Pupput, also spelled "Putput", "Pudput", "Pulpud" (), sometimes located in Souk el-Obiod ou Souk el-Abiod ( or "white market"), is a Colonia in the Roman province of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

which has been equated with an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in modern

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. It is situated on the coast near the town of Hammamet, between the two

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

s of Temad (or el-Thimad) to the north and Moussa to the south. Much of the Pupput is buried under modern holiday developments which have been built over the major part of the site.

History

Classical antiquity

This agricultural region, densely occupied in

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

, has probably been inhabited since the 5th century BC by 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 ...

and

Carthaginian The term Carthaginian ( ) usually refers to the civilisation of ancient Carthage. It may also refer to: * Punic people, the Semitic-speaking people of Carthage * Punic language The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, i ...

s. There is a sanctuary and inscription at the ancient Punic city of Thinissut, located at modern Bir Bouregba, but no

Punic The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' ...

remains have been identified on the site of Pupput itself.Samir Aounallah, ''Le Cap Bon, jardin de Carthage'', Bordeaux, Ausonius, 2001, pp. 231-239 et sq. (''Ausonius. Scripta Antiqua'', 4) A settlement existed here as early as the 1st century BC, and this may have been of Berber–Punic origin. It was a simple

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

in Carthaginian territory at the time of the Roman Emperor

Antoninus Pius Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius (; ; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held var ...

(2nd century AD). The Roman politician

Salvius Julianus Lucius Octavius Cornelius Publius Salvius Iulianus Aemilianus (c. 110 – c. 170), generally referred to as Salvius Julianus, or Julian the Jurist, or simply Julianus, was a well known and respected jurist, public official, and politician who serv ...

is thought to have been born in the village and it may be due to him that Pupput became an honorary Colonia under the Emperor

Commodus Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...

(185-192). At this time the city was probably a satellite town of its neighbour Neapolis. The earliest documentary record of the city was in 168 when it was promoted to the status of a

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (: ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ('duty holders'), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the privileges ...

governed by an elected council. It appears to have gained in importance during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, when it expanded considerably and a significant number of public monuments were built. According to an inscription preserved in the Bardo National Museum in Tunis which was dedicated to the 4th century Emperor

Licinius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (; Ancient Greek, Greek: Λικίνιος; c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign, he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan that ...

, the Roman name of the city was "Colonia Aurelia Commoda Pia Felix Augusta Pupput". Pupput's location, at the southern base of the

Cape Bon Cape Bon ("Good Cape"), also known as Res et-Teib (), Shrīk Peninsula, or Watan el Kibli, is a peninsula in far northeastern Tunisia. Cape Bon is also the name of the northernmost point on the peninsula, also known as Res ed-Der, and known in ant ...

peninsula, was the meeting point of two major roman roads – a north-south road linking Carthage to

Hadrumetum Hadrumetum, also known by #Names, many variant spellings and names, was a Phoenician Phoenician colonies, colony that pre-dated Carthage. It subsequently became one of the most important cities in Roman Africa before Vandal Kingdom, Vandal and Uma ...

and an east-west road linking the peninsula to the province's interior via

Thuburbo Majus Thuburbo Majus (or Thuburbo Maius) is a large Roman site in northern Tunisia. It is located roughly 60 km southwest of Carthage on a major African thoroughfare. This thoroughfare connects Carthage to the Sahara. Other towns along the way i ...

. North of Pupput was its densely packed main

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

, over in size, dating from the late 1st or early 2nd centuries.

Late antiquity

The ancient city of Pupput would have become vicus again in

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

. An episcopal seat of Puppi, corresponding to the modern Souk-El-Abiodh south of Hammamet, is indicated in the lists of bishops of 411 (

Donatist Donatism was a schism from the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

), 484, 525 and 646. Puppi was the

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

of an ancient Christian

episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

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 ...

Africa Proconsolaris Africa was a Roman province on the northern coast of the continent of Africa. It was established in 146 BC, following the Roman Republic's conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisi ...

, a

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandr ...

of the

Archdiocese of Carthage The Archdiocese of Carthage is a Latin Catholic titular see originally established as a diocese in Carthage, Roman Empire, in the 2nd century. Agrippinus was the first named bishop, appointed around 230 AD. The diocese, in its earlier form, ...

. There are records of six bishops of the Diocese of Puppi. Two of the bishops, the

Pannonio and the

Vittoriano, attended the Council of Carthage in 411 when Catholics and Donatists gathered together called to resolve the Donatist schism in Roman Africa. A third bishop, Aurelio, was an attendee of the

Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; ) was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey) from 8 Oct ...

in 451. Bishop Pastinato attended the Vandal Synod of Carthage in 484 called by King

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was ma ...

in 484 in an attempt to persuade the Catholic bishops to convert to

Arianism Arianism (, ) is a Christology, Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is co ...

. After the synod Pastinato was exiled. Bishop Fortunato attended the Carthaginian Council of 525 and Bishop Guloso attended an anti- monothelite council in 646. Although Puppi belonged to the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

, Pupput was listed as part of the civil

Byzacena Byzacena (or Byzacium) (, ''Byzakion'') was a Late Roman province in the central part of Roman North Africa, which is now roughly Tunisia, split off from Africa Proconsularis. History At the end of the 3rd century AD, the Roman emperor Dioclet ...

. To explain this discrepancy, some authors, such as

Noël Duval Noël Duval (24 December 1929, Le Chesnay – 12 December 2018, Paris) was a French archaeologist. Biography In 1953 Duval started working as a researcher and for three consecutive years worked at the Roman Historical Institute. He was a member ...

, have suggested that boundary changes resulted in a "conurbation" of the city with Siagu (now Ksar Ezzit in the east of the town of Bir Bouregba), which was located in Africa Proconsularis, a few kilometers to the north.« Pupput », ''Carte des routes et des cités de l'est de l'Africa à la fin de l'Antiquité : nouvelle édition de la carte des voies romaines de l'Afrique du Nord conçue en 1949, d'après les tracés de

Pierre Salama Pierre Salama (2 January 1917 – 2 April 2009) was a French historian and archaeologist, specialist of Roman roads in Africa as well as milestones. An epigrapher, numismatist A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed co ...

'', Turnhout, Brepols, 2010, pp. 196-197 Puppi survives today as titular bishop, and the current bishop is Timothy Yu Gyoung-chon, of

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

Middle Ages

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, following 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 ...

period, Pupput became a part of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

, and a citadel was built to defend it. After the

Arab conquest The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (), also known as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. He established the first Islamic state in Medina, Arabia that expanded rapidly un ...

at the end of the seventh century, the whole of Tunisia passed under Arab domination and the city was renamed Qasr Zaid. The urban center then moved further north-east, to where the city of Hammamet was founded, near the baths (as the name suggests), on the site of the medina. The ancient buildings of Souk el-Obiod seem to have been abandoned following this final relocation. Pirates from the Spanish

Kingdom of Aragón The Kingdom of Aragon (; ; ; ) was a medieval and early modern Monarchy, kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain. It became a part of the larger ...

captured and destroyed the city in 1303, leaving it in ruins. The Pupput area was subsequently settled by

charcoal burner A charcoal burner is someone whose occupation is to manufacture charcoal. Traditionally this is achieved by carbonising wood in a charcoal pile or kiln. Charcoal burning is one of the oldest human crafts. History and technique Medieval charc ...

s from Hammamet.

Remains

It was not until the late 19th century that the site was rediscovered by accident when an area was being levelled for construction. Some of Pupput's remains were partially unearthed in the early 20th century by battalions of the French army. At that time the site included a

capitolium A ''Capitolium'' (Latin) was an ancient Roman temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad of gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. A ''capitolium'' was built on a prominent area in many cities in Italy and the Roman provinces, particularly during the ...

, temples, a theatre, an amphitheatre,

thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large Roman Empire, imperial public bath, bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed i ...

(baths) which gave nearby Hammamet its name (from ''

hammam A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited from the model ...

'', ), a

water supply network A water supply network or water supply system is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components that provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes the following: # A drainage basin (see water purification – sour ...

including aqueduct parts and cisterns, and a Byzantine citadel. However, much of the site has not been preserved. In the late 1960s it was endangered by the development of hotel complexes along the Tunisian coast.

Rescue archaeology Rescue archaeology, sometimes called commercial archaeology, preventive archaeology, salvage archaeology, contract archaeology, developer-funded archaeology, or compliance archaeology, is state-sanctioned, archaeological survey and excavation ca ...

revealed part of the Roman necropolis and a large residential quarter with

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

flooring indicating high-status buildings. The residential quarter and baths were preserved as an archaeological park, but the remains of the central complex of monuments and the public buildings were buried beneath hotel foundations. The ancient town and

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

of Puppi has been tentatively identified with this site at Souk el-Abiod.''

Annuario Pontificio The ''Annuario Pontificio'' ( Italian for ''Pontifical Yearbook'') is the annual directory of the Holy See of the Catholic Church. It lists the popes in chronological order and all officials of the Holy See's departments. It also provides nam ...

2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ), p. 956

References

Sources

* {{Authority control Roman sites in Tunisia Phoenician cities Catholic titular sees in Africa