Morocco - Rirha

On the basis of discoveries made by military officers at the end of the 19th century and the observations of Lieutenant Halbwachs in 1919, the first intervention, led by L. Chatelain, the head of Morocco’s Department of Antiquities and coordinated on the ground by H. Desroziers, focussed on a "small Roman settlement" essentially located in the east of the site (1920). This operation consisted of small, dispersed surveys, the results of which were only published in part in the Bulletin du Comité des Travaux Historiques (1919-1926) and the publication by L. Chatelain, Le Maroc des Romains, Paris, 1944.

From an archaeological point of view, this early research had revealed a surrounding wall, two settlement areas and a thermal complex. The items exhumed were varied -frescos, mosaics, architectonic items, burial inscriptions (IAM, 2, no. 287-295), pottery, coins, etc.- and all this from only partial studies.

At the end of that year, L. Chatelain concluded that Rirha was the site of a "military post or fortified villa" dating back to the Roman period.

Buoyed by discoveries made in Banasa, Mr. Euzennat, then head of Morocco’s Department of Antiquities, decided in 1955 to open a control trench 15m long and 8m deep in the Western Tell with a view to finding the Roman occupation and searching for traces of a pre-Roman settlement whose presence had been sensed. As a result of the survey conducted by A. Luquet, it is possible to develop an outline of the major events in the history of the site, thanks to a stratigraphic section that runs from the 2nd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Franco-Moroccan mission led by R. Rebuffat conducted an extensive prospecting exercise along the length of the Sebou basin. This mission was able to verify the descriptions contained in old publications, place the site in its regional historic environment and offer new observations: the expropriation of the ground on which the site is located, an area of 10-11 ha, was recognised and surface collections were carried out. In addition, since 1985, R. Rebuffat has been an exponent of a theory that the site of Rirha has been confused with the ancient city of Gilda.