Timgad
Timgad is a city of the North-East of the Algérie located in the Wilaya de Batna in the Aurès, especially known for the vestiges of the Roman city of Thamugadi beside which it is founded. It is an archeological site of foreground. The Roman city, which bore the name of Thamugadi ( colonia Marciana Traiana Thamugadi ) in the Antiquité, was rested by the emperor Trajan in 100 and was equipped with the statute of colony. It is about the last Colonie of deduction in Roman Africa. Built with its temples, its thermal baths, its forum and its large theater the city, initially of a surface of 12 hectares, ends up occupying of it more than one around fifty. The city, within sight of its state of conservation and owing to the fact that one regarded it as typical Roman city, was classified with the world heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 1982.
History of the city
The name of the city and the area before the foundation of the Roman colony
The name of Thamugadi " nothing latin" has; , and Timgad, of the singular Tamgut , is a Berber name meaning “the peaks”. One cannot however know if a habitat preexisted to the Roman colony or if it were only about one place name.
The last colony of deduction in Africa
It is into 100 that Trajan made proceed to the foundation of the city by the Third legion Auguste and its Légat Lucius Munatius Gallus. The inhabitants of Timgad thus had all the Roman citizenship and were registered in the tribe Papiria . The colony taken the name of colonia Marciana Traiana Thamugadi : Marciana points out the name of the sister of Trajan and Thamugadi , name indeclinable and nonLatin, is probably the indigenous name of the place. It is not known however if there were already a African agglomeration on the spot: the Roman foundation was spread however as if it were in virgin ground. The initial of Timgad, quadrangular and geometrical plan attests this foundation according to the principles of the gromatici , the Roman land-surveyors. The rigor of the planning of urban space made that Timgad is often quoted like example of Roman city, it would be however erroneous to generalize starting from its case: the plans of Roman cities had initially as a principle of adapting to the ground and with the constraints of the places, the perfect quadrangular deployment of Timgad is not a rule, and the slightly former colony of Cuicul presents a less regular plan. The strong regularity of the initial plan thus sometimes resulted in thinking that Timgad could have been a military camp before being a city, the colonial foundation re-using the layout of military quarterings: this assumption is not proven and nothing indicates that Timgad could be used as provisional camp with the third Auguste legion. The foundation of Timgad takes its direction however fully when one replaces it in the history of displacements of the African legion. The deduction of the colony is indeed between the first installation of a troop legionary to Lambèse, in 81, and the final installation of all the legion towards 115 - 120. If Timgad is remarkably well located, it is necessary to recognize with the site of Lambèse a better strategic position.One thus often saw in the foundation of Timgad an objective initially purely military. It is however necessary very strongly to relativize the military protection which a colony of veteran could bring: passed to the first years the inhabitants could hardly provide a particular military force. On the other hand the colony could have an indirect military role: it could constitute, in the long term, a medium of recruitment for the close legion and especially by its agrarian productions - cereals and olives - ensure a considerable part of its supply. Finally the installation of the colony of Timgad was designed a long time according to an erroneous image of the solid mass of Aurès at the time Roman. It was indeed often thought, until in the years 1960-1970, that the solid mass had not been penetrated by Rome, and that consequently it had constituted a hearth of rebellion and a threat, following the example other periods of the history, and one interpreted the Roman military device like the surrounding of the solid mass. The archaeological prospections and the analysis of the air photographs carried out by Pierre Morizot brought a denial to this image: Aurès was cultivated, occupied by a dispersed habitat and the military presence was weak and very specific there. Archeology thus reveals a quiet mountain, without serious disorders, with the primarily rural vocation, with the richness modest, but opened with the romanisation and later with christianization. Part of the solid mass - the valley of the Taga wadi - thus belonged to the territory of Timgad and constituted Piedmont with the productions complementary to the cereal soils closer to Timgad: olive, wood and smaller live-stock. The foundation of the colony of Timgad cannot thus be explained in military term of need, but takes part rather of the exploitation of the provincial territory and its grid by the civic spaces conceived like the effigy of the Roman people, within the framework of the political volunteer of a concerned emperor of expansion. Timgad however was the last case of deduction of veterans, and thereafter the new colonies were nothing any more but honorary, i.e. a title conferred on a city without contribution of Roman population
Growth of the city
The territory of the city
A Roman city is not conceivable without its countryside. Neglected a long time by archeology, difficult to apprehend before the development of techniques of prospections to large scales the campaigns of the Roman cities remained badly known a long time. It is however of its territory that the city drew its richnesses, and on these richnesses depended the dynamism on notable which directed it. Paul-Albert Février proposed a reconstitution of the composition of the territory of Timgad in order to evaluate the agrarian distribution of ownership on his surface. He comes out from it the image of a territory finally rather narrow: 1500 square kilometers, 150.000 hectares which all were not exploitable bus of the important reliefs exist in this space. To the west indeed the territory was rather quickly limited, at the end of about fifteen kilometers, by that of the neighbors, Lamafundi and Verecunda. In the east the situation is similar and the territory of Mascula was to be with a score of kilometers. In north, on approximately 25 kilometers, research revealed a system of centuriations undoubtedly related to the foundation of the colony with compartmental regular testifying to a neat development. In the North-West the plain reveals many ruins and thus a load factor important. All these grounds did not belong to private individuals. On the contrary an important surface belonged to the emperor. These imperial fields, divided into at least three units, were managed by one - or several - Procurateur Affranchi with which it returned to rent the grounds and to make them bear fruit. The city counted approximately 280 décurions which was to have a minimal surface there, if one takes account of the properties of ordinary people and of possible possessions by foreigners in the city one cannot imagine that the territory was dominated by many great properties: the inhabitants of the territory of Timgad were not large owners.
A city and its notable
The bastion of the Donatisme
At the fourth century the city is christianized. If repair of the capitole watch the maintenance of the traditions polytheists and their promptness in years 360, the table of employers of Aelius Iulianus, decorated of a Chrisme watch clearly the strong adhesion of a part at least of notable most important of the city to the new religion. Christianization was done however initially in the disturbed context of a division between Christians: Timgad constituted one of the fortified towns of the schism donatist which upset the Christian religion in Africa at the fourth century. So as of its origin the donatism was strongly related to Numidie, Timgad was distinguished especially when the schismatic church had to face an increasingly strong opposition on behalf of the catholics and of the imperial capacity. As of 388 Optat, the bishop donatist of Timgad, rejoins Circoncellion S and rests on them, like on the complicity of the count d' Afrique Gildon to impose its views. It is ten years during, according to Saint Augustin the moaning of Africa. This bishop " chief of bande" finally is stopped with died of Gildon in 398 and finishes its life in prison. But even after the conference of Carthage of 411 the donatists of Timgad do not return the weapons and towards 418 their Gaudentius bishop is locked up in his church vis-a-vis the powerful orator Dulcitius, threat of immoler by fire if one seeks to extract it from his church and polemic with Augustin by interposed mail.
Vandals, Moors and Byzantines: the abandonment of the city
The installation of a Kingdom vandal in Africa, after 429, was the starting point of a series of confrontations which determined the end of Timgad. Aurès was undoubtedly occupied rather quickly by the Vandales, and it seems that Genséric wanted to reserve the area. The occupation was however of short duration. The area of Aurès was attacked by the Moors which took possession of the solid mass at the latest in 484: Timgad was taken and evacuated so that an enemy cannot settle there. The reconquest Moor was done with depends on the inhabitants of the city and the romanized Libyans of the solid mass. One should not therefore imagining the radical destruction of the city and any activity: the walls were shaven and the inhabitants off-set according to Procope de Césarée, but archeology reveals that the agricultural activity was maintained and that " in the city itself remained a life précaire".The Byzantine reconquest, starting from 533 changed the situation of the area again. The generals of Justinien undertook the reconquest of Africa, having to overcome the Vandals initially then the revolted Moors, in particular Iabdas, the chief of the Moors of Aurès. It is the Patrice Solomon who is charged to conduct a campaign against him, countryside which is partly known for us thanks to Procope. Timgad, that Procope describes like a destroyed city, seems to have been a base of this countryside. It is however only at the time of its second countryside, in 539, that Solomon left clear traces of its presence since it made build the Byzantine fort always visible on the site. This powerful extremely belonged to a vaster operation of fortification aiming at guaranteeing the area against a new attack of the Moors, Procope teaches us indeed that in addition to Timgad, four other cities were strengthened in the area. The great number of Latin inscriptions drawn from the forum of the city to be useful as construction material in the strong one shows however that Timgad had spent the time of its splendor, and that only the fortress really counted from now on.
We have then only very little sources on the history of the area, and the end of the Byzantine presence is difficult to specify. It is certain that an urban life was maintained in the area, and the presence of an organized and dynamic Christianity is quite visible: in the area of Batna of the relics were devoted towards 581 and in 645 the dedication of a vault is attested in Timgad. The site does not seem to be immediately forsaken then, but the history of its complete abandonment cannot currently be written fault of source historical or archaeological and it is impossible to describe what was Timgad at the time of the Moslem Conquête of the Maghreb.
The site and its monuments
The forum and the theater
The forum and the theater of Timgad are located in the middle of the quadrilateral of the original city, where they occupy several of the small islands defined by the screen of the orthogonal streets. The construction of the forum was financed by the city. Its construction undoubtedly began little from time after the foundation of the city. The forum, of plan rectangular and bordered by four gantries delimited a closed space, ordered, accommodating many activities, it formed the political and social heart city. It sheltered the curia where gathered the Ordre décurional as well as a civil Basilique and only one temple. This last, of rather modest size, is close to one of the angles of the forum and seems to be dedicated to the Victoire. It is a tetrastyle building high on a podium. The curia was a room of enough small size, preceded by a gantry, decorated statues and covered marble. The basilica faced him, occupying the Eastern frontage of the forum. A Abside in north gave a axiality to this vast room which accommodated the legal activities, a platform occupied one on the small sides and made it possible to the judges to sit. The forum was decorated with many statues, at least about thirty, which one found the bases carrying of the inscriptions. This forum was perhaps never completed according to its original plan, since Capitole was not integrated into the forum but was built outside the original walls: the expansion of the city had resulted in reconsidering its plan.The theater is the principal building of spectacle with Timgad where trace of an amphitheater was not found, but there could be one of wood temporarily. Located at the south of the forum, the side d" a hill, the theater, with a cavea 63 meters in diameter, could accommodate approximately 3500 people. The base of a Mercury statue, high for the safety of the emperors Severe Septime and Caracalla celebrated there the scenic plays given by Lucius Germeus Silvanus, for the honor of its functions of Augure: in Timgad as elsewhere the municipal life was not separable festivals and spectacles, with more or less of records according to the evergetism of the notable ones.
The library
The excavations of Timgad revealed a relatively unusual building which was identified like a public library only in 1906 thanks to the discovery of a Latin inscription. The text of the inscription specifies that to the 3rd century the senator Marcus Iulius Quintianus Flavius Rogatianus had bequeathed by will 400000 sesterces to the city for the construction of a library. The city made build the library and honoured the generals giver with an honorary statue. The library was organized around a gantry at three sides opening largely on the street. Vis-a-vis the street, at the bottom of the gantry, a semicircular big room in apse was arranged with niches intended to accommodate the works. On both sides six additional rooms gave on the gantry. One tried to estimate the number of volumes which it could accommodate: thus one could estimate that its principal room could accommodate sixteen armaria (cupboard of library) and thus perhaps 6800 volumes, with the six parts secondary the total of the works is estimated between 16000 and 28000. These figures are however very contestable because the library could also accommodate files and that calculations on which they rest are very speculative. She is located in the middle of the city, signs importance which she had in the urban culture.
The Capitole
The Capitole, which sheltered the essential religious triad of the traditional Roman religion, was in theory one of the essential components of any urban foundation. At the beginning of our era Vitruve writes them on town planning, referring to an old tradition, that of the science of the haruspices, and thus making an echo with Servius, advise to place the sanctuaries of Jupiter, Junon and Minerve with the place more raised, from where one can discover the most walls. But so of the African cities like Cuicul and Thugga present a capitole in central position (at least initially for Cuicul), that of Timgad is in a position more surprising. It is indeed far away from the forum and even of the alignment of the initial orthonormé plan and is not even on a top of hill. In fact it is especially its size, its monumentality exceptional which distinguished it and made it visible with all. This strange site had however the merit particularly to emphasize it for which came from Lambèse. Built in IIe century, it was restored in IVe. How to explain this offset position? It should be thought that it was envisaged in fact at the beginning within the forum in the initial layout of the city, but the forum was never really completed, and the capitole finally built in larger good and decentred position, sign of a radical modification of the concept of urban space and perhaps of a change in the relations between the citizens and the capacity: the city had grown, its space was perceived differently and was symbolically reorganized by this massive construction. Moreover, the off-centring of the capitole of Timgad is not so exceptional from the chronological point of view: the majority of the African capitoles are of relatively late date. Lastly, if the exact date of its construction in the second century escapes to us his repair at the fourth century is better known for us. It is under the common reign of Valentinien and Valens, between 364 and 367 that Aelius Iulianus financed the restoration of the gantries. This restoration testifies, fifty years after conversion of Constantin, and in a well christianized city, preserved vitality of the traditional polytheism.
The district of Sertius
With its extension and urban development to the west, the original wall was found in central position in this part of the agglomeration, become useless it became a space available, interesting and undoubtedly coveted. The disappearance of the wall to the profit of the frame was done however for the benefit of fortunate inhabitants and gave place to important “real estate transactions” as showed it Jean Lassus. The new district is not indeed occupied in continuity with the original screen of the city: the existing streets are not prolonged on released space, this one on the contrary is occupied by constructions of very rich characters who thus adapt a broad band of 22 meters ground. The urban expansion is thus accompanied by a “social differentiation of the districts”: the space taken on the wall makes it possible to be freed from the constraints of the small islands of the initial plan, of a size of approximately 400 square meters. This refitting could not be done without a set of measures legal: the place belonged on the public ground of the city, its alienation required at least a decree about décurions, and in the case of a wall, LMBO crowned , an imperial decision. It is true however that the usurpation of public grounds by private constructions was not rare in the ancient cities and that the Roman capacity has on several occasions to intervene against of such cases: behind the houses built at this place, it is thus necessary to imagine a whole whole of steps, and undoubtedly of bribes. Epigraphic documentation available enables us a little more precisely to know this real context through the person of Marcus Plautius Faustus, known as Sertius which was made build a house on the site of the wall.The house of Sertius was built on the layout of the wall. Of rectangular plan, measuring 62 meters out of 36,5 it occupies a surface of 2263 square meters, it is one of the most luxurious residences of Timgad. Its principal access, preceded by a small gantry, and which perhaps counted in the beginning a tripartite entry, gives on the cardo maximus . The plan presents the traditional succession of a hall and peristyles which give on parts of reception. The hall, paved, had a central colonnade, it gave on a first peristyle which opened him even on a vast part, undoubtedly a dining room ( triclinium ). The second peristyle offers a basin to complex installations: two superimposed tanks are connected by two openings. Horizontally fixed vases were intended there to provide a shelter to fish and probably to collect their abrasion: it is thus about a fish pond. A room with an anteroom with two columns gave on the peristyle, it undoubtedly acts again of a triclinium , a dining room. The basins had an at the same time esthetic and economic function: the high fish could be used for the meals of the Masters. Products rare, luxurious, they attested ease of Sertius and made it possible to show its ostentation with its guests. The second peristyle is however a space undoubtedly more intimate than the first: “on a side reception, reception, ostentation, other more withdrawn life”. The house of Faustus had also private thermal baths. Those were close to its entry - they opened on the first peristyle - and had also their own access on the street. The accesses of the thermal baths show that Sertius could open them with people external to her house, friends, customers, neighbors. The thermal baths had a frigidarium of 35 square meters and a balneal whole of approximately 150 square meters cash four heated rooms. One had placed there the marble statues of Esculape and Hygie, divinities of health usually associated with the baths. An inscription being reproduced on the base of one of the statues and naming Faustus and Valentina allows at the same time the attribution of the house Marcus Plotius Faustus Sertius and his wife Cornelia Valentina Tucciana Sertia and her dating. Built under Severe the house of Sertius illustrates one key moment in the evolution of the plan of Timgad like “one of the very first examples gone back to urban private baths of imperial time”. Shops were leant at the house.
Plotius Faustus Sertius was a rich person equestrian character of row. Its family was related to a Roman knight, wire of veteran, as with the family of the Flavii which entered to the senate. It was flamine perpetual city. Its richness, like that of his wife, came from the grounds which it had on the territory of the colony, but also of other incomes like the hiring of shops. Various indices epigraphic and archaeological make it possible to encircle the land goods of Sertius and his wife: a dedication indeed refers to the latter on an inscription found in the valley of the Taga wadi. In the same way, with an about sixty kilometers of Timgad, in the solid mass of Aurès one found a mosaic carrying the same reasons as those of the house of Sertius, index if not of one of his property at least perhaps of the influence of the character.
Plotius and his wife financed at the time of the Sévères the construction of a market located at the west of the original city, not far from its house. The city undoubtedly had already a market, called today gone of the east it was close to the forum and extended on two semicircular courses. Undoubtedly it had proven to be insufficient with the growth of the city. The market paid by Sertius faces the temple of the Genius of the colony, it is an oblong place, bordered of gantries, having installations necessary to accommodate the stalls of the merchants, and ending in an apse. The market had an opening which gave on thermal baths. Those are often regarded as an appendix of the market, but their construction is not necessarily related to the same real estate transaction and their relationship with close constructions is not clear. Thereafter another small market, undoubtedly intended for the trade of clothing, was built in the district. To build a market was an act of important evergetism, but this gift made in the city was undoubtedly also a “interested gift”: contemporary of the construction of his house, it undoubtedly constitutes the counterpart of it: the act of evergetism answering the private appropriation of an important part of the public ground: behind the gift of Sertius a profitable real estate transaction is hiding place while its market proclaimed its generosity and its liberality towards its city.
The western district of Timgad thus illustrates well, through the file of Sertius, the impact of the richness of notable municipal on the city as well by the evergetism as through investments more interested - shops - or intended to get a framework of life to them whose ostentation corresponded to their dignitas .
Aqua septimiana
The Aqua Septimiana Felix was a sanctuary which was arranged around a source near Timgad. It accepted a sumptuous installation under the Sévères. Three sanctuaries were built at the bottom of the place of the worship, largest occupying the median place and pretense to be dedicated to the Dea Patria while that of right-hand side was perhaps dedicated to Sarapis. These three temples, rather small, were set up on a terrace which overhung a vast swimming pool of 27 meters out of 7. Entirely covered marble, it was bordered of a balustrade out of bronze and was surrounded by painted gantries ( viridarium ). Their prolongation gave on a vast place paved in direction of the city and its thermal baths. An inscription goes back these installations to 213. At the end of antiquity the sanctuary was covered by the Byzantine fortress.
The thermal baths
The Roman Thermes were one of the essential places of the daily life in the Roman empire, a symbol and a factor of Romanisation. For the inhabitants of a city, the thermal baths are seen like something of essential, one of the conveniences necessary that the city must get for its inhabitants, a sign and an instrument of civilization and good being. In Timgad, on a flagstone of the forum, a famous inscription summarizes this design of the urban life well: “ Venari, lavari, ludere, ridere, occ are vivere ” (to drive out, go to the bath, to play, laugh, that is to live). The thermal baths are thus a fundamental place of sociability which builds the civic and municipal identity at the same time as they return proclamation the principles of the ancient city: naked and sharing the same bath, the citizens côtoient themselves in an undifferentiated way: the baths are often not very expensive, and occasionally free. Their decoration and their maintenance are also the occasion of act of evergetism. However as from the second century one attends the development of private baths, built in the richest residences, development which increases during late antiquity. One can see in this evolution at the same time the preoccupation with a greater intimacy and the search for a social distance: the notable one is distinguished from now on commun run and to little receive its close friends within the selected framework of its personal baths. By the vast release of which it made the Timgad object offers an almost single image of the place of the baths in the city, even if all the released baths necessarily were not in service in a simultaneous way and if their excavations - taking into consideration current criterion - too quickly were often led: stratigraphies miss, the plans are not always sure. It does not remain about it less than the importance and the diversity of the balneal equipment arises and than, from this point of view, Timgad can compete with a city like Ostie. The baths of Timgad thus offer a remarkable image of the prosperity of Roman Africa and its insertion in the cultural community which formed the ancient Mediterranean.
The individual habitat
Christian buildings
As in the majority of the ancient cities of Africa, the Christian buildings are especially with the periphery of the agglomeration because of their late character, but also sometimes of their association with necropoles. Only one Christian building was identified in the center town, it acts of a vault arranged starting from the atrium of the house of Lucius Julius Januarius, not far from the forum.The greatest Christian unit is around the basilica of the west. This building and its dependences are often compared to the district donatist because of the presence of the name of Optat in one of the houses, identified with the Optat bishop. The basilica presents a traditional plan to three naves, the central nave finishing in apse and being preceded by a atrium . This last was decorated with columns with Corinthian capitals, perhaps in re-employment. In the North-West a Baptistère was whose tank was found in good condition, still partially covered with polychrome mosaics to the geometrical reasons on the steps, with the floral reasons around the tank. At least a thermal unit also existed in these buildings. The fact that other such important basilicaux buildings have also baptistries undoubtedly testifies to the religious division of the city between donatists and catholic: the baptistry indeed usually returns to the presence of the bishop. According to Courtois the catholic building corresponded to the church of the road of Lambèse. In fact, in the absence of inscription, it is impossible to distinguish a building donatist from a catholic building and attributions of the three large basilicas of Timgad, center, the North-West and west remain dubious.
The city presents other Christian buildings more modest, but difficult to date between the 5th century and VIIe. Most of these buildings was high with materials of re-employment and recovery: it is the case in particular of a very ruined vault found close to Capitole. The southern necropolis of the city, where were found nearly 10.000 tombs, unfortunately the majority very modest and anonymous, was dominated by two churches, one of it having been high between 641 and 642 per Jean, duke of Tigisi. The strong Byzantine also had, of course, his own vault.
Necropoles
Like any Roman city, Timgad was surrounded by its necropoles: the burials could take seat only apart from the urban enclosure. The tomb of the MIME Vincentius precisely recalls this rule to Timgad: " Vincentius is there, honor of the mimes (...) it lives forever in the mouth of the people (...) Ici now under ground, it remains in front of the ramparts. Twenty-three years, he lived his fleur" . Their exploration was however only late and incomplete: they are only from 1932 that the archeologists really started to release them, after the release of the quadrilateral of the trajanienne city. Today still the necropoles are thus very incompletely known, and so some suffered from erosion, it is possible to think that interesting discoveries remain to be made. In the actual position of knowledge one of the necropoles the best known ones remains that of the door of Lambèse which was excavated as from 1932 and gave place to a succinte publication. The necropolis in question is with 150 meters of the door of Lambèse, and with approximately 500 meters of the arc known as of Trajan. Its release revealed a great diversity of tombs which the diggers gathered in five great types.- standard 1: they are the most modest tombs, but also, and by far, most, they consist of tiles arc abutments the ones against the others and covering the burial, a large stone in front of the tomb distinguishing it and sealing the formwork of tile. These tombs are in general anonymous.
- standard 2: it is in fact an embellishment of the preceding type, the stone being replaced by a solid mass of blocking and sometimes by a registered stele which perhaps framed in a mensa , funerary table intended to receive the offerings.
- standard 3: they are tombs with box ( cupulae ), one or two boxes of semi-cylindrical stones on a stone base recover the burial.
- standard 4: it is there too about an embellishment of the preceding type, the monument being on two steps, the body being lower than the steps, placed under tiles.
- standard 5: it is about a tomb which belonged to a monument of big size resting on a base. The necropolis of the door of Lambèse did not deliver that only one tomb of this type, it is a type of burial which corresponds to the richest part of the population.
The Byzantine fortress
Located at approximately 300 meters in the south of the city, at the top of the site of the Aqua septimia whose many elements were employed again, the strong Byzantine of Timgad one of is best preserved of North Africa. Of plan rectangular and protected by powerful towers from angle, its enclosure was built in 539 by the Patrice Solomon. Preserved on 14 meters height, it frames a perimeter of 120 meters by 80. The construction of the fort used many inscriptions in re-employment. The fort sheltered quarterings in its oriental party. The Western part gathered the common installations, a water reserve - the swimming pool of the sanctuary re-used, a vault built on the podium of the former temples, of the thermal baths for the garrison. The latter of a surface of 200 square meters opened directly on the place of the fortress. The excavation of these interior installations appeared very rich because a thick layer of ground had protected them from the insults of time.
History of the excavations
Redécouverte of the site
It is in 1765 that the English traveller James Bruce announced the first the existence of important Roman ruins to Timgad. In fact only the most important monuments emerged: top of arc of Trajan, capitole - it seems better preserved than at the XIXe century since it had five more intact columns -, the theater and the fortress. The drawings that Bruce made site however were diffused only starting from 1877. The site was thereafter visited by Louis Renier in 1851 within the framework of a epigraphic mission , it collected seventy inscriptions and located the forum. The mission Of disavowing fixed durable historiographic orientations, in particular the idea that the veterans of Timgad were to have a military role against the autochtones: the redécouverte of Timgad was done from now on in the French colonial context and was deeply marked of it. They are however only thirty years later that a true archaeological exploration of the ruins started, in 1880.
French excavations
It is on decision of the ministry for the state education that excavations started, in the years 1880 - 1883 with Timgad, like with Lambèse and Zana, under the direction of Duthoit then of Albert Ballu. The excavations progressed very quickly, it is true that the French archeologists was especially anxious to arrive quickly at the only vestiges which seemed to them worthy of interests, i.e. generally those of the high-empire, and which one was concerned then neither with Stratigraphie nor of an archeology of the daily newspaper: the beautiful objects and the public monuments were sought. As of 1884, the forum was entirely released. So Parisian scientists claimed the displacement of the inscriptions towards the French metropolis, the ministry for the state education on the spot imposed the conservation in the name of the coherence of the local and regional history. In 1894, the interpreted Christian basilica as the cathedral was released in its turn, and a mass was celebrated there by the bishop of Constantine: revealing the colonial use which was then made Roman and Christian past of the Maghreb, designed like a legitimation of the French colonial project. In 1897, Ballu published the first book on the ruins of Timgad revealing the forum and its appendices, the basilicas, some houses, the market of Sertius and its thermal baths. Rene Cagnat had taken part in the work which was supplemented in 1903 and 1911 to integrate the progression of the releases which continued.It is only in 1932 that the quadrilateral of the original colony was completely released. Excavations, directed by CH. Cup, could then turn to the periphery of the site: Christian necropoles, sites, strong Byzantine. In preparation for a congress of studies Byzantine which was to be held in Algiers, the exploration of the strong Byzantine was undertaken in 1939 by CH. Cup. This operation revealed the sanctuary of the Aqua septimia Felix , which was under the fort, as of many inscriptions which had been used in re-employment by the Byzantines. Thereafter R. Godet succeeded his father with the head of the excavations of the site before dying in an accident of helicopter at the beginning of the war of Algerian independence.
Excavations since 1962
Classified with the inheritance world of UNESCO, the town of Timgad is not the subject currently of excavations. The conservation and the restoration of the site are not without posing problem. Timgad is exposed to climatic and human degradations. Conservation and valorization of the site cause concerns and debates. The exit of these questions depends mainly on the economic and political evolution of the Algérie.
References
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