ZILIS
(Dchar Jedid) Morocco.
An Augustan
colony of W Mauretania (Iulia Constantia Zilis) mentioned by Pliny and the Roman geographers. Because of
a doubtful toponymic similarity it is usually placed at
Asilah, which however has no Roman ruins. The site
should rather be identified with the extensive ruins of
Dchar Jedid 13 km to the NE: there, inside a vast
surrounding wall, can be seen the remains of a temple,
some houses, baths, large cisterns, and what is probably
a theater. The site was occupied from the first years of
the Christian era until at least the 4th c. A.D. The port
lay 5 km to the W, on the right bank of the Gharifa, at
Kouass, where some scattered ruins attest to its occupation in ancient times: potters' kilns in use from the
5th to the 1st c. B.C.; a pre-Roman fortified surrounding wall 48 m long (3d to 1st c. B.C.?); fish-salting works, and a Roman aqueduct.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Chatelain,
Le Maroc des Romains
(1944) 44-49; M. Euzennat, “Les voies romaines du
Maroc dans l'Itinéraire Antonin,”
Hommages à Albert
Grenier, coll.
Latomus 58 (1962) 601-2; M. Ponsich,
“Kouass port antique et carrefour des voies de la Tingitane,”
Bulletin d'Archéologie Marocaine 7 (1967)
369-405; “Note préliminaire sur l'industrie de la céramique préromaine en Tingitane (Kouass, région d'Arcila),”
Karthago 15 (1969-70) 77-97.
M. EUZENNAT
