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Within the framework of the Thaenae archaeological field-school, excavations were carried out from 2017 to 2022 by a Tunisian-French team in the vicinity of the Tacape Gate in order to contribute to the study of the urban evolution of the city, marked, in Late Antiquity, by the construction of a wall whose area is larger than that of the Early Imperial city. On the basis of cross-referenced field and laboratory data (coins, ceramics and radiocarbon), it has been shown that this wall was built in the first half of the 4th century (perhaps as early as the first quarter of the century) by including the funerary spaces and craft workshops, which were then moved outside the new wall. The monumental character of this wall and the care taken in its construction argue in favour of a prestigious operation testifying to the economic and political vitality of the city of Thaenae in the years preceding or following the advent of the Constantinian dynasty.

The ongoing renovation of the Sfax Archaeological Museum and the current research within the framework of the Thaenae field site provided an opportunity between 2020 and 2022 to re-examine the material discovered by M. Fendri in a survey he carried out in 1964 in the northern necropolis of the town. He discovered a mausoleum, several secondary cremation burials composed of stelae and urns, a cupula burial and funerary material (lamps, glass, coins). He preserved the bones in three urns and their investigation, fifty years later using the new methods of archaeothanatology, provides new data on the funerary practices carried out in this city, which was already well known for the exceptional conservation of its necropolises.

Youth surveys permanently prove a general disenchantment with politics and politicians, leading to a decrease in participation and, as a consequence, a drop in voter turnout. Threatening the foundations of our democratic society, it is assumed that one way to get out of this vicious circle can be to enhance motivation and self-efficacy among young adults. This study looks at the potential of tailored campaigns that make politics visible for first-time voters, in order to increase their knowledge about current affairs, interest in political issues, and, subsequently, the willingness to vote. On occasion of the elections held for both the State and the European parliament in 2004, effects of a specially designed campaign were tested in a quasi-experimental design. 128 students of different high schools and vocational schools in the German state Thuringia obtained a 90-minute course unit on the election’s background, including a major part that required the visualization of politics in a wall newspaper. Results indicate that a singular intervention is not able to counteract disenchantment with politics in general, but to raise short-term intentions to go to the polls.