The most southern roman archaeological findings in africa?

[Viggen]

...any one some reference where the most southern roman findings in africa has been?

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

Hum as far as I'm aware this would be the roman objects (including a beautifull portrait of Augustus) found in Sudan, the objects having been pillaged in the 1st century A.D. by the sudanese kingdom. Other than that, the southermost roman implantation would either be some roman trading station on the Red Sea or Elephantine island's roman remains. The remains in south Algeria are more to the north I think.

[Maladict]

I'd be surprised if Roman coins have never been found on the Axumite coast.

[Northern Neil]

The remains in south Algeria are more to the north I think.

Regarding these, I would like to see how far the Roman world penetrated into the sahara. I remember reading about a city called Gadames, and that it was several hundred miles from the mediterranean.

[Viggen]

...interesting, so nothing ever showed up in west africa, or at the "young" nile river...?

 

cheers

viggen

[Melvadius]

...interesting, so nothing ever showed up in west africa, or at the "young" nile river...?

 

cheers

viggen

 

I would agree with Byraxis that the most southerly Roman related objects are likely to be found in the Eastern side of Africa rather than the west where the Roman's seem to have had a deliberate policy of not going much further south than Morocco.

 

There have been several discoveries of Roman material, probably imported, found at Meroe above the Fifth Cataract of the Nile and this is liable to be a lot further south than the edge of the Sahara where Roman influence stopped south of Libya/ Algeria and Tunisia.

 

Without checking Miller's The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire, 29 BCto AD641 I am uncertain if there is any proven evidence for Roman trade much further south than Meroe along the coast of Africa but wouldn't be suprised if Miller indicated that there was.

[Kosmo]

The East coast of Africa with Axum and the ports further south described in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, in today Eritrea and Somalia were important for roman trade.

Roman pottery was found on the island of Zanzibar, even further south.

I found this on the net: Article: The Swahili and the Mediterranean worlds: pottery of the late Roman period from Zanzibar

"Article from: Antiquity Article date:March 1, 1996 Author: Juma, Abdurahman M.Mortimer Wheeler famously tied together the worlds of ancient Rome and ancient India by finding Roman ceramics stratified into levels at Arikamedu, south India. Late Roman pottery from far down the East African coast new permits the same kind of matching link from the Mediterranean to a distant shore, this one in the Swahili world.

 

Introduction

 

The islands of Zanzibar are situated off the Tanzanian coast, south of Ras Hafun (Hafun on FIGURE 1). The pottery under discussion has been excavated from a site on the southern part of the main island of Zanzibar, called Unguja Ukuu, where a sandy harbour is located at one of the closest points to the mainland and is the best anchorage in the southern part of the island. Until well into the 20th century it has been a place for arrival from the mainland coastline. The archaeological deposits cover about 16 ha. In the deepest areas including a mound, the cultural deposits are nearly 3 m deep. According to present knowledge, this is the oldest site occupied on the islands. Alongside enormous quantities of material of East African provenance from systematic excavations that I directed, appreciable quantities of broken imported ceramics and other exotic articles are recovered.

 

Some few exotic finds recovered from the earliest level are unusual on the east African coast; they include ceramics. Here, I would like to discuss only two types: Pots A and B from excavation Units L and J respectively [iLLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 2 & 3 OMITTED]. The units are about 100 m apart. Radiocarbon determinations on charcoal samples were obtained from other units (but not from these); they confirm the primary occupation of the site spanning from the late 5th century to about 1000 AD. In TABLE 1 below are shown the earliest determinations for the site (Stuiver & Becker 1986). The pots have been excavated from the lowest levels; their date is deduced by correlation with material from these other units supported by such determinations.

 

Pot A (FIGURE 2)

 

This dish-shaped pot is small with a wall about 0.4 cm thick. The clay is medium coarse-textured and fired to orange, but the pot has an un-oxidized grey core. Inclusions consist of small sandy grits. The flat base rises in a roughly triangular shape; it juts out slightly from its low flaring wall. On the underside it has a relatively broad groove, resting the vessel on a sagging floor. It measures about 0.6 cm thick and has a diameter of 14 cm.

 

The rim is somewhat expansive with an outer edge slightly curving downward and gives a triangular impression. It is about 0.7 cm thick and 1.1 cm broad. The outermost diameter is 15 cm. The vessel height is about 2 cm with an internal depth of only 1.3 cm. The vessel is burnished with a matt red slip"

 

For more you need to log in

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18299485.html

[Aurelia]

I would go even further south. According to the Cambridge History of the British Empire, Vol. 7, Roman coins have been found in what is nowadays Zimbabwe (coin of Emperor Antoninus Pius) and Madagascar (coin of Constantine), although these were probably dropped there by Arab and Abyssinian traders respectively.

 

It is believed that the northern coast of Mozambique was also visited by Roman subjects or allies such as Greek traders. Interestingly enough, while I was working in northern Mozambique a few years back, I heard stories about the region being, along with Zanzibar, part of the route used by middle eastern traders for at least a couple thousand years.

[Celtictool]

If you're looking for authors to look at I would suggest David J. Mattingly. He's been working in the Sahara for 15+ years and recently has been funded for a rather extensive archaeological project. I would suggest looking at The archaeology of Fazzan Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 3 has not yet been published. The Fazzan is in South-Western Libya. His newest research will be looking at trade contacts between this region, the Med, and Sub-Sahara Africa (Ivory Coast and the Congo). Hopefully you find this useful.

Edited December 25, 2010 by Celtictool

[PompeyTheGreat]

Probably in Northern Sudan.

[Tribunicus Potestus]

Probably in Northern Sudan.

 

At the very least they would have reached Somalia on the way to India and back. I don't think the tigers in the amphitheater could have made the trip overland. The idea of tigers in cages on the backs of camels crossing deserts is laughable. They must have come up the Red Sea.

[Viggen]

...found an intriguing link at Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_expeditions_to_lake_Chad_and_western_Africa

 

These exploration were undertaken between the first century BC and the second century AD, when was created the Roman limes from Roman Mauritania to Roman Libya. There were five recorded by Roman historians:

• The first expedition -according to Plinius- was the one of Cornelius Balbus, who in 19 BC reached the river Niger near actual Timbouctou. He moved from Libyan Sabratha and conquered with ten thousand legionaries the Garamantes capital in actual Fezzan and sent a small group of his legionaries further south across the Ahaggar mountains in order to explore the "land of the lions": they found a huge river (the Niger) that in their opinion was going toward the Nile river ^[1] Indeed in 1955, many Roman coins and some Latin ceramics were found in the area of actual Mali^[2]
• The second was done in the year 41 AD by Suetonius Paullinus, afterwards Consul, who was the first of the Romans who led an army across Mount Atlas. At the end of a ten days' march he reached the summit,—which even in summer was covered with snow,—and from thence, after passing a desert of black sand and burnt rocks, he arrived at a river called Gerj...he then penetrated into the country of the Canarii and Perorsi, the former of whom inhabited a woody region abounding in elephants and serpents, and the latter were Ethiopians, not far distant from the Pharusii and the river Daras (modern river Senegal). From the first century after Christ there is evidence (coins, fibulas) of Roman commerce and contacts in Akjoujt and Tamkartkart near Tichit in actual Mauritania.^[3]
• The third expedition was done by Valerius Festus in 68-70 AD. He -probably by orders of Nero- repeated the travel done by Balbus, but this time he started from the Tunisian south.
• The forth expedition was done by Septimius Flaccus in 76 AD and reached the lake Chad through the Tibesti mountains^[4]
• The fifth was done by Julius Matiernus in 86 AD and reached lake Chad and territories of actual northern Central African Republic. Ptolemy wrote that Matiernus did a travel of four months from southeastern Libya in order to reach the land called Agisymba, populated by rhinoceros and elephants.^[5]

p.s. wouldnt that be an awesome storyline for a novel?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_expedition_to_Nile_sources