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[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 Stel…

[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.…

[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…

[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…

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 conscio…

[German version] I. Introduction The Greek word νεκρόπολις/ nekrópolis, ‘city of the dead’, is attested in Antiquity only in Strabo (17,1,1…

(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/ Herpeditanoí), which follows t…

[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 nei…

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…

[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 rainwater in cisterns were vital construction duties especially in urban communities in the arid and semi-arid zones of the eastern Mediterranean region and at the margins of Mesopotamia. Initially, they consisted of natural cavities (which could be extended in a bottle or pot shape) in impervious rock. The rock cistern of the Bronze Age mountain fortress of Fuente Alamo (province of Almería, SE Spain; El Argar culture…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | | Commerce | Hispania, Iberia | Colonization | Phoenicians, Poeni | Punic Wars | Pyrenean peninsula (Μαλάκη; Malákē). City on the Spanish east coast, modern Málaga (name probably Semitic, not from Hebrew malkah, ‘queen but from Phoenician mlkt, ‘place of work [1. 5742]; in [2. 574; 4. 76] the possibility of a semantic reference to fish processing is mentioned); probably a settlement that was not established until the early 6th cent. BC as a substitute for the 200 years older Phoeni…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Caesar | Africa | Wine | | Coloniae | Africa | Commerce | Colonization | Limes | Phoenicians, Poeni | Punic Wars | Punic Wars | Rome | Rome (Λέπτις μεγάλη, Léptis megálē, Punic Lpqj) ([1. 39-48]). …

[German version] I. Phoenician-Punic A fundamental technical innovation in the creation of floors first occurred in the 5th cent. BC in the region of Carthage (Kerkouane) [1]: the surface was designed with the help of small, rectangular or almost square cubes ( tessellae) made of terracotta ( opus figlinum, see below II.B.), limestone or marble, which were set into a bed of mortar with the tightest possible fit and were then polished for walking upon. It appears to have developed in this important metropolis of the central Mediterranean (Pavi…

[German version] Syrian (western Semitic) god, attested in the area between Ebla, Mari, Byblus and Ugarit from the 3rd millennium BC. In the Phoenician world of the Mediterranean, R. merged syncretistically with Melqart (cf. the votive inscription KAI II 88 f. of Ibiza, 5th/4th cent. [1]). As Smiting God adopted from Egypt in the well known pattern of 'the king striking dead his enemies', he inspired the iconography of fighting deities in the Mediterranean high and 'fringe' cultures [2], and was imitated in regions influenced by the Phoenicians [3] for a long time. The cult image of the helmeted, lance-brandishing Apollo of Amyclae [1] (cf. [4]) that was identified with R. in Idalion in Cypress is apparently a special ca…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Sardinia et Corsica | | Etrusci, Etruria | Colonization | Phoenicians, Poeni (Θάρρος/ Thárros; Latin Tharrus). Phoenician settlement (founded shortly before or c. …

[German version] The peninsula, which bounds the gulf of Tunis to the east, extensively covered with fertile horticultural land (Diod. Sic. 10,8,3-4; Pol. 1,29,7), was probably as early as the 5th cent. BC part of the Carthaginian chora and protected by coastal fortifications (Aspis/ Clupea, modern Kélibia, Ras ed-Drek [Hermaia? Str. 17,3,16], Ras el-Fortass). The almost completely excavated small Punic town of Kerkouane on the eastern coast is exemplary for the prosperity of Cap…

This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre | Caesar | Christianity | Africa | Wine | | Grain Trade, Grain Import | Commerce | Colonization | Crete | Limes | Rome | Rome (Κυρήνη; Kyrḗnē, Lat. Cyrene). [German version] I. History C. was founded by the Dorian island city of Thera in the mod. Cyrenaica, mod. Shahhat. Documentary evidence: Hdt. 4,150-158; SEG IX 3 (with a true core); Str. 17,3,21 [1. 9-67]. Overpopulation and famine ─ not internal political struggles ─ forced the inhabitants of Thera into the foundation of this   apoikía (differently in Menecl…