Thugga Skyline

Yesterday I posted an old slide of the Mausoleum of Ateban, a second century BC tomb marker at the site of Dougga (ancient Thugga) in northern Tunisia. Here's a shot to the larger context. You can see the mausoleum rising on the right hand site of the ruins. Visible at the top of the hill is the Capitolium, a temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.

Because of the site's size, preservation, and surroundings, it was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997. Dougga has all of the components of an indigenous community and has been dubbed, "the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa."

I took this shot of its skyline a few years after that honor was given, perhaps in the winter of 2001.

The Mausoleum of Ateban

One cold morning I galumphed over a Tunisian hill and found myself facing the Mausoleum of Ateban. This 21-meter tower of stone, on the edge of the ancient site of Dougga, was erected in 146 BC. It was dedicated to a North African prince named Ateban or Ativan.

A bilingual inscription on the tomb (written in Numidian and Punic scripts) was the key that allowed scholars to crack the Numidian language. Numidian is an extinct tongue (related to Berber), spoken in the centuries just before and after the time of Christ.

Unfortunately/fortunately, that inscription was removed from the monument (causing serious destruction in the process) by the British consul in 1842. It was shipped to the British Museum where it remains out of sight to this day.