We had a lot of questions about how they were buried and what kind of rituals took place, and this site gives us the opportunity to answer those questions, to apply scientific methodologies and to excavate the cemetery to get the maximum amount of information out of it. It's not just the large size of the cemetery, the prominence of the people buried there or the discovery that it was used continuously for almost six centuries that makes it significant. The cemetery is in remarkably undisturbed condition, especially considering it survived an earthquake and at least one major stone robbing. And no other Carthage cemetery of its type has been excavated scientifically. But the most important aspect of the necropolis excavation may be its impact on helping people understand the importance of archaeology.
Most people find it very difficult to understand a site that no longer exists.
So this gives us an important datum point for people to look at, to feel and touch something real from second century Carthage. The enormous quantity and well-preserved quality of material being excavated promises to rewrite the artistic, social and cultural history of Carthage. Archaeologists also will be able to integrate and contextualize the material from the cemetery with that from other sites in the ancient city, said Norman, who directed the excavation of Carthage's Roman Circus from 1982 to 1990. So far, Norman and her 30-member team of students, volunteers, Tunisian workers and professional archaeologists have unearthed a large volume of antiquities from the necropolis. In addition to marble statues, a mausoleum and several tomb monuments, they have dug up a wide assortment of funerary inscriptions, coins, pottery, cremation urns and skeletons, which paint a complex picture of life and death in ancient Carthage.