Necropolis of Kerkouane

This schoolteacher found a large store of buried possessions in the tombs, the most valuable of which he proceeded to sell to treasure hunters and collectors.

Many of the objects recovered have been sundries with little value, left over from the schoolteacher's pillage and the ransacks of grave robbers after him: bones, eggs, altars, amulets, bronze coins, razors, toiletries, obsidian and basalt relics, and earrings, among others.

[3][4] Exceptions include an ancient Greek signet ring; a jasper scarab depicting an animalistic Egyptian god; and a set of rare perfume flasks, which was claimed by the Fragonard museum in Grasse, France.

[4] The most precious find to date is a red-painted sarcophagus with a cover in the shape of a woman identified as the goddess Astarte (Ishtar), protector of the dead, or one of her worshippers.

[4] The sarcophagus is prized as one of the only known Punic wood carvings still existing; for this reason, it was taken to Zurich, Switzerland for treatment shortly after its discovery.