Overview
The Museum of Moknine was inaugurated in 2006. Part of the exhibition serves as an introduction to the ancient past of the city and its surroundings. Showcases display pottery found in Punic burial chambers. A mosaic of the 5th centuryAD, found in thermal baths south of the city, represents in the center a victorious charioteer holding a whip in his hand, and symmetrical horses on either side of a cantharus from which emerge palm branches, the symbol of victory. A jug, a censer with hanging chains, and a bronze candle holderpresumably part of the liturgical instruments of a Vandal-Byzantine church.
Most of the museum exhibits collections related to ethnographic artefacts. These includesamples of common turned and shaped pottery which were used for cooking and storage of water and liquid foods, cereals, spices and starches. Another section shows various feminine traditional garments and jewelry. The latter are made of silver or gold, sometimes adorned with pearls, coral and ruby beads, and the ceremony clothing is embroidered with gilded silver thread (known as tell). The basic garment is a shirt with embroidered collar and opening, worn under two black or red drapes (khallala), held at shoulder height by fibula pins (khlel) and around the waist by a wool belt (Shamla). The head is topped by a scarf, or a qoufia and a mendil, both embroidered with gilded silver thread. Footwear consists in embroidered slippers known as balgha-s.
Men's clothes, much simpler, consist ina gown (blouza) for summer and a woolen cloak (kadroun) for winter with a long sleeveless woolen hooded cape called (burnous). The headdress is a short woolen red colored fez (sheshiya) with a turban, or a scarf. Footwear most often consists in black leather slippers (balgha-s).
