Djebba Djebba, also known as Thigibba Bure, is a town and an ancient archaeological site is located in Bājah,

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. Djebba is an archaeological/prehistoric site in Tunisia located at latitude: 36°28'32.45" longitude: 9°4'53.54" in the

Béja Governorate Béja Governorate ( ' ) is one of the twenty-four governorates of Tunisia. It is in northern Tunisia and has a brief coastline relative to its size. It covers an area of 3,740 km² and had a population of 303,032 as at the 2014 census.

of northwestern

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. The estimated terrain elevation above sea level is 355 metres located below the slopes of Djebel Gorra, 700 meters above sea level. Djebba also has a national park, which is the subject of a development project Nearby towns include Sidi Bou Zacouma, Sainte-Marie and Djebel Goraa and El Aroussa, Djebel Touila. The ruins of another

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...

'' (town) of

Thibaris Thibaris was a town in the late Roman province of Africa Proconsularis. Location An inscription fixes the exact site at the ruins now called Henshir Hamamet, in a plain watered by the Wady Tibar, which has retained the name of the town. These r ...

are five kilometers to the north. The site is 355 meters above sea level and in ancient times the town was located in the hills overlooking the fertile Bagrada River Valley, and may have been a ''

'' (town) in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Africa Proconsularis Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

History

Roman

The name of the town (Thigibba Bure) was derived from a prior

town on the same site. During the

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

-era it was a

Province from 330 BC – 640 AD The town has numerou
ruins
inscriptio
Triumphal arch
and an extensive necropolis excavated by the French. The site includes many

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

ic tombs of pre-

Punic The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...

construction and may indicate a

Numidian Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...

royal city Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

at one time. The commanding position overlooking the surrounding plains would make such a location ideal for this. The ruins of Thigibba Bure is located 4 km from Sidi Bou Zacouma and Mount Djebel Goraa at 36°28'32.4''N and 9°4'53.5''E. Among the Roman-era ruins are well preserved public toilets and a

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crow ...

. in which it is written « SI QUI HIC URINAM FECERIT HABEBIT MARTEM IRATUM », meaning "If someone urinates here, he will have Mars irritated". There are also

Roman-era The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

ruins 3 km north at Henchir Thibar and other prehistoric sites at Kouch Batra 7 km away and at Sidi Abdallah Melliti 9 km away. There are also several springs in the area. Djebba is also a

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

archaeological site in

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Bishopric

The town was the seat of an ancient

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

and a centre in the

Donatist Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and t ...

controversy. Only two bishops are known the rival bishops Rogatianus 401-411 (Catholic) and Victorius fl. 411(Donatist). The

of Thigibba remains a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Known bishops include: * Joseph Dupont *Kidanè-Maryam Cassà (1930–1951) *Lionel Audet (1952–1989) * Pierre François Marie Joseph Duprey (12 Dec 1989 Appointed – 13 May 2007) * Matthias Heinrich (since 18 Feb 2009)

Economy

Djebba has a population of 3641 inhabitants at the 2004 count and a

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

of 9042. The economy of the town is agricultural with the most crops in Djebba being

figs The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

quince The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family (biology), family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard ...

(3 types) and

olives The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...

(15 species), and the region contains 560 medicinal plants.

References

{{coord missing, Tunisia Catholic titular sees in Africa Populated places in Béja Governorate Roman towns and cities in Africa (Roman province)