The proliferation of large landed estates in North Africa during the Roman Empire is an undeniably important phenomenon whose production served as a crucial function for the state. However, its origins and early manifestations are difficult to explain due to the scarcity of documentation prior to the 2nd century BC. In this paper I will review the various hypotheses that have been established about the development of large-scale property in the later Carthaginian period, and then address proposals on the origin and development of large landholdings after the Roman conquest. I will end by presenting a digital tool project: the Atlas of Landed Estates in the Ancient Maghreb, which will provide an exhaustive panorama of landed property according to the periods, serving to better understand, among other things, the genesis of the phenomenon.