Waters and Cult Sites
The sites honouring Neptune could be water features or sanctuaries: In Thugga[1] a small temple was unearthed, the pediment of which bore an inscription hailing the god as master of the waters and father of the Nereids[2]. At Ain Drinn, waters from the spring have been collected since high antiquity and several inscriptions found there refer to a temple to the god Neptune. In the Tunisian Dorsal mountain range a temple was sited thanks to a sculpture representing Neptune. Other temples were dedicated to him at Guelma (ancient Calama), Carthage, Zama and Timgad. In most cases the buildings consecrated to the god were integrated in monumental complexes. Complementing these temples and monuments, stelae and mosaics representing the god show him with his usual attributes, namely the trident and the dolphin.
The Nymphaea[3], consecrated to water divinities were mostly built over a spring. They could serve both as a cult place and a public building. At Ain Mouss near Setif and also at Byzacena, monuments and inscriptions in honour of the nymphs and springs have been discovered. The temple-pool dedicated to Neptune in Lambaesis, the nyphaeum in Khamissa (Numidia), the nymphaeum in Sidi Khelifa/ Pheradi Majus (Tunisia) and the temple of Aqua Septimiana[4] in Timgad fall into that category. Thanks to the healing waters of a pool that takes up a vast courtyard, the temple became a pilgrimage destination. Finally there is a nymphaeum cum sanctuary in Zaghuan, built on the most important spring feeding into the Carthage aqueduct.
These nymphaea were dedicated to Greco-Roman water deities who had taken the place of ancient Berber water cults. It is likely that, in humble rural sanctuaries long vanished, the cult had continued under its primitive form during the Empire. But the clues enabling us to know today what kind of ceremony took place inside these water-based monuments are scarce. The statues of nymphs found in the Lambaesis nypheum, the statue of Neptune in the Pheradi Majus temple and the low relief of him found at Makhtar form a rather loose body of evidence. Contrary to African nymphaea, their Iberian counterparts provide more information. Indeed some cultic imagery illustrates the libations and censing rites as well as the personification of waters under the guise half-naked girls in their watery dens.
Africa in Roman times honoured the same gods as the rest of the Empire. First among equals was Neptune, followed by the nymphs and the genies of waters, rivers and wells. There are however instances of the survival of more ancient cults as they were, to wit the inscriptions addressed to the dragon. What stands out is the importance given hybrid cult forms wherein superstition and prophylactic practices played their part. The legends concerning demons lurking around springs, rivers and wells never ceased to exist and much of what is ancestral belief has held out in spite of Christianity and Islam. The water principle is thus at the crux of sacred, fabulous, supernatural and societal representations. Water has always reflected three dimensions: sacred, social and economic.
