necropolis of Kerkouane

The Necropolis of Kerkouane is an ancient cemetery located approximately 1.5 km (0.93 mi) northwest of the Punic city of Kerkouane in northeastern Tunisia. The necropolis consists of a series of vaults set in a seaside hill, four primary chamber-tombs, and a surrounding burial area. In 1985, UNESCO declared Kerkouane and its necropolis a World Heritage Site, because "[t]he remains constitute the only example of a Phoenicio-Punic city to have survived."

The necropolis was discovered in 1929 by a local Islamic schoolteacher. This schoolteacher found a large store of buried possessions in the tombs, the most valuable of which he proceeded to sell to treasure hunters and collectors. The sold loot variously included jewellery, ceramics, and scarab gems. Many of the funerary objects and large pottery were too burdensome to be removed, and so were left in the tombs or destroyed. The discovery of the necropolis was not formally documented until some time later, after the schoolteacher revealed his source of wealth to an enquiring law officer. Further excavations have since been undertaken by historians and archaeologists. Many of the objects recovered have been sundries with little value, left over from the schoolteacher's pillage and the ransacks of grave robbers after him: bones, eggs, altars, amulets, bronze coins, razors, toiletries, obsidian and basalt relics, and earrings, among

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