The exotic animal trade from Roman provinces. The results of animal remains study from the Roman town of Thamusida (Kénitra, Morocco)

Abstract

Thamusida (Kénitra, Morocco) was an ancient Roman town in Morocco, its origin date back to the Flavian era (second half of the 1st century CE), when a little village of Mauri was occupied and transformed into a Roman military camp, which later on started being surrounded by a small town, with public buildings, temples, and well-established productive activities. The presence of the remains of numerous African wild animals (lion, hyena, hartebeest, gazelle, reedbuck, ostrich, etc.) in the Roman layers (1st −3rd c. AD) of the town will be here analysed and discussed in detail. Some of them were certainly common in Morocco in ancient times. It is likely that the Roman town was a place where to perform military functions but also to sort exotic animals to send to other regions of the Roman Empire (Hispania, Lusitania and Gallia Narbonense) for supplying for the amphitheatre games. The city of Thamusida was an important commercial hub for this kind of export to other areas of the Empire. The data will be also compared with those from other Roman towns of Morocco.