In antiquity the city of Simitthus/Chimtou, 180 kilometres west of Tunis, was famed above all for its yellow marble, one of the most popular varieties of marble in the Roman Empire. The Roman city and its quarries have been the subject of research conducted by the Rome Department of the DAI since 1965.
The most spectacular find so far was a product of chance: during the building of the local museum, archaeologists of the German Archaeological Insitute in cooperation with the Institut National du Patrimoine Tunis came upon a hoard of 1,648 gold coins from the late empire. The coin hoard is one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in Tunisia and also one of the most famous numismatic find ensembles from the entire Roman Empire. The images stamped on the coins provide important information about economic, financial and also political events and culture at this point in ancient history. At the end of 2019, an exhibition about the coin hoard will open at the Musée National du Bardo in Tunis.
The coin hoard in situ (Photo: DAI) 
Detail of one of the gold coins (Photo: Mustapha Khanoussi) 
Remains of the aqueduct in Chimtou (Photo: D. Gauss, DAI Rome) 
The first excavator, Friedrich Racob, with local workmen in the quarry, c.1970 (Photo: D-DAI-ROM-RAK-03525)