8000 BC to 815 BC

Berbers and Phoenicians

Thousands of years before Carthage, hunters of the Capsian culture, named after the town of Gafsa, live on the inland plateaus. Berber peoples, the Amazigh, later farm and herd across North Africa, and they remain the base of the population through every conquest that follows. By tradition, Phoenician sailors from Tyre found Utica, on the northern coast, around 1100 BC.