Althiburos


Althiburos was an ancient Berber, Carthaginian, and Roman settlement in what is now the Dahmani Delegation of the Kef Governorate of Tunisia. During the reign of emperor Hadrian, it became a municipality with Italian rights. It was the seat of a Christian bishop from the 4th to 7th centuries. The settlement was destroyed during the Muslim invasions and the area's population center moved to Ebba Ksour on the plain. This left Althiburos's ruins largely intact; they were rediscovered by travelers in the 18th century.

Location

The ruins of Althiburos are located near Fej El Tamar on the Ouartane Plateau about southwest of the town of Medeina. In antiquity, it was part of the border of Numidia at the confluence of the Oum-el-Abid and the Medeine Rivers.

History

Althiburos was an ancient Numidian city at the confluence of two local rivers when it passed into Punic influence and then control. It formed part of the road linking Carthage to Theveste.
After the Punic Wars ended in Roman victory, Althiburos formed part of Africa. It retained a local Punic-style dual magistracy under sufetes well into the early empire, although at one point the city conceived a regional innovation and installed three executives at once. In the 2nd century, under the emperor Hadrian, it was granted municipal status and Italian rights under the name Municipium Aelium Hadrianum Augustum Althiburitanum. from Emperor Hadrian. It was prosperous in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
It was the seat of a Christian bishop from the 4th to 7th centuries. The settlement was destroyed during the Muslim invasions and the area's population center moved to Ebba Ksour on the plain. This left Althiburos's ruins largely intact; they were rediscovered by travelers in the 18th century.

Archaeology

Apart from travel stories that describe it, the site has seen few archaeological excavations. Excavations begun in 1908, interrupted and resumed in 1912, reveal part of the forum, a main street and a monumental door to a bay, with an inscription dedicated to Hadrian. A Punic inscription found at the site is now at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Under the aegis of the National Heritage Institute of Tunisia, Spanish and Italian teams have been conducting excavation projects since 2006-2007.
The main sites are:
The Roman Theatre is located on top of a hill. Remains partially buried remain in the middle of scattered blocks only a series of 19 arcades of which only go beyond the top, surmounted by five arcades of the first floor. René Cagnat and Henri Saladin at the end of the 19th century gave the following dimensions for this theater: in diameter and in width. The archaeological activities carried out since 2007 have as objective the survey of the ruins and the reconstruction of the theater.

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