UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa
causes, and it must be said that the economic importance of cereals seems
to have waned while that of olive-trees increased, except in Numidia which
remained a corn-growing country.
Industry and trade
It has generally been noticed that epigraphs and figures carved on
monuments yield much less information in Africa than in other Western
provinces about the life of craftsmen and hired workmen. However, while
metal-working seems to have been less prevalent in the African provinces,
we must not be tempted to indulge in generalizations; it could be pointed
out, for example, that the epigraphical material contains very few references
to builders and architects although their works cover innumerable
archaeological sites in Africa. In any event, the technological stagnation
of the Roman period was not conducive to any large-scale development
of the industries of antiquity. In these circumstances, the leading
industries were concerned with the processing of agricultural products,
and particularly the manufacturing of olive-oil; the ruins of olive-presses,
which are found in such profusion in the area stretching from Sefetula
to Thelepte and Tebessa, testify to the importance of oil in the economy
of ancient times, not only as the staple fat for human consumption, but
also as the sole fuel for lamps and an essential toilet requisite. 32
The pottery industry, which was associated to a variable degree with
the olive-oil industry, met the demand for lamps and containers, in addition
to producing domestic utensils. In Punic times, the local industry concentrated
on turning out everyday articles, and the most delicate specimens
of the potter's art were imported at first from Greece and Etruria and
later from southern Italy. With the Roman conquest, Africa became more
dependent on foreign production centres: Campania was superseded by
Tuscany and then by the Gallic workshops, which exported their goods
mainly to Mauretania; however, in the proconsular province, a new pottery
industry started to develop at the beginning of the second century of our
era along with a general economic recovery.
The work of J. P. Morel, who has detected the African imitations of
the black glazed pottery of Campania, 33 and that of P. A. Février and
J. W . Salomonson on the terra sigillata, together with the latest excavations
conducted by the research workers of the Archaeological Institute of Tunis,
have shown that there was a steady increase in the number and size of
the African workshops. 34 Besides the ordinary run of articles, they
produced the fine-qualitypottery coloured orange-red, at first, and pale
orange, later, which had become popular throughout the western Mediter-
32. See H. Camps-Fabrer, 1953.
33. J. P. Morel, 1968 and 1962-5.
34. See for example, A. Mahjoubi, A. Ennabli and J. W . Salomonson.
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