Tiaret, Algeria, Jan 14, 2019 – Dating back centuries, Algeria’s pyramid tombs are unique relics of an ancient era but a dearth of research has left the Jeddars shrouded in mystery. The 13 monuments, whose square stone bases are topped with angular mounds, are perched on a pair of hills near the city of Tiaret, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers. Constructed between the fourth and seventh centuries, the tombs are believed by some scholars to have been built as final resting places for Berber royalty — although nobody knows who truly laid within.
But Algerian authorities and archaeologists are now pushing to get the Jeddars listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, in the hope of assuring their preservation and study. Gaining such stat
us is a lengthy process and the culture ministry said Algeria’s application to the UN body “will be filed during the first quarter of 2020”.Experts from the National Centre for Prehistoric, Anthropological and Historical Research have for more than a year been preparing their case for the Jeddars. The goal is to “preserve this heritage, which is of immeasurable value and an ancestral legacy”, said Mustapha Dorbane, a professor at Algiers 2 University’s Archaeology Institute.
When the Jeddars were built, Berber kings ruled the area in small fiefdoms whose history is poorly known and of which few traces were left. It was a period of great unrest for the former Roman province of Numidia, as Rome’s western empire collapsed, Vandal and Byzantine troops invaded, and Arab forces stormed across North Africa. For centuries these far-flung monuments sat largely ignored, delivered to the ravages of time and looters.
‘Wonders’
But more recently a group of around 20 archaeology students and their teachers has been working at the monuments. Moving slowly, they noted vandalised spots and used water and brushes to gently clean stone-engraved symbols before measuring them. A meticulous task, each entry may take upwards of two hours. Algerian archaeologist Rachid Mahouz, who has spent five years on a doctoral thesis about the tombs, deplores the lack of research devoted to the country’s “wonders”.
“The French archives on the Jeddars are not available and the objects and bones found during the colonial era were taken to France,” said Mahouz, who was born and raised nearby. Archaeology was not taught at Algerian universities until the early 1980s, and until now, no speciality on funerary monuments is offered. The research team has been working on Jeddar A, which sits on Mount Lakhdar along with monuments B and C. The remaining Jeddars are on a hilltop some six kilometres away, Mount Arouri, and are known by the letters D through M. Each contains at least one room, with the largest mound giving way to a labyrinth of 20 compartments, including funerary chambers. Some rooms are equipped with benches, areas researchers believe may have been used for worship. Inside the tombs, traditional Christian symbols as well as hunting scenes and animal figures are carved above the doors. Traces of inscriptions believed to be Latin mark the walls, but time has rendered them unreadable. Among the layers of history, researchers say they have also found Greek letters — although others dispute this.
Looting, deterioration
The Jeddars were built several centuries after other imposing pre-Islamic funerary monuments, which are found in present day northern Algeria, making them the last of their kind to be erected before the arrival of Islam. “The most distinctive feature of the Jeddars is by far the date of their construction,” said Mahouz, the archaeologist. The monuments show the evolution of burial practises in the area. From simple mounds of earth and stone, known as tumuli, to stone-walled tombs called bazinas.
But with some reaching heights of 18 meters (60 feet), some researchers say the size of the Jeddars put them in a category of their own. The earliest known written description of the Jeddars was made by historian Ibn Rakik in the 11th century, according to famed Arab thinker Ibn Khaldoun. It was not until the mid-19th century and the first modern archaeological explorations in Algeria, brought on by French colonialism, that the Jeddars began to draw attention. French troops and colonial authorities began explorations in 1865 of nine of the tombs.
Understanding of the Jeddars was boosted in the late 1960s by Algerian archaeologist Fatima Kadra’s three-year study of Jeddars A, B and C — the oldest of the 13 and the only ones to be explored since Algeria’s independence. But several of the structures have never been entered, as gravity and time have brought mounds of dirt and stone crashing down on the tombs within. Looting and deterioration have worsened an already difficult task for modern-day researchers with little backing. By AFP.
MORE ABOUT THE JEDARS
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Jedars
Jedars (French spelling: Djeddars) are thirteen Berber mausoleums located south of Tiaret city in Algeria. The name is derived from the Arabic: جدار jidār (wall), which is used locally to refer to ancient monumental ruins. The pre-Islamic tombs date from late antiquity (4th-7th? centuries CE).[1]
Construction
The tombs are situated on the tops of two hills in the mountainous Frenda area, around 30 km south of Tiaret. There are three sepulchres on Jabal Lakhdar (35°06′47″N 1°12′45″E / 35.113098°N 1.212475°E), and ten on Jabal Arawi (35°03′48″N 1°11′01″E / 35.063391°N 1.183733°E, also known as Ternaten) 6 km south of the first group. The graves' size and commanding situation indicate that they were built for royalty. They have been systematically plundered for many centuries, and hence are in a state of ruin.[citation needed]
The monuments were erected straight onto the substratum or with very shallow excavation. Some stone was quarried from local limestone and sandstone, some were recycled from nearby settlements and necropoli of earlier times.[citation needed] The materials vary widely: dressed stone blocks 1-1.5 m. long, partially dressed blocks up to 2.4 m. long, natural rock slabs with minimal dressing, old tombstones, and old building fragments. Most of the construction is dry stone; lime mortar is used sparingly.[citation needed]
The thirteen Jedars share many characteristics. There are also many similarities with much smaller Berber tombs called bazinas, which are common in the pre-Sahara zone. This shows that they represent indigenous Berber architecture in spite of their use of Roman architectural techniques and Mediterranean Christian iconography.[citation needed]
The characteristics are:[2]
- A square body, the largest being 46 m. on a side, and the smallest 11.55 m., with a height of up to 4 m. In some cases, the body is solid stonework, in the largest examples it contains funerary chambers.
- A pyramidal top, which in all cases is very much ruined, but which must have been originally up to 13 m. high, constructed in many small steps (rise and tread about equal at around 0.2-0.25 m.). The top is mostly solid masonry, but in those jedars that contain funerary chambers, removable steps on one side conceal a passage leading down into the chambers, the ceilings of which may protrude up into the top.
- Most, perhaps all, were surrounded by a courtyard, square except for an extension in the middle of the side facing east. In the larger ones this extension contains a small building modeled after the main monument. This building is believed to have been used for obtaining divinatory dreams by sleeping in the vicinity of the tomb.
- Most if not all were further surrounded by a complex of low walls.
It is believed[according to whom?] that the solid jedars that do not contain funerary chambers may cover a single tomb excavated into the bedrock.[citation needed]
Epigraphy and iconography
The jedars of Jabal Lakhdar seem to have displayed a dedicatory inscription on one side of the top. This inscription was in Latin,[3] but not deeply engraved and hence in every case is now almost illegible; the inscribed blocks are also very damaged. Enough remains only to confirm that these were tombs, but not whose they were.[4] However, these jedars display an enormous range of stonecutters' marks, from isolated letters to partial names. Most of these are also Latin, some have been postulated to be Tifinagh.[5] There are a few unobtrusive Christian symbols, and a couple of roughly carved panels (apparently hunting scenes) similar to many ancient Lybico-Berber rock carvings.
The largest jedar at Ternaten is the only one in that group sufficiently intact to display epigraphy and iconography. It contained large well-executed polychrome murals (now almost completely weathered away) of religious scenes typical of Mediterranean Christian iconography of the 5th century or later,[6] indicating that the ruling class had by then become Christian. This jedar also contains many Latin inscriptions on recycled tombstones and other building material, dating from the time of Septimius Severus (202-203 CE) up to 494 CE. The source of this recycled material is not known with certainty, but there are several large ruins of cities and necropoli in the surrounding districts.[7]
Age
The three jedars of Jabal Lakhdar are believed to be the oldest. Within this group, the relative chronology is now believed known, from study of the stonemasons' marks. The largest, with funerary chambers, known as Jedar A, is the oldest; very soon after, solid Jedar B was constructed by many of the same workmen. The last jedar, C, is believed to have been incomplete when it was very hurriedly finished[8] and its occupant interred, perhaps a generation later. Taking into account the unobtrusive nature of the Christian symbols, it is believed the occupants of these tombs were not themselves Christian but ruled over Christian subjects. Remains of a wooden coffin from Jedar B returned a C14 date of 410 ± 50 CE.[9] Calibrating the date on the OxCal system gives a range of 410 - 615 AD at 95.4% probability. A recent re-reading of the dedication from Jedar A has proposed a 4th-century date.[10]
The only jedar in the Ternaten group for which dating has been attempted is the largest, Jedar F. Because the latest recycled tombstone bears a date of 494, it may belong to the 6th or 7th century.[11] Unlike the Jabal Lakhdar monuments, its funerary chambers seem to have been built to hold more than one occupant, so it has been proposed that it is dynastic, with the smaller jedars surrounding it those of lesser nobility or rank.
History and archaeology
The earliest known reference to the jedars is in 947, when the Fatimid caliph Ismail al-Mansur was conducting military operations in the Tiaret area. According to a campaign diary that was copied by several later historians such as Idris Imad al-Din and Ibn Khaldun, the caliph was shown the jedars at Jabal Lakhdar and encountered an inscription "in the Roman language" (presumably in Greek, but also possibly in Latin). Inquiring as to its meaning, he was told that it read "I am the strategos Solomon. This city is called Mauretania. The inhabitants of this city have rebelled against the Emperor Justinian and his mother Theodora. Therefore he sent me against them, and I have built this building, so as to commemorate the victory which God has granted me".[12] Although Ibn Khaldun lived in the area for a number of years, he made no other reference to the jedars.
Beginning in 1842, French military expeditions in the area noted the monuments, resulting in the first archaeological descriptions. Jedar A was opened in a very rough manner [13] in 1875 by antiquarians who failed to publish their research. In 1882, Professor La Blanchère from Algiers University published a detailed study on the jedars (mostly based on the previous excavations) and attempted to place them in historical context. His identification of them as belonging to the Berber king Massonas mentioned by the 6th-century historian Procopius is not supported today.
In the early 1940s, an anthropology student, Dr. Roffo, obtained permission to excavate. In pursuance of this, he used explosives to open Jedar B, from which he obtained a skeleton which was in a wooden coffin in a tomb excavated beneath the building; the same happened with one of the smaller jedars at Ternaten. The whereabouts of these skeletons is unknown (they may lie unrecognised in an Algerian museum) and Dr. Roffo, it is said, burnt most of his notes in a fit of pique after an argument with the Director of Antiquities (who had probably got wind of his methods of 'excavation').[14]
During the years 1968-70, an Algerian studying under Gabriel Camps at the University of Aix-Marseilles, Fatima Kadria Kadra, made the first archaeological study of the jedars to use systematic modern techniques. A book based on her thesis was published by Algiers University in 1983 and remains the definitive reference.[15] Attempts by Camps (1995) to attribute the tombs to known Berber kings such as Mastigas and Garmul are considered speculative.[16]
See also
References
- ^ Unless otherwise indicated, information has been taken from Kadra's (1983) publication, which is the most detailed archaeological work on the subject. See also LaPorte (2005), who supplies some information that is omitted from Kadra's work as published.
- ^ LaPorte (2005) p. 337 tabulates the known measurements.
- ^ Early researchers, including the influential archaeologist Stéphane Gsell (1901), claimed they were bilingual Latin and Greek, which is occasionally repeated even today (e.g. Alan Rushworth, 2004, "From Arzuges to Rustamids: State Formation and Regional Identity in the Pre-Saharan Zone" in A.H. Merrills (ed.) Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa; Guy Halsall, 2007, Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376-568). Kadra (1983, e.g. p. 257 & 261; see also LaPorte, 2005, p. 365) has shown that almost all the so-called Greek is based on erroneously identified late forms of Latin letters, while the remainder is merely the combination of Greek alpha and omega used as a Christian symbol rather than as text.
- ^ e.g. isolated words like egregius (eminent), duci (duke), filius (son) and matri (mother) can be made out
- ^ Kadra (1983) p. 243.
- ^ See LaPorte, 2005, fig. 18 for one of the remaining fragments.
- ^ Cadenat (1957). Judging by Roman milestones found in the district, there was a large city nearby, the name of which was abbreviated Cen, perhaps for Cenis (LaPorte, 2005, p. 324).
- ^ perhaps the top was never finished.
- ^ Camps stated that this should be adjusted to 490 CE, a claim not repeated in his 1995 article.
- ^ Lepelley & Salama (2006). LaPorte (2005) thinks this is too early.
- ^ How much time would have to elapse before a Christian ruler would rob Christian graves to build his own? has been asked in justification for these dates (Cadenat, 1957), but this does not take into account the often violent sectarianism of those times, viz. Arianism and Monophysitism.
- ^ Halm, Heinz (1987). "Eine Inschrift des "Magister Militum" Solomon in arabischer Überlieferung: Zur Restitution der "Mauretania Caesariensis" unter Justinian". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte (in German). 36 (2): 250–256. JSTOR 4436011.
- ^ Kadra (1983) p. 27.
- ^ LaPorte (2005) p. 328. LaPorte notes that Kadra was able to locate some of Roffo's notes in Algerian archives, which she published in 1985.
- ^ Works by Camps and by LaPorte are largely based on her material.
- ^ LaPorte (2005) p. 389-390. More recently the oldest of the jedars has been attributed by Lepelley & Salama (2006) to a 4th-century governor from Pontus in Asia Minor, but LaPorte considers this doubtful also.
Bibliography
- Stéphane Gsell, 1901. Les Monuments Antiques de l'Algérie, vol. 2. Service des Monuments Antiques de l'Algérie, Paris.
- P. Cadenat, 1957. "Vestiges paléo-chrétiens dans la région de Tiaret." Libyca vol. 5 p. 77-103.
- Fatima Kadria Kadra, 1983. Les Djedars. Monuments funéraires Berbères de la région de Frenda.. Office des Publications Universitaires, Algiers.
- Gabriel Camps, 1995. "Djedar". Encyclopédie berbère, vol. 16, p. 2049-2422.
- Claude Lepelley & Pierre Salama, 2006. "L’inscription inédite de la porte du Djedar A (Maurétanie Césarienne)". Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France, 2001 (2006), p. 240-251.
- Jean-Pierre LaPorte, 2005. "Les Djedars, monuments funéraires Berbères de la région de Tiaret et Frenda." In Identités et Cultures dans l'Algérie Antique, University of Rouen (ISBN 2-87775-391-3).
External links
