Hadd-Hajar-Clausura

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hadd-Hajar-Clausura
limes Limes Tripolitanus
(back line)
section Limes Tentheitanus
Dating (occupancy) 1st or late 2nd century AD
to late antiquity
Type Barrage
size Length: both sections around 6.80 km in total
Construction Stone, pending sand and rubble
State of preservation Partly well preserved rubble wall, some remains of the wall
place Hadd Hajar
Geographical location 31 ° 50 ′ 3.2 "  N , 12 ° 47 ′ 22.5"  E
height 720  m
Backwards Medina Ragda
(backward Limes line) (north)
Upstream Small fort Gasr Wames
(rear Limes line) (south)
The Limes Tripolitanus with the Clausura in the middle of the card
The Clausura with gate and adjoining watchtowers

Hadd-Hajar-Clausura , is the modern name of a Roman barrage that was responsible for security and surveillance tasks at the rear Limes Tripolitanus , a deeply tiered system of forts and military posts in the Roman province of Africa proconsularis , later Tripolitania . The largely straight line of fortifications, almost seven kilometers long, was part of the large military belt that was supposed to defend the fertile 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 pastoral nomads from the desert areas were prevented from coming into confrontation with the agricultural production sites in the north of the country, which are important for Rome, by crossing borders without permission.

The Hadd Hajar barrage includes a gatehouse that secured the road leading from the south into the mountains, as well as three towers and cisterns built near the wall. The debris wall of the barrage, clearly visible in the terrain, as well as parts of the wall secured a pass road in Jabal Nafusa , a layered mountainous country in the hinterland of Tripolitania in the municipality of al-Jabal al-Gharbi in Libya .

location

The country, which is around 20 kilometers south of the village of El Asabaa, is characterized by steppe-like vegetation, which enables limited grazing . The plain traversed by the barrage has a gently undulating surface, which forms a wide, flat valley. The hills are covered with esparto grass. The Clausura, which consists of two separate sections, is located north of the rear small fort Gasr Wames , which was built near the road leading to the barrage. This road leading to the north follows the extensive system of dry valleys that feed the meandering Wadi Wames and a few kilometers before the Clausura meets the Wadi as Saqifah, which stretches to just before the barrage. At the southwestern end of the Clausura, which is marked at around 722 meters above sea level near the bottom of the Ras Said table mountain , there are deep gullies that drop steeply in a westerly direction towards Wadi Wames. No watchtower could be found on this mountain, but around 1.70 kilometers southeast of this end point on Ras al Tays al Aswad, a watchtower at around 761 meters above the steep cliffs of the trapezoidal rounded mountain plateau secured the apron of the barrage in this section. Ras al Tays al Aswad means "mountain of the black goat" in German. The north-eastern end of the first and much longer part of the Clausura formed the southwest-oriented mountain ridge of the Ras al Tays al Abyad. The name of this mountain formation means "mountain of the white goat" in German. Immediately above the end of the barrage was another rectangular watchtower on the highest point of the ridge at around 836 meters.

The second, much shorter section of the Clausura closes the small, north-south oriented longitudinal valley of the Ras al Saqifah, which lies between the Ras al Tays al Abyad and the Ras al Saqifah. There is the only gatehouse of the Clausura immediately to the east of a dry river . The western end of this section begins at the northern end of the Ras al Tays al Abyad, is oriented in a west-east direction and ends on the slopes of the Ras as Saqifah. Another rectangular watchtower belongs to this section and also occupies a ridge of the Ras al Tays al Abyad around 0.40 kilometers east of the last watchtower at around 804 meters above sea level. About two kilometers south of the gatehouse is a probably also Roman cistern (Majin al Saqifah). Including the eastern extension, i.e. from the hill of Ras Said to Ras al Saqifah, the barrage is almost seven kilometers long.

Research history

At the beginning of the 20th century the officer explored Henri de Méhier Mathuisieulx of Algeria made on behalf of the French Government in the form of multiannual research trips at that time the Ottoman Empire subordinated region Tripolitania. As part of his extensive land surveys, de Mathuisieulx also undertook expeditions to many of the country's ancient sites. In 1904 Mathuisieulx also visited the Gasr Saqifah, the stone gatehouse belonging to the Clausura with its two flanking towers, but he did not recognize the adjoining wall and the moat in front of the complex. On a map drawn up in 1964, the British archaeologist Olwen Brogan (1900–1989) found a structure with the note “ancient wall” in the northwest of Mizda that caught her attention. This wall was called "Hadd Hajar" by the locals, which means "stone wall". In 1971, the archaeologists Olwen Brogan and Philip Kenrick, together with the then coordinator for the oil business of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (Shell), Peter Holmes (1932-2002), who was also an amateur historian, searched for Hadd Hajar. One of Holmes' recordings was published in the Libyan Studies Second Annual Report that same year . In the same year, the architect Sheila Gibson (1920–2002), one of the most famous English-speaking draftsmen of her time, who had specialized in reconstructions of Roman architecture, visited the Clausura with the Gasr Saqifah gatehouse and illustrated her impressions. In 1972 Holmes documented the Clausura with further photographs, which also appeared in Libyan Studies that same year . He also discovered the watchtower on Ras al Tays al Aswad in 1972. In 1978 the archaeologist Paul Arthur visited the site as research assistant from Brogan together with Tina Watson and in June 1979 the archaeologists Barri Jones (1936-1999) and Charles Daniels (1932-1996) were on site. Brogan himself carried out the most extensive scientific research to date in 1980. In 1981 further investigations and explorations took place by the scientists of the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey .

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. It can be assumed that the unit stationed at the rear of the Clausura in the small fort Medina Ragda also provided its security personnel. The small garrison town was about 7.40 kilometers north of the gate house of the barrage. According to Brogan, the Romans wanted to use the Clausura to control the movements of the sheep and cattle herds inside and outside the fertile area south of El Asabaa. The alternating pasturage in the mountain 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.

Wall, wall and moat

The Hadd-Hajar-Clausura was designed as a linear structure. In the south-western and central part it consists of earthworks with a trench in front, at its northeastern end it was built as a dry stone wall. The structure of the wall, which has been preserved around 2.15 meters wide, is made up of limestone blocks and rubble. Remnants of the trench could be observed on the enemy-facing south side. On the steep slopes of Ras al Tays al Abyad, the wall tapers to one meter. The Romans decided not to dig a trench in this area. At the western end, the dry stone wall ends abruptly over a slope that opens up between it and the Ras al Said. There, a dry river flowing off the Ras al Said, which flows west of the Wadi Wames, has dug into the earth.

Watchtower 1

Watchtower 1 on the Ras al Tays al Abyad

The massive rectangular watchtower on the ridge of the Ras al Tays al Abyad is of a rather coarse design and measures 9.20 × 7.70 meters in circumference with a wall thickness of one meter. A separate room was built into its interior at the northwest corner. The ground-level entrance to the tower was on its south side, evidently offset a little to the east from the center. The crew of the tower, which was erected around 95 meters above the surrounding ground level, was able to fully observe the longer section of the barrier when looking to the west. The wall and the gatehouse in the valley of Ras al Saqifah were also clearly visible from the tower in the northeast. Watchtower 1 offered excellent views in all directions.

Watchtower 2

The second watchtower is on the Ras al Tays al Aswad. The solid and massive square structure has a total size of 8.25 × 8.25 meters. The two-shell quarry stone masonry of the tower was carefully set and filled with a core made from a quarry stone and mortar mixture. The tower erected on the exposed Table Mountain is around 70 meters above the surrounding terrain. The western end of the Clausura could be seen from this tower. The crew also had an excellent view to the north and south.

Watchtower 3

The rectangular tower also occupied a ridge of the Ras al Tays al Abyad below watchtower 1. On the western wall of the tower there are still rectangular recesses to accommodate horizontal support beams for the scaffolding. Looking north from Watchtower 3, the entire second section of the Clausura in the valley of Ras al Saqifah with the gate house of the barrage could be seen. There was also a line of sight to the slightly higher watchtower 1. To the south the view was almost unlimited.

Gatehouse (Gasr Saqifah)

The gatehouse of the Clausura

Together with the crew of Medina Ragda, it was possible to guarantee almost complete monitoring of border traffic at the Clausura. The system probably served primarily to control the movement of shepherds and caravans in and out of the fertile area. In addition, as the building inscription from the Gasr Duib Centenarium shows, attacks by predatory nomads on the Roman Empire had to be warded off. The location was well chosen, as it lay between the beginning desert region and the cultivated land of the Jabal. The entire gate construction comprised a rectangular floor plan measuring 12 × 5.50 meters. There is a tower flanking the gate on each of the two narrow sides. The enclosing walls of the towers are made of hand-cut limestone. When Brogan visited the facility in 1980, the remains of the eastern tower were almost completely covered by their own collapsed bricks, while the western tower was in better shape, but was also full of rubble and stones. Mattingly mentioned after his visit in around 1990 that the two towers of the gateway building were still up to three to four meters high. The actual, single-lane passage through the gatehouse is three meters wide. The inner corners of the towers were well preserved. It was thus possible to establish that the passage had once been arched. The access to the towers was on both sides inside the passage. Brogan could also see where the former goalposts stood.

Cistern (Majin al Saqifah)

Brogan mentions that Roman ceramic fragments were found in this possibly Roman cistern, around two kilometers south of the gatehouse. She therefore assumed that one of the functions of Watchtowers 1 and 3 must have been to monitor this cistern.

Dating

A wide range of ceramic readings comes from the area of ​​the facility, but only a very small proportion could be assigned to a specific time. The fragments, dated to 1994 by the British archaeologist David Mattingly , can be assigned to the late first and second centuries AD. In her description of the barrage, Brogan mentions that at its southern end, where the dry stone wall flows into the deep gorge of a dry river, "two or three pieces of Roman pottery were collected, including a piece of Tripolitanian sigillata." The Tripolitanian red slip ware (TRS) was mainly manufactured between the late third and early fourth centuries AD, and had a final flourishing during the first half of the sixth century. During his inspection in 1972 at the Ras al Tays al Abyad watchtower, Holmes picked up a smaller spectrum of ceramics, also clearly Roman, which included an amphora rim and small late Roman lamps. Looking at the ceramics of the small fort at the rear, Medina Ragda, Brogan speculated in 1980 that the barrage was founded in the first century AD. The ceramic fragments recovered from Medina Ragda and its surroundings date from the first to fourth centuries AD. Mattingly's own analysis of the finds of the small fort Medina Ragda should make it clear that this fortification was founded a little earlier than the Hadd-Hajar-Clausura, but saw he considers a conceptual connection between the two plants to be not unlikely. He therefore dated the founding of the barrage to the second century AD, thinking of its late period up to the pre-Severe period (until 193 AD).

literature

  • Henri Méhier de Mathuisieulx: Report sur une mission scientifique en Tripolitaine . Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1905, p. 18.
  • Peter Holmes: Tripolitania, Hadd Hajar . In: Libyan Studies , 3 1972, pp. 6-7.
  • Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52.
  • David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , pp. 112-113.
  • Eleanor Scott, John Doie, David Mattingly: The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey Gazetteer 1979–1989. In: Graeme Barker, David Gilbertson, Barri Jones, David J. Mattingly (Eds.): Farming the Desert. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey. Volume Two: Gazetteer and Pottery . UNESCO, Paris 1996 (inter alia), ISBN 92-3-103273-9 , p. 126.

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 c d e f Eleanor Scott, John Doie, David Mattingly: The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey Gazetteer 1979–1989. In: Graeme Barker, David Gilbertson, Barri Jones, David J. Mattingly (Eds.): Farming the Desert. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey. Volume Two: Gazetteer and Pottery . UNESCO, Paris 1996 (inter alia), ISBN 92-3-103273-9 , p. 126.
  3. ^ A b c David J. Mattingly: Romano-Libyan Settlement: Typology and Chronology. In: Graeme Barker, David Gilbertson, Barri Jones, David J. Mattingly (Eds.): Farming the Desert. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey. Volume One: Synthesis . UNESCO, Paris 1996 (inter alia), ISBN 92-3-103214-3 , pp. 111-158; here: p. 115.
  4. ^ A b 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.
  5. ↑ fortlet Gasr Wames at 31 ° 38 '25.8 "  N , 12 ° 40' 41.46"  O .
  6. ↑ Clausura Hadd Hajar, West end portion I at 31 ° 49 '8.82 "  N , 12 ° 44' 54.68"  O .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52; here: p. 46.
  8. ↑ WT on the Ras al Tay al Aswad, at 31 ° 48 '42.05 "  N , 12 ° 45' 53.79"  O .
  9. ↑ Clausura Hadd Hajar, eastern, Section I at 31 ° 50 '20.88 "  N , 12 ° 48' 22.74"  O .
  10. ↑ WT I on the Ras al Tay al Abyad at 31 ° 50 '26.63 "  N , 12 ° 48' 29.16"  O .
  11. ↑ a b c d e f Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52; here: p. 47.
  12. ↑ Clausura Hadd Hajar, Gatehouse at 31 ° 50 '41.52 "  N , 12 ° 49' 12.16"  O .
  13. ↑ Clausura Hadd Hajar, West end, Section II at 31 ° 50 '44.72 "  N , 12 ° 48' 53.38"  O .
  14. ↑ Clausura Hadd Hajar, east end, Section II at 31 ° 50 '39.68 "  N , 12 ° 49' 18.89"  O .
  15. ↑ WT II on the Ras al Tay al Abyad at 31 ° 50 '28.48 "  N , 12 ° 48' 44.95"  O .
  16. ^ A b c David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 112.
  17. ↑ Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52
  18. ^ Second Annual Report 1970−1971 , Libyan Studies 2 (1971), p. 11. Pl. VIII.
  19. ^ A b Peter Holmes: Tripolitania, Hadd Hajar . In: Libyan Studies , 3 1972, pp. 6-7.
  20. ↑ Robert Marichal: Les ostraka de Bu Njem . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1979), pp. 436-437.
  21. ↑ fortlet Medina Ragda at 31 ° 52 '55.35 "  N , 12 ° 50' 32.32"  O .
  22. ^ A b Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52; here: p. 50.
  23. ↑ List of Tables In: Graeme Barker, David Gilbertson, Barri Jones, David J. Mattingly (Eds.): Farming the Desert. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey. Volume Two: Gazetteer and Pottery . UNESCO, Paris 1996 (inter alia), ISBN 92-3-103273-9 , p. XI (Fig. 19.2); David J. Mattingly: Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 112.
  24. ↑ Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania: IRT 880 (with photos and drawings) , accessed April 23, 2020.
  25. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 129.
  26. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 78.
  27. ^ Fabrizio Felici: The Roman pottery . In: Mario Liverani: Aghram Nadharif. The Barkat Oasis (Sha'abiya of Ghat, Libyan Sahara) in Garamantian Times. The Archeology of Libyan Sahara 2 (= Arid Zone Archeology, Monographs 5/2005), All'Insegna del Giglio, Florence 2005, ISBN 88-7814-471-1 , pp. 241-248; here: p. 241.
  28. ↑ Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52; here: p. 51.
  29. ^ David J. Mattingly: Romano-Libyan Settlement: Typology and Chronology. In: Graeme Barker, David Gilbertson, Barri Jones, David J. Mattingly (Eds.): Farming the Desert. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey. Volume One: Synthesis . UNESCO, Paris 1996 (inter alia), ISBN 92-3-103214-3 , pp. 111-158; here: p. 147.
  30. ^ David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 102.
  31. ^ Barri Jones, David Mattingly: Fourth-Century Manning of the 'Fossatum Africae' . In: Britannia 11 (1980), p. 324.
  32. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 129.
  33. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 190.