Small fort Ksar Tabria

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Small fort Ksar Tabria
limes Limes Tripolitanus
front Limes line
section Limes Bizerentanus
Dating (occupancy) End of 3rd century AD (?)
Type Small fort
unit Vexillation
size 60 m × 60 m (= 0.36 ha)
Construction stone
State of preservation square construction with round or semicircular corner and gate towers as well as a core structure
place Ksar Tabria
Geographical location 33 ° 28 '55.6 "  N , 9 ° 10' 56.2"  E
height 87  m
Previous Bezereos small fort (east)
Subsequently Aquae Tacapitanae
The small fort (left) in the Limes Tripolitanus network

The Ksar Tabria small fort is a site on the northern edge of the Eastern Great Erg in southern Tunisia , Kebili Governorate . The facility may have been a small late Roman military camp , the crew of which 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. Already in antiquity a Limes road marking the Roman border ran past the Ksar, which connected the Bezereos fort near Sidi Mohammed ben Aissa with the town of Kébili , the ancient Ad Templum , which was once an oasis . Ksar Tabria, whose ancient name is unknown, could therefore have been a station on an ancient road, which is documented by the Itinerarium Antonini - a directory of the most important Roman imperial roads from the 3rd century.

Location and research history

As a border fort, the small complex would have been located on the edge of the eastern Great Erg to the Sahara desert . At this point, Ksar Tabria could, among other things, have secured the rear semi-desert, which was reclaimed with the help of fortified farmsteads, between the Erg and the crescent-shaped ridge of the Djebel Tebaga , which runs north from west to east . An organized irrigation system was used to produce staple foods that benefited the troops and the civilian population on the Limes. Due to the location in the open area, a wide panoramic view was possible from the Ksar Tabria.

The French officer Raymond Donau , who first described the remains shortly after the turn of the 20th century, saw a hill covered with ruins and a few depressions. The topographical brigade, which was also working on site during the military land survey at that time, reported a square-shaped construction with a side length of 20 meters, which was supplemented by two lunette-like flank walls.

The area of ​​the Intervallum behind the former enclosure wall is still used today as a windbreak by nomads encamped here .

Building history

Floor plan of the small fort

Ksar Tabria became known for its ground plan, which is unique in North Africa. It has protruding round defense towers in the corners as well as two semicircular towers, which, erected in the middle of the southwest wall, possibly flanked the only driveway. The radius of the better preserved north-western corner tower is three meters. Round defense towers have been known in the Roman fortification art of Western Europe since the end of the 3rd century. The surrounding wall of the square, 60 × 60 meter (= 0.36 hectare) fortification, built from adjacent, porous blocks of tuff, was only 0.60 meters thick - an unusually weak design for a Roman fort. The builders used lime mortar as a binding agent. The site was not excavated in the past and could possibly also belong to a post-Roman era. Aerial photographs make the basic plan clear. A core building was located in the center of an open space . The fortification thus shows similarities with the better-known Centenarium Tibubuci , but the completely destroyed central building at Ksar Tabria is possibly surrounded by an adjacent barracks, the back of which formed a unit with the surrounding wall and which may only be exposed in the gate area. The archaeologist Pol Trousset stated that the debris field of the core structure was around 25 meters in diameter. No further traces of interior development could be seen on the surface. Due to the structural details, the archaeologist David Mattingly thought it possible that the complex could have had its origins as early as the 3rd century AD and was later rebuilt. As a troop he accepts a vexillation from Bezereos.

At the two corners of the north-western outer wall, two wall sections - 100 and 120 meters long - meet at an acute angle to the north of the facility. The course of the eastern wall follows exactly the longitudinal direction of the south-eastern perimeter wall. There is an abandoned well about 50 meters northwest of the fortification. Furthermore, indistinct traces of buildings can be seen at a distance of around 20 meters in the southwest and west. The reading findings around the Ksar Tabria were very numerous African Terra Sigillata .

literature

  • 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. 73-75.

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. ↑ Bezereos Fort 33 ° 30 ′ 13.33 ″  N , 9 ° 29 ′ 52.96 ″  E
  3. ↑ Kébili 33 ° 42 '18 "  N , 8 ° 57' 54"  O
  4. ↑ a b c d 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. 73.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ A b 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. 75.
  7. ↑ a b c d 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. 74.
  8. ↑ a b James Lander: Roman Stone Fortifications. Variation and Change from the First Century AD to the Fourth. British Archaeological Reports, 1984, ISBN 0-86054-267-X . P. 240.
  9. ^ A b David J. Mattingly: Tripolitania. Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 161 and Fig. 159.
  10. ^ David J. Mattingly: Tripolitania. Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 158.