Archaeology and Environment in the Libyan Sahara

Archaeology and Environment in the Libyan Sahara

Author: Barbara E. Barich

Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13:

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Barbara E. Barich with contributions by Massimo Baistrocchi, Giorgio Belluomini, Isabella Caneva, Angela E. Close, Achilles Gautier, Luigia Manfra, Bruno Marcolongo, Alberto M. Palmieri, Erhard Schulz and Sandra Y. Vons-Comis


Wadi Teshuinat. Palaeoenvironment and Prehistory in South-Western Fezzan (Libyan Sahara). Survey and Excavations in Tadrart Acacus, Erg Uan Kasa, Messak Settafet an Edeyen of Murzuq 1990-1995 (CNR, Quaderni di Geodinamica Alpina e Quaternaria, Milano, 7)

Wadi Teshuinat. Palaeoenvironment and Prehistory in South-Western Fezzan (Libyan Sahara). Survey and Excavations in Tadrart Acacus, Erg Uan Kasa, Messak Settafet an Edeyen of Murzuq 1990-1995 (CNR, Quaderni di Geodinamica Alpina e Quaternaria, Milano, 7)

Author: Savino Di Lernia

Publisher: All’Insegna del Giglio

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 8878141445

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Il volume è relativo alla campagna archeologica condotta nel 2006 dall'Università La Sapienza’ di Roma e dal Dipartimento di Archeologia di Tripoli nel Sahara libico, nelle aree date in concessione ad ENI North Africa. La documentazione è affidata essenzialmente alle fotografie. Sono riportate, oltre a foto che illustrano le sequenze delle attività di scavo e i reperti ceramici e litici, numerose foto inedite di pitture ed incisioni rupestri. Il testo è in lingua inglese e costituisce il primo rapporto ufficiale sul rischio archeologico nelle aree nelle quali vengono compiute delle ricerche petrolifere. Survey and excavations in the Tadrart Acacus, Erg Uan Kasa, Messak Settafet and Edeyen of Murzuq, 1990-1995


Edeyen of Murzuq. Archaeological Survey in the Libyan Sahara

Edeyen of Murzuq. Archaeological Survey in the Libyan Sahara

Author: Savino Di Lernia

Publisher: All’Insegna del Giglio

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 8878143529

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Il volume è relativo alla campagna archeologica condotta nel 2006 dall’Università ‘La Sapienza’ di Roma e dal Dipartimento di Archeologia di Tripoli nel Sahara libico, nelle aree date in concessione ad ENI North Africa. La documentazione è affidata essenzialmente alle fotografie. Sono riportate, oltre a foto che illustrano le sequenze delle attività di scavo e i reperti ceramici e litici, numerose foto inedite di pitture ed incisioni rupestri. Il testo è in lingua inglese e costituisce il primo rapporto ufficiale sul rischio archeologico nelle aree nelle quali vengono compiute delle ricerche petrolifere.


Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara

Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara

Author: Elena A. A. Garcea

Publisher: All’Insegna del Giglio

Published: 2001-07-01

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 8878141844

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Uan Tabu is a rockshelter on the left bank of the central valley of the Wadi Teshuinat, which is a main ancient water course in the Tadrart Acacus mountain range. It is located in the Fezzan region, south-western Libya (Great Jamahirya). The site was discovered by Fabrizio Mori in 1960 and was re-excavated and studied by a multi-disciplinary team at the beginning of the 1990s. It has also remarkable rock art that includes paintings from the Round Head and Pastoral phases. Between 1960 and 1963, a trench was dug into the archaeological deposit at the foot of the rock wall. The results of the 1960s’ excavation have never been published before, apart from some brief notes. They are thoroughly described and discussed in the present volume. Between 1990 and 1993, the excavation was resumed and extended. The 1990s’ excavation has been preliminarily published. Further information and details are now presented and commented. A stratigraphic and cultural correlation between the two excavations is also attempted in this volume. Four main archaeological and paedological units were identified and dated. They spanned from the Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene. The earliest one, dating to the Pleistocene, included an Aterian techno-complex and was dated to around 61,000 years BP. Later, during the Early Holocene, a ‘pre-pastoral’ occupation occurred since the 10th millennium bp. This period was differentiated in two phases characterised by different socio-cultural systems: 1. during the Early Acacus (around 9800-8800 years bp), the site was used on a seasonal basis, probably during the dry season, for practising hunting activities; 2. during the Late Acacus (around 8800-8600 years bp), a more sedentary lifestyle was hypothesised for the inhabitants of the site. These two cultural facies comprised the upper three units. The fourth phase of occupation of the shelter was only attested to the surface of the site, but it could be still considered as an indication of the use of the site during the Late Holocene, as late as the 4th millennium bp. A dung fill in the wall of the rockshelter dated to the end of this, Late Pastoral, phase and is the only evidence for domesticated animals.


The Sahara

The Sahara

Author: Jeremy Keenan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-18

Total Pages: 511

ISBN-13: 1317970004

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This collection examines the Sahara holistically from the earliest (prehistoric) times through the ‘historical’ period to the present and with political direction into the future. The contributions cover palaeoclimatology, history, archaeology (cultural heritage), social anthropology, sociology, politics and international affairs. Structured chronologically, the volume can almost be read as a narrative of the Sahara from the earliest times to the present, i.e. from the past climates of the Sahara in prehistoric times to the current ‘war on terror’ and its implications for the peoples of the Sahara. Importantly, the collection shows how the region must be approached ‘holistically’, highlighting the importance of each of these subject areas (palaeo-climates, history, politics, etc.) in relation to each other. Indeed, the first contribution is a remarkable (and unique) paper, bringing together the work of some 8-9 internationally recognised scientists to tell the story and show the relevance to the present day of the Sahara’s past climates etc. Nearly all the contributions stand in their own right at the cutting edge of research in their respective fields (e.g. archaeology, history, politics, etc.). This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of North African Studies.


The Intangible Elements of Culture in Ethnoarchaeological Research

The Intangible Elements of Culture in Ethnoarchaeological Research

Author: Stefano Biagetti

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-06-02

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 3319231537

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This volume focuses on the intangible elements of human cultures, whose relevance in the study of archaeology has often been claimed but rarely practiced. In this book, the authors successfully show how the adoption of ethnoarchaeological perspectives on non-material aspects of cultures can support the development of methodologies aimed at refining the archaeological interpretation of ancient items, technologies, rituals, settlements and even landscape. The volume includes a series of new approaches that can foster the dialogue between archaeology and anthropology in the domain of the intangible knowledge of rural and urban communities. The role of ethnoarchaeology in the study of the intangible heritage is so far largely underexplored, and there is a considerable lack of ethnoarchaeological studies explicitly focused on the less tangible evidence of present and past societies. Fresh case studies will revitalize the theoretical debate around ethnoarchaeology and its applicability in the archaeological and heritage research in the new millennium. Over the past decade, ‘intangible’ has become a key word in anthropological research and in heritage management. Archaeological theories and methods regarding the explorations of the meaning and the significance of artifacts, resources, and settlement patterns are increasingly focusing on non-material evidence. Due to its peculiar characteristics, ethnoarchaeology can effectively foster the development of the study of the intangible cultural heritage of living societies, and highlight its relevance to the study of those of the past.


The Archaeology of Drylands

The Archaeology of Drylands

Author: Graeme Barker

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 1134582641

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Many dryland regions contain archaeological remains which suggest that there must have been intensive phases of settlement in what now seem to be dry and degraded environments. This book discusses successes and failures of past land use and settlement in drylands, and contributes to wider debates about desertification and the sustainability of dryland settlement.


Ethnoarchaeology of the Kel Tadrart Tuareg

Ethnoarchaeology of the Kel Tadrart Tuareg

Author: Stefano Biagetti

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-07-19

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 3319085301

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This book focuses on the issues of resilience and variability of desert pastoralists, explicitly challenging a set of traditional topics of the discourse around pastoralism in arid lands of the Old World. Based on a field research carried out on the Kel Tadrart Tuareg in Libya, various facets of a surprisingly successful adaptation to an extremely arid environment are investigated. By means of an ethnoarchaeological approach, explored are the Kel Tadrart interactions with natural resources, the settlement patterns, the campsite structures, and the formation of the pastoral archaeological landscape, focusing on variability and its causes. The resilience of the Kel Tadrart is the key to understand the reasons of their choice to stay and live in the almost rainless Acacus Mountains, in spite of strong pressure to sedentarize in the neighboring oases. Through the collection of the interviews, participant observation, mapping of inhabited and abandoned campsites, remote sensing, and archival sources, various and different Kel Tadrart strategies, perceptions, and material cultures are examined. This book fills an important gap in the ethnoarchaeological research in central Sahara and in the study of desert pastoralism.​ Desert lands are likely to increase over the next decades but, our knowledge of human adaptations to these areas of the world is still patchy and generally biased by the idea that extremely arid lands are not suited for human occupation.​


An Engraved Landscape: Rock carvings in the Wadi al-Ajal, Libya

An Engraved Landscape: Rock carvings in the Wadi al-Ajal, Libya

Author: Tertia Barnett

Publisher: British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies

Published: 2023-02-23

Total Pages: 1149

ISBN-13: 1900971380

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An Engraved Landscape is a contextual analysis of a substantial new corpus of engravings from the Wadi al-Ajal, situated in the Central Saharan region of south west Libya. The wadi is renowned as the heartland of the Garamantian civilization, which emerged from local mobile Pastoral communities in the 1st millennium BC, and dominated trans-Saharan trade and politics for over a thousand years. Extensive archaeological and palaeoenvironmental investigations in recent years have provided detailed insight into the later prehistory and protohistory of the wadi and surrounding areas. However, prior to the fieldwork detailed in this work, only a handful of carvings had been recorded in the wadi. This work is based on systematic survey, conducted between 2004 and 2009, which recorded around 2,500 previously unknown or unpublished engraved and inscribed rock surfaces. All forms of engraving, whether figurative or surface markings, were viewed as significant residues of human interaction with the rock surface and were recorded. The resulting database provides an opportunity to analyze the engravings in relation to their changing physical and cultural contexts, and the discussion offers a fresh interpretation of Saharan rock art based on this substantial new evidence. An Engraved Landscape also captures in detail a unique heritage resource that is currently inaccessible and threatened. This record of the fragile engravings provides an important source of information for researchers and students.