Saharan trade in the Roman period: short-, medium- and long-distance trade networks

Abstract

This paper examines the evidence for Saharan trade in the Roman period in the light of recent fieldwork in the Libyan Sahara by the Fazzan Project and the Desert Migrations Project and by the Italian Mission in the Acacus. The results of these projects suggest that trade between the Roman world and the communities of the Sahara was substantially greater than believed a few years ago and highlight the transformative effect that contact with the ancient Mediterranean had on Saharan society, especially on the Garamantes of Fazzan. But this paper also argues that in focusing chiefly on trans-Saharan commerce, much previous research has misunderstood the nature and importance of Saharan trade in antiquity. Relatively few types of goods were traded all the way across the Sahara from south to north or vice-versa in the Roman period. Rather, we should be thinking principally in terms of a network of interdependent sub-systems, of short-, medium-and long-distance exchange; the trans-Saharan traffic was only one part of this network. Moreover, Saharan trade * and especially the shortand medium-distance subsystems * also provoked transformations in the frontier zones of Roman North Africa. The abundant evidence of Roman imports to Fazzan discovered by British fieldwork there also calls into question the universal assumption that trans-Saharan trade in the medieval and modern periods exceeded the scale of trans-Saharan trade in antiquity; this is based on no good evidence at all and may be entirely false. Comparison with better documented periods suggests that the Roman world was capable of absorbing a trans-Saharan slave traffic at least as large as that of the medieval period and the evidence of Roman imports points to a substantial trade, of which slaves were probably a major component, via the central routes across the Sahara. Saharan trade in antiquity was organised around a set of drivers that were very different from those of the medieval trans-Saharan trade, with a key role played by the development of a substantial agriculturally-based trading state within the Sahara itself, the Garamantes. The collapse of Saharan trade in late antiquity is related to the decline of Garamantian authority and is linked in part to the emergence of new tribal conglomerations in the frontier zones between the fourth and sixth centuries AD.Cet article examine les données relatives au commerce trans-saharien pendant la période romaine à la lumière de travaux récents effectués dans le Sahara libyen par Le Projet Fazzan, le Desert Migrations Project, et la mission italienne dans l'Acacus. Les résultats de ces projets indiquent que les échanges entre le monde romain et les communautés du Sahara étaient de nettement plus grande envergure qu'on ne le supposait il y a quelques années. Ils illuminent par ailleurs le rôle *

Resilience of small-scale societies: a view from drylands

“…Here, pastoralism was never fully replaced by agriculture, owing among other things to the gradual intensification of aridity starting locally circa 4 ka BP (Di Lernia and Merighi 2006). Even during the Garamantian kingdom (c. 700 BC to 1000 AD), the earliest attested Saharan state, and later during the Islamic period (c. 700-1600 AD), the cultivation of crops in the oases was largely integrated with pastoralism in the mountain ranges (Wilson 2012, Mattingly and Sterry 2013, Mori 2013). In the same region, the Kel Tadrart Tuaregs of the Acacus Mountains (Southwest Libya) offer a contemporary example of multiresource pastoralism (Biagetti 2014).…”

The origins and development of Zuwīla, Libyan Sahara: an archaeological and historical overview of an ancient oasis town and caravan centre

“…However, the transport of amphorae, weighing up to 90 kg each along with other ceramics (all heavy and breakable), should perhaps be considered aberrant, rather than the main indicator of Saharan trade. The evidence now available attests much more clearly than hitherto to there having been substantial contacts between the Garamantes and Rome and between the Garamantes and Sub-Saharan areas (Fenn et al 2009;MacDonald 2011;Wilson 2012;Mattingly 2013b). Gold was an important component of later Saharan trade and is a plausible candidate for the elusive smoking gun to satisfy sceptics concerning pre-Islamic activity (Bovill 1968;Garrard 1982;Wilson 2012).…”

“…The evidence now available attests much more clearly than hitherto to there having been substantial contacts between the Garamantes and Rome and between the Garamantes and Sub-Saharan areas (Fenn et al 2009;MacDonald 2011;Wilson 2012;Mattingly 2013b). Gold was an important component of later Saharan trade and is a plausible candidate for the elusive smoking gun to satisfy sceptics concerning pre-Islamic activity (Bovill 1968;Garrard 1982;Wilson 2012). The hunt continues for pre-Islamic gold-working sites that also have materials of Garamantian or Mediterranean provenance (Kissi in Burkina Faso is plausibly close to gold workings, but still lacks the vital proof of processing; Magnavita 2003Magnavita , 2008Magnavita , 2009Magnavita , 2013cf.…”

“…The material evidence from this period is growing, both within the Sahara itself (Wilson 2012;Mattingly 2013b) and to its south (Insoll 2003;MacDonald 2011;Magnavita 2013), such that we can attest to examples of contacts and movement of goods, though the scale and nature of trade overall remain difficult to delineate when so many of the probable key commodities are archaeologically invisible or at best severely under-represented in the surviving material record. Between the Garamantes and Rome there were certainly substantial contacts.…”

Desert pastoralists: the Kel Tadrart Tuareg from south west Libya

“…The study of trans-Saharan medieval connections is another intriguing topic that has only recently begun to unveil its potential for refining our comprehension of past cultural trajectories in the whole African continent (e.g. Liverani 2005;Wilson 2012;Dowler and Galvin 2011). The resilience to an arid climate and the scarce resources of present-day Saharan people is clearly rooted in the past.…”