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Tiddis

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Tiddis
Castellum Tidditanorum; Tiddi
Ruins of Tiddis
Ruins of Tiddis
36°27′48″N 6°29′02″E / 36.463333°N 6.483889°E
Type Ancient settlement
Periods Numidian, Roman, Late Antique
Satellite of Cirta
Location Algeria
Region Constantine Province
Part of Territory of Cirta in the Roman period
Site notes
Excavation dates 19th century; systematic excavations from 1941
Archaeologists André Berthier
Condition Ruins

Tiddis (also known in antiquity as Castellum Tidditanorum and later as Tiddi) was an ancient settlement in Numidia, in what is now Constantine Province in eastern Algeria. It lies above the gorges of the Rhumel, about 16 kilometres northwest of ancient Cirta (modern Constantine). In the Roman period Tiddis belonged to the communities dependent on Cirta. Inscriptions refer to its community as Castellum Tidditanorum, res publica Tidditanorum and, later, res publica Castelli Tidditanorum.[1]

Occupation of the site predates Roman rule. The cemeteries preserve evidence of protohistoric burial traditions and hand-modelled ceramics, while imported material indicates contacts beyond the immediate region. During the Roman imperial period the steep eastern slope was densely occupied, with streets, terraces and buildings adapted to the terrain. Tiddis remained occupied into Late Antiquity, when it was also the seat of a Christian bishopric.

History

Pre-Roman occupation is known particularly from the cemeteries surrounding the settlement. In the eastern necropolis, archaeologists have identified several forms of protohistoric burial, including funerary circles, cave burials, rectangular pit graves and bazinas.[2] Four excavated pit graves contained about forty hand-modelled vessels, among them a painted caliciform vessel and a tripod whose feet were modelled as human heads.[3]

The finds also document contacts beyond the immediate region before Roman rule. Rhodian amphorae found at Tiddis, used for transporting wine from Rhodes, have been dated to the last quarter of the 3rd and the first half of the 2nd century BC.[4] Punic stelae and Campanian or Arretine pottery are likewise represented among the finds from the site.[5]

Under Roman rule Tiddis formed part of the territory dependent on Cirta. In this context, Jacques Gascou places the castella of the Cirtan confederation within the administrative organization of its pagi.[1] The designation res publica, also found in inscriptions from Tiddis, does not by itself establish the juridical rank of the community.[6]

Under Septimius Severus, inscriptions refer to the res publica Tidditanorum, while an inscription from the reign of Severus Alexander names the Castellum Tidditanorum.[1] A dedication to Gordian III from AD 239 uses the fuller form res publica Castelli Tidditanorum and records that it was erected from public funds by decree of the decurions.[7]

Periodic markets (nundinae) are also attested under Severus Alexander. They were held twice each month, on the day before the Kalends and the day before the Ides, with the authorization of the provincial governor Publius Iulius Iunianus Martialianus.[8]

The Roman settlement occupied the steep eastern slope of the Kheneg plateau, at elevations of roughly 455 to 575 metres. The main street, conventionally called the cardo, winds uphill from the northern entrance towards the forum. A large stairway with 38 steps and five landings linked different levels of the settlement. Much of the western and southern plateau remains comparatively little explored.[9]

Among the better identified public structures are the forum, street arches, baths and the large cistern complex. Other traditional identifications of buildings and sanctuaries are less certain, in part because later occupation altered earlier structures.[10]

The appearance of the excavated Roman settlement was summarized in the 1976 Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites:

The native town became Romanized just like the other towns near Cirta. Today one can cross it by following the main street as it goes from a monumental portal up between the houses, passing by the forum, a small square, and the curia. [...] Also among the public monuments cleared thus far are the public baths and cisterns.[11]

Industrial activity is represented by about ten workshops identified as fullonicae, or fulleries, dating between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD.[12] No wells are reported in the Tiddis workshops. At least two retained evidence of water supply: one had a terracotta pipe, while another was supplied by a lead pipe from an adjacent cistern.[13]

Water management was important on the steep and elevated site. In the upper part of Tiddis is a complex measuring about 20 by 13 metres and consisting of three interconnected cisterns; channels and small settling basins collected water descending the slope.[14] Smaller cisterns and other water-supply installations are known elsewhere in the settlement.[15]

An inscription dated to AD 251–253 records works in which debris was cleared and rock was cut so that water could be collected ad salutem populi, for the welfare of the population. The works were directed by Marcus Cocceius Anicius Faustus Flavianus.[16] Vannesse interprets the inscription as referring to the collection of rainwater and associates the works with three neighbouring cisterns with a combined capacity of about 350 m³, rather than with the construction of an aqueduct.[16]

The senator and military commander Quintus Lollius Urbicus was closely associated with Tiddis. Its decurions honoured him as patronus of the community.[17][18] At El Héri, north of Tiddis, a mausoleum bears an inscription naming his father Marcus Lollius Senecio, his mother Grania Honorata, his brothers Lucius Lollius Senecio and Marcus Lollius Honoratus, and his uncle Publius Granius Paulus.[19][20] Older literature sometimes described Tiddis as Urbicus's birthplace, but this is not securely established; Gascou also considered a possible origin in the vicinity of El Héri.[21]

Religious remains include a substantial group of Punic, Neo-Punic and Roman votive stelae associated with Baal Hammon and the Romano-African cult of Saturn.[22] A ladder is a particularly frequent motif: of 33 Neo-Punic or Roman stelae with this image examined by Werner Huß, 26 came from Tiddis. Huß interpreted it as a symbol of passage or ascent between the earthly and celestial spheres and favoured a Punic or Neo-Punic background, whereas Marcel Le Glay had earlier suggested possible Campanian influence.[23]

The cult of Mithras is attested by an inscription referring to cultores who built a structure from the ground up at their own expense; the abbreviation I. M. has been expanded as I(nvicto) M(ithrae) (ILAlg II 3576).[24] The traditional identification of a rock-cut structure near the northern gate as a Mithraeum has been re-examined because of features of its architecture and uncertainty over the provenance of some associated finds.[25]

The site remained occupied in Late Antiquity. Christian remains include a three-aisled basilica, two baptisteries and Christian burials.[26] A later fortification phase, assigned to the Byzantine period, has been dated from seven coins to approximately AD 535–645.[27]

Ecclesiastical history

Tiddis was the seat of a Christian bishopric in Late Antiquity. A bishop named Abundius Tidditanus is recorded among the bishops attending the Council of Carthage convened in 484 under the Vandal king Huneric.[28]

Older ecclesiastical literature attributed several bishops to Tiddis.[29] Mesnage and Jaubert, however, considered several of these bishops to have belonged instead to Tisedi, leaving Abundius as the bishop securely attested for Tiddis.[30]

Titular see

A Roman Catholic titular episcopal see of Tiddi was established in 1925.[31]

Research history

During the 19th century the ruins were usually known as Kreneg or Kheneg. In 1852 Léon Renier and the French officer Creuly identified the ruins with ancient Tiddis from inscriptions found at the site.[32] The identification was published in 1853 but was later largely forgotten.[33]

Auguste Cherbonneau carried out further work in the early 1860s. His investigations included the eastern gate, parts of the enclosure and the necropolis outside it.[34]

Systematic large-scale excavation under André Berthier began on 7 January 1941.[35] His work at Tiddis subsequently continued, with interruptions, over roughly three decades.[36] In the spring of 1966 Roger Guéry carried out localized deep stratigraphic soundings that provided additional evidence for the development of the settlement.[33]

Berthier published a comprehensive synthesis of his investigations in the 2000 monograph Tiddis. Cité antique de Numidie.[37] Claudia Kleinwächter later drew attention to problems including the insufficient distinction of different building phases, uncertain identifications of some buildings and sanctuaries, and dates that in some cases depended on hypothetical associations with individuals known from inscriptions.[38]

Associated people

See also

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Gascou, Jacques (1983). "Pagus et castellum dans la Confédération Cirtéenne". Antiquités africaines (in French). 19: 180–181, 197. doi:10.3406/antaf.1983.1096.
  2. Back to citation Bussière, Jean (1998). "Quatre sépultures berbères protohistoriques de la nécropole orientale de Tiddis (Algérie)". Antiquités africaines (in French). 34: 31. doi:10.3406/antaf.1998.1281.
  3. Back to citation Bussière 1998, p. 32.
  4. Back to citation Bennour, Khaoula (2023). "The Numidian Country and Its Commercial and Economic Opening on the Mediterranean Basin and Its Southern Prolongation". In Bentz, Martin; Heinzelmann, Michael (eds.). Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. Vol. 55. Heidelberg: Propylaeum. p. 280. doi:10.11588/propylaeum.1035.c14078.
  5. Back to citation Février, Paul-Albert (1967). "Les Origines de l'habitat urbain en Maurétanie césarienne". Journal des Savants (in French): 120.
  6. Back to citation Gascou, Jacques (1979). "L'emploi du terme respublica dans l'épigraphie latine d'Afrique". Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Antiquité (in French). 91 (1): 395. doi:10.3406/mefr.1979.1193.
  7. Back to citation Marcillet-Jaubert, Jean (1969). "Quelques inscriptions latines d'Algérie". Antiquités africaines (in French). 3: 145–146. doi:10.3406/antaf.1969.902.
  8. Back to citation Shaw, Brent D. (1981). "Rural Markets in North Africa and the Political Economy of the Roman Empire". Antiquités africaines. 17: 66. doi:10.3406/antaf.1981.1072.
  9. Back to citation Siada, Salima (2024). "Réexamen du mithraeum nord de Tiddis et essai d'identification de la structure sur la terrasse supérieure". La Revue d'études archéologiques (in French). 22 (1): 451–452.
  10. Back to citation Kleinwächter, Claudia (2002). "Review of André Berthier, Tiddis, cité antique de Numidie". Gnomon (in German). 74 (6): 542.
  11. Back to citation Février, Paul-Albert (1976). "Castellum Tidditanorum (Tiddis), Algeria". In Stillwell, Richard (ed.). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.
  12. Back to citation Amraoui, Touatia (2018). "Alimentation et gestion de l'eau dans les ateliers antiques de Numidie: le cas des fullonicae". In Brouquier-Reddé, Véronique; Hurlet, Frédéric (eds.). L'eau dans les villes du Maghreb et leur territoire à l'époque romaine. Mémoires (in French). Vol. 54. Bordeaux: Ausonius. pp. 215, 219–220.
  13. Back to citation Amraoui 2018, pp. 219–220.
  14. Back to citation Amraoui 2018, pp. 217–218.
  15. Back to citation Amraoui 2018, pp. 217–220.
  16. Back to citation occurrence 16.0 Back to citation occurrence 16.1 Vannesse, Michaël (2012). "Les usages de l'eau courante dans les villes romaines: le témoignage de l'épigraphie". Latomus (in French). 71 (2): 474–475. The inscription, AE 1946, 61 = ILAlg II 3596, includes the words ad salutem populi aquam excipi providit.
  17. Back to citation CIL VIII, 6706; ILAlg II 3605.
  18. Back to citation Gascou 1983, p. 180 n. 31.
  19. Back to citation CIL VIII, 6705
  20. Back to citation Tissot, Charles (1888). Géographie comparée de la province romaine d'Afrique (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: Imprimerie nationale. p. 397.
  21. Back to citation Gascou 1983, p. 180 n. 31.
  22. Back to citation Berthier, André; Le Glay, Marcel (1958). "Le sanctuaire du sommet et les stèles à Baal-Saturne de Tiddis". Libyca. Archéologie-Épigraphie (in French). 6: 23–58.
  23. Back to citation Huß, Werner (1990). "Die Leiter als Symbol im punischen und neupunischen Bereich". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins (in German). 106: 172–173.
  24. Back to citation Siada 2024, p. 456.
  25. Back to citation Siada 2024, pp. 454–460.
  26. Back to citation Hamida Fourali, تيديس في الفترة المسيحية القديمة, 2021, pp. 220–221; Siada 2024, p. 468.
  27. Back to citation Hamida Fourali, تيديس في الفترة المسيحية القديمة, 2021, p. 231.
  28. Back to citation Fourali, Hamida (2021). "تيديس في الفترة المسيحية القديمة" [Tiddis in the ancient Christian era]. المجلة التاريخية الجزائرية (in Arabic). 5 (2): 218.
  29. Back to citation Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, vol. 1, Brescia, 1816, pp. 320–321.
  30. Back to citation J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, Paris, 1912, p. 315; H. Jaubert, "Anciens évêchés et ruines chrétiennes de la Numidie et de la Sitifienne", Recueil des Notices et Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Constantine, vol. 46, 1913, p. 93.
  31. Back to citation "Tiddi (Titular See)". GCatholic.org. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
  32. Back to citation Marchand, J. (1854–1855). "Inscriptions latines trouvées à Kreneg (province de Constantine)". Annuaire de la Société archéologique de la province de Constantine (in French): 129. Marchand describes the ancient name as having been "découvert en 1852 par deux archéologues distingués, MM. Léon Renier et Creuly".
  33. Back to citation occurrence 33.0 Back to citation occurrence 33.1 Kleinwächter 2002, p. 540.
  34. Back to citation Cherbonneau, Auguste (1863). "Rapport sur les fouilles du Kreneg (Tiddi et Calda). Inscriptions romaines inédites". Recueil des notices et mémoires de la Société archéologique de la province de Constantine (in French). 7: 170–173.
  35. Back to citation Kleinwächter 2002, p. 539.
  36. Back to citation Kleinwächter 2002, pp. 539–540; Siada 2024, p. 451.
  37. Back to citation Kleinwächter 2002, pp. 539–540.
  38. Back to citation Kleinwächter, Claudia (2002). "Review of André Berthier, Tiddis, cité antique de Numidie". Gnomon (in German). 74 (6): 542–543.

Bibliography

  • Berthier, André (2000). Tiddis. Cité antique de Numidie. Mémoires de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (in French). Vol. 20. Paris: De Boccard.
  • Berthier, André; Le Glay, Marcel (1958). "Le sanctuaire du sommet et les stèles à Baal-Saturne de Tiddis". Libyca. Archéologie-Épigraphie (in French). 6: 23–58.
  • Bussière, Jean (1998). "Quatre sépultures berbères protohistoriques de la nécropole orientale de Tiddis (Algérie)". Antiquités africaines (in French). 34: 31–43. doi:10.3406/antaf.1998.1281.
  • Gascou, Jacques (1983). "Pagus et castellum dans la Confédération Cirtéenne". Antiquités africaines (in French). 19: 175–207. doi:10.3406/antaf.1983.1096.
  • Kleinwächter, Claudia (2002). "Review of André Berthier, Tiddis, cité antique de Numidie". Gnomon (in German). 74 (6): 539–543.
  • Siada, Salima (2024). "Réexamen du mithraeum nord de Tiddis et essai d'identification de la structure sur la terrasse supérieure". La Revue d'études archéologiques (in French). 22 (1): 450–476.
  • Février, Paul-Albert (1976). "Castellum Tidditanorum (Tiddis), Algeria". In Stillwell, Richard (ed.). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.

36°27′48″N 6°29′02″E / 36.46333°N 6.48389°E

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