The Meknes Valley Archaeological Survey: Roman Era Trade and Early Medieval Identities (15 min)

Presenters

Jared Benton, Old Dominion Univeristy, Mustapha Atki, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ain Chock , Casablanca, and Basma Mejrihi,  L’Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine

Abstract

The Meknes Valley, stretching from Fez to Meknes, is often considered a historically unoccupied or sparsely populated region outside the Roman Empire. Our previous work has shown that there is some activity in the area; Roman-era cities to the north, such as Volubilis or Banasa, were sourcing their millstones from the Meknes Valley. Moreover, by the early Middle Ages (and maybe earlier), there is evidence for non-Roman occupation in the form of large tumuli at Souk el Gour, and the area eventually plays an important role in the formation of collective identities that came to shape early Moroccan history.

The 2023 season of the Meknes Valley Archaeological Survey had four primary goals: (1) explore the economic ties that existed between Roman-era cities, such as Volubilis and the areas beyond its political and military control; (2) attempt to identify who was mobilizing basalt as a resource for millstones from the Meknes Valley into the Roman Empire; (3) investigate possible relationships between those people and the sixth–ninth century tomb at Souk el Gour, and by extension, (4) hypothesize what relationship these people may have had to collective identities such as Mauri, Baquates, Maccinites, Zenatic, and ultimately Amazigh.

In 2023 we began answering some of these questions. The people who are mobilizing resources from this region into the Roman Empire are probably not living in Roman communities or a Roman lifestyle, nor do they seem to have been processing the stone on site, instead mobilizing raw boulders of basalt. In general, they left a light material footprint, and even around Souk el Gour there is little evidence for a permanent settlement. This evidence fits a model of nomadic pastoralists using such tombs as focal points of cultural entanglement where multiple tribes might forge a collective identity and remember a common heritage.