Tamuda was an ancient

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

city and military camp in

Mauretania Tingitana Mauretania Tingitana (Latin for "Tangerine Mauretania") was a Roman province, coinciding roughly with the northern part of present-day Morocco. The territory stretched from the northern peninsula opposite Gibraltar, to Sala Colonia (or Chellah ...

. It is located 6 km (4 miles) west of the present-day Tetouan in northern

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. Stone ruins from the site are found by the south bank of the Martil Valley. It was considered a city in accordance with the rules of urbanization of the time.

History

The ancient city was founded in the 3rd century BC by the

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, encompassing northern present-day Morocco, and from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the ...

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

of northern Morocco. Probably there was a Phoenician presence during the next century, mainly for commerce. A type of a seahorse, representing Phoenician iconography, with rider encountered on a clay jar was found at Tamuda. Under the Emperor

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

Romans occupied the city. Around 42 AD, Roman garrisons leveled Tamuda during an insurrection and in its stead erected a fortified settlement. The Emperor Augustus' successors later rebuilt the city as a Roman

castrum ''Castra'' () is a Latin language, Latin term used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire for a military 'camp', and ''castrum'' () for a 'Fortification, fort'. Either could refer to a building or plot of land, used as a fortified milita ...

. Tamuda became later one of the major cities of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

and enjoyed a development during

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

and

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

rule. It was used for fish salting and purple production, according to researcher from the University of Cadiz. On the ''

Notitia Dignitatum The (Latin for 'List of all dignities and administrations both civil and military') is a document of the Late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very ...

'', written in the fifth century, it is stated that at the end of the fourth century Tamuda's castrum was the headquarters of an " Ala Herculea" (cavalry unit) of local limitanei and that was related to a ''cohortes'' of Lixus. The region around Tamuda was fully Romanized, Christianized and "pacified" during the fifth century and the fort probably was dismantled. By the time the

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vandal ...

s arrived in the fifth century the city had been possibly abandoned as no contemporary chronicle mentions it anymore. In the late 13th century small fortifications existed near the Roman ruins with the name "Tittawin", that later were renamed "Tetouan".

Excavations

Artifacts from both the Roman and the Phoenician era have been found in the site of Tamuda. In 1933, a third century (circa 253-257 A.D.) stone recording a Roman victory over some unnamed

barbarian A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

s was discovered at the site of Tamuda. It is believed that the inscription refers to the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

. In July 2018, a group of researchers discovered at the site a

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs () are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the thoracic cavity, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ...

fragment from a

North Atlantic right whale The North Atlantic right whale (''Eubalaena glacialis'') is a baleen whale, one of three right whale species belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena'', all of which were formerly classified as a single species. Because of their docile nature, their sl ...

dated from 180 A.D. 396 A.D. They suggest that the Romans may have conducted industrial-scale whaling in the coasts of the Western Mediterranean.

References

Bibliography

*El Azifi, M.R. ''L'habitat ancien de la vallée de Martil'' in "Revue de la Faculté des lettres de Tétouan", année 4, n° 4 Tetouan, 1990 {{Authority control Mauretania Tingitana Populated places established in the 3rd century BC Roman towns and cities in Morocco Ancient Berber cities Archaeological sites in Morocco Military history of Tétouan Roman towns and cities in Mauretania Tingitana

History

Excavations

See also

References

Bibliography