L’Afrique dans l’Antiquité tardive et la période byzantine: l’évolution de l’architecture et de l’art dans leur environnement

This paper was originally meant to be published as an entry “Africa” (Mauretania, Numidia, Proconsularis) in the Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst, in order to complete a dossier including two other entries, one on “Byzacene” written by M. Restle and the other one on “Karthago” by the late J. Christern, but finally remained unpublished. We first intended to add a few entries on Byzantine Africa, one on “Tripolitania”, alongside articles on some of the most relevant archaeological sites in Late Antique Africa, to be inserted at the end of the volume. However “Africa” eventually became a thorough study of its own concerning not only Africa but also “Byzacene” and “Carthago”, in which we updated M. Restle and Christern’s contributions taking into account the major discoveries and studies which have been published since. This study goes far beyond the presence of the Empire of Constantinople on African soil between 533 and 698, in order to encompass the whole christianization period from the IVth century AD to the end of the VIIth century AD and the final conquest of Carthage by the Arabs. Its historical part deals with topographical, institutional, political, religious, social and economical facts only as far as they are relevant to the evolution of art and especially architecture, as suggested by the title, leaving these topics to the second part of the dictionary. All bibliographical references have been removed from this latest version except for those on Carthage. References will be easily found in any textbook about Africa, like the “Agregation” or “Capes” handbooks published last year in France for students taking the competitive French examination to become teachers in history, as well as in the numerous catalogues with their photographs and pictures showing Tunisian, Algerian and Moroccan archaeological sites and material throughout the world.