Borj Gourbata

Map of Borj Gourbata in Tunisia.

Borj Gourbata was an ancient Roman-Berber town in Qafşah, Tunisia. It is located at latitude 34°16'22.01", longitude 8°32'56" and 135 meters above sea level.[1][2] The town is in the Sahel region of Tunisia, but at the junction of the Oued ech Cheria and the Oued el Jemel Wadis,[3] making it an important oasis in the Sahara. It is situated between Gafsa and Chott el Jerid.[citation needed]

History

In Roman times the town[4][5] was on the Roman Limes in the Roman Province of Africa proconsularis and latter Byzacena.[6] The town was known as Castellum Thigensium or just Thiges.[7] As the name suggest it was a fortification,[8] and was probably the first fort on the limes being built in 75AD.[9]

The town appears on the Tabula Peutinger and was also the seat of a Christian bishopric, which survives today as a titular see of the Roman Catholic church.[10] The current Bishop is Stanislaw Gębicki of Poland.[11][12]

In the Middle Ages the town was known as Tgiws[13]

The French excavated ruins s in the 19th century[14]

The town was taken in the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in 647AD,[15] though Roman and Berber populations remains the majority till the 9th century when there were revolts in the area.

References

  1. ^ Borj Gourbata at geoview.info.
  2. ^ Borj Gourbata at mapcarta.com.
  3. ^ Borj Gourbata Map — Satellite Images of Borj Gourbata.
  4. ^ Pol Trousset, Thiges and civitas Tigensium (Publications of the French School of Rome, 1990) vol 134 num1.p143-167.
  5. ^ J. S. Wacher, The Roman World, Volume 1 (Taylor & Francis, 2002)p237.
  6. ^ Trousset, (P.), Thiges and the Civitas Tigensium, Part of: Africa in the Roman West (1st century BC-4th century AD). Proceedings of the Rome Symposium (3-5 December 1987) (Collection of the French School of Rome 134) p143-167
  7. ^ R.B. Hitchner, DARMC, R. Talbert, Sean Gillies, Johan Åhlfeldt, R. Warner, Jeffrey Becker, and Tom Elliott, Thiges/Castellum Thigensium: a Pleiades place resource', Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places, 2014 [accessed: 24 December 2016].
  8. ^ About: *Thiges/Castellum Thigensium, Henchir-Ragoubet.
  9. ^ The Roman Fort of Qasr Banat in Libya - The Limes Tripolitanus.
  10. ^ "Apostolische Nachfolge – Titularsitze". Archived from the original on 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  11. ^ Bishops capital titular Thiges at GCatholic.org.
  12. ^ Le Petit Episcopologe, Issue 157, Number 13.671
  13. ^ "تاريخ مدينة توزر -". Archived from the original on 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  14. ^ Trousset, P. (1995). "Djerid". Encyclopédie Berbère (16): 2461–2465. doi:10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.2189.
  15. ^ Trousset, P. (1995). "Djerid". Encyclopédie Berbère (16): 2461–2465. doi:10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.2189.