Oued Lau & and surroundings

OUED LAU & surroundings.

C.L.de Montalban noticed in the thirties in the land of Rhomara at and around the Oued Lau several places with Phoenician and/or Carthaginian relics. First of all it was the Ras Targa and the El Tleta de oud Lau on the coast. Remarkable is that he found also places in the interior, as there are near Dar Akeba, Talambole and Tassor. Those last three places contained only Carthaginian findings. Why the Carthaginians went that far in the interior is unknown. There are no important mines present. Plinius (NH 5.18) called it the LAVD FLVMEN.

E.Lipinski in Itineraria Phoenicia (OLA 127, Leuven, 2004) describes the situation as follows:

“The importance of the Wadi Lau was judged sufficient to be used as the eastern border of Mauretania Tingitana in the Reform of Diocletianus, when this particular area was attached to the province of Spain and had to be clearly separated from the Moorish territory in the Rif-massif. A town bearing the same name Lau (near Kar Kouch) lies in the plain at the mouth of the river and its splendid sand beach is nowadays used by fishermen who are not afraid to run their boats aground on this sandy shelving coast. In fact their fisher-boats, called Tagarabut, can be easily pulled up out of reach of the waves, and again pulled down and launched, like ancient Phoenicians and Greeks.”

I saw the same way of using the fisher-boats in Portugal at Nazaré, where the local fishermen believe, that they are descendents of the Phoenicians!

“The antiquity of the toponym is suggested by the fact that the town bears the same name as the river, a circumstance characterizing several ancient place names in this region.”

Further to the northwest we have to surpass three capes: Ras Aaka, Ras Timezzourga and Cape Mazarri. The last one is called Ad Promunturium Barbari in the Itinerarium Antonini and Ολεάστρον ακκρον by Ptolemeus (Geography IV 1,3). Close to it flows the Oued Imsa, where not far from its mouth a Punico-Mauro settlement has been found. It is mentioned in: En la orilla Africana del circuito del estrecho. Historiografia y proyectos actuales. Actes de II Seminario Hispano-Marroqui de especializacion en Arqueologia, 2008. See : p.240. fase III 2010. Tramo costero mediterraneo II Oued Lau-Cabo Negro.

M.Kbiri Alaoui reports on the settlement of Emsa in 2008: L’établissement préromain d’Emsa. Taradell has excavated here (cudiat Tebmain) in 1966. So far there are no Phoenician remains, but a Punic vestige from the end of the 4^th century BC is combined with a Mauro village. 

ncfps