Dougga or Thugga or TBGG (; ) was a Berber, Punic and Roman settlement near present-day Téboursouk in northern Tunisia. The current archaeological site covers .Map of the archaeological site UNESCO qualified Dougga as a World Heritage Site in 1997, believing that it represents "the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa". The site, which lies in the middle of the countryside, has been protected from the encroachment of modern urbanization, in contrast, for example, to Carthage, which has been pillaged and rebuilt on numerous occasions. Dougga's size, its well-preserved monuments and its rich Numidian-Berber, Punic, ancient Roman, and Byzantine history make it exceptional. Amongst the most famous monuments at the site are a Libyco-Punic Mausoleum, the Capitol, the Roman theatre, and the temples of Saturn and of Juno Caelestis.
Names The Numidian name of the settlement was recorded in the Libyco-Berber alphabet as TBGG. The Punic name of the settlement is recorded as () and (). The Root B GG in Phoenician means ("in the roof terrace"). Camps states that this may represent a borrowing of a Berber word derived from the root ("to protect").Gabriel Camps, « Dougga », L'Encyclopédie berbère, tome XVI, éd. Edisud, Aix-en-Provence, 1992, p. 2522 This evidently derives from the site's position atop an easily defensible plateau. The name was borrowed into Latin as Thugga. Once it was granted "free status", it was formally refounded and known as ; "Septimium" and "Aurelium" are references to the "new" town's "founders" (), Septimius Severus and M. Aurelius Antoninus (i.e., Caracalla). For treatment of , see below. Once Dougga received the status of a Roman colony, it was formally known as .
In present-day Berber, it is known as either Dugga or Tugga. That was borrowed into or and Dougga is a French transcription of this Arabic name.
Location
The archaeological site is located SSW of the modern town of Téboursouk on a plateau with an uninhibited view of the surrounding plains in the Oued Khalled.Detailed map showing location of Thugga in Roman Africa The site offers a high degree of natural protection, which helps to explain its early occupation. The slope on which Dougga is built rises to the north and is bordered in the east by the cliff known as Kef Dougga.Sophie Saint-Amans, Topographie religieuse de Thugga (Dougga). Ville romaine d'Afrique proconsulaire (Tunisie), éd. Ausonius, Bordeaux, 2004, p. 17 Further to the east, the ridge of the Fossa Regia, a ditch and boundary made by the Romans after the destruction of Carthage, indicates Dougga's position as a point of contact between the Punic and Berber worlds.
History Dougga's history is best known from the time of the Roman conquest, even though numerous pre-Roman monuments, including a necropolis, a mausoleum, and several temples have been discovered during archaeological digs. These monuments are an indication of the site's importance before the arrival of the Romans.
Berber Kingdom
The city appears to have been founded in the 6th century BC.Mustapha Khanoussi, « L'évolution urbaine de Thugga (Dougga) en Afrique proconsulaire : de l'agglomération numide à la ville africo-romaine », CRAI, 2003, pp. 131-155 Some historians believe that Dougga is the city of Tocae (, Tokaí), which was captured by a lieutenant of Agathocles of Syracuse at the end of the 4th centuryBC; Diodorus of Sicily described Tocae as "a city of beautiful grandeur".
Dougga was in any case an early and important human settlement. Its urban character is evidenced by the presence of a necropolis with dolmens, the most ancient archaeological find at Dougga, a sanctuary dedicated to Ba'al Hammon, neo-Punic steles, a mausoleum, architectural fragments, and a temple dedicated to Masinissa, the remains of which were found during archaeological excavations. Even though our knowledge of the city before the Roman conquest remains very limited, recent archaeological finds have revolutionized the image that we had of this period.
The identification of the temple dedicated to Masinissa beneath the forum disproved Louis Poinssot's theory that the Numidian city stood on the plateau but that it was separate from the newer Roman settlement. The temple, which was erected in the tenth year of Micipsa's reign (139BC), is wide. It proves that the area around the forum was already built upon before the arrival of the Roman colonists. A building dating to the 2nd centuryBC has also been discovered nearby. Similarly, Dougga's mausoleum is not isolated but stands within an urban necropolis.
Recent finds have disproved earlier theories about the so-called "Numidian walls". The walls around Dougga are in fact not Numidian; they are part of the city's fortifications erected in late antiquity. Targeted digs have also proven that what had been interpreted as two Numidian towers in the walls are in fact two funeral monuments from the Numidian era reused much later as foundations and a section of defences.Mustapha Khanoussi, « L'évolution urbaine de Thugga (Dougga) en Afrique proconsulaire : de l'agglomération numide à la ville africo-romaine », pp. 131-143
The discovery of Libyan and Punic inscriptions at the site provoked a debate on the administration of the city at the time of the Kingdom of Numidia. The debateabout the interpretation of epigraphic sourcesfocussed on the question of whether the city was still under Punic influence or whether it was increasingly Berber.Gabriel Camps, « Dougga », L'Encyclopédie berbère, pp. 2522-2527Gabriel Camps, Les Berbères, mémoire et identité, coll. Babel, éd. Actes Sud/Leméac, Paris/Montréal, 2007, pp. 299-300 Local Berber institutions distinct from any form of Punic authority arose from the Numidian period onwards,Gabriel Camps, « Dougga », L'Encyclopédie berbère, p. 2525 but Camps notes that Punic shofets were still in place in several cities, including Dougga, during the Roman era,Gabriel Camps, Les Berbères, mémoire et identité, p. 300 which is a sign of continuing Punic influence and the preservation of certain elements of Punic civilization well after the fall of Carthage.
Roman Empire
The Romans granted Dougga the status of an indigenous city () following their conquest of the region.Collectif, L'Afrique romaine. 69-439, éd. Atlande, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 2006, p. 309
The creation of the colony of Carthage during the reign of Augustus complicated Dougga's institutional status. The city was included in the territory (pertica) of the Roman colony, but around this time, a community () of Roman colonists also arose alongside the existing settlement. For two centuries, the site was thus governed by two civic and institutional bodies: the city with its peregrini and the with its Roman citizens. Both had Roman civic institutions: magistrates and a council () of decurions for the city, a local council from the end of the 1st centuryAD, and local administrators for the , who were legally subordinated to the distant but powerful colony of Carthage. In addition, epigraphic evidence indicates that a Punic-style dual magistracy, the sufetes, achieved some civic stature here well into the imperial period. In fact, the city once had three magistrates serve at once, a relative rarity in the Mediterranean.
Over time, the romanization of the city brought the two communities closer together. Notable members of the increasingly adopted Roman culture and behavior, became Roman citizens, and the councils of the two communities began to take decisions in unison. The increasing closeness of the communities was facilitated at first by their geographic proximitythere was no physical distinction between their two settlementsand then later by institutional arrangements. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the city was granted Roman law; from this moment onward, the magistrates automatically received Roman citizenship and the rights of the city's inhabitants became similar to those of the Roman citizens. During the same era, the won a certain degree of autonomy from Carthage; it was able to receive bequests and administer public funds.
Nonetheless, it was not until AD205, during the reign of Septimius Severus, that the two communities came together as one municipality (), made "free" (see below) while Carthage's was reduced. The city was supported by the euergetism of its great families of wealthy individuals, which sometimes reached exorbitant levels, while its interests were successfully represented by appeals to the emperors. Dougga's development culminated during the reign of Gallienus, when it obtained the status of a separate Roman colony.
Dougga's monuments attest to its prosperity in the period from the reign of Diocletian to that of Collectif, L'Afrique romaine. 69-439, p. 310 but it fell into a sort of stupor from the 4th century. The city appears to have experienced an early decline, as evidenced by the relatively poor remains of Christianity. The period of Byzantine rule saw the area around the forum transformed into a fort; several important buildings were destroyed in order to provide the necessary materials for its construction.
Caliphate Dougga was never completely abandoned following the Muslim invasions of the area. For a long time, Dougga remained the site of a small village populated by the descendants of the city's former inhabitants, as evidenced by the small mosque situated in the Temple of August Piety and the small bath dating to the Aghlabid period on the southern flank of the forum.
Archaeological work The first Western visitors to have left eyewitness accounts of the ruins reached the site in the 17th century. This trend continued in the 18th century and at the start of the 19th century.Exploration et collections du site de Dougga (Strabon) The best-preserved monuments, including the mausoleum, were described and, at the end of this period, were the object of architectural studies.
The establishment of France's Tunisian protectorate in 1881 led to the creation of a national antiquities institute (), for which the excavation of the site at Dougga was a priority from 1901, parallel to the works carried out at Carthage. The works at Dougga concentrated at first on the area around the forum; other discoveries ensured that there was an almost constant series of digs at the site until 1939. Alongside these excavations, work was conducted to restore the capitol, of which only the front and the base of the wall of the cella were still standing, and to restore the mausoleum, particularly between 1908 and 1910 .
After Tunisia's independence, other buildings were excavated, including the Temple of Caracalla's Victory in Germany. During the same period, the last inhabitants of the site were evicted and relocated to a village located on the plain several kilometers from the antique site, which is named In 1991, the decision was taken to make the site into a national archaeological park. A cooperative scientific programme aims in particular to promote the study of the inscriptions at the site and the pagan temples. In 1997, Dougga was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
Despite its importance and its exceptional state, Dougga remains off the beaten track for many tourists and receives only about 50,000 visitors per year. In order to make it more attractive, the construction of an on-site museum is being considered, while the national antiquities institute has established a website presenting the site and the surrounding region.Portail de Dougga (Ministère de la culture et de la sauvegarde du patrimoine) For the time being, visitors with sufficient time can appreciate Dougga, not only because of its many ruins but also for its olive groves, which give the site a unique ambiance.
Dougga's "Liberty"