivan Van Sertima, pages 137, 138