الماء و المقدس في شمال أفريقيا خلال المرحلة الرومانية

الملخص EN

The people of North Africa have held water sacred in all its forms since the beginning of antiquity, believing that it embodies several deities capable of protecting fresh water and ensuring its continued flow, with several of them able to heal the sick and generate the fertility desired by both urban and rural populations.

Contrary to expectations, the worship of local deities continued during the Roman period, despite the spread of Greco-Roman deities.

Contrary to common belief, the worship of local deities continued during the Roman period despite the spread of deities of Greco-Roman origin.

Historical and archaeological studies have demonstrated the failure of the Roman interpretatio romana process and indicated the possibility of what might be called interpretatio Africana.

This means that the local gods contain few traces of the Roman gods besides borrowed emblems such as the three-pointed spear of Neptunus and the serpent wrapped around the staff of the god of medicine Aesculapius, which are combined by the sculpture of a local idol in Althiburos.

As some Greco-Roman deities showed, Neptunus was transformed from a god of the sea in the coastal regions to a god of springs in the interior regions on the grounds of the population's need for a god capable of protecting their underground and surface water resources, and its conformity with a religious context that predated the Roman age.