Zita (Zyan) in southern Tunisia
In the southeast of modern Tunisia, near the border with Libya, inland of Zarzis, and south of Djerba (Homer's "Island of the Lotus Eaters") are the remains of the Punic and Roman settlement of Zita (now usually referred to as Zyan):
 
Taking its name from olives and olive oil, still the most important agricultural and economic products of the region, the site comprises the remains of a Roman forum, a Punic place of sacrifice (tophet) and large industrial areas:
 

 
Objective of visit:
                                                                                                                        
  To prepare measured plans of the site and its environs, using both a Topcon total station and Trimble DGPS (corrected in real-time by the Omnistar differential signal), excavate selected areas, and assist in preparing the site for tourism (mise en valeur).
Date of visit:
                                                                                                                         
   - December 2012
 - August/September 2013
 - August/September 2014
 - August 2015
Fellow visitors:
   Archaeologists Brett Kaufman (UCLA) and Ali Drine (Institut National de Patrimoine), as well as anthropologist Rayed Khedher (UCLA), accompanied by a small team of Tunisian scholars and staff.
Results:  
Medium-high resolution (<0.5 m) 3D coordinates of about 19,000 points were collected and analyzed using ArcMap (ESRI), AutoCAD (Autodesk), Foresight DXM (TDS), GPS Pathfinder Office (Trimble), and Surfer (Golden Software) software. These new data were combined with existing maps and satellite imagery into a series of plans of the site, including a regional archaeological map and a contour map.
  
Next to this, several series of digital photographs were combined, using PhotoScan (Agisoft) software, into 3D models of the two 2013 excavation units (the left mouse button allows navigation of the model, the right mouse button to zoom in and out).

Excavations are on-going in the Roman forum, the Neo-Punic tophet, and in the industrial middens that surrounded the ancient city.

Our work was published in, among others: Kaufman B., H. Barnard, A. Drine, R. Khedher, A. Farahani, S. Ben Tahar, E. Jerray, B.N. Damiata, M. Daniels, J. Cerezo-Román, T. Fenn and V. Moses, “Quantifying surplus and sustainability in the archaeological record at the Carthaginian–Roman urban mound of Zita, Tripolitania,” Current Anthropology 62, 2021: pp. 484-497. DOI: 10.1086/715275.
Approximate position and date of the site:   Zita is located in southern Tunisia, just inland of the modern coastal town of Zarzis and south of the island of Djerba. The site was founded or greatly expanded by the Phoenicians after they settled in northern Africa (around 800 BCE) and came under Roman control after they conquered and destroyed Carthage in 146 BCE. The city was abandoned in the Late Roman Period, 4th-6th century CE, after which the site saw little activity apart from agriculture and the removal of ashlars to be reused elsewhere.
Short description of the site:
                                                                                                                       
  The site of Zita was apparently built on a low rise in the landscape which seems supported by an outcrop of limestone that reaches the surface just north of the ancient remains. At present Zita is surrounded in all directions by olive trees, in places interrupted by small stands of almond and pomegranate trees, as it probably was in ancient times. In Roman times, and probably also before, the settlement was embedded in a large network of production centers along the Mediterranean Sea, the commodities of which included, among others, olive oil (from Olea europaea), wine (from Vitis vinifera), fish sauce (garum, from fermented small fish) and purple dye (from the marine gastropods Bolinus brandaris, Hexaplex trunculus, and Stramonita haemastoma).
  
Several distinct sections of Zita could be identified. The northern part of the site preserved monumental Roman architecture, most likely on top of earlier (Punic) remains. About 500 m south-east of the Roman forum are the remains of a Punic place of sacrifice or tophet. Towards the west of the Punic and Roman settlement are large industrial areas for the production of, among other items, the large amount of pottery necessary for the production, storage and transportation of olive oil. The location of pottery kilns and metal working sites west of the town is consistent with the prevailing easterly winds in the region. Two smaller areas preserving ancient remains at some distance from the main settlement were identified Zita East and Zita North, respectively.
Additional remarks:
                                                                                                                        
 
 My research in Tunisia would not have been possible without the Institut National de Patrimonie, the Institute for Field Research, the Fayum Project, the Joan Silsbee Chair of African Cultural Archaeology, and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.
 
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