CARTILI
About 15 km
west of Gouraya on the Corniche des Dahra the mouth of the wadi Damous would
mark the site of the city Cartili in Roman times. The place Dupleix on the
right bank of the river delivered some Roman relics. Nothing has been found
here from the Phoenician/Punic period. About the name however a lot of
speculations are going around:
1.Cartili
has been regarded as a Phoenician foundation (Gsell, HAAN p.162-3), possibly
named “City of God
2.Another
explanation can be the relation with Q r t l y occurring in a neo-Punic
inscription from Tunesia (NP 114: J.B.Chabot, Punica XVII,5 in Journal
Asiatique 11th serie no.10, 1917-22). Q r tl y is the same for the
Latin name Cartilius and the name Cartili for this location might have the same
origin. Also the feminine form Cartilia is attested in North-Africa (CIL VIII
5682; 21022).
3.The
modern name Damous could have had a very old past?! Damusi is the name of the
king of Qarti-Hadašt on Cyprus
The result
of it all is that Nicolas Carayon does not include the place in his catalog:
“Les ports Phéniciens et Puniques, Geomorphologie et infrastructures,
Strassbourg, 2008). à Même si la situation maritime du site ménage des
avantages portuaires naturels, les informations disponibles sont insuffisantes
pour que l’on puisse intégrer la cite à ce catalogue.
If there
was a Phoenician/Punic settlement then it must have been a very small
provisional port of call. The distance to Gunugu in the east was not far away
and therefore there was no necessity to make here a full equipped settlement
despite the favourable harbour possibilities.
We lack
here adequate further excavations.
Literature:
K.Jongeling,
Personal names in Neo-Punic inscriptions, Grongingen, 1973
E.Lipinski,
Itineraria Phoenicia , Leuven , OLA 127, 2004
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