A road less travelled? The Society for Libyan Studies and the landscape archaeology of Libya's early civilisations

Abstract

This contribution explores a key dimension of the work of the Society for Libyan Studies concerning the archaeology of Libya's Protohistoric and early historic periods (broadly first millennium BC and first millennium AD). This primarily concerns the archaeology of rural landscapes (including the desert) and the investigation of the ancient Libyan populations that inhabited them. Taking an autobiographical approach, I review the contributions to developing research agendas made by a number of research projects that I have been involved in. The results collectively have advanced knowledge and understanding not only of this aspect of ancient Libyan society, but also have important implications for the construction of Libyan identity and the management of its heritage today. More broadly, they constitute an important contribution to wider re-evaluation of Maghribian and Saharan societies in the Iron Age and Roman periods.

New perspectives on the Roman military base at Bu Njem

“…Among the reasons for undertaking a significant excavation campaign in Bu Njem in the 1970s was the site's position as a waypoint on several transportation routes, including between the Giofra oases and Misurata and on a route to Tripoli via Ghirza and Beni Ulid (Rebuffat 1970a(Rebuffat , 1970c. At the time of Rebuffat's excavation, little was known about the Garamantes with subsequent major projects bringing to light the significance of the Garamantian civilisation, and of its economic power as the context for Rome's interest in the region (Mattingly 2019). Recent studies of material culture have emphasised the flow of goods from the Roman Empire in the direction of the Garamantes and explored the evidence for reciprocal trade, including in organic materials (Mattingly et al 2017;Wilson 2012Wilson , 2017a.…”

A tentative tale of Stone Age human dynamics in Pleistocene south-western Libya (central Sahara)

“…Although not in a systematic way, the data are appropriately complemented by results of the geoarchaeological research activity conducted by the research teams of the Desert Migration Project-Paleo (2007 led by Marta Mirazón Lahr and Robert Foley who has been intensively investigating part of the same general area (Mattingly 2019;Mirazón Lahr et al 2008, 2009.…”