Small fort Henchir Medeina

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Small fort Henchir Medeina
Alternative name Thebelami / Themalami?
limes Limes Tripolitanus
(back line)
section Djebel Dahar
Dating (occupancy) severisch
Type Small fort
unit Department of the Cohors II Flavia Afrorum equitata ?
size 63 × 63 m (= 0.40 ha)
Construction stone
State of preservation partly badly destroyed, some remains are still higher
place Henchir Medeina
Geographical location 32 ° 35 '26.7 "  N , 10 ° 29' 36.6"  E
height 217  m
Previous Tillibari Fort
(rear Limes line) (south)
Subsequently Talalati Fort
(rear Limes line) (south)
The Limes Tripolitanus with the small fort

The small fort Henchir Medeina , also known as Henschir Medeina or Henchir el Medina , is a small Roman military camp used for security and surveillance tasks on the rear Limes Tripolitanus , a deep system of forts and military posts, in the Roman province of Africa proconsularis , later Tripolitania , was responsible. The plant is located on the western ascent to the mountain ranges of the highlands of Dahar in southern Tunisia , Tataouine governorate .

location

The small fort is located on the lonely plateau of Fatnassia, on the northern edge of the catchment area used by Wadi Daghsan (Wadi Darhsene). This dry valley flows southeast of Henchir Medeina into the Wadi el Gouafel, which runs from north to south. The plateau is bounded by elevations to the west, north and east. The fortification itself was built on a low elevation that was sufficient to offer the crew a wide view in all directions.

Research history

The facility was discovered by chance on a research trip by the leading French artillery lieutenant Henri Lecoy de La Marche on February 11, 1894 during a gazelle hunt on horseback. Lecoy de La Marche had lost touch with his fellow combatants and came across the ruins during the search for the expedition team, which lasted until late at night. His Arab companions called them “Medina”, which means “old city”. The officer immediately recognized a Roman military building in the rubble. On February 23, 1894 he began his investigation, with his main focus on the central building. He left the place again on February 26th.

Around 1970, the French archaeologist Pol Trousset visited the fortification during a Franco-Algerian expedition to explore the Limes Tripolitanus . After an overview of the sometimes contradicting documentation on this small fort , the British archaeologist David Mattingly pleaded for a scientific excavation, which has not yet taken place.

Building history

Enclosure

The fortification of Henchir Medeina, which is 63 × 63 meters (= 0.40 hectares) according to Trousset, has some important similarities with the almost equally large small fort Henchir Mgarine (67 × 67 meters) in Schott Fedjedj , which suggests a similar construction period. The enclosing walls of both complexes have rounded corners without the remains of corner towers being detectable. On one side of Henchir Medeina, Lecoy de La Marche discovered a narrow, approximately one meter wide gate in the surrounding wall, which was flanked by two rectangular gate towers. In his report he incorrectly wrote that this entrance was in the north, the drawing published by Mattingly documents the entrance correctly in the east.

Interior development

Within the wall ring, a central, square central building can be seen in both Henchir Medeina and Henchir Mgarine, which according to Lecoy de La Marche had a side length of 18 meters, according to Trousset a side length of 20 meters. From the first description it becomes clear that only the central building built inside the complex was built in the Opus-africanum style, the other building remains consisted of connections with Saxa Quadrata (ashlar stones). The four outer walls of the central building were supported on each side by two rectangular wall templates and two corner templates. The only entrance to this central building is facing the fort gate in the east. The way inside leads through a hallway to an inner courtyard. Individual rooms opened around the inner courtyard that were once probably vaulted and had to be entered via a step, as they were around 0.80 meters higher than the floor of the inner courtyard. It is possible that the internal structures of the central building were changed at an unknown point in time. A console or a corbel made of hard limestone was found in the rubble. There was no opening to the outside in the rooms. In one of the rooms, Lecoy de La Marche found human bones with a large bronze coin next to them.

As Mattingly noted, the structures of the crew quarters and supply rooms have not yet been explored, but based on his own observations, he assumes that an arrangement similar to that at the small fort Henchir Mgarine can be assumed here. The internal fixtures will have stood parallel to the surrounding wall. Since Mattingly assumed that Henchir Mgarine could be an enlarged version of the Tisavar model , this consideration can also apply to Henchir Medeina. Without going into the changes, Trousset had a castle plan published in 1974, which contradicts the central building shown at Lecoy de La Marche in important details.

Surrounding development

Lecoy de La Marche was able to make traces of other buildings within a radius of around 600 meters from the small fort. A focus of this development seemed to have been in the northwest of the complex. In the east, around 165 meters from the fortification, he recognized the foundations of a rectangular structure measuring 15 × 18 meters, and in the north there were two cisterns around two meters wide that had silted up to the top. During his inspection, Trousset discovered a small, indistinctly recognizable stone building near the northeast corner of the small fort. He could also see a well or a cistern to the northwest, about 200 meters from the garrison site, but there were no traces of what this construction might have looked like.

Chronological order

The layout could be identical to the ancient Thebelami / Themalami, as evidenced by a list of Roman imperial roads from the 3rd century AD, the Itinerarium Antonini , with information on distances . The ancient place was accordingly 25 Roman miles (37.04 kilometers) from Tabalati / Talalati and 20 miles (29.64 kilometers) from Tillibari . Mattingly found after a sifting through the epigraphic and archaeological evidence from the Tripolitan Limes that in the early 3rd century AD under the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus (193–211) there was increased troop movements and significant construction activities in the border area of ​​Tripolitania. He also assigns Henchir Medeina to this period. Trousset was able to analyze numerous ceramic fragments and some Roman coins from the Henchir Medeina site, including a fragment of a lamp from the second century AD.

Despite the lack of inscriptions, Mattingly is fairly certain to see the places Agarlabas and Thebelami mentioned in the Antonini Itinerarium in Henchir Mgarine and Henchir Medeina . In any case, in his opinion, there must have been at least a doubling of the units stationed at the border fortifications up to this point, which also resulted in the construction or expansion of garrison types.

literature

  • David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 1995, ISBN 0-7134-5742-2 , pp. 160-161; Drawing: p. 162.
  • 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 . Pp. 109-110.
  • Henri Marie Albert Lecoy de La Marche: Recherche d'unevoie romaine du golfe de Gabès vers Ghadamès, par M. le lieutenant Lecoy de La Marche . In: Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques 1894, pp. 407–408.

Remarks

  1. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 158.
  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. ↑ Wadi Daghsan / Darhsene / Darcen at 32 ° 34 '40.14 "  N , 10 ° 22' 57.36"  O ; Wadi Daghsan / Darhsene / Darcen at 32 ° 32 '50.88 "  N , 10 ° 30' 50.05"  O
  4. ↑ 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. 109.
  5. ↑ Wadi el Gouafel at 32 ° 36 '49.86 "  N , 10 ° 32' 58.65"  O ; Wadi el Gouafel at 32 ° 29 '46.08 "  N , 10 ° 32' 21.75"  O
  6. ↑ a b c d e f 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. 110.
  7. ^ Henri Lecoy de La Marche: Recherche d'unevoie romaine du golfe de Gabès vers Ghadamès, par M. le lieutenant Lecoy de La Marche . In: Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques 1894, p. 406.
  8. ^ A b c d Henri Lecoy de La Marche: Recherche d'unevoie romaine du golfe de Gabès vers Ghadamès, par M. le lieutenant Lecoy de La Marche . In: Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques 1894, pp. 407–408; here: p. 407.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Henri Lecoy de La Marche: Recherche d'unevoie romaine du golfe de Gabès vers Ghadamès, par M. le lieutenant Lecoy de La Marche . In: Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques 1894, pp. 407–408; here: p. 408.
  10. ↑ a b c David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 161.
  11. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 1995, ISBN 0-7134-5742-2 , p. 162.
  12. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 160.
  13. ^ Michael Mackensen , Hans Roland Baldus : Military camp or marble workshops. New investigations in the eastern area of ​​the Simitthus / Chemtou labor and quarry camp. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3461-3 , p. 72.
  14. ^ David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania. University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 100.
  15. ↑ stone at 32 ° 35 '29.17 "  N , 10 ° 29' 44.01"  O
  16. ↑ Kastell Talalati at 32 ° 59 '13.29 "  N , 10 ° 20' 38.75"  O
  17. ↑ Kastell Tillibari at 32 ° 18 '50.11 "  N , 10 ° 23' 52.78"  O
  18. ^ Itinerarium Antonini , 75.4; David Mattingly , from whom this information was adopted, was based on the standard work by Otto Cuntz published in 1929 : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 107.
  19. ^ David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , pp. 132-133.