The Rougga Treasure is a treasure dating back to the 7th century, discovered in Rougga, Tunisia, in 1972. Consisting of a collection of Roman gold coins, it is preserved in the Mahdia Museum. The treasure, methodically excavated and entirely preserved, has been studied from the historical, archaeological and numismatic points of view. Contemporaneous with the "first raid by the Muslim army" of 647, prior to the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, this treasure, by the conditions of its discovery, its dating and the link it establishes with events cited in literary sources, is, according to Hédi Slim, "organically linked to one of the pivotal dates in the history of North Africa ".
Location The Rougga archaeological site, also known as Henchir Inchilla, is located thirteen kilometers southeast of El Djem, the ancient city of Thysdrus, and covers several hundred hectares. It is located between Thysdrus and Usilla, on a "very bare sandy-clay plateau".
History and rediscovery
Discovery The site was excavated in 1970, and again from 1971 to 1974, by a Franco-Tunisian team. Excavations were carried out by the National Heritage Institute (Tunisia) and the Institut d'Archéologie Méditerranéenne in Aix-en-Provence. Excavation seasons have focused on the forum, which has yielded the remains of Epipaleolithic snail farms and a Neo-Punic settlement. According to the excavators, the forum measured 85 by 56 metres, with a portico over 7 metres wide. The treasure was discovered on 13 October 1972, in a ceramic jug concealed against the wall beneath a slab in the Rougga forum, in a cache measuring 20 centimetres in diameter and 50 centimetres deep. The pottery containing the treasure was later integrated into the El Djem archaeological repository. The importance of the treasure is due in particular to the quality of the excavation carried out, and to the fact that it is complete, "as much [...] by its own value as by its historical significance [...] [it is] incontestably one of the most important ever found in Tunisia", as Slim put it in the early 2000s. With this archaeological discovery, "we are [...] on safe ground to study its historical contribution".
History
The town of Bararus municipium appears on the Peutinger Table. Prehistoric and Neo-Punic remains from the 1st and 2nd centuries BC have been found here. It is the "administrative center of the neighboring villages" and surrounded by "hamlets and rural farms". A bishop officiated at the end of the 5th century. In the 6th century, the exarchate of Carthage was reputed to be very rich, which may have whetted the appetites of would-be invaders. The first Muslim raid in the region, in the "year 27 of the hijrah" (647 of the Gregorian calendar), fell on Sbeïtla, capital of the usurper, Patrice Gregory, but with consequences for the Thysdrus area, since "these first blows [...] paved the way for the triumph of Islam". Archaeological evidence is invaluable, as the period was previously known mainly through later Arab historians, such as Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, who died in 871, and others even later, dating from the 11th to the 14th century. The written sources are accused of being either too brief or full of legendary elements. For Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, the essential thing is to recount the conquest of Egypt and elements of jurisprudence; this "tendency towards imprecision seems general". The North African and Andalusian narratives have been lost. Late texts provide much more detail than older ones, in particular the accounts of Ibn al-Athîr who, although he does not cite his sources, "offers the most plausible version of the events experienced by Tunisia at the end of the battle of Sbeïtla".
The invaders' route is unknown, as is the location of the battle or the "areas affected by the Razzia". The invaders succeeded in taking the fortress of El Djem. The Byzantines paid tribute (2,500,000 dinars according to al-Athîr) to obtain the departure of the Arab troops, who took "a fabulous booty, witness to the immense wealth accumulated in the province". The expedition lasted "nearly fifteen months", with raids in the Gafsa region and northwest of Sbeïtla, then a renewed offensive against the Byzantine troops, whose populations were driven by "panic and panic". The amphitheatre of El Jem had been used as a defensive site, as evidenced by the ground-floor arcades "carefully sealed", and as a shelter for the "remnants of the Byzantine army and [ other ] fugitives" before whom the invaders laid siege. The Arabs, who had to cope with logistical problems such as water supply, were able to rely on the nearby Rougga cisterns, which could hold 7,600 m3.
Generally speaking, "buried treasures are [...] the reflection and illustration of the upheavals caused by serious events". Numismatic studies are helping to advance the search, but of the ten or so discoveries, the only one that is complete and whose context is known is the Rougga treasure. The treasure was buried between 647 and 648 on the site of the ancient forum of the city of Bararus, now known as Henchir Rougga. This forum, destroyed in the Late Roman period like many of the city's buildings, was covered with rubble, and in the Byzantine period, a dwelling was built on it, fifty centimetres above the pavement. Rooms were built on the south side of the portico. The Rougga site included a Byzantine fort and the ruins of the forum; the treasure may have been buried during the raid on the city and its owner "may have been swept away by the whirlwind of events". The raid on Rougga was only one of several carried out in the region, and testifies to the weakness of the Byzantine defense system and, ultimately, to the tribute paid.
Description
General description
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