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[German version] Small Mauretanian rural town (3rd to 1st cents. BC) at Tétouan (in Morocco) near the coast (of the Mare Ibericum), with strong Carthaginian influences (forms of burial, coin minting). Earliest archaeological evidence from the 6th cent. BC; in the Roman Imperial period the site of a military camp. Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography M. Ponsich, s. v. T., DCPP, 436.

[German version] A small island at the mouth of the Wādī Tafna (Latin Siga) in western Algeria, R. is the site of the extensive necropolis of the Mauretanian Punic city of Siga and, on the southern side, of a small Punic merchant settlement dating to the 7th-5th century BC; according to the finds, there were particularly close links with Phoenician factories on the southern coast of Spain. Syphax Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography S. Lancel, É. Lipiński, s. v. R., DCPP, 369  G. Vuillemot, Reconnaissances aux échelles puniques d'Oranie, 1965.

[German version] I. Near East and Egypt Stelae are standing stone slabs with reliefs or inscriptions on one or more sides; in Egypt wooden stelae also survive. In early Mesopotamia their shape can be natural, elsewhere they usually have rounded tops, less often squared tops. From the end of the 4th millennium BC, funeral stelae were used in Egypt at or in tombs (or cenotaphs) as cult places. In the 1st millennium, funeral stelae (mostly wooden) were also placed in the burial chamber: they bear images (…

[German version] I. Ancient Near East and Egypt Weapons were among the earliest artefacts fashioned by humans and their ancestors. Stone arrowheads and blades were the first recognizable weapons in the ancient Near East into the Neolithic Period ( c. 10000 BC). From the 4th millennium BC, weapons were depicted on roll seals and stelae in scenes of warfare or hunting. Of maces suitable for close combat, generally only the heads (of stone or metal) survive. One exception is the deposit at the Chalcolithic find site of Naḥal Mišmār in P…

[German version] Phoenician settlement of the early 8th cent. BC, founded on the site of a Copper Age settlement on a height overlooking the mouth of the Río Algarrobo, 6 km east of Vélez-Málaga (southern Spain). Its associated necropolises were probably partly on the opposite (western) bank of the river, where a 7th-cent. BC chamber tomb, significant from an architectural point of view, is preserved, along with evidence of others (Trayamar). Necropolis Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography H.G. Niemeyer, H. Schubart, Trayamar. Die phönizischen Kammergräber und die N…

[German version] I. Introduction Although only a small part of the pavimenta (floor coverings) in ancient buildings was decorated, scholars have paid a great deal of attention to them, esp. to those decorated with mosaics (other floor coverings generally only appear in scholarly literature in relation to the identification of their ancient terminology). In Pompeii only 2.5% of floors were decorated with mosaics, a further 7% were decorated with cement floors and the rest of the buildings are floored with undecorated stone or cement pavimenta or even stamped earth. Pavimenta were alw…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Colonization | Phoenicians, Poeni (Μοτύα, Μοτύη; Motýa, Motýē). Phoenician-Carthaginian settlement on an island ( c. 45 ha) in the lagoon 8 km to the north of Marsala, modern Mozia on San Pantaleo. With Solus and Panormus, M. was the last fortress held by the Phoenicians in their retreat from the Greeks in western Sicily (Thuc. 6,2,6; own coins inscribed in Greek and Phoenician in the 5th and 4th cents. BC: HN 157f.) and was conquered and destroyed by Dionys…

[German version] Phoenician-Punic settlement, c. 10 km east of Palermo, known from the chance finds of two anthropoid sarcophagi (in 1695 and 1725), and from surface finds. Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) Bibliography DCPP, s.v. C., 88.

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Caesar | Wine | | Commerce | Hispania, Iberia | Colonization | Phoenicians, Poeni | Punic Wars | Punic Wars | Pyrenean peninsula (oldest Phoenician form of the name Gdr, ‘wall’, ‘citadel’, ‘fortress’, cf. Avien. 85, 267, 269, and [1. I 119; 3. 101f.], Greek Γάδειρα ( Gádeira), Latin Gades, modern Cádiz). The date of its foundation is linked to the foundations of Utica and Carthage; according to literary sources, it is estimated for c. 1100 BC (Vell. Pat. 1,2; Iust. 44,5,2; Mela 3,46; Plin. HN 16,216; cf. [3. 5-12;…

[German version] I. Middle East and Phoenicia …

Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) [German version] I. Archaeological Excavations (CT) Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) [German version] A. From the beginnings to the settling of the White Fathers in 1875 (CT) …

[German version] Common technical term in the archaeological study of construction techniques describing a masonry technique, in which pillars made of ashlar or orthostatic blocks alternate with spaces infilled with mud brick or rubble, similar in principle to t…

[German version] [1] City on Cape Bouloustra This item can be found on the following maps: Thraci, Thracia | Colonization | Macedonia, Macedones | Moesi, Moesia | Peloponnesian War | Pergamum | Persian Wars | Pompeius | Punic Wars | Athenian League (Second) (Ἄβδηρα; Ábdēra). City on Cape Bouloustra, in the Aegean, 16 km north-east of the mouth of the Nestus; founded and fortified in 656 BC by Ionian  Clazomenae; destroyed by Thracians at the beginning of the 6th cent. BC. Archaeologically attested archaic graves. From 545 BC, a second fou…

Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) I. General (CT) [German version] A. Terminology (CT) A peculiarity of the discipline is the absence of a generally accepted concept of Classical Archeology (CA), which in a good third of German-speaking universities is simply called Archaeology, either by way of obvious simplification or by way of conscious extension of the subject-matter, thereby sacrificing the aspect and claim of the ‘Classical’. One of its most prominent research bodies, the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut [20; 55; 89], was founded in Rome in 1829 as the Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica, the terms ‘Archaeology’ and CA being taken as synonymous as a matter of course. In a similar vein, F. A. Wolf in 1807 [112] understood ‘the Archaeology of ancient art and technology’ in the context of a discipline that did not hesitate to confine the very term Antiquity to the two peoples (i.e. the Greeks and Romans). …

[German version] I. Introduction The Greek word νεκρόπολις/ nekrópolis, ‘city of the dead’, is attested in Antiquity only in Strabo (17,1,10,14) as the name of a suburb of Alexandria [1] (Necropolis). Modern scholarship transfers the term necropolis to cemeteries of various cultures and time periods. General definitions as to shape and size do not exist. In this article, necropolis refers only to sites of a certain size and usually lying outside the settlements themselves. The size of a necropolis, the …

(Μαυρουσία/ Maurousía). [German version] I. Name In the second century BC, M. comprised approximately the area of Morocco and western Algeria and was probably called by its Greek name of Maurusia (cf. Coelius Antipater, HRR 1,175 fr. 55). The formation of names in M. (Ἑρπεδιτανοί/ …

[German version] I. Mesopotamia The Sumerian term é and the Akkadian term bītu, meaning 'temple' or 'house (of the deity)', were not restricted to 'dwellings' of deities of a particular size or importance. They applied to sanctuaries from small neighbourhood shrines in residential areas to large, freestanding, tall buildings, from one-room cult sites to temple complexes with extensive auxiliary buildings, and they could be used for temples where one or many deities were worshipped. Prehistoric structures are often classified as temples only because apparently they neither served residential purposes nor do they qualify as palaces. Distinct characteristics, such as an alcove for the cult image with an altar in front of it, appear sporadically after the end of the 4th millennium; after the 3rd millennium BC they became consistent features. Around that time, the layout became more uniform as well. In southern Mesopotamia the typical temple consisted of a wide antecella with a…

This item can be found on the following maps: Africa | | Coloniae | Africa | Colonization | Limes | Phoenicians, Poeni | Punic Wars (Neo-Punic Ṣbrt[]n). [German version] I. History One of the three Phoenician cities of African Tripolis, 65 km west of Tripoli, Libya (Ps.-Scyl. 110 and Str. 17,3,18: Ἀβρότονον/ Abrótonon (?); Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀβρότονον (?); Plin. HN 5,25; 35: Sabrata; 27: Habrotonum; Sil. Pun. 3,256: S.; Ptol. 4,3,12: Σάβραθα/ Sábratha; Stadiasmus maris magni 99 f.: Σαράθρα/ Saráthra or Ἀλάθρα/ Aláthra; It. Ant. 61,3: Sabrata colonia; Solin. 27,8 and Tab. Peut. 7,2: Sabrat…

[German version] I. General Pins and needles (βελόνη/ belónē, περόνη/ perónē, ῥαφίς/ rhaphís, Latin acus) were put to a variety of uses in the ancient household: they were used for hair, garments and sewing. They were also a utensil, for example, in the work of doctors (Surgical instruments), sailmakers etc. Tattoos were also done using special needles. The shape of the pin, long and thin with one sharp end, has not changed since prehistoric times. In sewing needles, the head is …

[German version] I. General Cisterns as storage for rain water or as reservoirs for spring and well water were customary and necessary for a regulated and sufficient  water supply in the climatically unfavourable regions of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, both as small systems for individual houses and farms and as communal systems for settlements. Höcker, Christoph (Kissing) [German version] II. Ancient Orient s.  Water supply I. D. Niemeyer, Hans Georg (Hamburg) [German version] III. Phoenician-Punic region Systems for securing the water supply by collecting …