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Roman Sites on the Tarhuna Plateau of Tripolitania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

R. G. Goodchild
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Extract

During the years 1895–6 the late H. Swainson Cowper visited the Tarhuna pleateau of Tripolitania and examined in considerable detail a large number of ancient sites. The results of this exploration, first published in the Antiquary, were later embodied in a monograph published in 1897. Cowper was not the first European to visit the ancient monuments of the Tarhuna region: he had been preceded by Smyth (1817), Barth (1850), Von Bary (1875), and Rohlfs (1879). His own work was more detailed, and geographically more concentrated, than that of his predecessors, and his publication, amply illustrated by photographs and drawings, remains to-day an indispensable companion for any investigator of ancient sites in the eastern Gebel.

Cowper's main thesis, which occupies a predominant place in his book, was that the trilithon-shaped ‘senams’ (arabic for ‘idols’) of the Tarhuna plateau were prehistoric monuments of a religious character. This conclusion was immediately challenged by Sir John Myres and the late Sir Arthur Evans, who demonstrated conclusively that these megalithic structures were in fact the frames of Roman olive-presses. In consequence general interest in the Tarhuna plateau declined, and even the researches of De Mathuisieulx (1901–4), which resulted in the discovery of the important neo Punic inscription of Ras el-Haddagia, failed to counterbalance the lost repute of the ‘senams’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 19 , November 1951 , pp. 43 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1951

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References

1 The Antiquary, February–March 1896; Cowper, H. S., The Hill of the Graces, London, 1897Google Scholar.

2 Smyth, W. H., The Mediterranean, London, 1854, 486Google Scholar; Barth, H., Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, London, 1857, I, 65–76Google Scholar; von Bary, E., Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, VIII (1876), 378–385Google Scholar; Rohlfs, G., Kufra, Leipzig, 1881, 104–7Google Scholar.

3 Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lon. 2nd Ser. XVII (1897–1899), 280–293Google Scholar. Cowper subsequently admitted, with very good grace, that his theories ‘have proved to be radically wrong’ (Ibid., 297–300).

4 Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques, X (1902), 269–272Google Scholar.

5 A preliminary account of these excavations, by Professor Caputo, appears in Bulletino del Museo dell' Impero Romano, XIII (1942), 151–4Google Scholar.

6 Cowper (op. cit., 256) incorrectly describes the stones around the roots of this tree as having been ‘collected and placed there’. They are, in fact, in situ.

7 Sheet 1475 (Tarhuna) of the series of 1/100,000 maps, surveyed by the Instituto Geografico Militare in 1933, covers the greater part of the plateau, and marks all the more important ancient sites. The original Italian edition of this map is much easier to read than the British war-time edition; but the latter has the advantage of a metrical grid (see Appendix IV).

8 Cowper, op. cit., 122–130. Herodotus (IV, 175) describes the λόΦοϛ ὁ χαρίτων as being 200 stadia (35 km.) distant from the sea. The head of the Wadi Mensci, most distant tributary of the Wadi Caam, is actually 32 km. from the sea, as the crow flies, and twice that distance following the course of the Tareglat.

9 For this road see Romanelli, , Epigraphica, I (1939), 104–110Google Scholar, and Goodchild, , Roman Roads and Milestones in Tripolitania, Tripoli, 1948, 11–13Google Scholar.

10 Goodchild, , op. cit., 13 (nos. 12–13Google Scholar). The writer is indebted to Mr. Oates for information on the two newly discovered milestones.

11 An alternative explanation might be that the original caput viae was at Ain Scersciara rather than Medeina Doga, in which case the distance of 44 miles would be correct.

12 Itineraria Romana, I (ed. Cuntz, ), 10–11Google Scholar.

13 For Ain Wif, see JRS XXXIX (1949), 84–8Google Scholar. The writer is indebted to Prof. Caputo for information of the new milestone discoveries in the Tazzoli area.

14 The inscription (Appendix III, no. 5) seen by Cowper 200 yards north of Gasr Doga might have been part of a milestone on this route, but the existing record is insufficient to establish the character of the inscription. So, too, the Caracallan milestone (IRT 928) from near Gasr Garabulli could possibly belong to a road leading from the coast to Medeina Doga.

15 Romanelli, (Epigraphica, I (1939), 107Google Scholar) adopts the latter interpretation, but it is difficult to see what purpose would have been served by such a route, as there were few centres of importance in the Gefara.

16 It should be noted that the road from Lepcis to Medeina Doga does not show up at all on the air photos of the Tarhuna plateau, even though its course is known from the milestones. In cultivated terrain those unpaved routes that fell out of use soon after the Roman period were rapidly obliterated by wind-blown sand or by cultivation.

17 For die epigraphy of the area see Appendix III, and the relevant sections of IRT.

18 Smyth, The Mediterranean, 486; Rohlfs, Kufra, 106. Cowper (Hill of the Graces, 240 (Site 12), and 241, note 1) refers to ‘a large mass of ruins, consisting chiefly of Roman work, such as fragments of columns, wells, baths or cisterns’ which lay a half-hour soudi-east of Gasr Doga, and is probably to be identified with Medeina Doga; but he saw no recognisable city, and for that reason thought he had missed Smyth's ‘Medina Dugha’.

19 Nave, G., ‘Frammenti indigeni d'arte cristiana a Tarhuna ed Henscir Uheda, Tripolitania’, Bollettino d'Arte, VIII (1914), 96–104Google Scholar.

20 These bases include stones with rectangular hollows cut in their upper surfaces, and presumably intended to receive funerary offerings. Professor Caputo, who has found similar stones in the Fezzan, is studying these objects.

21 Appendix III, no. 6. Since removed, together with some of the bases, to Lepcis Museum.

22 Appendix III, no. i.

23 Cowper, op. cit., 256; De Mathuisieulx, , Nouv. Archives des Miss. Scientif., X (1902), 272Google Scholar and XIII (1906), 93 (where the site of the discovery is called ‘Er-Sailat’, a name not recorded elsewhere); Aurigemma, , Notiziario Archeologico, I (1915), 39Google Scholar, gives the correct name, Ras el-Haddagia.

24 Africa Italiana, I (1927), 213–4Google Scholar.

25 De Mathuisieulx, (Nouvelles Archives, XII (1904), 21)Google Scholar and Gentilucci, (Africa Italiana, V (1933), 187Google Scholar, and fig. 20–21) both describe the Senam Tininai structure as a mausoleum; but its remains, surveyed by the writer in 1949, and an inscription found on the site (IRT888) indicate that it was a small temple.

26 Siagu: Merlin, A., ‘Le Sanctuaire de Baal et de Tanit près de Siagu’, Notes et Documents de la Direction des Antiquités et Arts (Tunis), IV (1910), pl. IGoogle Scholar. El-Kenissia: Carton, , ‘Le Sanctuaire de Tanit à el-Kenissia’, Mém. Acad. Inscriptions, XII, i (1906), pl. IGoogle Scholar.

27 Vida, G. Levi Della, Libya (già Rivista della Tripolitania), III, 96Google Scholar.

28 See Levi Delia Vida's remarks in Appendix I (below, p. 67).

29 Vitali, L., Fonti per la storia della religione Cyrenaica, Padua, 1932, 4–10Google Scholar.

30 Barth, H., Travels and Discoveries, I, 66Google Scholar.

31 Corinth, XI (Morgan, C. H., The Byzantine Pottery), Harvard, 1942, 15–17, and fig. 9Google Scholar.

32 See Appendix II. These surface finds have been deposited in Tripoli Museum.

33 Appendix III, no. 3. The site has been much mutilated by stone robbing, the inscription having been found in the course of those operations, during the laying out of Breviglieri colony. An eye-witness of the discovery pointed out the exact site to the writer.

34 Appendix IV, site no. 30; Appendix III, inscription no. 7.

35 Although there is some variety in the size of the buildings and the disposition of the rooms, the fortified farmhouses of Tripolitania almost invariably have upperstoreys, an inner courtyard, and a single doorway in the outer walls (see some representative plans published by the writer in JRS, XL (1950)Google Scholar, fig. 6).

36 Information from Professor Caputo. A bronze Carthaginian coin was found in 1949, lying with a miscellaneous collection of useless articles left by local Arabs as offerings at the marabut of El-Khadra. It was removed, but to avoid offence to the genius loci a nickel lira coin was left in its place: the latter has since disappeared.

37 Romanelli, , Epigraphica, I (1939), 110Google Scholar.

38 Gsell, S., ‘L'huile de Leptis’, Libya (già Rivista della Tripolitania), I (1924–1925), 41–6Google Scholar.

39 J. Toutain, ‘L'inscription de Henchir Mettich’, and Cuq, E., ‘Le colonat partiaire dans l'Afrique romaine’, Mem. Acad. Inscriptions, XI, i (1907)Google Scholar.

40 Goodchild, R. G. and Perkins, J. B. Ward, ‘The Limes Tripolitanus in the light of recent discoveries’, JRS, XXXIX (1949), 81–95Google Scholar.

41 R. G. Goodchild, Roman Roads and Milestones in Tripolitania, 11–13.

42 This church, together with others in Tripolitania, will be published by Mr.Perkins, Ward in Archaeologia, vol. 95Google Scholar.

43 Bartoccini, R., ‘La curia di Sabratha’, Quaderni di Archeologia delta Libia, I (1950), 33Google Scholar.

44 It is important to recall that the detailed record of events compiled by Ammianus ceases in 378, and that there is no chronicle of comparable quality for the years that followed. The fact that an inscription (IRT 480) from Lepcis, belonging to the period 408–423, praises the comes et dux Ortygius for the measures taken against the Austurians shows that the invasions of 364–6 were only the beginning ofa whole series of disasters. The events in the Pentapolis, recorded so vividly by Synesius, confirm this conclusion.

45 Goodchild, R. G., ‘The Limes Tripolitanus—II’, JRS, XL (1950)Google Scholar.

page 67 note 1 The passive has been used, instead of the active of the neo-Punic text, in order to preserve the word sequence of the original.

page 68 note 2 Février assumes that the suffix -m may refer to the singular; however, this point is still controversial (see the article in Rendiconti dei Lincei, cited above, p. 401).