Bir Messaouda Basilica

This volume charts the radical transformation of an inner city neighbourhood in late antique Carthage which was excavated over a five-year period by a team from the University of Cambridge. Bordering the main thoroughfare leading from the Brysa Hill to the ports, the neighbourhood remained primarily a residential one from the second century until 530s AD when a substantial basilica was constructed over the eastern half of the insula. Further extensive modifications were made to the basilica half-a-century later when the structures on the western half of the insula were demolished and the basilica greatly enlarged with the addition of a new east-west aisles, a large monumental baptistery and a crypt. By carefully reconstructing the complex architectural plan of this innovative building, this study shows how the re-modelled Bir Messaouda basilica was transformed into a major pilgrimage centre overturning established tradition that located such complexes outside the city walls. The Bir Messaouda basilica provides important insights into the transition between Vandal and Byzantine control of the city, the development of a new Christian inter-mural urban landscape in the sixth century AD, and the significance of the pilgrimage in reinforcing ecclesiastical authority in post-Justinianic North Africa.

…provides very thoughtful assessment of current approaches to the archaeology of 6th-century Christianity within North Africa.

Richard Miles is Professor of Roman History and Archaeology at the University of Sydney. He has written extensively on the archaeology and history of Punic, Roman and Late Antique North Africa. Simon Greenslade is a freelance archaeologist with over twenty-five years of experience working on a wide variety of sites in the United Kingdom, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.