Cet article traite de la question de l'origine de l'écriture libyco-berbère et de son développement. Après un aperçu sur les alphabets locaux du Nord et du Sud, une discussion sur les différentes opinions émises sur le sujet est donnée avec la mise en relief des arguments des tenants de la thèse locale et de ceux qui pensent que le libyco-berbère dérive du punique ou d'un prototype inconnu. L'important site inscrit d'Irlarlaren (Nord du Tadrart Akakus) est ensuite présenté. Plusieurs exemples graphiques sont empruntés à ce site ancien des Garamantes. Afin de déterminer leur origine et évolution et pour permettre de débattre de façon nouvelle la question de l'origine du libyco-berbère, deux graphies spiralées, très répandues dans le Sahara central et méridional sont examinées. Celles-ci sont en effet considérées ici comme des indices paléographiques permettant à la fois d'appuyer la thèse «classique» de l'origine du libyco-berbère à partir du (phénico-) punique et de soutenir l'antériorité du tifinagh ancien par rapport aux autres branches libyco-berbères. La même approche a été faite pour d'autres lettres libyco-berbères présentant des similitudes graphiques (et phonétiques) avec le (phénico-) punique. Après cela, le mode de formation des autres lettres est envisagé sous ses différents aspects: multiplication des traits et des points, barres à points, rotation, etc. En conclusion, l'hypothèse d'une écriture inspirée aux alentours du VIe s. av. J.-C. par le monde punique et développée par les Garamantes est argumentée. Il s'agit là d'arguments divers sur les synchronismes entre les Carthaginois et les Garamantes, et le rôle de ces derniers, mis au centre de ce débat.

The common assumption that the Libyans who governed Egypt during the ‘Third Intermediate Period’ (c. 1070–715 BC) were Egyptianised is misleading. The nature and provenance of the extant evidence tends to obscure the retention of their ethnic identity, but this is apparent in the persistence of Libyan names and titles in Egypt. The influence of these Libyans can be traced in the fragmented political structure of the period, which represents decentralisation, not anarchy; in the erosion of the distinction between king and subject; in the disintegration of convention in language and script; and in the cessation of elaborate preparation for death and the afterlife.

In 1840 the British Foreign Office decided to open a Vice-Consulate at the oasis of Murzuk, then still the main entrepot of the central Saharan trade in black Slaves from the Sudan to Tripoli and Benghazi. The post was to make first-hand reports on the slave traffic and promote British ‘legitimate’ trade and wider regional interests. A similar post was opened at Ghadames in 1850. Between 1843 and 1854, Vice Consul Giambattista Gagliuffi in Murzuk provided the Foreign Office with a series of yearly slaving statistics which formed the basic raw material for London's case for the abolition of this traffic. It still stands as a unique record of the central Saharan slave trade at probably its most active phase. Gagliuffi's attempts at trade promotion were not so successful, and when it also became clear that the Saharan slave trade would not, after all, be as easily eradicated as had once been supposed, the Foreign Office decided in 1860–61 to close both the Murzuk and Ghadames posts.

A 2015 court judgment in the United Kingdom ruled that a seized Libyan statue should be returned to the ownership of the State of Libya. The judgment prompts a critical discussion of the involvement of professional conservators in the trafficking of cultural objects. Higher standards of due diligence are recommended for conservators and other professional experts engaging with cultural objects that might have been stolen and trafficked. Stronger professional due diligence is but one component of a broader policy of demand reduction that will be necessary to control the theft and trafficking of cultural objects, and to offer protection to cultural sites around the world.

The core area of Cyrene, despite recent upheavals, benefits from well-managed controls and fences that so far seem to have stopped the looting, although not the vandalism. These fences act mainly as a psychological barrier; for the local people, everything inside the fences is seen as ‘more important’ than what is outside. However, it is impossible to enclose all the monumental tombs, rock-cut sanctuaries and ancient farms and fortifications. The first type of damage we see is due to looting, which is increasing, and acts of vandalism. The lack of regulation and police control as well as increased urbanisation have caused a lot of uncontrolled building, causing the further destruction of large sections of the necropolis. A second type of damage is due to the lack of maintenance. In order to help restore the sites, the Universities of Urbino, Chieti, Roma 3, Naples 2 and the Mission of the MIBACT at Giarabub, in collaboration with the DoA, have organised courses on ‘Rescue restoration in emergency’. Despite the growing number of inspectors and technicians in Cyrene, there are still not enough archaeologists, guards or restorers. This paper explains these general issues and, as a case study, the remote but important area of Giarabub.

This note gives a preliminary notice of the discovery of a further clausura in western Tripolitnia (Southern Tunisia). These linear barriers are assumed to have performed some function in customs regulation and the supervision of transhumance movements in the frontier zone, rather than being defensive barriers as such. The new discovery suggests that there may well be still others undiscovered in southern Tunisia and western Libya.

A project is being set up at Shahat to involve the local community in the protection of the archaeological heritage, by educating and informing the community through a series of lectures in secondary schools and guided on-site visits.

This paper discusses the preliminary results of analysis of faunal material from eight sites of Romano-Libyan and Islamic date. The sites are located in the pre-desert of Tripolitania. The samples were in general small and the bones were not well preserved, the degree of fragmentation being high. Although a range of species is represented, the economic strategy depended upon the exploitation of sheep and goats. In the southern part of the study area gazelles were also of importance. Sheep and goats were raised primarily as meat animals, being killed principally during their second year of life. The basic economic system seems to have persisted for a long time, although slight differences can be detected between sites of Romano-Libyan date and of Islamic date.

The coinage of Euesperides was always minor in comparison with that of Cyrene, or even of Barca. But its sporadic issues do have an interest of their own. At this session we are also concerned with the city, and I wish to suggest what we can learn from the numismatic evidence — not just from the coins struck there, but from the coins of other mints which have been found there.

It is preferable to speak generally of the ‘coinage’ of Euesperides rather than of its ‘mint’, for it seems certain that some of the issues bearing the city's name were actually produced at Cyrene, as indeed were also some issues of Barca. The coinage of Euesperides was always small in comparison with the older and much richer coinage of Cyrene. It is instructive that the catalogue proper of Robinson's BMC Cyrenaica requires 90 pages to list the autonomous and Ptolemaic coins struck at Cyrene, 18 for those of Barca, just 4 for Euesperides.

For Euesperides there are no archaic tetradrachms, the denomination so prominent in a variety of types at Cyrene. The earliest Euesperidean coin in BMC, a drachm of types silphium/dolphin, is assigned by Robinson to before 480 BC.

The authors have had extensive experience in the adaptation of the South Australian dryfarming rotation of cereals and medicago to Libyan agriculture. This paper examines the use of annual medicago (medics) in Libya and notes the way it can reverse the modern trends of declining yields and pasture. The Australian system of medic/cereal rotation is compared with Romano-Libyan practice and contrasted with modern European farming. It is suggested that medicago may have been one of the underlying factors in the notable success of Romano-Libyan farming and that it has a major role to play in future agricultural regeneration.

There was a time when the Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford was prosperous enough to support a venture which called itself the Ashmolean Expedition to Cyrenaica. The form this exercise took was the excavation over three seasons between 1952 and 1954 of parts of the site of the Greek city of Euesperides situated on the outskirts of Benghazi (Fig. 1 ).

Euesperides does not figure large in history. We first hear of it in 515 in connection with the revolt of Barca from the Persians: a punitive expedition was sent by the satrap in Egypt and it marched as far west as Euesperides. Euesperides played a part in the downfall of the Battiads, the ruling house of Cyrene. Arcesilas IV tried to create a safe haven against the day when his regime might be overthrown, and in 462 in effect refounded the city with a new body of settlers attracted from all over Greece.

In 1977 it was decided to concentrate all efforts on the cemetery of Saniat ben Howedi and answer certain questions unanswered in 1973. In that year it appeared that where the cemetery mound stood at its highest, upper and lower tombs existed. Work had been concentrated on the upper layer and some 30 tombs were dug. They were all found to be either circular drum-like structures, 6–8 ft in size, or larger, square constructions 10–12 ft across, with a central circular shaft. The tombs, for the most part, faced east and had stele, or ‘hands’ and offering tables on their principal side. Sometimes these were placed within an area enclosed, or partly surrounded by a low mud-brick wall, which contained other vessels, clearly intended as offerings for the deceased.

Although the skeletons had survived (where the tombs had not been robbed), finds were sparse, consisting mainly of lamps, jug/flagons, local imitations of fine red ware plate/dishes, with the occasional genuine fine red ware plate. Dating was difficult, but where possible it suggested the third—fourth centuries (if not the fifth).

Investigation showed that where the mound was not present the circular and later square tombs appeared to have been built either against, or directly on top of, earlier tombs. Two of these earlier tombs were excavated and found to contain a mass of late first-century pottery, in a somewhat damaged state. This consisted of amphoras, fine red ware bowls and dishes, mostly of northern Italian manufacture, imported and local coarse ware vessels, as well as glass and faience bowls. In each tomb a saddle quern, broken, and a smashed soft chalk rubber were found, suggesting that the occupants had been female. The skeletons, unfortunately, had survived in neither case. One tomb, no.15 in the cemetery numbering system, faced west, the other, no.17, faced east. Both had survived intact from antiquity, but the objects within them, especially no.17, were, in many cases, badly shattered (see the Fourth Annual Report of the Society, p.35).

The paper presents the results of an examination of two Roman kiln sites located by the late R. G. Goodchild, at Tazzoli and Ain Scersciara in the Gebel. They produced amphorae of forms Tripolitana I-III together with coarse wares and tiles. The material is described and illustrated, and the fabrics are examined petrologically as a guide to identification.

With the exception of two epigraphic references and a surviving example at Ptolemais, paintings have vanished from the ancient buildings of Cyrenaica along with the walls that supported them. Only the rock-cut tombs offer a rich conspectus of funerary paintings from Hellenistic to early Christian times. These attracted the attention of several early travellers and archaeologists, but they have never been the object of detailed interpretative study.

Here an account is given of ten painted tombs, beginning with the Hellenistic ‘Tomb of the Swing’ at Cyrene, the painted metopes of which are now in the Musée du Louvre. Roman imperial occupation of Hellenistic tombs at Cyrene is represented by the Tomb of the veteran Gaius Ammonius. Several tombs at Cyrene were decorated in late antiquity; here the tomb of the Good Shepherd and the Tomb of Demetria are discussed. Of particular interest are the late Roman tombs in rural sites such as Beit Ammer and Zawiet Asgafa, in which classical myth and Homeric epic are treated, the products of a culture still nourished by the remote past.

Controversy surrounds the reason why the centenaria were introduced into the pre-desert area of Tripolitania. This paper examines two conflicting theories; that of Goodchild that they were military in origin and that of Brogan and the Unesco Libyan Valleys team that they were in the main merely substantial private dwellings. The main contribution of this study is to provide new evidence from Latino-Punic inscriptions that the centenaria were private dwellings on private land.

The Western Marmarica Coastal Survey continued its work in 2010, concentrating upon an area roughly 10 km square around Marsa Lukk. Significant early material was found, from the Middle Stone Age to the Neolithic and, for the first time, a local chert source was identified in the area. A number of Early Roman sites, previously underrepresented at this period in the area, were identified, as well as Late Roman farms. The inventory of rock art sites also increased significantly and motifs recur across the area.

The Fezzan Project completed its five-year fieldwork cycle in 2001. The geographical research team located numerous additional palaeolake sites within the Edeyen Ubari, using a combination of Remote Sensing technology and field visits. Additional samples were taken for analysis and dating from many lake edge locations, relating to both the large Pleistocene lake and to the numerous smaller Holocene lakes that have been identified by the team. The excavations at Old Germa were taken down through Garamantian occupation levels to the natural subsoil below the earliest cultural horizon. The earliest activity, represented by a few mudbrick walls and hearths built directly on the natural soil, is believed to date to c. 400-300 BC. Traces of several phases of Garamantian buildings were uncovered, along with numerous rubbish pits, which yielded a rich assemblage of finds, including, for the first time, examples of Garamantian figurines, small 3-D sculptures of humans and animals. Work on the various classes of finds (pottery, small finds, lithics and other stone artefacts, metallurgical evidence, etc.) complemented the excavation work. In addition, a small amount of further survey work was carried out on sites in the Wadi al-Ajal, along with a contour survey of Old Germa and standing building survey at a number of other sites.

A third season of excavation and finds analysis at Euesperides in March/April 1998 completed the fieldwork of the project begun in 1995.

Further examination of the city defences suggests that their first phase should be dated not later than the early sixth century BC. The earliest masonry buildings within (and abutting) the city wall seem to belong to the 580s/570s BC. Other discoveries included a plain pebble pavement and a decorated ‘mixed style’ mosaic which should pre-date c. 250 BC, as well as an enchytrismos burial of the fourth century BC. The preliminary results of detailed study of the coins, pottery and lamps, and of scientific analyses of wallplaster and metal, are also presented.

Recent surveys conducted by the Italo-Libyan Joint Mission of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in the region of Wadi Tanezzuft (Libyan Sahara) revealed a huge number of sites characterised by the presence of stone tumuli and other megalithic constructions, usually associated with funerary rituals. During the 1999-2000 field seasons, one of these sites—site 96/129—was subjected to systematic excavation, revealing the construction technique of these monuments and showing evidence of human burials. It sheds new light on the funerary practices and anthropological features of the ancient populations of the region. Radiocarbon determinations placed this site at the very end of the Late Pastoral culture, some 3000 uncalibrated years bp. The skeletal material generally shows a good state of preservation and has been the object of a first morphological appraisal. The population of site 96/129 comprised long-limbed and relatively gracile humans, with labour-related afflictions; their dental dimensions consistently follow the trend of dental reduction known for post-Pleistocene human populations. Of great interest are the relationships with the emergence of Garamantian civilisation. Some traits of the funerary practices show the existence of a local heritage, whose roots may be sought in prehistoric times, in particular the position of the corpses and features of grave goods. On the other hand, the presence of multiple burials, the evidence of burnt animal bones, together with small concentrations of ashes in the monuments seem in contrast with the known funerary practices of prehistoric Pastoral sites of the Acacus and surroundings. Such evidence is compared with the regional analysis of megalithic architecture in the Tanezzuft valley, and discloses a tantalising perspective on the cultural trajectories and related biological pulsation in the area.

In recent years basic regional geological mapping of northern Libya by the Industrial Research Centre, Tripoli, together with the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey of eastern Tripolitania and the work of the author and Dr S. M. Ghellali in the Jifarah Plain and Jabal Nafusah, have greatly added to our knowledge of Quaternary deposits in the region. This work is described and evaluated against the background of earlier studies. The succession of major depositional, soil forming and erosional events which characterise the fluvio-aeolian deposits of the Jifarah Formation can be recognised in, and thus used to subdivide, laterally equivalent aeolianite, fangravel and wadi gravel deposits in the Jifarah Plain. Comparisons of this succession with others from throughout the region indicate that the events are of regional significance and that the Jifarah sequence provides a sound framework for lithostratigraphic correlation and a basis for facies analysis and chronostratigraphic studies.

This review is largely limited to the northern margins of Libya north of the 30th parallel (Fig. 1). It is convenient to subdivide the zone into several regions. These are:

(a) The Jifarah Plain and foothills of the Jabal Nafusah.

(b) The Hammada Al Hamra Plateau and major valleys of eastern Tripolitania.

(c) The coastal region from Misratah to Ajdabiyah.

(d) Cyrenaica from Soluq to Al Bardia.