The African Quest

Epilogue

"T HAT'S IT FOR my part of the presentation. I'd now like to call on my colleague, Professor Briars Hatley."

"Thanks, Ben. Professor Miller has told you of his discovery and subsequent study of the Carthalon Tablet.

"I would now like to share with you the findings from our archaeological survey of what we are calling the Taberda shipwreck. It was lying at a depth of approximately one hundred and eighty feet, less than a mile offshore of the town of Taberda, Tunisia.

"The ship and the objects found with it have been mapped, photographed, and studied extensively using the latest techniques, and I have distributed a list of the finds from the wreck. You will appreciate the fact that there are thousands of items, from olives to some very small wood pieces from the original hull, protected under the cargo, that have been useful for us in dating the wreck. Although the ship had been systematically looted over a period of approximately a year by a local diver named Habib Ouled, and sold through his brother-in-law, the late Rashid Houari, Ouled has cooperated with both us and the Tunisian authorities to assist in the recovery of a number of objects taken from the wreck. While this may not be ideal from a provenance perspective, it does permit us to cross-reference the ship's cargo, as outlined on the tablet, with the archaeological survey of the ship.

"Professor Miller and I believe, and we will attempt to prove to you here today, that the Taberda wreck is none other than the ship that set sail from Carthage in the year 308 B.C.E. with Carthalon aboard. The most significant factor in support of our argument, is, of course, the remains of a gold statue of a god we have identified as a smiting god, a divinity of Syrio-Phoenician tradition. While it would, under normal circumstances, be risky, if not downright foolhardy, to suppose the Taberda ship carried a statue some centuries older than the ship itself, in this particular case, with the aid of the Carthalon tablet, we believe we can say with some assurance that it did. As you will see from this first photograph . . ."