General Layout
The city as it exists today consists essentially of remains from the Roman era dating for the most part to the 2nd and 3rd century CE. The Roman builders had to take account both of the site’s particularly craggy terrain and of earlier constructions, which led them to abandon the normal layout of Roman settlements, as is also particularly evident in places such as Timgad.
Recent archaeological digs have confirmed the continuity in the city’s urban development. The heart of the city has always been at the top of the hill, where the forum replaced the Numidian agora. As Dougga developed, urban construction occupied the side of the hill, so that the city must have resembled “a compact mass”, according to Hédi Slim
Early archaeological digs concentrated on public buildings, which meant that private buildings tended at first to be uncovered at the ends of the trenches dug for this purpose. Later, trenches were cut with the purpose of exposing particularly characteristic private buildings.
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