It is impossible for us, even in these days of land-rovers and jeeps, to imagine a North African landscape without a camel in it, yet the animal is nowhere to be found on the numerous Roman mosaics with scenes of country life in the museums of Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripolitania. Only two ancient writers before Ammianus Marcellinus refer to the camel in North Africa, one specifically, the other by implication. The fact that the camel spread over this region—Africa Proconsular is, Numidia and Mauretania—some time during the Roman period is, however, generally accepted. What is not clear is when and how this happened. The purpose of this note is to publish the photograph of a relief from a Tripolitanian tomb (Pl. XVIII), in the hope that it may be a small contribution to the discussion of the problem, at least as far as Tripolitania is concerned.The evidence has often been studied. The earliest mention of the camel in the Maghreb is the note in the Bellum Africanum to the effect that twenty-two camels belonging to King Juba were captured during the skirmishing in the campaign which led up to the Battle of Thapsus (45 B.C.). It is not known how Juba obtained his twenty two camels, or whether other rich Numidians owned any, and there is no hint of the presence of the beast in Punic times. The second notice comes in the work of the late third-century African Christian, Arnobius of Sicca, who writes of the camel kneeling down when it is being loaded or unloaded.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Roman Studies. (Plates iI-v) I. INTRODUCTION The ruins of Ghirza ' are the remains of a settlement of the Roman period which lie 25o km. (o50 miles) south-east of Tripoli in a direct line, or about 375 km. (225 miles) by road and track, and some 130 km. (8o miles) from the nearest point on the Syrtic coast. The site (p. I76, fig. 3) is on the left bank of the Wadi Ghirza, about Io km. south-west of its junction with the Wadi Zemzem, and is the southernmost Romano-Libyan frontier settlement known to have existed in the region between the Gheriat and Bu Ngem. Its two groups of mausolea with their striking and varied sculptures have been known for many years, but little attention has hitherto been paid to the settlement itself. A general survey of Ghirza, its tombs and its settlement, is being carried out by the writers in collaboration with Dr. E. Vergara-Caffarelli, Director of the Department of Antiquities of Tripolitania.2 It is the purpose of this article to summarize the results of the survey of the buildings and associated features of the settlement, initiated in I952 and I953 and nearly completed in I955.The ancient name of Ghirza is unknown, unless it be the Gereisa mentioned by Ptolemy in a list of towns between the Syrtes,3 but not noticed in any other ancient source. The first known European visitor to the site was Commander (later Rear-Admiral) W. H. Smyth who, while at Lepcis in i8i6, had his curiosity aroused by tales of an ancient city in the interior, and accordingly, in February, I817, set out in search of it. He has left a brief description of the tombs and their sculptures, but he dismisses the settlement as ' a few ill-constructed houses of modern date . In I825 Major Denham, on his return journey across the Sahara, made drawings of some of the tombs and copied down the inscriptions then visible. He was impressed by the settlement and asserted that there must have beena large city' here.5 Barth passed the monuments on his return from Bornu in August, 1854.6 The three later visitors to whom we owe the greater part of the information available about the site are the French traveller, Mehier de Mathuisieulx, who was there in 1903 and refers to the ' town . . . 8oo metres long from north-east to south-west ',7 the Italian officer Guido Bauer who, in I935, published photographs and an account of the tombs,8 and D. E. L. Haynes, Antiquities Officer in Tripolitania in 1945-6, who was the first to attempt a description of the settlement.9 Michael Ballance and by three architects, then serving with the Royal Engineers in Tripoli, conducted deta...

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Ghirza is the site of a Roman frontier settlement in the pre-desert zone of Tripolitania in North Africa, 5 miles south-west of the confluence of the Wadi Ghirza and the Wadi Zemzem, 80 miles from the coast of the Gulf of Sidra and 150 miles (in a straight line) south-east of Tripoli. It is best known for its two groups of monumental tombs decorated with rough sculptured reliefs showing the life of the inhabitants; but it is also notable for other antiquities, and especially for its ‘town’ of fortified farmhouses, clustered together on the edge of the wadi.

The seven inscriptions described below were recorded by O. Brogan during journeys made in the Tripolitanian hinterland in 1958, 1959 and 1960, and are published here with the kind permission of Dr. E. Vergara-Caffarelli of the Department of Antiquities in Tripoli.Brown limestone block, broken away at the right side (0·94 × 0·56 × 0·17) inscribed on one face within a moulded border (panel, 0·88 × 0·47); as a result of re-use the face is badly damaged and in part obscured by mortar which it has proved impossible to remove without danger to the surface. Found in 1958, south of the Jefren-Zintan road (map 1/100,000, sheet Giado, 1672, U788719) midway up the hillside above the wells; now in Tripoli Museum.