Garamantian agriculture: the plant remains from Jarma, Fazzan

Abstract

Excavations at Jarma, associated with the ancient capital of the Garamantes, Garama, in the Fazzan, southern Libya, have recovered a long sequence of charred and desiccated plant remains. The archaeobotanical analysis of the samples have provided an insight into the crop plants cultivated by the Garamantian period occupants of Jarma, and the nature of crop processing activities, plant use and disposal. A broad range of cereal, fruit and fibre crops have been identified which demonstrate both winter and summer season cultivation in the region from the end of the first millennium BC. A sophisticated arable regime relying on foggara irrigation was practised.

The origins of agriculture in North-West Africa: macro-botanical remains from Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic levels of Ifri Oudadane (Morocco)

“…Egypt, being closer to the place where cultivated plants were domesticated, has evidence of wheat and barley grains from a Neolithic context at the Fayum dated back to c.5.6-5.3 ka cal BP (Wendrich et al, 2010). In Libya, the oldest crop remains come from Garamantian sites and do not appear to be older than the third millennium BP (Pelling, 2008;Van der Veen, 1995). In contrast, the Algerian Early Neolithic site of Capéletti (7387 ± 242 cal BP [1 Alg.…”

“…This is a vast territory where several geographical regions have been suggested as likely foci from which agriculture was introduced into nearby areas. In Libya, agriculture was presumably introduced from Egypt and the Nile Valley (Garcea, 2004;Pelling, 2008); but in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco several hypotheses have been put forward. Most of the studies agree with an East to West Neolithic spread consistent with a model involving maritime pioneers (Linstädter, 2008;Oliveira et al, 2011;Zilhȃ o, 2001).…”

Re-thinking the ‘Green Revolution’ in the Mediterranean world

“…The clearest archaeobotanical evidence for IGR plants comes from outside the Mediterranean in the Red Sea port of Quseir al-Qadim where taro, sugarcane, aubergine, lime, banana and a new cultivar of watermelon were introduced in the eleventh–thirteenth centuries, while other crops such as sorghum, cotton, pearl millet, citrus fruits and rice became more extensively cultivated during this period (Van der Veen 2010). While some of these crops were cultivated in the Roman and Late Antique periods in zones such as the irrigated oases of Fazzan in south-western Libya (Pelling 2008), growing archaeological evidence for IGR plants points to their first appearance during the Middle Ages, including Israel (Jerusalem; Fuks et al 2020), Spain (Ilbira and Tortosa; Alonso et al 2014; Peña-Chocarro et al 2019), Sicily (Mazara del Vallo; Carver & Molinari 2020: 143) and Morocco (Volubilis; Fuller & Pelling 2018; Figure 1). Yet, despite Van der Veen's (2010) call to broaden the categories of agricultural innovations incorporated into the IGR model to include animals, growing conditions, tools and management practices, environmental archaeologists have refined their methods (Fuks et al 2020) but remained largely focused on phytogeography, or the timing and diffusion of IGR crops.…”

La Lex uestis peregrinae dans le tarif de Zaraï

“…Si celui-ci semble davantage avoir favorisé une production demandant plus de « professionnalisme », l'usage du métier à poids, Il s'agit majoritairement de tissus de très bonne qualité, aux modes de tissage et de teinture élaborés, mais aussi de productions plus grossières. Outre la laine, qui pouvait être fournie localement par les ressources de l'élevage 92 , le coton était également cultivé au Fezzan 93 . Produit à haute valeur ajoutée qui pouvait se vendre sous forme de matière brute ou de produit fini, il se prêtait particulièrement aux conditions du voyage sur les pistes désertiques.…”