Tunisia - The ancient quarries of numbed marble of Chimtou

A geological formation of exceptional scientific interest, the hills of Chimtou, the ancient Numidian city of Simitthus, which was deduced as a Roman colony under the Emperor Octavian-Augustus, consist of a limestone of a color ranging from creamy white to brick red with a dominant yellow gold. It is this last color which has him the celebrity and the wide diffusion. Operated from the reign of Numidian king Micipsa (148-118 BC) and introduced to Rome from the beginning of the 1st century BC despite the disapproval of moralists who considered its use as a shameful display of luxury as reported by the Latin author Pliny the Elder, this new material that the Romans called marmor numidicum (numidic marble) quickly became very popular in the decoration of public monuments and patrician houses. Most likely royal property under the Numidian kings, quarries became an imperial property in Roman times. For more than two centuries (from the Julio-Claudian period until the end of that of the Severian emperors), the exploitation was ensured by a staff mainly trained of imperial slaves and condemned ad metella under the supervision of a detachment of the Roman army of Africa. A military camp - prison (praesidium-ergastulum) was built at the foot of the north slope of the quarries, to accommodate all of this staff. It is from this period that date the many traces of extraction that constitute a rare and invaluable testimony on the techniques and methods of exploitation.