Small fort Henchir Krannfir

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Small fort Henchir Krannfir
Alternative name Turkey  ?
limes Limes Tripolitanus
front Limes line
section Limes Bizerentanus
Dating (occupancy) late 2nd or 3rd century AD
Type Small fort
unit Partly mounted unit, probably from the Bezereos small fort
size 31 m × 25.4 m
(= 0.08 ha)
Construction stone
State of preservation Despite interventions in the Second World War, the facility has been visibly preserved.
place Henchir Krannfir
Geographical location 33 ° 32 '10.3 "  N , 9 ° 33' 48.4"  E
height 154  m
Previous Bezereos small fort (southwest)
Backwards Small fort Benia Guedah Ceder (northeast)
The small fort (left) in the Limes Tripolitanus network

The small fort Henchir Krannfir (also Henchir Khanefi and Henschir Krannfir ) is a small late Roman military camp whose crew was responsible for security and surveillance tasks on the Limes Bizerentanus , 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 small fortification is located on the northeastern edge of the Eastern Great Erg in southern Tunisia , Gabès Governorate .

location

The strategically favorable facility, located on a small hill on the southern slope of the Djebel Oum ech Chia, was built near the Roman imperial border in the southwestern mouth of a large valley depression that tapers to the northeast like a bottle neck. The fort hill is circumvented from northeast to southwest in a semicircle by a dry river , which ultimately flows into Wadi Hallouf, which flows past the small fort Bezereos around seven kilometers from Henchir Krannfir . The distant view is outstanding from the northwest to the east. The hills of the Oum ech Chia only limit surveillance of the land to the north.

In the south this lowland is bounded by the Matmá Mountains, which flow here - part of the Dahar mountainous region - in the north, the mountain range of the Djebel Tebaga runs in a sickle shape from west to east . At the narrowest point, the gate of Tebaga (Tebaga Gap) , important trade routes from the oases came together in antiquity and then continued to the major economic centers on the Mediterranean coast. The Romans had secured this bottleneck with a continuous barrage, the Tebaga-Clausura , and built watchtowers. Only one gate allowed the travelers to be checked. During the African campaign , the strategic military importance of the easily controllable position was recognized again. German and Italian combat units and Libyan reserves occupied the well-preserved Clausura (bottleneck) again.

Henchir Krannfir will have mainly been responsible for a second route through the Tebaga gate. This led from Bezereos, where a vexillation of the Legio III Augusta was located, over the slopes of the Djebel Melab south of the Clausura . There was no secure line with a rampart and watchtowers. Its location on the slopes of the Djebel Oum ech Chia enabled the crew of Henchir Krannfir to observe the surrounding area and to maintain visual contact with the small fort Bezereos and the watchtower on the Mergueb ed Diab.

The small fort is possibly to be equated with Puteus , which shows the Tabula Peutingeriana , which goes back to a late antique road map .

Research history

The facility was partially exposed and described in 1903 by the French officer Raymond Donau (1862–1930). Unfortunately the excavator did not draw up an exact excavation protocol. The ruins remained visible and were used again as accommodation during the fighting in March 1943. The loss of substance occurred when soldiers intervened in the ancient structures of the complex in order to entrench their positions.

Building history

The 31 × 25.4 meter (= 0.08 hectare) fortification of Henchir Krannfir was aligned with the cardinal points by the Roman geometers . The complex had an irregularly cut central inner courtyard, which was flanked by several rooms, the rear wall of which also formed the outer wall of the small fort. Access was only possible through a narrow gate on the south side. The Praetorial Front , the narrow side facing the Roman border, was also located here . Cisterns secured the water supply. The floor plan of this type of building is characteristic of fortifications of this type on the Tripolitan Limes and can be dated to the late 2nd or 3rd century. A special feature was an area in Henchir Krannfir that had been used as a stable and provided shelter for at least eight horses. A clear legacy of this area were the stone troughs that had been preserved in situ and a stone on which there was a fastening ring. The detachment barracked here therefore consisted of a partially mounted unit, which was most likely subordinate to the nearby small fort Bezereos. The land, which today belongs to the semi-desert, was made arable in ancient times by an irrigation system from fortified farmsteads and formed the livelihood for the military and a relatively large civilian population around the fort.

Important finds

As far as the ancient historian Eugène Albertini (1880–1941) is aware, an illegible Neo -Punic ostracon (found by Donau in 1902) and two Latin-Punic ostraca were found in Henchir Krannfir . Two of these ostracas, which the archaeologist Paul Gauckler (1866–1911) sent to France, had been discovered by the Danube before the start of its excavation. The inscriptions had been applied to the pottery shards with paint.

literature

  • David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania. Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 104 Fig. 5:11.
  • 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. 79.
  • René Cagnat : La frontière militaire de la Tripolitaine X l'époque romaine . In: Mémoires de l'Institut national de France. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , Volume 39, Paris 1914, pp. 77-109; here: pp. 91–92.

Web links

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 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. 79.
  3. ↑ Bezereos small fort at 33 ° 30 ′ 13.33 ″  N , 9 ° 29 ′ 52.96 ″  E
  4. ↑ Tebaga-Clausura; Area of ​​the ancient passage. 33 ° 40 '15.86 "  N , 9 ° 37' 2.16"  E
  5. ↑ Kenneth J. Macksey: Afrika Korps. Ballantine Books, London 1968. p. 143.
  6. ↑ Djebel Melab 33 ° 37 ′ 51.93 ″  N , 9 ° 42 ′ 58.75 ″  E
  7. ↑ The summit of Mergueb ed Diab at 33 ° 29 ′ 41.85 ″  N , 9 ° 30 ′ 23.91 ″  E
  8. ^ Louis Carton : Civilization Romaine. In: Revue tunisienne. 1904, p. 159.
  9. ^ David J. Mattingly: Tripolitania. Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 . P. 104.
  10. ↑ Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres: Répertoire d'Épigraphie sémitique , Volume 1 (1900–1905), pp. 297–298, No. 363.
  11. ↑ Ali Drine, Naide Ferchiou, Roger S. Bagnall , Zsuzsanna Várhelyi, Marian Fabi, Anthony King: 17. Other material . In: Elizabeth Fentress, Ali Drine, Renata Holod (Eds.): An Island Through Time: Jerba Studies. The Punic and Roman Periods. Volume 1, Journal of Roman Archeology, Portsmouth, Rhode Island 2009, ISBN 1-887829-71-7 , pp. 328-347; here: p. 344.
  12. ^ Bulletin archéologique du comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques. 1902, p. 148.
  13. ↑ Philippe Berger (brief notes). In: Bulletin archéologique du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques . 1902, p. 148 and p. 176.