Chemtou

Governorate: Jendouba

Situation and characteristics

The site of ancient Simitthus lies in a beautiful setting on the flanks of Djebel Chemtou. From the earliest times the Medjerda plain was one of the granaries of North Africa, and the wide valley is still mainly devoted to the growing of grain. The Medjerda (ancient Bagradas), Tunisia's largest river, which flows throughout the year, rises beyond the Algerian frontier, which is only a short distance away. The ancient city of Simitthus (now Chemtou) lay at the intersection of two important roads, between Carthage and Hippo Regius (Annaba, in Algeria) and between Sicca Veneria (Le Kef) and Thabraca (Tabarka). Marmor numidicus

In this area are the quarries, worked from Numidian times in the second century B.C. to Byzantine times in the sixth century A.D., which yielded the famous marmor numidicus, in colors ranging from a uniform dark yellow to light pink and creamy white, used in the construction of imperial buildings throughout the Mediterranean area. This Numidian marble, now known as giallo antico, ranked after Egyptian porphyry and the green serpentine of Sparta as the most precious stone of antiquity, and its quarrying was an imperial monopoly.

Work camp

Air photography has revealed a work camp, lying outside the town, built to house the quarrymen, slaves and forced laborers, many of them Christians, who worked in the largest quarry in North Africa. Nearby was a factory in which luxury marble articles were produced.

Excavation of the site by Tunisian and German archaeologists began in 1970. So far only a small part of the area has been explored, but it is already clear that the Chemtou work camp is the largest and most complete installation of the kind known in the whole Roman world. It is now possible, for the first time, to follow the whole process of production and gain valuable information about methods of quarrying and processing the stone.

History

The site of Chemtou, on a narrow ridge of hill projecting into the Medjerda/Bagradas valley at a ford in the river, safe from the danger of flooding, is thought to have been occupied by an earlier Numidian settlement. In the mid second century B.C. the Numidian king Masinissa had captured the fertile corn-growing areas in the upper Bagradas valley and around Dougga from the Carthaginians and had thus pushed the frontiers of his kingdom far to the east. A few decades later Masinissa or his son and successor Micipsa founded a hilltop sanctuary on the summit of Djebel Chemtou, 20km/12.5mi from the royal capital of Bulla Regia. In the course of constructing the sanctuary the Numidians came upon the yellow Numidian marble which forms the whole of the western half of Djebel Chemtou. The systematic working of the marble, using highly developed quarrying techniques, however, began only in Roman times, when the settlement of Colonia Augusta Numidica Simitthus was founded (27 B.C.).

Transport and use

The blocks of marble were either transported by boat down the river to Carthage or on a new road built for the purpose to Thabraca (Tabarka), and from there conveyed to the remotest corners of the Roman Empire. Augustus used the stone in the construction of his Forum, Domitian for his Domus Flavia, Trajan for his Forum and Hadrian for his villa at Tivoli. The quarries continued to be worked until the Arab conquest. In the 19th century an attempt was made to reopen them, but this was soon abandoned. During the war of Algerian liberation the Algerian army established an important base here.

Access

Chemtou, 28km/17mi northwest of Jendouba, is reached by way of GP 17 (Tabarka- Jendouba) and MC 59, which branches off it on the west, signposted to Chemtou. (In the opposite direction MC 59 runs east to Bulla Regia). Then continue as below. Coming from the opposite direction, take GP 6 (Béja-Jendouba), turn off into GP 17, signposted to Tabarka, and in 10km/6mi take MC 59 to Chemtou. In 11km/7mi MC 59 degenerates into a gravel track and in another 5km/3mi comes to the excavation site.