Small fort Gasr Wames

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Small fort Gasr Wames
limes Limes Tripolitanus
front Limes line
section Limes Tentheitanus
Dating (occupancy) from 244–246 / 247 AD or earlier
until the end of the 4th / beginning of the 5th century?
Type Small fort
size approx. 13.20 m × 13.20 m (= 0.02 ha)
Construction stone
State of preservation Very well preserved complex; the gate tower is still there in full.
place Gasr Wames
Geographical location 31 ° 38 ′ 25.8 "  N , 12 ° 40 ′ 41.5"  E
height 565  m
Previous Mizda Castle (southeast)
Subsequently Centenarium Gasr Duib (northwest)
Backwards Hadd-Hajar-Clausura
(backward Limes line) (north)
The small fort (middle) in the Limes Tripolitanus network

The small fort Gasr Wames (also Kasr Wames , Qasr Wames as well as in the spelling Wamis and Uames ) is a burgus-like fortification of the Roman army . The crew of the fortifications, which are still in very good condition, took on security and surveillance tasks on the Limes Tentheitanus , a section of the Limes Tripolitanus in the province of Africa proconsularis , later Tripolitania . The border fortifications formed a deep system of forts and military posts. The archaeologically examined remains are located around 64 kilometers southwest of the city of az-Zintan and around 1.50 kilometers west of the Wames oasis in the municipality of al-Jabal al-Gharbi in Libya .

location

The castle-like complex is located in a south-sloping region of the crescent-shaped Nafusa mountain range opening to the north . Here begins a mighty steep step , partly criss-crossed by wide dry valleys, which slopes down towards the south towards Fessan . Well-preserved remains of the rising masonry of the military station have been preserved on a strategically well-chosen small hill. From there the crew had a wide all-round view of the low vegetation plain of the Upper Sofeggin. Coming from the north, the Wadi Wames passes at the eastern foot of the fort hill . Only a few kilometers south this smaller wadi flows into the upper reaches of the mighty Wadi Sofeggin. The Upper Sofeggin is the most important and largest dry valley in Tripolitania and, with its many tributaries, forms a ramified river system. It stretches from the town of az-Zintan , in the vicinity of which the important Thenteos fort is to be found, in a crescent-shaped arch along the south and south-east side of the Nafusa and Garian mountain ranges to the coastal plain and to Misrata . The Mizda, southeast of the Gasr Wames, with its presumed fort is also in the Upper Sofeggin region.

The country is characterized by sand, gravel and scree deserts. The vegetation includes bushes and desert shrubs, the occurrence of which is concentrated in the floodplain of the wadis. Some trees, mainly acacia and tamarisk , survived deforestation by charcoal burners in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The dry valleys lead the rainwater, which sometimes comes from the Nafusa Mountains, to the south of the mountainous region and enable the formation of oases there .

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 course of several years of research expeditions at that time the Ottoman Empire subordinated region Tripolitania. As part of his extensive country surveys, Méhier de Mathuisieulx also undertook expeditions to many of the country's ancient sites. So he visited the Gasr Wames in 1904 and made the first plan of this facility. Shortly after the Second World War , the archaeologists Richard Goodchild (1918–1968) and John Ward-Perkins (1912–1981) examined the region for the Tripolitan Antiquities Service established by the British administration. In 1995 the small fort was again the target of a scientific exploration.

Building history

Choice of location

Like the Gasr Duib Centenarium, just 25 kilometers to the west, the Gasr Wames small fort was part of a chain of Roman military facilities that monitored the North African Limes. The building inscription from the Gasr Duib Centenarium suggests that the soldiers also took control of the road between the Thenteos and Mizda forts. The nearby Gasr Wames will probably have taken on the same task. There was also a crossroads southeast of Wames. From there, a road led north into the mountains of Jabal Nafusa or Jabal Garian and finally into the fertile Djeffara plain, which extends north to the Mediterranean . On the mountain heights, this road was controlled by the barrage of the Hadd-Hajar-Clausura with the probably associated small fort Medina Ragda .

Dating

The Gasr Wames, like the Gasr Duib, may have been built in the third century AD. The archaeologist Michael Mackensen dated the administrative establishment of the Limes section in Upper Sofeggin (Limes Tentheitanus) with the help of the chronologically definable building inscription of the Gasr Duib centenary to the years AD 246/247 Indicate Gasr Wames. For some archaeologists, the text of the building inscription from Gasr Duib (constituto novo centenario) also suggests the possibility of rebuilding (i.e. rebuilding) Roman military installations along the Thenteos – Mizda road.

Several milestones ( miliaria ) were discovered on the Roman road near the small fort Gasr Wames . These stones also include a specimen that was erected in AD 216 during the reign of Emperor Caracalla (211-217). When it was found, the broken milestone was still in place , overturned next to its rectangular base. These milestones confirm that the area was part of the Limes Tripolitanus even before the constitution of the Limes Tentheitanus .

As reported by the Notitia dignitatum , a late Roman state manual , the Limes Tentheitanus still existed administratively in the late fourth and perhaps even in the early fifth century AD. A continued existence of the small fort Gasr Wames up to this time is therefore not excluded.

Building report

The square, approximately 13.20 × 13.20 meter wide Gasr is surrounded by a ditch that served as an obstacle to the approach. The structure, which is bounded by an enclosure wall, has quarry stone masonry up to 1.40 meters thick and clearly shows a second floor, which, however, has largely collapsed. The only entrance is in the middle on the east side. It is vaulted by a round arch , which consists of five large wedge blocks. There is a rectangular recess in the surrounding wall above the archway. The building inscription belonging to the fort and now lost was located there. The entrance, supported by a barrel vault, leads under the single tower of the small fort into a rectangular atrium, which is bordered by rooms with vaulted ceilings on all four sides. The rooms directly border the surrounding wall. The soldiers were able to reach the once crenellated flat roof via a staircase in the immediate entrance area. The three-story gate tower itself has been preserved in full to this day. Its brickwork, which is rectangular in plan, has rounded corners. The tower itself had no access inside. In order for the guards to reach the open platform on the third floor, they had to climb over stone steps protruding from the wall. On the flat roof of the small fort, remains of the crenellated parapet have been preserved in places. The parapet height was one meter, the distance between the battlements was 1.20 meters and the width of the angled battlements itself was 0.90 meters.

A second, reinforcing enclosure wall, which was found at the Gasr Wames, could belong to an expansion phase during the reign of Emperor Aurelian (270-275).

literature

  • David Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 105; E-book with identical content: ISBN 0-203-48101-1 ; the number of pages in the e-book is different for technical reasons.
  • Philip Kenrick : Tripolitania. Libya Archaeological Guides . Silphium Press, London 2009, ISBN 1-900971-08-9 , p. 201 (with the location coordinates of the system)
  • Michael Mackensen : Gasr Wames, a burgus-like small fortress of the middle 3rd century on the Tripolitan "limes Tentheitanus" (Libya) . In: Germania 87, 2009 (2011), pp. 75-104.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Michael Mackensen : Gasr Wames, a burgus-like small fortress of the middle 3rd century on the Tripolitan "limes Tentheitanus" (Libya) . In: Germania 87, 2009 (2011), pp. 75-104, here: p. 97.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Mabruk Zenati: Archaeological News 1996, Department of Antiquities, Sabratha . In: Libya Antiqua. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Libya , 3, 1998, pp. 223-226, here: p. 225.
  4. ↑ a b c d Philip Kenrick : Tripolitania. Libya Archaeological Guides. Silphium Press, London 2009, ISBN 1-900971-08-9 , p. 201.
  5. ↑ Olwen Hackett , David Smith : Ghirza. A Libyan settlement in the Roman period. Department of Antiquities, Tripoli 1984, p. 33.
  6. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 12.
  7. ^ Henri Méhier de Mathuisieulx: Report sur une mission scientifique en Tripolitaine . Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1905, pp. 88-89.
  8. ↑ centenarium Gasr Duib at 31 ° 39 '8.56 "  N , 12 ° 28' 3.43"  O .
  9. ^ 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, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-515-08941-1 , pp. 145-22; here: p. 185.
  10. ↑ Building inscription Centenarium Gasr Duib: AE 1991, 1621 .
  11. ↑ Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52, here: pp. 51-52.
  12. ^ David Mattingly: Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 105.
  13. ^ David Smith, The centenaria of Tripolitania and their antecedents . In: Fawzi F. Gadallah (Ed.): Libya in history. Historical conference . Benghazi, University of Libya, Faculty of Arts, 16-23 March 1968 (1971); Pp. 299-321; James Lander : Roman stone fortifications. Variation and change from the first century AD to the fourth . (=  British archaeological reports. International series, 206), BAR 1984, ISBN 0-86054-267-X , p. 159; 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, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-515-08941-1 , pp. 145-22; here: p. 185.
  14. Jump up ↑ Barri Jones , Graeme Barker : The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey IV. The 1981 season . In: Libyan Studies , 14, 1983, pp. 39–68, here: p. 52.
  15. ↑ Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania: IRT 964 (with photo) , accessed on February 10, 2015
  16. ^ Richard Goodchild : Libyan studies. Select papers of the late . London 1976, ISBN 0-236-17680-3 , p. 28; the Notitia dignitatum calls this Limes section Limes Tentheitanus or Limes Tenthettanus .
  17. ↑ Michael Mackensen: Gasr Wames, a burgus-like small fortress of the middle 3rd century on the Tripolitan "limes Tentheitanus" (Libya) . In: Germania 87, 2009 (2011), pp. 75-104, here: pp. 93-95.
  18. ↑ Michael Mackensen: The Severan vexillation fort Myd (---) and the late antique settlement in Gheriat el-Garbia (Libya). Report on the campaign in spring 2010 . In: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Roman Department 117, 2011, pp. 247–375; here: p. 264.
  19. ↑ Michael Mackensen: Gasr Wames, a burgus-like small fortress of the middle 3rd century on the Tripolitan "limes Tentheitanus" (Libya) . In: Germania 87, 2009 (2011), pp. 75-104, here: pp. 97-98.