Recent work has shown early modern human occupation at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, dating as far back as MIS 9 (337–300 Ka). Such early dates double the period in which modern humans were present in North Africa, with implications for several key debates on modern human origins and subsequent spread. Routes across a ‘Green Sahara’ allowed population movement intermittently from sub-Saharan Africa and across the Saharan region in general. This has implications for the debate about the timing and routes of modern human expansion across and out of Africa, but also has the effect of focusing discussion on the archaeological record of sub-Saharan Africa and even Arabia for evidence of human behaviour and adaptations. This may be unfortunate as the record for much of the vast area of sub-Saharan Africa and Arabia is extremely limited and the more detailed record of the Levantine region is overlooked. Work at the Haua Fteah and in its surrounding region (Cyrenaican Libya) provides an opportunity to investigate how far the Palaeolithic record for this part of North Africa is, in fact, a product of trans-Saharan, North African or Levantine, influences. The genetic evidence suggests the process of modern human expansion out of Africa, and just as importantly within Africa itself, was a complex one that may have involved population movements into and out of North Africa from several different directions. A concentration upon the Green Sahara hypothesis may distract current research from this broader picture.

This contribution offers a new reading of the ancient landscape of the periphery of Lepcis Magna thanks mainly to the data from the survey campaigns carried out by the Archaeological Mission of Roma Tre University (2007–13) together with new archival research and GIS analysis. The new data are related to the road network of the Lepcitanian territory and its inner suburban areas. They include both the already known routes (essentially the coastal via publica and the via in mediterraneum) and new roads here presented merging the new information with the already published archaeological evidence. Beside the road network, a new topographic reading of the south-east suburb shows also traces of an ancient land partition based on Roman measurements. This latter discovery would represent, up to now, the first evidence of a cadastrian land partition in Tripolitania.

Among the members of a religious college revealed by a monumental Latin inscription recently discovered in the medina of Sousse (Hadrumetum, Proconsular Africa), there is a member in charge of moctor. This is in fact an unprecedented function among the clergy of the temples of the Roman-African cities. It seems to have been formed from the Semitic consonantal skeleton KTR or QTR, which we find in KTRT (incense) and QTRT (perfume) words. Thus, it is quite possible that moctor is a nominal Semitic form of the root KTR / QTR prefixed with M to designate in the Phoenicio-Punic etymology the ‘offering to incense’. This evidence of a function of Semitic origin in a Latin inscription is not unusual when one understands the privileged place occupied by incense in rituals of Punic and Oriental cults. Similarly, the presence of this function is not surprising in a city with a significant Phoenician-Punic foundation and heritage. If this comparison is plausible, we will have here additional evidence of the resurgence of the religious vocabulary of Semitic origin among the religious language of the Roman provinces of Africa.

The paper presents first results of a joint German–Tunisian research project in Carthage, Tunisia. Archaeological fieldwork has been undertaken (preceded by a geophysical survey) in the southwestern quarter of the ancient city to study the architecture, chronology and urban context of the circus. The area has, unlike the rest of Carthage, not been targeted by excavations of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries and, also unlike the rest of Carthage, is mostly not overbuilt, although under pressure from neighbouring communities. The area is the last one allowing a large-scale diachronic urban study in which the circus and its impact on the quarter is in the centre. From our first results, we can date the beginning of the construction of the circus to the late first century AD, with interventions in the early third century and usage continuing into the sixth. We were able to define the extension of the northern cavea and to study the western part of the spina and identify the meta at this point. Information has been obtained on early Roman, pre-circus use of the area as well as data on the Punic phases. Sixth- and seventh-century levels are also well preserved.

In the course of my research on Cyrenaican funerary sculptures, such as the remarkable ‘Mourning Women’ and ‘Funerary Divinities’ and the distinctive local funerary portraits, I realised to my dismay that a large part of this archaeological material has been or is currently on sale on the international art market. The number of sales of these sculptures on the art market demonstrates the extent of looting over the past twenty years in the Greek necropoleis of Libya. These sales show in particular that the degree of tomb destruction has increased exponentially during the past ten years. This preliminary discussion has three main objectives: 1) to alert and to inform the world about this destruction in order to help end the looting; 2) to describe the operational modes of the illicit trade in antiquities on the art market; and 3) to study and document these sculptures, which are important evidence for understanding the culture and history of ancient Cyrenaica.

The walls of Zuwila constitute one of the most impressive defensive enceintes among Libyan Saharan oasis towns, but hitherto their construction date has been uncertain. A new AMS radiocarbon date now offers the strongest support for an association with the establishment of the Banu Khattab dynasty at Zuwila in the early tenth century AD, as some previous commentators had suspected. The walls relate to a fortress of approximately 4.5 hectares built on the north flank of an already long-established Saharan town. No detailed account of these walls has ever been published before, though Charles Daniels did carry out a survey of them in 1968 and a summary description was included in the work of the Fazzan Project. Now that these walls can be more securely dated, a full description is merited. The present study is partly based on the unpublished notes and photographs of Charles Daniels. The walls of Zuwila can now firmly be included among Libya's most important medieval monuments.