Over view
The museum of Nabeul, created in 1984, houses archaeological artefacts, coming from different parts of the Cap Bon peninsula.
A space is devoted to the Punic -Roman sanctuary of Thinissut (Bir Bou Regba), dedicated to Baal-Saturn and Tanit-Caelestis, which was discovered in 1908. Remarkable terracotta statues have been excavated there, including female statues representing "the Omnipotent Tanit". In the temple of Thinissut, Tanit was worshipped in a triple form: an African form, represented with a lion's head (leontocephalonian), an Oriental form, with Tanit standing on a lion, and a Greek-Roman form, where the goddess is depicted as a wet nurse, nursing an infant. By their number and size, these terracotta statues, unmatched in the Phoenician-Punic sphere, are considered to be the most impressive discovery ever.
The sanctuary also delivered epigraphic documents, notably the Neopunic dedication to Baal and Tanit, and another one dedicated to Augustus Deo, by Roman citizen merchants of Thinissut, which is among the oldest Latin inscriptions in Africa (end of 1st c. BC).
Among the outstanding artefacts on display are the beautiful mosaics excavated from the sumptuous House of the Nymphs (Nymfarum domus) in Neapolis: one depicting two roosters facing each other on either side of an amphora filled with gold coins, revealing the wealth of the master of the house, and other mosaics relating to episodes from Greek mythology (the embassy of Chryses, priest of Apollo, to the Greek king Agamemnon; the bath of the nymphs in the Hippocrene source; the episode of Philoctetes incapacitated and left behind on the island of Lemnos, with, next to him, the bows and the quiver he was bequeathed by Heracles; Poseidon saving the nymph Amymon). These scenes, represented on mosaics of the 4th c. AD and set in an Athenian context of the 5th c. BC, testify to the refinement and the great classical culture of the owner of the house, in the late Roman period.
On display at the entrance of the museum, a large marine mosaic of Sidi El-Mahersi depicting fishermen in boats, processions of Nereides on sea monsters, sea shores with anglers, etc.
Other mosaics come from Kelibia; Two of them stand out, in particular, the one featuring an episode from the legend of Marsyas and Apollo and the one of the cobbler where the image and text evoke the well-known adage: "Cobbler, no higher than the sole! ».
The museum also contains a few Roman stelae, as well as two imperial statues in white marble from Korbous.
The Cap Bon peninsula is a favorable environment for the salting industry, thanks in particular to the abundance of blue fish in its waters. A room has been devoted to the presentation of the outcome of the excavation conducted in the fish salting factories sector in Neapolis, and to the production and trade of garum and salsamenta in the Mediterranean area and in nowadays Tunisia. Thanks to the bony remains of fish, archaeo-ichtyology allows to draw up a list of species used for salting and sauces.
