Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T18:54:33.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey VII: An Interim Classification and Functional Analysis of Ancient Wall Technology and Land Use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

D. D. Gilbertson ,
P. P. Hayes ,
G. W. W. Barker  and
C. O. Hunt
D. D. Gilbertson
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield
P. P. Hayes
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield
G. W. W. Barker
Affiliation:
British School at Rome
C. O. Hunt
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Interpretations of ancient wall-technologies in the Libyan pre-desert are briefly reviewed. The forms, patterns, distributions and geological/geomorphic/hydrologic relationships of walls in a series of study areas are described and interpreted with the aid of a new, non-genetic, ‘wall-technology’ classification. The remarkable hydrological and geomorphic insights of their constructors are clear. Several wall types are shown to have been primarily concerned with functions other than water control, although this aspect is usually dominant. In some cases the location of the walls appears to have been likely to exacerbate the perennial problems of soil erosion and gullying, in others walls appear to have been constructed specifically to control soil erosion. These data have implications for reconstructing past land use and evaluating the degree of success or failure experienced in particular situations.

Type
Articles
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 15 , 1984 , pp. 45 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1984

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

Barker, G. W. W. 1981. Early Agriculture and Economic Change in North Africa. In Allan, J. A. (ed.) The Sahara: Ecological Change and Early Economic History: 131–145, Wisbech, Menas Press.Google Scholar
Barker, G. W. W. and Jones, G. D. B. 1981. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey, 1980. Libyan Studies 12: 9–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, G. W. W. and Jones, G. D. B. 1982. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey 1979–1981: Palaeo-economy and environmental archaeology in the pre-desert. Libyan Studies 13: 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, G. W. W., Gilbertson, D. D. and Hayes, P. P. 1980. Unpublished Specialists' Report to the Department of Antiquities, Tripoli, November, 1980.Google Scholar
Barker, G. W. W., Gilbertson, D. D., Griffin, C. M., Hayes, P. P. and Jones, D. A. 1983. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey V: Sedimentary properties of Holocene wadi floor and plateau deposits in Tripolitania, North-West Libya. Libyan Studies 14: 69–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barth, H. 1857. Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa. London, Longmans.Google Scholar
Betts, A. 1982. Prehistoric Sites at Qa'a Mejalla, Eastern Jordan. Levant XIV: 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betts, A. 1983. Black desert survey, Jordan: first preliminary report. Levant XV: 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betts, A. 1984. Black desert survey, Jordan: second preliminary report. Levant XVI: 25–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruins, H. J. and Evenari, M. 1985 in press. Runoff desert farming in five continents: past and present. In Gilbertson, 1985.Google Scholar
Bryan, K. 1929. Floodwater farming. Geographical Review 19(3): 444–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, J. R. and Mattingly, D. J. 1981. The wadi N'f'd survey. In Barker, and Jones, 1981: 24–33.Google Scholar
Dorsett, J. E., Gilbertson, D. D., Hunt, C. O. and Barker, G. W. W. 1984. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey VIII: Image analysis of Landsat Satellite data for archaeological and environmental survey. Libyan Studies 15: 71–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evenari, M., Shannon, L. and Tadmor, N. 1971. The Negev – The Challenge of a Desert. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Farrington, I. S. and Park, C. C. 1978. Hydraulic engineering and irrigation agriculture in the Moche Valley, Peru: c. AD 1250–1532. Journal of Archaeological Science 5: 255–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbertson, D. D. (ed.) 1985 (in press). Floodwater farming: past and present. Applied Geography, Special Volume. London, Butterworths Scientific.Google Scholar
Gilbertson, D. D. and Kennedy, D. L. 1984 (in press). An archaeological reconnaissance of ancient flood-water farms in the Jordanian desert, north of Azraq Oasis. Annals of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.Google Scholar
Helms, S. 1981. Jawa: Lost City of the Black Desert. London, Methuen.Google Scholar
Herold, L. C. 1970. Trincheras and Physical Environment along the Rio Gavahn, Chihuahua, Mexico. Denver, Colorado. University of Denver Publications in Geography. Technical Paper No. 65-1.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. L. 1973. Jabah-al-Akhdar, Cyrenaica: an Historical Geography of Settlement and Livelihood. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jones, G. D. B. and Barker, G. W. W. 1980. Libyan Valleys Survey. Libyan Studies 11:11–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G. D. B. and Barker, G. W. W. 1983. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey: the 1981 Season. Libyan Studies 14: 39–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G. D. B. and Barker, G. W. W. 1984. The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey VI: Investigations of a Romano-Libyan farm, Part I. Libyan Studies 15: 1–44.Google Scholar
Kennedy, D. L. 1982. Archaeological Explorations on the Roman Frontier in North East Jordan. Oxford, B.A.R. International Series 134.Google Scholar
Maitland, R. A. 1927. The works of the ‘Old Men’ in Arabia. Antiquity 1: 197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nabhan, G. P. 1979. The ecology of floodwater farming in arid south-western North America. Agro-Ecosystems 5: 245–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, L. W. B. 1929. The Trans Jordanian Desert. Antiquity 3: 389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohn, A. H. 1963. Prehistoric soil and water conservation on Chapin Mesa, South-western Colorado. American Antiquity 28(4): 441–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vita-Finzi, C. 1969. The Mediterranean Valleys. London, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vita-Finzi, C. 1971. Alluvial history of northern Libya since the last interglacial. In Gray, C. (ed.). Symposium on the Geology of Libya: 409–429. Tripoli, University of Tripoli.Google Scholar
Woodbury, R. B. 1961. Prehistoric Agriculture at Point of Pines, Arizona. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology no. 17: 48 pp.Google Scholar