Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T18:58:52.937Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

DMP XIV: Prehistoric sites in the Wadi Barjuj, Fazzan, Libyan Sahara

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2014

Marta Mirazón Lahr ,
Robert Foley ,
Federica Crivellaro ,
José Maillo Fernandez ,
Alex Wilshaw ,
Ben Copsey ,
Frances Rivera  and
David Mattingly
Marta Mirazón Lahr
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
Robert Foley
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
Federica Crivellaro
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
José Maillo Fernandez
Affiliation:
Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueologia, UNED, Spain
Alex Wilshaw
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
Ben Copsey
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
Frances Rivera
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK
David Mattingly
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper reports on the fifth season of fieldwork for the Palaeoanthropology part of the Desert Migrations Project. Previous seasons established an extensive archaeological map based on a wide survey of the rich record along the edges of the Ubari Sand Sea, a small area of the Messak Settafet, the Wadi al-Ajal, the Wadi ash-Shati and the Wadi Barjuj. These surveys, complemented with small excavations, demonstrated a deep prehistory to the Fazzan, with Mode 1 technologies, Acheulean, Mode 3 (classic Levallois, large blade technologies, and Aterian), and Late Stone Age and Neolithic assemblages, some with pottery and grinding stones. The focus of the 2011 season was the Wadi Barjuj. This is an extensive wadi system to the South of the Messak, running along the northern edge of the Murzuq Sand Sea, and draining towards the east. Geomorphologically, it comprises old channel cut and fill gravels, usually finely graded, with areas of ancient lacustrine duricrusts, some of which are elevated significantly above the landscape. Surveys, complementing those of 2008, revealed a particularly rich and extensive Holocene series of sites, with microliths, pottery and grinding stones. These sites indicate a dense early Holocene occupation which seems associated with both hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. In addition, there was a low frequency of MSA lithics (compared to other survey areas), although one extremely rich site (BJJ4) had a very large number of water-worn, highly diagnostic small bifaces, characteristics of some Africa MSA traditions. Acheulean was relatively rare. One restricted locality (BJJ6) provided further evidence for a Mode 1 presence in the region, similar to that reported earlier from the Messak and Wadi ash-Shati (Mirazón Lahr et al. 2009, 2010). The context for the finds suggests that at various points during the Pleistocene the Wadi Barjuj was a low lying, swampy and/or lacustrine region, possibly riverine at times, and attractive to hominin populations because of its relatively rich resource base. This paper describes the localities and finds underpinning these conclusions.

Type
Archaeological Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 42 , 2011 , pp. 117 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barham, L. and Mitchell, P. 2008. The First Africans. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cremaschi, M. and di Lernia, S. 1999. Holocene climatic changes and cultural dynamics in the Libyan Sahara. African Archaeological Review 16: 211–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
di Lernia, S. (ed.) 1999. The Uan Afuda Cave Hunter-Gatherer Societies of Central Sahara. Arid Zones Monograph 1, Firenze.Google Scholar
di Lernia, S. 1999. The cultural sequence. In: di Lernia, S., (ed.), The Uan Afuda Cave Hunter-Gatherer Societies of Central Sahara. Arid Zones Monograph 1, Firenze: 57–130.Google Scholar
Foley, R.A. 1981. Off-site archaeology and human adaptation in Eastern Africa: An analysis of regional artefact density in the Amboseli, southern Kenya. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 97, Oxford.Google Scholar
Garcea, E.A.A. Ed. 2001. Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara. Arid Zone Monograph 2, Firenze.Google Scholar
Geyh, M.A. and Thiedig, F. 2008. The Middle Pleistocene Al Mahrúqah Formation in the Murzuq Basin, northern Sahara, Libya – evidence for orbitally-forced humid episodes during the last 500,000 years. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 257: 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuper, R. 1996. Between the Oases and the Nile – Djara: Rohlfs' Cave in the Western Desert. In: Krzyzaniak, L., Kroeper, K. and Kobusewicz, M. (eds.), Interregional Contacts in the Later Prehistory of Northeastern Africa. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan: 81–91.Google Scholar
Leakey, M.D. 1971. Olduvai Gorge, Vol. III. Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D., Lahr, M., Armitage, S., Barton, H., Dore, J., Drake, N., Foley, R., Merlo, S., Salem, M., Stock, J. and White, K. 2007. Desert migrations: people, environment and culture in the Libyan Sahara. Libyan Studies 38: 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, M. 1991. Origins of the Neolithic in the Nile Valley as seen from Dakhleh Oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert. Sahara 4: 41–52.Google Scholar
Mirazón Lahr, M. 2010. Saharan Corridors and Their Role in the Evolutionary Geography of ‘Out of Africa I’. In Fleagle, J.J., Shea, F.E.Grine, A.L.Baden, and Leakey, R.E. (eds), Out of Africa I: The First Hominin Colonization of Eurasia. Springer, New York: 27–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mirazón Lahr, M. and Foley, R.A. in press. Extreme evolution: the role of the Sahara in human evolution and prehistory. In: Ruebens, K., Romanowska, I. and Byno, R. (eds), Title to be confirmed, Southampton Archaeology Monograph Series. Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Mirazón Lahr, M., Foley, R., Armitage, S., Barton, H., Crivellaro, F., Drake, N., Hounslow, M., Maher, L., Mattingly, D., Salem, M., Stock, J. and White, K. 2008. DMP III: Pleistocene and Holocene palaeoenvironments and prehistoric occupation of Fazzan, Libyan Sahara. Libyan Studies 39: 263–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mirazón Lahr, M., Foley, R., Crivellaro, F.; Okumura, M., Maher, L., Davies, T., Veldhuis, D., Wilshaw, A. and Mattingly, D. 2009. DMP VI: Preliminary results from 2009 fieldwork on the human prehistory of the Libyan Sahara. Libyan Studies 40: 143–162.Google Scholar
Mirazón Lahr, M., Foley, R., Crivellaro, F., Maillo Fernandez, J., Wilshaw, A., Purdon, A., Halladay-Garrett, C., Veldhuis, D. and Mattingly, D. 2010. DMP XI: Preliminary results from 2010 fieldwork on the human prehistory of the Libyan Sahara. Libyan Studies 41: 133–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Semaw, S., Rogers, M. and Stout, D. 2009. The Old-owan-Acheulian Transition: Is there a “Developed Oldowan” Artifact Tradition? In Camps, M. and Chauhan, P. (eds), Source Book of Paleolithic Transitions. Springer, New York: 173–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar