Morocco - Lixis / Volubilis

The project, approved in 1994 by the joint commission, is carried out within the frame of the Marocan-French cooperation in the fields of archaeology and historical heritage. The programme, which involves permanent participants from both sides, is diriged by A. El Khayari on the Marocan side and by V. Brouquier-Reddé on the French side.

It aims at registring and studying religious monuments belonging to the Mauretanian and early Imperial periods. As such works are presently lacking, it will fill a large gap in the history of Marocan archaeology.

Since 1995, when this programme began, our intervention has consisted into the drawing precise plans, the re-reading and re-examining of architectural structures, and the carrying out of stratigraphic trenches. These various operations present a primordial interest as they permit a better definition of permanences and evolution in the religious architecture in ancient Marocco, and can eventually lead to a comparative study encompassing Northern Africa and the Mediterranean.

So far the mission has carried out four campaigns of study : at Volubilis, the temple B (the "Saturne temple") in 1996, the temples C and D in 1997; at Thamusida, the three-cellae temple and at Banasa, the forum temple in 1998, the temple area at Lixus in 1999 (temples D, F, G and H). Although in most cases the identification of the structures as temples was confirmed, this was not the case for the so-called cultual monuments at Lixus, which need a fresh examination in order to propose new identifications.

For the Temple B at Volubilis, an excavation campaign have provided abundant information which completes or corrects the hypotheses hitherto proposed. The new reflection on the successive phases of construction takes into account the presence of different building materials, sandstone in the north, sandstone and grey limestone in the west, grey limestone in the south. The discovery of thresholds and of partial rebuilding of the elevations completes our observations. Newly found offerings, funerary vases, phials for perfumes, and stelae, can be related to the structures ; they belong to the same ritual. To sum up, a sacred area including votive stelae and cinerary urns was developed into a stone temple, the number of chapels around the courtyard increasing with the successive alterations.

Lastly, the mission has considered to propose restitutions for all these sanctuaries, as well as to consolidate those structures and volumes which had been most affected by climatic conditions or hasty excavations. The preliminary results of these various undertakings have been published and a final monography is in preparation.