MEDRACEN
Algeria.
A large mausoleum
in the Batna region, 9 km S-SE of Aïn Yagout, excavated in 1873. The general form is that of indigenous tombs of the type known as cylindrical-based bazina. It is made up of a cone comprising 23 steps, .54 to .58 m high, set on a cylindrical base 59 m in diameter. The
total present height is 18.5 m; at the summit is a circular
platform, which seems to have supported an aedicula.
The cylinder is relatively low (4.43 m) and of fine
masonry; it has 60 engaged Doric, unfluted columns,
built of five courses of which the last forms the
capital. The unadorned architrave is crowned by a
cornice with concave Egyptianate molding, separated
from it by a series of projecting bosses with beveled
sides. Between the columns, at three points equally
spaced around the monument, there survive horizontal
bas-reliefs, moldings, cyma recta, and fillet. A recent investigation disclosed there the remnants of the entablatures of false doors framed by three recessed flat moldings. A simple fillet above the lintel carries a
broad entablature, which varies slightly from one door
to the next. This building style, with its mixture of
Egyptian and Greek reminiscences is characteristic of
Carthaginian monumental architecture.
To the W of the monument an antechamber, now
completely in ruins, once probably accommodated the
ceremonies of a funerary cult. On its axis, at the level
of the third step of the tomb, opens a gallery beginning
with an 11-step stairway and leading to a small funeral
chamber in the center of the monument. It is furnished
with a narrow bench 0.3 m high along the walls. During
the excavations of 1873, a reddish revetment was visible
on the floor and walls of the gallery and of the room
itself. In 1970 a new exploration revealed that the platform of the gallery was made of cedar logs, of which 17
are in a perfect state of preservation. When submitted
to radiocarbon dating tests samples taken from these
beams gave dates of 220 and 330 B.C. This confirms
chronological conclusions drawn from the moldings.
Numerous circular tumuli surround the monument; a
dry-stone boundary wall perhaps marked the limits of
the necropolis; a Moslem cemetery continues the tradition.
This mausoleum, princely in character (the nearby
lake was called lacus regius in the Roman period), has
been assigned sometimes to Syphax and sometimes to
Masinissa or his successors. Syphax would have had his
tomb built in Massaesylian territory in W Numidia and
not in this region; in any case, he was not buried here
since he died in exile at Tibur. We believe that it was
erected by a Massilian king before the reign of Masinissa; it was perhaps commissioned by Gaïa, who died before A.D. 205.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Texier, “Exploration de la province
de Constantine et des Zibans,”
RA 1st series, 5 (1848-49) 129; A. Cahen, “Le Medracen, rapport de fouilles,”
Recueil des Not. et Mém. de la soc.arch. de Constantine
16 (1873-74) 1; Brunon, “Mémoire sur les fouilles exécutées au Medracen,” ibid. 303; S. Gsell & R. Graillot,
“Exploration archéologique dans le département de Constantine,”
MélRome 14 (1894) 17-86; G. Camps,
Aux
origines de la Berbérie, Monuments et rites funéraires
protohistoriques (1961) 201, see bibl. p. 583; id., “Nouvelles observations sur l'Architecture et l'Âge du Medracen, Mausolée royal de Numidie,”
CRAI (1973) 470-517.
G. CAMPS
