Wadi Zraia Clausura

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Wadi Zraia Clausura
Alternative name Zraia-Clausura
limes Limes Tripolitanus
(back line)
section Djebel Dahar
Dating (occupancy) 3rd or 4th century
up to 5th or 6th year
Type Barrage
size Length: around 800 m
Construction Stone, pending sand and rubble
State of preservation partially preserved rubble wall
place Wadi Zraia
Geographical location 33 ° 6 ′ 13.6 "  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 17.7"  E
height 403  m
Previous Wadi-Skiffa-Clausura
(rear Limes line) (south)
Subsequently Small fort Benia bel Recheb
(rear Limes line) (north)
Backwards Talalati Fort (southeast)
Upstream Small fort Bir Mahalla
(rear Limes line) (west)
The Limes Tripolitanus with the Clausura

Wadi Zraia-Clausura , even Zraia-Clausura , is the modern name of a small Roman barrage that for security and surveillance tasks at the rear Limes Tripolitanus , a deeply staggered system of forts and military posts, in the Roman province of Africa proconsularis later Tripolitania , responsible was. The fortification, which ran straight through the dry valley, secured a pass road running there and was part of the wide military belt that was supposed to defend the fertile land of the province from attackers from the desert region and at the same time control the trade in goods for Rome. In addition, the shepherd nomads from the desert areas were prevented from coming into confrontation with the agricultural production sites in the east of the country, particularly the Djeffara plain, which are important for Rome, through unauthorized border crossings . The remains of this structure are located in the northern edge of the mountain range of Djebel Demmer on the ridges of the Dahar mountain range in southern Tunisia , Tataouine governorate .

location

The Clausura is located at the upper end of a short dry valley, the Wadi Zraia, which joins the Wadi Skiffa further west in a V shape and flows a little later in the large Wadi bel Recheb, on whose upper course the small fort Bir Mahalla is located. In the valley floor of the Dahar begins with the Eastern Sand Sea the former outer border of the Roman Empire. There, on the lower reaches of the Wadi bel Recheb, was the small fort Tisavar . South of the Zraia-Clausura were the Clausurae Wadi Skiffa and Wadi Skiffa Süd .

Research history

The remains of Roman buildings in Wadi Zraia were known as early as the beginning of the 20th century, but were viewed as dams for water storage, so-called swallowing wells ("puits d'absorption"). One reason for this understanding lay in the fact that even the director of the Tunisian antiquities administration, Paul Gauckler (1866–1911), saw it that way. In a description from 1908, which still sees an ancient hydraulic structure in the construction, it says: “A 4 kilometers environ du ksar Oulad-Mahdi, la haute vallée de l'oued Zraia est fermée par un barrage de 400 meters de long of 5 to 6 meters of the skin. Des extrémités du barrage partent des murailles remontant jusqu'au sommet des deux croupes voisines. ”Translation:“ About 4 kilometers from Ksar Oulad-Mahdi, the upper valley of Wadi Zraia was closed by a 400 meter long dam 5 to 6 meters high . At the ends of the dam, the masonry rises to the top of the two adjacent knolls. "

Building history

The ostraca from the Gholaia / Bu Njem border fort in Libya , dating back to the third century AD, confirm the involvement of a regular garrison in routine police duties and the surveillance of civilians. With the Clausurae of Zraia and Skiffa the Limes section of Talalati was to be secured. The military leadership had divided the Limes Tripolitanus into several areas, which were commanded by section commanders ( praepositi ). The barrages installed at Djebel Demmer formed a unit with the small fort Benia bel Recheb to the north , which was in line with the dams. At the barricade of Zraia, a small unit of Roman soldiers controlled the movement of goods and secured the densely populated area of ​​the province in the east against unauthorized border crossings. The Talalati fort, built in AD 263, was located in the eastern valley of the Dahar to secure the rear border . In the building inscription found there, this border section is referred to as Limes Tripolitanus .

The Clausura in Wadi Zraia was led as a linear, wide rampart through the bottom of the bottleneck and in the form of a roughly set, low stone wall up the southern and northern slopes.The barrage begins at the heights of a steep hill ridge at about 455 meters and then falls quickly to the embankment on the main river bed of the wadi at almost 400 meters. On the opposite side of the bank, the course of the Roman rampart is initially recorded by the modern embankment of a field. This leads to the road that runs along the wadi below the steep mountain spur there. The Roman wall, which is now visible again, leads up to its top and ends there at an altitude of 435 meters.

According to British archaeologist David Mattingly , a watchtower may have stood on a small hill just east of the barrage.

Chronological order

The French archaeologist Pol Trousset assumed the period of origin for the Clausura system on Djebel Demmer to be the third century AD, while Mattingly advocated the fourth century. Despite previous ignorance about the exact time when the Clausurae at Djebel Demmer was created, it is certain that these structures were part of the border security until the late Roman period. However, there remains a further open discussion as to whether at least parts of the old border barriers in this section were reoccupied after the reconquest of North Africa by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (527-565).

literature

  • David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 188.
  • 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. 97.
  • Jules Toutain : Notes et documents sur les voies stratégiques et sur l'occupation militaire du Sud tunisien à l'époque romaine par MM. Les capitaines Donau et Le Boeuf, les lieutenants de Pontbriand, Goulon et Tardy . In: Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques . Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1903. pp. 272-409; here: p. 360.
  • Paul Gauckler : Enquête sur les installations hydrauliques romaines en Tunisie . Imprimerie rapide, Tunis 1900, pp. 203-204.
  • Hilaire: Note sur la voie stratégique romaine qui longeait la frontière militaire de la Tripolitaine. Essai d'identification des gîtes d'étapes de la portion de cette voie comprise entre ad Templum et Tabuinati . In: Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques . 1901, p. 101.

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. ↑ Bir Mahalla small fort at 33 ° 3 ′ 21 ″  N , 10 ° 0 ′ 27 ″  E
  3. ↑ fortlet Tisavar at 33 ° 0 '30.97 "  N , 9 ° 36' 58.38"  O
  4. ↑ Wadi-Skiffa-Clausura at 33 ° 2 ′ 11.81 ″  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 13.8 ″  E
  5. ↑ Wadi-Skiffa-Clausura (south) at 33 ° 0 ′ 32.79 ″  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 45.6 ″  E
  6. ↑ a b Hippolyte Dessoliers: Contributions diverse à l'hydrogenèse . Béranger, Paris 1908; P. 76.
  7. ^ Paul Gauckler : Enquête sur les installations hydrauliques romaines en Tunisie . Imprimerie rapide, Tunis 1900, pp. 203-204; Maurice Euzennat : Quatre années de recherches sur la frontière romaine en Tunisie méridionale . In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 1, 116 year, Klincksieck, Paris 1972, pp. 7-27; here: p. 13.
  8. ↑ Robert Marichal: Les ostraka de Bu Njem . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (1979), pp. 436-437.
  9. ↑ Hédi Ben Ouezdou, Pol Trousset: Aménagements hydrauliques dans le Sud-Est tunisien . In: Contrôle et distribution de l'eau dans le Maghreb antique et médiéval . (= Collection de l'École française de Rome 426) École française de Rome, Rome 2009, ISBN 978-2-7283-0797-5 , pp. 1−18; here: p. 12 (footnote 28).
  10. ↑ fortlet Benia bel Recheb at 33 ° 11 '38.2 "  N , 10 ° 10' 32.9"  O
  11. ^ 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. 96.
  12. ↑ Kastell Talalati at 32 ° 59 '13.29 "  N , 10 ° 20' 38.75"  O
  13. ↑ CIL 8, 22765 .
  14. ^ A b David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 188.
  15. ↑ Wadi-Zraia-Clausura - southern end, at 33 ° 6 ′ 4.67 ″  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 15.02 ″  E
  16. ↑ Wadi-Zraia-Clausura - northern end, at 33 ° 6 ′ 29.8 ″  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 23.14 ″  E
  17. ↑ possible tower location at 33 ° 6 ′ 23.62 ″  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 30.59 ″  E
  18. ^ Pol Trousset: Note on un type d'ouvrage linéaire de la frontière d'Afrique, dans Actes du Ie colloque international sur l'histoire et l'archéologie de l'Afrique du Nord . (Perpignan, April 14-18, 1981), Paris 1984. pp. 383-398.
  19. ^ David Mattingly , Barri Jones : A New 'Clausura' in Western Tripolitania. Wadi Skiffa South. In: Libyan Studies. Annual Report of the Society for Libyan Studies . 17 (1986), pp. 87-96; here: p. 95.