@book{Rus 2019,
 abstract = {In 1891 Louis Carton discovered a Severian copy of the lex divi Hadriani de rudibus agris in the rural site of Aïn Wassel, and this is whyin 1994 this site was chosen in order to investigate the work and living conditions of the sharecroppers who had asked Septimius Severus the
application of that lex. The lex granted the land for cultivation to the coloni who had requested this application, allowing them to bequeath it to their heirs. Many historic and juridical studies had analyzed this and other six (now seven) so-called ‘great agrarian inscriptions’, which were found in the Medjerda valley, but so far no field research had been conducted.
The 252 m2 excavated during three campaigns between 1994-96 have revealed part of a Byzantine farm built around 600 AD on top of a previous
structure and abandoned in the early 8th c. This chronology is based on the in-depth analysis of a conspicuous amount of pottery, amphoras, coins, glass and metal finds. The excavation also aimed at providing a stratigraphic model to apply to the other sites discovered during the field survey of Map 33 (Téboursouk) of the Carte Nationale des Sites Archéologiques et des Monuments Historiques in progress, on behalf of the Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunisie, s. http://rusafricum.org
Thanks to the excavation we have a precise chrono-typology of pottery and amphoras, the stratigraphic sequence of the Vandal and Byzantine period was outlined, which was confirmed by other data coming from the field survey. The size of the excavated area -252 m2 -, is rather limited compared the 8000 m2 of the whole settlement, but all the same significant. Until today Aïn Wassel is the only rural site of Africa
Proconsularis which has been excavated with stratigraphic method, published in detail and thanks to archaeological field survey related to the surrounding rural region. The field survey outlined the history of the settlement, which started on or near the estate of the Late Republican triumphator, Titus Statilius Taurus, who was the brilliant general of Octavian. After the transfer from Statilius’ great-grandson to Agrippinaor Nero, the 
 estate took the name of Saltus Neronianus. Its farmers worked as sharecroppers in accordance with the tenure arrangement, known as lex Manciana, with remarkable success. When their neighbours of the Aïn Djemala settlement asked Emperor Hadrian to apply that same tenure arrangement to their estate, they referred to the [i]ncrementum habita[torum] in the Saltus Neronianus. By 200 AD the farmers of Aïn Wassel asked Septimius Severus to apply the lex divi Hadriani, which had extended the exploiting rights also to fields which were uncultivated for ten continuous years. The application of the lex was probably monitored by Caius Rossius Crescens, emissary of Marcus Rossius Vitellus, who was a collaborator of Septimius Severus, and at the end of his carreer decurio, flamen perpetuus and patronus of Bulla Regia. He became also procurator tractus Carthaginiensis and procurator ducenarius IIII publicarum provinciae Africae. Crescens was buried in or near the settlement and his funerary stele with epitaph was reused as building material in the Byzantine farm. Carton sustained that the base with the inscription of the lex divi Hadriani was still in situ. If this is true, it means that the estate in the 7th c. was still (or again) imperial property and that five centuries after its promulgation the lex was valid. The Albertini Tablets of the years 493-496 prove that the Vandals respected the conditions of this law. After the Byzantine takeover of the African Vandal kingdom in 534, Justinian I wanted to make his reign appear as a restoration of the Roman Empire to win the support of the local population. During the 6th c. AD, a series of Byzantine forts was built along the via a Karthagine Thevestem and its diverticulum to protect the agriculture and other riches of the region (located some 110 km SW of Carthage). But only around 600 it was decided to enlarge (or to reconstruct) the farm of Aïn Wassel, with the aim to solve the problem of the depopulation of the countryside (maybe due to plague, among other reasons) and to collect more tax revenues. By the year 600 Africa was the most important and autonomous part of the Byzantine Empire, and Heraclius was appointed as Exarch in Africa with civilian and military powers. In 610 he and his son decided the succession of the Imperial throne of Byzantium. The African church was independent both from Rome and Constantinople; the progressive Christianization through the 3rd-7th c. of the urban and rural settlements of the surveyed region is diachronically mapped by the conspicuous rests of churches and the lists of the bishops of the Councils of Carthage. Their
density is the outcome of a dynamic settlement process which started in the 1st c. AD developing agriculture and husbandry, and exploiting natural resources such as water springs, lead mines and vast salt outcrops both in the surveyed region and in the surrounding territory. The reconstruction (or enlargement) of the Aïn Wassel farm coincides with important measures of the Byzantine Emperor Tiberius: his prefect Thomas built the menia (sic!) of Thibaris Thiberia (578-582) and his successor Mauritius erected the quadriburgium of Agbia (582-602).
The excavation provides evidence of sustainable intensive mixed farming: an oil mill and press, a grain hand mill, bones of cattle and dromedaries, raised for labour, transport, milk, meat, skins, wool. Remains of fowl, such as a partridge, were found, today they are still ubiquitous in the region. There is no evidence of hunting, since the main goal of the coloni was to convert to cultivation all swampy, wooded and unused ground.
Fragments of ash tree and olive stones were also found. The cash pot was concealed in a niche in the quarters of the owner or manager, but it was emptied probably when the inhabitants left the farm. Also scissors for sheep shearing, a spatheion and a big amphora were found there.
Ethnoarchaeology and documentation of spontaneous vegetation and bioclimatic conditions suggest that some practices and use of natural resources did not change during the centuries, such as beekeeping and wax production, the use of reeds for basketry, in architecture and agricultural implements.
Since the start of the rural development in Africa Nova olive growing was a very important activity. A recent archaeometric analysis of amphoras form Ostia LIX identified Numidian flysh in the fabric, proving their provenance from the northern Tunisian coastal zone, near Tabarka. In many houses and villas in and around Pompeii at least 41 Ostia LIX amphorae were found: they bear the titulus pictus TAVR, which suggests that the salted olives consumed at Pompeii came from the African estate of T. Statilius Taurus, the first landlord (or neighbor) of the Aïn Wassel settlement since 34 BC. Therefore long distance transport and mountainous paths were not insurmountable problems.
Notwithstanding its location on low rolling hills, the rural site of Aïn Wassel was very well connected with the road network and outside world. It played an active role in the commercial network, regional and overseas, as proven by imported Red Slip Ware and amphoras: for example at least two amphoras type Sidi Jdidi 2 were found in Aïn Wassel: they came from the East coast, more than 120 km away and must have been transported by a dromedary, who can carry up to 400 kg. Transportation by dromedaries was not limited to desert roads, where they carried large African and Tripolitan amphoras in the Libyan and Egyptian oases. It existed also in the green Medjerda and Miliana fluvial valleys, in the north of Africa Proconsularis (which became Zeugitana under Diocletian) as suggested also by dromedaries represented on a 3rd c. mosaic at Thuburbo Maius, half way between Carthage and Aïn Wassel. Local imitations of African Red Slip (ARS) wares are identified for the first time during the excavation of Aïn Wassel and during the field survey
of the surrounding region of Map 33. They were not found on the coast, only in the hinterland along the via a Karthagine Thevestem, which was North Africa’s backbone. So far, during the survey of Map 33, no kilns were discovered; therefore the tableware came from so far unknown northern Tunisian kilns, except some ARS D1 high quality forms coming from El-Mahrine (76 km to the north near the Medjerda river) and from El Gattar (70 km to the south, central Tunisia). Three new types of large amphoras were discovered at Aïn Wassel, and classified as Aïn Wassel 1, 2 and 3. The partial excavation of this rural settlement proved that in the 7th c AD north Africa was still very active and dynamic, where regional trade used both fluvial and ground transportation. Until recent times, this was considered instead as a period of crisis, abandonment of the countryside and ruralization of cities; it was not so.},
 address = {Oxford},
 editor = {de Vos, Mariette and Maurina, B.},
 isbn = {978-1-78969-115-3},
 keyword = {North Africa, Landscape archaeology, Byzantine farm, Connectivity, Surplus production, Long-distance trade, Olive oil processing, Local ARS imitation, Amphoras},
 publisher = {Archaeopress},
 series = {Roman Archaeology},
 title = {Rus Africum. Tome IV. La fattoria Bizantina di Ain Wassel, Africa Proconsularis (Alto Tell, Tunisia). Lo scavo stratigrafico e i materiali},
 volume = {58},
 year = {2019}
}

