ALTAVA
(Ouled Mimoun) Algeria.
On
Route Nationale 7, 33 km E of Tlemcen, rises the
little plateau of Hadjar Roum, “the Roman stones.”
Here, on the military road that defined the S end of
the mountain chains of central Algeria, from Rapidum
to Numerus Syrorum (Marnia), a military camp was
built under Septimius Severus; the position commanded
one of the crossroads of migrating Nomads. It was
thus linked to the E with the garrisons of Lucu, Ala Miliaria, and Cohors Breucorum, and to the W with those
of Pomaria and Numerus Syrorum; to the N, one road
led to Albulae (Aïn Temouchent) and to Portus Magnus (Bettioua, ex-St. Leu); to the NE, a road led via
Aquae Sirenses (Bou Hanifia) and Mina (Relizane)
to the great road over the plain of Chelif. The ruins
have suffered much in the building of the modern village and the construction of the railroad crossing the
camp, which measured ca. 400 x 300 m. The infrequent
excavations on the site have exposed only confused ruins,
late and rebuilt. In fact, the interest of Altava depends
on the important series of inscriptions, almost all
funerary, discovered by farmers working among the
necropoleis which surround the ancient town on all
sides. Except for two fragments embedded in the walls
of the modern village, and three inscriptions preserved
in the Tlemcen Museum, all of these monuments are
today in the Oran Museum. The oldest inscriptions,
from the period of Septimius Severus, show that the
camp served as a garrison for the second cavalry wing
of the Thracians and the cohort IV of Sardinians. The
epigraphical collection consists primarily of a series of
dated epitaphs dating from 302 to 599; the importance
of such a series for the study of linguistics and epigraphy,
is readily conceivable.
Of particular note is a Christian basilica, still to
be excavated, erected after 309 on the tomb of the
martyr Januarius. The great majority of the epitaphs
are Christian; their decoration runs from simple palm
branches flanking a rosette to a complex system of
arches enclosing Christian symbols. The formulae show
in the 6th c. a fashion for expressions like “crudelis
uixi” or, to designate the tomb, “domus aeternalis.”
One may note in the same period a unique style of
lettering. Methodical excavations would greatly enrich
our knowledge of this site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. Gsell,
Atlas archéologique de l'Algérie (1911) 31, no. 68; Pouthier, “Evolution municipale d'Altava,”
MélRome (1956) 205-45; J. Marcillet-Jaubert,
Les inscriptions d'Altaua (1968)
PM.
J. MARCILLET-JAUBERT