Panel 8.8 – The numidian country and its commercial and economic opening on the Mediterranean basin and its southern prolongation


Organiser/Chair:

  • Khaoula Bennour (Faculty of Human and Social Science of Tunis)

Panel abstract

Our study focuses on the commercial networks linking the Numidia country to the Mediterranean world and to the nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary tribes of the Saharan and sub-Saharan regions. Numidia has inherited a network covering the whole of the Mediterranean basin, connecting the port areas to the interior of the Numidian lands and even to the sub-Saharan regions. Indeed, the evolution of urban structures in Numidia was accompanied by a significant economic boom that seems to be increasing in the 2nd century BC. Especially with the decline of Carthage. It is the Numidian monarchy that benefits greatly, it develops the networks of trade with the regions of the Mediterranean basin which was in the Punic movement, especially after the control of the main commercial ports of the regions of the Syrtes and the Sahel. Thus, Numidian kingdoms were inserted into the commercial networks of the Phoenician-Punic world, Greek and Roman. These networks can be direct or via Carthage. Numerous questions relate to the nature of agricultural or artisanal production and to the modalities of trade and the organization of markets in urban and rural areas in a Numidia country. However, the interest of the Numidian power in international trade does not undermine the importance of interregional trade and pre-Saharan or Saharan caravan trade. Trade networks have played an important role in forging links and socio-economic exchanges linking the Mediterranean to sub-Saharan areas. The "tariff of Zarai", although it goes back to Roman times, informs us about the presence of several circuits of exchange of pastoral, nomadic and semi-nomadic products of the numido-Mauritanian region. Given the geographical position that contributed to the isolation of the North African world with its southern natural prolongation, this did not prevent the Libyco-Numidian, Carthaginian, Greek and especially Roman populations from building bridges and contacts with the various tribes Nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary peoples of the Saharan and sub-Saharan regions, such as the Muslims, the Garamantes, the Gules and the Ethiopians, who certainly contributed in one way or another to the shaping of Libyco-numidian culture.

Paper abstracts

1. Estefanía Alba Benito Lázaro (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

¿"Carros garamantes"? Relaciones económicas entre las poblaciones locales norteafricanas en el contexto de la confederación númida
El reino númida, configurado, según afirma la historiografía moderna, a partir de la unión de tribus llevada a cabo por Masinisa (que pasó de ser "rex Massyliorum" a "rex Numidarum"), se considera la potencia norteafricana más importante que confrontaron los pueblos foráneos (primero, cartagineses y griegos y, más tarde, romanos) que llegaron a instalarse en el área geográfica del actual Magreb. Etnográficamente, se trataría, pues, de una entidad de la máxima jerarquía, que, en su momento de apogeo, debía aglutinar, o al menos controlar, por lazos de hegemonía, un número significativo de organizaciones tribales menores, lo que hace que esta confederación sea una de las más interesantes para el estudio de la etnicidad en el norte de África. En esta presentación, se tratará de valorar cómo fueron los contactos interregionales entre estas tribus o grupos que constituían o se encontraban en la órbita númida. Se analizará especialmente el caso de los garamantes, protagonistas de un cierto comercio bidireccional entre su territorio y la costa, pero sin dejar de lado las actividades económicas, menos conocidas, que también debieron llevar a cabo el resto de pueblos del entorno, mediante las rutas caravaneras de larga tradición que, en su máxima prolongación, llegarían a conectar con el África subsahariana, posibilitando el viaje de productos, personas, animales e ideas entre los diversos "mundos" que entraban continuamente en contacto en este escenario fronterizo sin igual.

 

2. Slimani Souad (Université Constantine 2)

Transhumance ways and economic issues in southern Numidia Example of Hodna
The Hodna is an area of transhumance and nomadism since ancient times, with many of these tracks and paths used until the 19th century. Through the corridors of Hodna and Aurès, the transhumants moved seasonally towards the regions of the Tell and reversed direction in the winter towards the Ziban and the Sahara. In this paper, we will identify these tracks, consider the management of this activity (control of the passages, tariffs and taxes), establish the products being marketed and the implications of this economic activity. We also will offer new insights into the passages through the Hodna, by interpreting the archaeological evidence revealed by our field surveys.

 

3. Meg Moodie (University of Edinburgh)

Tombs of trade: periodic markets and megalithic tombs in the ancient Maghreb.
The drying out of the Sahara Desert in the 3rd millennium BCE led to the increased mobility and migration of the pastoral communities of the ancient Maghreb, resulting in a greater degree of contact between a diverse range of peoples. This period also saw a shift in burial practices with a rise in the use of megalithic tombs, arguably due to an increase in social stratification and hierarchies. The location of these tombs has often centred on the increase in competition for natural resources required to sustain pastoral communities, which in turn led to more pronounced territoriality in which tombs were used to demarcate boundaries. While this argument certainly has merit, a further possibility could link some of these tombs to the subsequent rise in trans-Saharan trade and periodic markets, a practice associated with the economy of pastoral communities including those of Roman North Africa. This current paper, through the analysis of case studies, will delve further into the ritual and symbolic purpose of tombs in the ancient Maghreb and assess whether they played a role in the location and economy of periodic markets, from the Late Pastoral period into the Roman era. While this certainly does not imply that all tombs and necropoleis were linked to such a function, it does offer possible further insight into the location of megalithic tombs and ritual spaces and their potential role in the economy of the ancient Maghreb.

 

4. Hanane Kherbouche (Universite Constantie 2)

La verrerie préromaine en Numidie: Echange commercial et échange de savoirs faire
The necropolis of Coudiat Aty in Constantine - the ancient CIRTA - and the tombs of Tiddis - CASTELLUM TIDDITANORUM-, have delivered an abundant furniture in glass. The forms present in this collection strongly illustrate a commercial exchange of this material or else an exchange of know-how; although the typological approach of the pieces of this furniture releases models probably made in local or regional workshops.
In this paper we will try to trace the ways of trade related to the craft of glass, so we have Carthage as the first home of the glass industry in North Africa; in order to schematize the evolution of the economy of production and exchange between the cities of Numidia and the other provinces of the Mediterranean basin during the pre-Roman period and during the Roman Empire.

 

5. Khaoula Bennour (Faculty of Human and Social Science of Tunis)

The numidian country and its commercial and economic opening on the Mediterranean basin and its southern prolongation
Our study focuses on the commercial networks linking the Numidia country to the Mediterranean world and to the nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary tribes of the Saharan and sub-Saharan regions. Numidia has inherited a network covering the whole of the Mediterranean basin, connecting the port areas to the interior of the Numidian lands and even to the sub-Saharan regions. Indeed, the evolution of urban structures in Numidia was accompanied by a significant economic boom that seems to be increasing in the 2nd century BC. Especially with the decline of Carthage. It is the Numidian monarchy that benefits greatly, it develops the networks of trade with the regions of the Mediterranean basin which was in the Punic movement, especially after the control of the main commercial ports of the regions of the Syrtes and the Sahel. Thus, Numidian kingdoms were inserted into the commercial networks of the Phoenician-Punic world, Greek and Roman. These networks can be direct or via Carthage. Numerous questions relate to the nature of agricultural or artisanal production and to the modalities of trade and the organization of markets in urban and rural areas in a Numidia country. However, the interest of the Numidian power in international trade does not undermine the importance of interregional trade and pre-Saharan or Saharan caravan trade. Trade networks have played an important role in forging links and socio-economic exchanges linking the Mediterranean to sub-Saharan areas. The "tariff of Zarai", although it goes back to Roman times, informs us about the presence of several circuits of exchange of pastoral, nomadic and semi-nomadic products of the numido-Mauritanian region. Given the geographical position that contributed to the isolation of the North African world with its southern natural prolongation, this did not prevent the Libyco-Numidian, Carthaginian, Greek and especially Roman populations from building bridges and contacts with the various tribes Nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary peoples of the Saharan and sub-Saharan regions, such as the Muslims, the Garamantes, the Gules and the Ethiopians, who certainly contributed in one way or another to the shaping of Libyco-numidian culture.