Thenadassa Castle

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Thenadassa Castle
Alternative name Thenadassa
limes Limes Tripolitanus
(back line)
Type a) Ain Wif I: fort,
(b) Ain Wif II: small fort
size a) Ain Wif I: probably 100 × 50 m
(= 0.5 ha)
b) Ain Wif II: approx. 40 × 40 m
(= 0.16 ha)
Construction Ain Wif I and II: stone
place Ain Wif
Geographical location 32 ° 14 '22 .9 "  N , 13 ° 22' 22.1"  E
height 420  m
Previous Medina Ragda
(rear Limes line) (northwest)
Auru
(rear Limes line) (northwest)
Subsequently Small fort Gasr Bularkan
(backward Limes line) (southeast)
Thenadassa as part of the Limes Tripolitanus

The fort Thenadassa is a former Roman military camp , whose crew for security and surveillance tasks at the rear Limes Tripolitanus was responsible. The Limes Tripolitanus formed a deep system of forts and military posts. The remains of the garrison are located in the northwest of Libya at the small oasis Ain Wif, around fifteen kilometers southwest of the village of Sidi as Sid (Tazzoli). This is located in Jabal Garian, one of the sections of the Nafusa Mountains in the hinterland of Tripolitania in the municipality of al-Jabal al-Gharbi .

location

The mountains of Nafusa are layered mountains. This region separates the Djeffara plain with its agriculturally usable areas , which extends north to the Mediterranean , from the Sahara desert and the stony plateau of the Hammada al-Hamra . The fortification of Thenadassa is located on the north-eastern edge of the mountain formation and closes the chain of fortifications along the crescent-shaped elevations that extend to Tunisia . There is the Djebel Tebaga on its northwestern edge and at its foot the small fort Benia Guedah Ceder with the barrage of the Tebaga-Clausura . A direct north-east running road connection through the fertile plain to the coastal town of Lepcis Magna is secured by Roman milestones . This route is also given in the Itinerarium Antonini , a Roman imperial road directory from the 3rd century AD. The beginning of the road, to which the term Limes Tripolitanus referred, was in Tacape ( Gabès ) to the west and followed the mountain range via the small fort Bezereos, also over the eastern stations Tentheos , Auru to Thenadassa and ended in Lepcis Magna. Another important road connection will have been to the northwestern Oea ( Tripoli ). Thenadassa was at least temporarily the northernmost and largest garrison that could secure this rear area.

The remains of the Roman occupation are located southeast of the confluence of two wadis and are there in a protected, elevated position. The site is bordered to the southwest by Wadi Wif. After a few kilometers it flows into the larger Wadi Hammam. The existence of the palm -shaped small oasis of Ain Wif depends on a spring ("ain") that arises here. Most likely this source tipped the scales to settle Ain Wif sometime in the first century AD. The water of the oasis, emerging from cracks in the ground through the stony subsoil, collects in shallow pools. These were heavily used by nomads in the past. The discovery of stone chips for flint blades make it clear, however, that people apparently lived here as early as prehistoric times.

The wasteland of the area, characterized by hills and wadis, must not be confused with the southern desert regions, because from ancient times the versatile awl grass (Halfa) has been harvested in large quantities on the heights, an important collection point for the Ain Wif even in the 20th century was. A group of Roman oil presses, which existed around two and a half kilometers northeast of Thenadassa, also shows that olives were grown in the region for this era . The water of the oasis emerging from cracks in the floor collects in shallow basins. In the past these were used intensively by nomads .

Research history

In 1948, British archaeologists Richard Goodchild (1918–1968) and John Bryan Ward-Perkins (1912–1981) identified Ain Wif as the ancient Thenadassa. The archaeologist Olwen Brogan visited the site in December 1978 as part of a research trip of the Society for Libyan Studies . In the course of the construction of a construction warehouse for road workers, the southern part of the fort could be examined during two expeditions in 1981.

As aerial photos make clear, the overbuilding that began after 2004 in particular threatens the substance of the ancient zone.

Building history

In particular, the stratigraphic results from 1981 provided clear indications of a two-phase structure of the fort (Ain Wif I and II). Drainage ditches were also dug during the construction work at that time in the southern fort area. The cuts made in these trenches revealed clear layer sequences from which datable ceramics could be recovered. After all the facts known so far have been put together, it becomes clear that the original, probably 100 × 50 meter (around 0.5 hectare) large fort from the second century AD towards the end of the same century was replaced by a 40 × 40 meter (around 0.16 Hectare) large fort has been replaced. These findings also made it possible to reinterpret the building inscription published in 1950 by Joyce Maire Reynolds and Ward-Perkins from the military bath of the garrison:

M (arcus) Coeli [us ---]
NINUS [---]
balneum v [etustate corrup] -
tum restituendum [curavit]
eidem assam cellam a so [lo]
fecit et cylisterium institu-
it curante Iunio Suc (c) esso
c (enturione) principle

Translation: “Marcus Coelius ... ninus (or Ninus) ... has made sure to restore the bathroom, which was dilapidated for reasons of age. The same has built the sweat room from scratch and set up a practice room. Under the direction of Junius Successus, Centurio princeps. "

The archaeologist David J. Mattingly takes the view that the typographical style of the letters on this inscription is not characteristic of the period around 220 and 230 AD, in which the limestone tablet is traditionally located. He dates their emergence in the late second century AD, thinking of the first years of the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus (193–211). The renovation and expansion of the baths could be related to the renewal of the garrison in the form of the small fort postulated for the second construction phase. One may think of the year 197 AD, when a decrepit building was also renovated at the Tripolitan Tillibari fort . Encouraged by his research results, Mattingly has for decades also contradicted the definition of Thenadassa as a street station with a small military department, which is still used in publications today. In his opinion, this stipulation does not explain why only a few soldiers - led by a legionary centurion (Centurio princeps) - would have needed such a large balneum, simply with regard to the long-known building inscription and the findings of the military bath. The evidence of a two-phase garrison was not given any attention in the specialist literature even later.

Vicus

Immediately above the water basin of the oasis, a 35 meter high steep slope rises, which merges into a large plateau. On this plateau, with a view of the spring, a settlement of around 350 square meters was built. Their remains are only recognizable today in the form of low heaps of rubble, between which former walls are visible as weak lines. Quarry stone constructions can occasionally be seen. Obviously the settlement did not develop according to plan and did not have its own defense system. In 1948, near the center of the village, an altar of consecration for Iupiter Dolichenus was found amidst the remains of rubble stones and orthostats . The age from 198 to 210 AD makes it clear that at that time there was a temple for the popular soldier god. It was donated by Marcus Caninius Adiutor Faustinianus. This was at the same time Praefectus cohortis (cohort prefect) of the Cohors II Hamiorum and Praepositus (leader) of a vexillation of the Legio III Augusta stationed in the Numidian Lambaesis . For the fate of Thenadassa in late antiquity, there is a badly damaged inscription, which was created around 370 AD at the latest. Here incursioni barbarorum (barbarian invasions) is reported.

In the late fourth century, Thenadassa received a three-aisled church with a west-facing apse. This was found at the southeast end of the field of ruins on a larger hill.

literature

  • Robert Saxer: Epigraphic Studies 1. Investigations into the vexillations of the Roman imperial army from Augustus to Diocletian . (=  Supplements to the Bonner Jahrbücher 18), Böhlau, Cologne 1967, p. 101.
  • David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 99 (Ain Wif I) and p. 102 (Ain Wif II).
  • David J. Mattingly: The Roman Road-Station at Thenadassa (Ain Wif) . In: Libyan Studies 13, 1982, pp. 73-80.

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. ^ Richard Goodchild, John Bryan Ward-Perkins (1949): The "Limes Tripolitanus" in the light of Recent Discoveries . In: Libyan studies. Select papers of the late RG Goodchild. Elek, London 1976, ISBN 0-236-17680-3 , pp. 17-34; here p. 5.
  3. ^ Itinerarium Antonini 74, 5.
  4. ↑ Itinerarium Antonini 73-77
  5. ^ A b Paul Arthur: A Lithic Industry at Ain Wif, Tripolitania . In: Libyan Studies 10, 1979, pp. 11-13.
  6. ^ A b c d Richard Goodchild, John Bryan Ward-Perkins (1949): The "Limes Tripolitanus" in the light of Recent Discoveries . In: Libyan studies. Select papers of the late RG Goodchild. Elek, London 1976, ISBN 0-236-17680-3 , pp. 17-34; here p. 21.
  7. ^ Richard Goodchild (1950): Roman Tripolitania . In: Libyan studies. Select papers of the late RG Goodchild. Elek, London 1976, ISBN 0-236-17680-3 , p. 5.
  8. ^ Paul Arthur: A Lithic Industry at Ain Wif, Tripolitania . In: Libyan Studies 10, 1979, p. 11.
  9. ↑ a b c d e David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , pp. 3-16; here: p. 80.
  10. ^ David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 102.
  11. ↑ AE 1950, 0127 ; Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania: IRT 869 (with photo) , accessed May 24, 2015.
  12. ↑ AE 1975, 00870 .
  13. ↑ For example in: Christian Witschel: On the situation in Roman Africa during the 3rd century . In: Klaus-Peter Johne, Thomas Gerhardt, Udo Hartmann (eds.): Deleto paene imperio Romano. Transformation processes of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century and their reception in modern times . Steiner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-515-08941-8 , p. 187; and: Duncan B. Campbell: Roman Auxiliary Forts 27 BC – AD 378 , Osprey, Oxford / New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-84603-380-3 , p. 56.
  14. ^ David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 99.
  15. ↑ Michael P. Speidel : Roman Army Studies 1, Gieben, Amsterdam 1984, ISBN 90-70265-75-3 , p. 194.
  16. ^ Richard Goodchild, John Bryan Ward-Perkins (1949): The "Limes Tripolitanus" in the light of Recent Discoveries . In: Libyan studies. Select papers of the late RG Goodchild. Elek, London 1976, ISBN 0-236-17680-3 , pp. 17-34; here p. 22.
  17. ↑ AE 1950, 0126 ; Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania: IRT 868 (with photo) , accessed May 25, 2015.
  18. ↑ AE 1996, 1697 ; Antonio Ibba: "Gentes" e "gentiles" in Africa Proconsolare: ancora sulla dedica al Saturno di Bou Jelida (Tunisia) . In: Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli studi di Cagliari , new series 20, vol. 57, 2002, pp. 174–211; here: p. 199.
  19. ^ David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 211.
  20. ↑ Church at 32 ° 14 '25.07 "  N , 13 ° 22' 26.26"  O