Tamuda

Roman amphora and mosaic of Tamuda, in the "Archaeological Museum of Tetouan"

Tamuda is an archaeological site of an ancient city in northern Morocco situated near what nowadays is Tetouan, by the south bank or river Martil.

History

The ancient city was founded in the 3rd century BC by the Mauretanian Berbers of northern Morocco. Probably there was a Phoenician presence during the next century, mainly for commerce. Under Augustus Romans occupied the city.

Tamuda was destroyed by the Romans during a Berber revolt, but under Augustus' successors it was recreated as a roman castrum.

The Roman occupiers destroyed the settlement in approximately the year forty-two A.D. during a revolt. A fortified camp was erected in place of the settlement by the Roman troops and traces of their occupation are still visible today.[1]

Tamuda became later one of the major cities of the Roman province Mauretania Tingitana and enjoyed a development during Trajan and Septimius Severus rule. It was used for fish salting and purple production, according to researcher from the University of Cadiz.[2] On the Notitia Dignitatum, 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 Vandals arrived in the fifth century the city had been possibly abandoned as no contemporary chronicle mentions it anymore.[3]

Artifacts from both the Roman and the Phoenician era have been found in the site of Tamuda.[4] In the late 13th century small fortifications existed near the Roman ruins with the name "Tittawin", that later were renamed "Tetouan"[5]

References

  1. ↑ Archaeological Museum of Tetouan: Tamuda
  2. ↑ Tamuda excavations
  3. ↑ Evolución urbana de Tetuán (PDF) (in Spanish). Junta de Andalucía. p. 29.
  4. ↑ M. Tarradell, El poblamiento antiguo del Rio Martin, Tamuda, IV, 1957, p. 272
  5. ↑ Tittawin, Halima Ferhat, "The Encyclopaedia of Islam", Vol. X, ed. P.J. Bearman, T. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs, (Brill, 2000), 549.

Bibliography

See also


Coordinates: 35°32′N 5°23′W / 35.533°N 5.383°W