Volubilis

وليلي; Walīla

Morocco · Fès-Meknès

Ancient cityIntermittent excavationUNESCO · 1997
Approximate period300 BCE — 1,100 CEMauretanian, Roman and medieval Islamic periods See on the map ↓

In brief

Volubilis, known for its Roman buildings, continued to be inhabited after the Roman period. INSAP and UCL excavations have investigated different settlement communities and production activities in the early Islamic period.

What was found?

  • 1Roman-period mosaics

    Mosaic floors surviving from the city's Roman period. Together with sculptures and inscriptions, they document the artistic production of the period.

  • 2Early medieval houses

    Houses with compacted-earth floors and small rooms. Together with pottery and animal and plant remains, they illuminate agricultural life after the Roman period.

  • 3Idrisid-period bath

    A bath at the center of a courtyard building complex outside the walls. The excavation team associates this complex with the administrative center of Idris I on the basis of coin and radiocarbon evidence.

  • 4Grain storage pits

    Large silos dug into the ground and small household storage pits. They show that storage was practiced at different scales in different parts of the settlement.

  • 5Ring inscribed with Bismillah

    A ring bearing the inscription Bismillah. According to researchers, it is among the finds supporting the possibility that Arab soldiers or migrants lived in the group of buildings where it was found.

What does it point to?

Volubilis shows that settlement and production continued after the Roman period. Houses, the bath and silos document different arrangements for living and storage; according to researchers, some groups of buildings may be associated with the local Awraba community and the Arab followers of Idris I.

What did it teach us?

  1. Revealed that an early medieval settlement developed over the ruins in the western part of the Roman city.
  2. Showed that household and larger-scale grain storage coexisted during the same period.
  3. Documented wheat and barley cultivation and sheep and cattle husbandry through plant and animal remains.

Images

Volubilis 1990
Chrisi1964 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Mauretanian; Roman; Awraba; Idrisid
First modern dig
1887
Team / historical
INSAP and University College London; Elizabeth Fentress, Corisande Fenwick, and Hassan Limane
Coordinates
34.0739°, -5.5569°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. whc.unesco.org
  3. sitedevolubilis.org

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