Zooming into the long urban history of Simitthus, re-evaluating the 1980-excavations East of the Roman forum

North African urbanitas revisited: new methods and innovative theoretical approaches (3rd c. BC – 9th c. AD)

Fifth appointment of the lecture series "North African urbanitas revisited: new methods and innovative theoretical approaches (3rd c. BC – 9th c. AD)"

 

5th lecture:
“Zooming into the long urban history of Simitthus, re-evaluating the 1980-excavations East of the Roman forum”

Speakers:
Heike Möller – Philipp von Rummel – Moheddine Chaouali – Stefan Ardeleanu

In collaboration with the RomanIslam - Center for Comparative Empire and Trascultural Studies; Universität Hamburg


Simitthus, modern Chimtou in Northwestern Tunisia, was one of the oldest towns of ancient North Africa. Famous for its precious yellow marble called marmor Numidicum, the quarries of which lay in the heart of the city, it became one of the most important towns and economic hubs of Northwestern Africa in Late Hellenistic and Roman times. This paper gives a diachronic overview of the town’s urban development over a timespan of over two millennia (8th c. BC – 12th c. AD). Special emphasis is given to a series of deep trenches opened to the East of the Roman forum in the 1980ies and recently re-evaluated by a Tunisian-German team. These investigations have revealed a spectacular sequence of complex settlement history from Early Iron Age well into the Middle Ages.

Anmeldung Zoom bitte an: romanislam@uni-hamburg.de