الملح في موريتانيا القيصرية و نوميديا. مصادره؟ استخداماته؟

تواتية عمراوي

هذا هو الملخص الأول للمناطق الوسطى من المغرب العربي (الجزائر) و الذي يظهر الدور الرئيسي الذي لعبه الملح محلياً و كجزء من شبكات تجارية أوسع، و على مدى فترة طويلة من الزمن . اعتمدت هذه الدراسة على مصادر قديمة وحديثة - جغرافية ومعدنية و إثنوغرافية - و تستخدم البيانات الأثرية التي أهمل تحليلها في السابق عن استغلال الملح واستخداماته في العصور القديمة في كل من موريتانيا القيصرية و نوميديا. إن إعادة التقييم هذه تكشف عن مدى توفر الموارد المحلية: حيث كان الملح وفيراً، ويمكن الوصول إليه بسهولة، و يسهل حصاده من البحيرات المالحة أو صخور الملح .

إن البقايا الأثرية التي يتم العثور عليها و بشكل منهجي بالقرب من مكامن الملح الموجودة داخل منطقة المقاطعة الرومانية أو على أطرافها، تؤكد أن السكان استخدموا هذه الموارد المحلية لاحتياجاتهم اليومية. وتظهر الدراسات الإثنوغرافية أن السكان أو القبائل العابرة كانوا - ولا يزالون - قادرين على الاستفادة من الملح المحلي كجزء من تجارتهم مع الشمال والجنوب . تشير أدلة العصور الوسطى إلى أن الملح الصخري من جبل ملح الوطاية (بسكرة) والملح من سبخة آرزيو كان يتم تصديرهما عن طريق البر و من ثم البحر، حيث يصدر الأول لتونس و الثاني لدول أوروبية مجاورة، ولا يوجد ما يتعارض مع حقيقة أن هذا النوع من الشبكات وغيرها كانت موجود بالفعل في العصور القديمة.

Our knowledge about Cyrenaican horses during the Greek and Roman periods is mainly derived from ancient literary sources. They tell us that horses were bred with distinctive skills in this region and report interesting stories highlighting the participation of Cyrenaican horses in athletic games. The literary data suggests Cyrene is a horse-breeding centre and this paper examines whether these assertions represent a reality, or simply a convention. This study investigates and analyses other locally related archaeological data, including epigraphy documents published by the digital corpora of IGCyr and IRCyr. Although most of the inscriptions in these corpora are published, little attention has been given to horses. The adapted approach here aims to build up a picture about horses using local evidence, with a focus on the linguistic indications of equestrian practice at Cyrenaica and the use of horse-related terms in nomenclature. Interestingly, the regional textual and archaeological data provide us with a similar picture to that presented by the literary references regarding horse breeding in Cyrenaica, charioteer training and their contribution to overseas Greek and Roman sport.

This paper considers the structure and priorities of the Carthaginian state in its imperial endeavours in both North Africa and across the Mediterranean, focusing especially on the well-documented period of the Punic Wars (264–146 BC.). It suggests that Carthaginian constitutional structures, in particular the split between civil shofetim (‘judges’) and military rabbim (‘generals’), impacted the strategic outlook and marginal bellicosity of the city, making it less competitive against its primary peer-rival in the Western Mediterranean, Rome.

How is the white researcher perceived by the border apparatus? What does this interaction say about the border itself? Ethnographic research has framed such questions as a debate on ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ in fieldwork. This is problematic, as it assumes that a researcher can really be ‘external’ to the social worlds they investigate, as if the field site existed in isolation from transnational processes of racialised extraction. This paper challenges such an assumption by arguing that the white researcher cannot be an ‘outsider’ to the North African border: they approach it as the beneficiaries of a system of colonial and capital extractivism that feeds itself through migration control. I build on Ahmed's work on white phenomenology to analyse how various border workers perceived, made sense of and reacted to my presence as a white European woman at three different sites on the Spanish–Moroccan border. I argue that the white researcher is an expected presence at the border, as the accumulated history of (post)colonial encounters leads them where others have been before. Although whiteness opens doors, only a certain kind of performed whiteness remains welcome in the borderscape. The white researcher who appears not to be aligning with or supporting the premises of migration control is perceived by border workers as a potentially disruptive presence, and contained in different ways.

This paper outlines the ways in which the project is addressing the colonial legacy of Henry Wellcome as well as presenting the data from the first three field seasons at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data have substantially revised our chronological and socio-economic understanding of the site. Our excavations, initiated in 2017 and continued in 2019 and 2022, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previously recognised. The faunal and botanical remains have implications for the spread of early domesticates in the eastern Sahel and for climate changes, and raise issues of resilience. There is confirmed human burial activity from at least the third millennium BC onwards, while the pottery continues to yield information about the variety of decoration and, for the final Assemblage 3, data on its usage. Overall, the continued importance of the site for the eastern Sahel is re-emphasised.

The small finds discovered during the 1948–1951 excavations by Katherine M. Kenyon and John B. Ward-Perkins at Sabratha were scattered after the 1950s and have taken some time to be re-assembled. The following report on the small objects includes material in silver, copper alloy, iron, lead, glass, semiprecious stones, clay and stone, with a separate report on the substantial bone artefact assemblage. As well as providing the basic data on the objects, some of which are unique to Roman Libya, efforts have been made to put them into their Empire-wide context.

Roman remains were discovered by chance at Saf-Saf Lakhdara in the Chott Chergui (Algeria). This article attempts to demonstrate that these ruins are part of a Roman fortification in the south of Caesarian Mauretania, far from the Severan limes, the course of which has been confirmed by numerous archaeologists. A historical-comparative study has been carried out to confirm that the ruins of Saf-Saf Lakhdar are those of a castellum. The corpus of graphic and photographic records and the ‘Khnag ‘Azzir’ inscription, combined with theoretical sources on Roman defensive architecture, confirmed that the fortifications at Saf-Saf Lakhdar were part of a castellum. The ‘Khnag ‘Azzir’ inscription revealed three main facts: it is dedicated to deities to commemorate the victory over the Berber tribes of the Saharan Atlas; it mentions Caius Octavius Pudens, who was procurator during the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus; and it mentions the conflicts between Rome and the Bavarians, a tribe from the ancient Maghreb. We urgently need to protect the site and carry out excavations in the hope of finding pottery or other objects that could shed light on and support this discovery.

Cet article est une étude expérimentale menée sur le site archéologique de Gasr Chouline à Tataouine en utilisant la prospection archéologique et les systèmes d'informations géographiques (SIG) pour améliorer la gestion du site. Bien que cette étude n'ait pas prétendu à l'exhaustivité, elle a fourni de nouvelles données archéologiques par suite d'une prospection systématique.

This paper reports the preliminary results from three seasons of excavations in the Christian cemetery by the Tunisian-British Bulla Regia Archaeological Project. In 2017–2019, excavations in, and around, the Late Antique church in the western cemetery uncovered a complex funerary landscape with a variety of different tomb types, including mosaic caisson tombs, simple masonry tombs, amphora tombs, and earthen graves and multiple funerary mensae. The mosaics, inscriptions and finds (ceramics, glass, coins) studied in 2022 support a fourth to seventh century date for the main period of use of the cemetery.

Increasing pressure – such as from conflict, climate change and urbanisation – on maritime cultural heritage in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) led to the establishment of the Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) Project in 2019. This five-year programme aims to assess rapidly and comprehensively the vulnerability of maritime and coastal heritage in the MENA region and assist in its management in the face of the aforementioned challenges. The two case studies discussed in this article highlight some of the main aspects of MarEA's current work in North Africa by focusing on two different aspects of the methodological approach used: first, the generalised but comprehensive damage and threat assessment, as applied to all sites, and demonstrated for the historic port of Suakin (Sudan); second, site-specific shoreline change assessment for the purpose of assessing the impact of coastal erosion, as demonstrated for the World Heritage Site of Sabratha (Libya).

Archaeological research conducted in Morocco over the last two decades has revealed a wealth of diachronic maritime cultural heritage resources, under water and in the coastal zone. However, observation and study has revealed that natural and anthropogenic threats are impacting these resources. Given the challenges to managing maritime cultural heritage (MCH) resources in a country with such an extensive coastline and limited human managerial resources, the national heritage agency and external research institutions have developed methodologies that in part aim at mitigating these threats. This development is illustrated through three projects, briefly outlined here: the Oued Loukkos Survey, the CBDAMM Project and the MarEA Project. These projects incorporate approaches that have been tailored to the Moroccan context, considering the type of resources, the extent of the coastline, types of threats, legislation, and people and institutions involved. In conclusion, this article stresses that an interdisciplinary methodological approach to documentation is necessary in order to inform successful mitigation strategies and to plan for future interventions of MCH.

The coastline of Cyrenaica, Libya, is rich in cultural heritage dating from prehistory to the modern periods. Despite the region's long-standing and strong connection to the sea, maritime archaeology remains a peripheral, but growing, branch of archaeology in Libya. This paper aims to provide an overview of the maritime projects that have been carried out in Cyrenaica in the past. Furthermore, it will highlight the main threats and damages that coastal heritage faces today and will provide some suggestions on how the discipline could develop in the future. The Cyrenaica Coastal Survey (CCS), a collaboration between the Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) project and the Department of Antiquities (DoA), Libya, will serve as a case study of an ongoing project that documents and assesses the condition of sites along the Cyrenaican coast between Tocra and Apollonia.

This article summarises the research, protection, enhancement and awareness-raising activities carried out on coastal and submerged archaeological sites and wrecks discovered on the northern and Cap Bon coasts in Tunisia. The objective of these activities is to better understand and protect the underwater cultural heritage, while ensuring its preservation for future generations. The article also highlights the policy put in place by the supervisory institution to ensure an integrated and sustainable management of this heritage, despite the challenges it faces, in accordance with the principles of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, ratified by Tunisia in 2009. Furthermore, the article stresses the importance of coordinating the conservation of this heritage with local development, while promoting responsible tourism practices, as part of Tunisia's active search to enhance its tourism and cultural potential – as a source of sustainable development in the coastal and maritime areas concerned.

The Algerian coast is rich in cultural heritage. Many major historical cities and archaeological remains are scattered along its coastline. This cultural heritage is increasingly threatened by the rapid urbanisation that Algeria has experienced in recent years. In 2018 the area of El Hamdania (Cherchell region) was selected as the site of a new commercial mega port. This large construction project will affect a number of archaeological sites located in this region. This paper aims to highlight the archaeological importance of the El Hamdania region and assesses the risks of such a construction to the heritage of the region. The archaeological evidence discussed is based on survey work carried out by members of the Laboratoire d’Études Historiques et Archéologiques (LEHA), an institution that carries out research projects on coastal and maritime archaeology in Algeria.