Oppida magna et opulentissima. Pre-Roman Urbanism in Numidia

This contribution discusses from an archaeological
perspective the first veritable Urban Boom that took
place in Numidia. According to recently intensified fieldwork
in this area, the period from the late 2nd to the
mid-1st c. BCE marked a profound shift in the late Iron
Age settlement patterns of North Africa. Today, it is
possible to reconstruct settlement hierarchies within
several regions of the Numidian kingdom. From ca. 130
to 50 BCE towns such as Maktar, Althiburos, Zama Regia,
Cirta, Thugga, Hippo Regius, Bulla Regia, and Simitthus
seem to have developed key positions within their
regions, four of which are analyzed in detail here. Their
outstanding status is shown by a remarkable quantity
(and quality) of monumental architecture, but also by
contemporaneous municipal inscriptions, by poliadic
coins, by high amounts of local ceramic production, and
by their role as dominant regional distributors of trade
goods – a status they continued to hold even after the
Roman conquest in 46 BCE. Interestingly, this Urban
Boom seems to have been far more limited in the neighboring
Roman province of Africa, except in Utica, where
a comparable late-Republican development is suggested by recent fieldwork. Although it is possible to detect, in
each of the discussed regions, locally and regionally
specified characteristics (e. g. in architectural décor and
ceramic production/distribution), the evidence also
shows the high degree of Numidia’s towns’ economic,
political, and cultural connectivity with the western
Mediterranean.