THIBILIS
or Tibilis (Announa) Algeria.
Situated 18 km SW of Calama, this village was built on
a narrow, mountainous stretch 700 m high. It was probably part of the confederation of Cirta entrusted to Sittius
by Caesar and then linked again to Numidia. The chief
place of the district, it became a municipium in A.D. 305
at the latest and was perhaps elevated to the status of
colony in the 4th c.; seat of a bishop in the 5th.
Although the town was only partly excavated from
1903 to 1909, numerous structures are evident: forum,
gates and arch, temples (one of which, the capitol, is
in the S part of the village), and a Byzantine fortress,
but the whole gives the impression of an important village; it appears to have had neither theater nor even public baths. Most of the objects collected are preserved in the Guelma Museum.
The town opens to the S through an arch with two
openings, exceptional in Africa (12.9 m in width) and
probably dating from the end of the 3d c.; a large street
bordered with porticos passed under a triumphal arch
with one opening, total breadth 10.9 m; the opening is
flanked by two pair of projecting parts formed of columns, each one resting on an independent raised pedestal. There is another gate with one bay to the E.
The forum is trapezoidal in form (27 m, 12.15 m,
9.7 m); access to it was from the main street by two
arches without archivolts which could be closed by grilles.
Paved with sandstone, this area did not have elaborate
structures but was partly bordered by porticos. A neighboring hall was probably the curia.
Near the arch of triumph was found a public building
with apse and court which is difficult to identify: basilica or market? In the N quarter there was a small rectangular market (13 x 15.7 m), where was found an interesting table of linear measures.
One of the excavated houses is particularly interesting
because it belonged to the family of the Antistii, of whom
two members became consuls under Marcus Aurelius and
Commodus. A central part with four columns led into
the neighboring rooms (a sort of atrium) and contained
an interesting altar to the household guardian. One part
of half-moon shape, enclosing a fountain of the same
form, was undoubtedly decorated with a peristyle.
To the S of the town is a Christian basilica (19.6 x
13.15 m), rather indifferently built. The nave has a floor
of beaten earth, and the aisles are paved. A second
basilica, situated NW of the town, also occupies an
elevated position. The church measures 14.3 x 12.3 m
and includes a nave and 2 aisles with a ciborium and a
rounded apse; the whole is paved. These two basilicas
are probably of the Byzantine period. A chapel has also
been found in the N quarter in the midst of some altered
dwellings; it opens on the R side wall and has a projecting apse.
Finally there is a citadel, probably Byzantine, to the
NW, trapezoidal in form (70 x 45 x 35 m) with scattered buildings on the W side; it was made of double
walls without a core of reused materials; in the interior
a large quadrangular structure was perhaps a redoubt.
A rampart was constructed at a later date at the citadel.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. Gsell,
Les monuments antiques de
l'Algérie (1901) I-II
PI;
Atlas archéologique de l'Algérie (1906) 18, Souk-Arrhas, no. 107
MP; and C. A. Joly,
Khamissa, Mdaourouch, Announa (1918)
PI.
G. SOUVILLE
