Vases zoomorphes phéniciens et puniques de l’Afrique du Nord: comparaisons, fonctionnalité et symbolisme

Askoi and kernoi are zoomorphic vases for special uses whose presence is attested in Phoenician and Punic different contexts, especially funerary, but also ritual and domestic ones, during a large period of time between the second half of the 8th to the 3rd c. BC. The North African documentation has been enriched over the years by many examples found in central and western Mediterranean. Through the collection and the analysis of currently published finds, this article aims to study some aspects of the functionality of these vases and to analyse the origin and the assimilation, intentional or not, of rituals and symbolism related to the animal represented and used by the different communities of the eastern Mediterranean with which the Phoenicians came into contact