
Thamugadi, a Roman outpost in Algeria, was saved by the Sahara - ryan_j_naughton
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2019/07-08/thamugadi-roman-outpost-ruins/
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chawco
This article seems to get Numidia screwed up twice — once calling it Mumidia,
and once referring to it as Nubia! It was a really important region
politically, especially in the lead up to the fall of the republic. Come on,
Nat Geo...

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markphip
I am curious how these discoveries are made and excavated. There are some
large structures here. Were they sticking out of the sand or completely
buried? Hard to imagine 20-30 feet of sand covering it all. Makes you wonder
what else is buried in various deserts around the world.

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Torwald
> I am curious how these discoveries are made and excavated.

In the case of a Roman fortification such as Thamugadi probably written
sources such as maps, lists for military or commercial use, history and so on.

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imvetri
I'm a Tamil speaker, from southern part of India. The word Thamugadi feels
like a Tamil word. Tha + mugam + adi.

Tha(give me) + mugadi (mugam+adi)(faceprint/ witness/ bless).

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jaoued
The word is actually Berber - Amazigh.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timgad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timgad)
Interesting though to see that the same word means something to someone else
in another culture. We're all connected somehow.

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zeristor
Exporting grain by wagons to the coast can’t have been that viable could it?
Am I missing something?

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dan-robertson
Why wouldn’t that be viable? Eg lots of grain came to Rome from Sicily and it
would need to make it to the coast from there somehow.

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jbattle
Ostia to Rome was only 30km and they could use barges on the Tiber to send
goods up/down

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dr_dshiv
I still hope there will be opportunities for discovering lost manuscripts in
desert climates like this.

