Chenini-Clausura

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Chenini-Clausura
limes Limes Tripolitanus
(back line)
section Djebel Dahar
Type Barrage
size Length: around 300 m
Construction Stone, pending sand and rubble
State of preservation largely preserved rubble wall
place Chenini du Gabès
Geographical location 32 ° 53 '32.9 "  N , 10 ° 14' 37.8"  E
height 446  m
Previous Small fort Henchir Medeina
(rear Limes line) (south)
Subsequently Wadi-Skiffa-Clausura (south)
(rear Limes line) (north)
Backwards Talalati Fort
(backward Limes line) (northeast)
Upstream Small fort Tisavar (west)
The Limes Tripolitanus with the Clausura

Chenini-Clausura is the modern name of a small Roman barrage , which was responsible for security and surveillance tasks at the rear Limes Tripolitanus , a deep system of forts and military posts in the Roman province of Africa proconsularis , later Tripolitania . The short, straight line of fortification belonged to the large barrier belt that was supposed to defend the fertile coastal land of the province from attackers from the desert region and at the same time control the trade in goods for Rome. In addition, the shepherd nomads from the desert areas were prevented from coming into confrontation with the agricultural production sites in the east of the country, particularly the Djeffara plain, which are important for Rome, through unauthorized border crossings . The debris wall of the barrage, which is partly still visible in the terrain, secured a pass road in the Wadi Chenini and is located southwest of the Berber village Chenini du Gabès, 18 kilometers from Tataouine between the ridges of the Dahar mountain range in southern Tunisia , Tataouine governorate .

Location and research history

The little Clausura cuts through the narrowness of the dry valley of Chenini, which is bounded on the upper reaches by very steep slopes. As on many passes over the Dahar ridge that were already in use in antiquity, a modern road leads through the mountain range of the Djebel Demmer. The Wadi Chenini meanders down the slopes of the Dahar to the west to the edge of the Eastern Great Sand Desert . There, above the Wadi bel Recheb, the small fort Tisavar is located directly on the southern outer border of the Roman Empire. To the east, the Wadi Chenini opens after around five kilometers onto a wide, north-south oriented plateau .

Various archaeologists and historians give the most varied of lengths for this barrage. These range from 500 meters to one and two kilometers. In 1974, the French archaeologist Pol Trousset did the most extensive work on the structure.

Building history

The ostraca from the Gholaia / Bu Njem border fort in Libya , dating back to the third century AD, confirm the involvement of a regular garrison in routine police duties and the surveillance of civilians. A small unit of Roman soldiers controlled the movement of goods on the Chenini-Clausura and secured the densely populated area of ​​the province in the east against unauthorized border crossings. According to Trousset, who was also joined by the British archaeologist Olwen Brogan (1900–1989), the Romans wanted to use the barriers to control the movements of the herds of sheep and cattle. The alternating pasture management in the regions further south depended on the regular seasonal movement of the animals. With agriculture in the north of the country expanding as a result of Roman investments, it became necessary to limit shepherds' migration there in order to protect land ownership and the economy. The military leadership had divided the Limes Tripolitanus into several areas, which were commanded by section commanders. The barrages installed at Djebel Demmer formed a unit with the small fort Benia bel Recheb to the north , which was in line with the dams. In the eastern valley floor of the Dahar was the fort Talalati, built in AD 263 to secure the rear border, to which there was a direct road connection from the Chenini-Clausura. On a building inscription found in Talalati, this border section is referred to as Limes Tripolitanus .

According to the Troussets report published in 1974, the Chenini-Clausura consists of a three to four meter wide wall with a preserved total height of 1.50 to two meters. The rubble of this wall is covered by dry masonry in the area of ​​the foundations that have been preserved, with stone blocks that are sometimes square. The archaeologist thinks it possible that a watchtower could have stood on the edge of the north-western slope.

Chronological order

Trousset assumed the period of origin for the Clausura system on Djebel Demmer to be the third century AD, while the British archaeologist David Mattingly advocated the fourth century. Regardless of the exact time at which the Clausurae on Djebel Demmer was created, it is certain that these structures were part of border security until the late Roman period. There is an open discussion as to whether at least parts of the old border barriers in this section were reoccupied after the reconquest of North Africa by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (527-565).

literature

  • David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 189.
  • Pol Trousset : Recherches sur le limes Tripolitanus, du Chott el-Djerid à la frontière tuniso-libyenne. (Etudes d'Antiquites africaines). Éditions du Center national de la recherche scientifique, Paris 1974, ISBN 2-222-01589-8 . P. 102.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Michael Mackensen : forts and military posts of the late 2nd and 3rd centuries on the "Limes Tripolitanus" . In: Der Limes 2 (2010), pp. 20–24; here: p. 22.
  2. ^ A b Pol Trousset : Recherches sur le limes Tripolitanus, du Chott el-Djerid à la frontière tuniso-libyenne. (Etudes d'Antiquites africaines). Éditions du Center national de la recherche scientifique, Paris 1974, ISBN 2-222-01589-8 . P. 102.
  3. ↑ Wadi bel Recheb at 33 ° 4 '32.79 "  N , 9 ° 49' 7.52"  O , 32 ° 55 '20.15 "  N , 9 ° 35' 16.2"  O
  4. ↑ fortlet Tisavar at 33 ° 0 '30.97 "  N , 9 ° 36' 58.38"  O
  5. ↑ Peter Spring: Great Walls and Linear Barriers . Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley 2015, ISBN 978-1-84884-377-6 , p. 80.
  6. ↑ Olwen Hackett , David Smith : Ghirza. A Libyan settlement in the Roman period. Department of Antiquities, Tripoli 1984, p. 229.
  7. ↑ Robert Marichal: Les ostraka de Bu Njem . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1979), pp. 436-437.
  8. ↑ Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52; here: p. 45.
  9. ↑ fortlet Benia bel Recheb at 33 ° 11 '38.2 "  N , 10 ° 10' 32.9"  O
  10. ^ A b Pol Trousset : Recherches sur le limes Tripolitanus, du Chott el-Djerid à la frontière tuniso-libyenne. (Etudes d'Antiquites africaines). Éditions du Center national de la recherche scientifique, Paris 1974, ISBN 2-222-01589-8 . P. 96.
  11. ↑ Kastell Talalati at 32 ° 59 '13.29 "  N , 10 ° 20' 38.75"  O
  12. ↑ CIL 8, 22765 .
  13. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 189.
  14. ^ Pol Trousset: Note on un type d'ouvrage linéaire de la frontière d'Afrique, dans Actes du Ie colloque international sur l'histoire et l'archéologie de l'Afrique du Nord . (Perpignan, April 14-18, 1981), Paris 1984. pp. 383-398.
  15. ^ David Mattingly , Barri Jones : A New 'Clausura' in Western Tripolitania. Wadi Skiffa South. In: Libyan Studies. Annual Report of the Society for Libyan Studies . 17 (1986), pp. 87-96; here: p. 95.