Urban life in early Islamic Morocco

New light from the excavations at Walīla (Roman Volubilis)

Bibliographic Data

ID19476995
AuthorsElizabeth Fentre (0000-0002-2801-7977, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK), C G Fenwick (0000-0002-4645-517X, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK), Hassan Limane (Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP), Morocco)
Year2022
Volume25
Issue1
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchaeology International (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1463-1725 • E-ISSN: 2048-4194
PublisherUCL Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.14324/111.444.ai.2022.08
OpenAlexW4317396431
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited12

This article presents a research update from the INSAP-UCL excavations at the UNESCO site of medieval Walīla (Roman Volubilis), Morocco. Though the site is best known as the Roman city of Volubilis, in the Middle Ages, and by then called Walīla, it took on a new importance as a Berber centre, the probable locale of an Umayyad or Abbasid garrison and the capital of Idrīs I, the founder of one of the earliest Islamic states in Morocco. It is the only site in Morocco – and in North Africa more generally – where excavations have uncovered substantial evidence of eighth-century urbanism. As such, Walīla provides an exceptional opportunity to investigate the nature of a Berber town and its transformation into, for a short time, the centre of one of the earliest Islamic states in North Africa. This article presents a summary of our results from the four seasons of fieldwork that have taken place so far, between 2018 and 2022

Ancient history · Archaeology · Excavation · Geography · Islam · Middle Ages · Middle East · Urbanism · African Studies and Geopolitics · Historical Studies of Medieval Iberia · History · Medieval Architecture and Archaeology · Architecture

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