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one on “Byzacene” written by M. Restle and the other one on “Karthago” by the late J. Christern, but finally remained unpublished.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 A...