Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:36:43.260Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Desert Migrations Project XVII: Further AMS Dates for Historic Settlements from Fazzan, South-West Libya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2014

M. Sterry  and
D. J. Mattingly
M. Sterry
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
D. J. Mattingly
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A group of 25 new AMS radiocarbon dates for historic-era sites in Fazzan is presented. These provide further confirmation of the construction of numerous fortified villages and castle-like structures (qsur) in two of the main oases belts of Fazzan during the Garamantian period, primarily in the third – sixth centuries AD. Further precision is also provided on the dating of a Garamantian and early Islamic urban centre called Qasr ash-Sharraba and the early modern capital of Fazzan at Murzuq.

Type
Archaeological Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 44 , 2013 , pp. 127 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armit, I., Swindles, G.T. and Becker, K. 2013. From dates to demography in later prehistoric Ireland? Experimental approaches to the meta-analysis of large 14C data-sets. Journal of Archaeological Science 40.1: 433–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, G., Gilbertson, D., Jones, B. and Mattingly, D. (eds) 1996. Farming the Desert: The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey, Vol. 1: Synthesis. UNESCO/Society for Libyan Studies: Paris/London.Google Scholar
Barth, H. 1857. Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa. Frank Cass and Co. Ltd, London.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51.1:337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cremaschi, M. and di Lernia, S. (eds) 1998. Wadi Teshuinat. Palaeoenvironment and Prehistory in south-western Fezzan (Libyan Sahara). Survey and Excavations in the Tadrart Acacus, Erg Uan Kasa, Messak Sattafet and Edeyen of Murzuq, 1990-1995. Milano.Google Scholar
Cremaschi, M., Pelfini, M. and Santililli, M. 2006. Dendrochronology of Cupressus dupreziana: late Holocene climatic changes in the Central Sahara. In Mattingly, D.J., McLaren, S., Savage, E., al-Fasatwi, Y and Gadgood, K. (eds), 2006. The Libyan Desert. Natural Resources and Cultural Heritage. Society for Libyan Studies, London: 145–56.Google Scholar
Daniels, C.M. 1989. Excavation and fieldwork amongst the Garamantes. Libyan Studies 20:45–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Lernia, S., Tafuri, M.A, Gallinaro, M., Alhaique, F., Baiasse, M., Cavorsi, L., Fullagar, E.D., Mercuri, A.M., Monaco, A., Perego, A. and Zerboni, A. 2013. Inside the “African cattle complex”: animal burials in the Holocene Central Sahara. PLoS ONE 8.2: e56879.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Di Lernia, S. and Manzi, G. (eds) 2002. Sands, Stones and Bones. The Archaeology of Death in the Wadi Tanezzuft Valley (5000–2000 BP). Insegna del Giglio, Firenze.Google Scholar
el-Hesnawi, H.W. 1990. Fazzan under the Rule of the Awlad Muhammad. A Study in Political, Economic, Social and Intellectual History. Sabha.Google Scholar
Higham, T.F.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Brock, F., Baker, D., Ditchfield, R. 2007 Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry dateiist 32. Archaeometry 49: S1–S60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liverani, M. (ed.) 2006. Agbram Nadarif. A Garamantian citadel in the Wadi Tannezzuft. All'Insegna del Giglio, Firenze.Google Scholar
Lyon, G.F. 1821. A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa in the Years 1818–1819 and 1820. (1966 reprint), Frank Cass, London.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. (ed.) 2003. = Mattingly, D.J., Daniels, C.M., Dore, J.N., Edwards, D. and Hawthorne, J. 2003. The Archaeology of Fazzān. Volume 1, Synthesis. Society for Libyan Studies, Department of Antiquities, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. (ed.) 2007. = Mattingly, D.J., Daniels, C.M., Dore, J.N., Edwards, D. and Hawthorne, J. 2007. The Archaeology of Fazzān. Volume 2, Site Gazetteer, Pottery and other Survey Finds. Society for Libyan Studies, Department of Antiquities, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. (ed.) 2010. = Mattingly, D.J., Daniels, C.M., Dore, J.N., Edwards, D. and Hawthorne, J. 2010. The Archaeology of Fazzān. Volume 3, Excavations carried out by C.M. Daniels. Society for Libyan Studies, Department of Antiquities, London.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. (ed.) forthcoming 2013. = Mattingly, D.J., Daniels, C.M., Dore, J.N., Edwards, D., Leone, A. and Thomas, D.C. Forthcoming. The Archaeology of Fazzān. Volume 4, Survey and Excavations at Old Jarma (Ancient Garama) carried out by C. M. Daniels (1962–69) and the Fazzan Project (1997–2001). Society for Libyan Studies, Department of Antiquities, London.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. and Sterry, M. 2013. The first towns in the central Sahara. Antiquity 87.336: 503–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, D.J., Edwards, D. and Dore, J. 2002. Radiocarbon dates from Fazzan, southern Libya. Libyan Studies 33: 9–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattingly, D.J., Lahr, M., Armitage, S., Barton, H., Dore, J., Drake, N., Foley, R., Merlo, S., Salem, M., Stock, J. and White, K. 2007. Desert Migrations: people, environment and culture in the Libyan Sahara. Libyan Studies 38:115–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelling, R. 2007. Agriculture and Trade amongst the Garamantes and the Fezzanese: 3000 years of archaeobotanical data from the Sahara and its margins. Unpublished PhD thesis, Institute of Archaeology, University College London.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, R.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, E.M., Guilderson, T.E., Hajdas, I., Heaton, T.J., Hogg, A. G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., Manning, S.W., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D. A., Southon, J.R., Talamo, S., Turney, C.S.M., van der Plicht, J., and Weyhenmeyer, C.E. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51: 1111–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterry, M. and Mattingly, D.J. (with contributions by Ahmed, Muftah, Savage, Toby, White, Kevin and Wilson, Andrew). 2011. DMP XIII: reconnaissance survey of archaeological sites in the Murzuq area. Libyan Studies 42:103–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterry, M., Mattingly, D.J. and Higham, T. 2012. Desert Migrations Project XVI: radiocarbon dates from the Murzuq region, southern Libya. Libyan Studies 43: 137–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Veen, M. 1992. Garamantian agriculture: the plant remains from Zinchecra, Fezzan. Libyan Studies 23: 7–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, A.N. 2012. The use of summed radiocarbon probability distributions in archaeology: a review of methods. Journal of Archaeological Science 39.3: 578-89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar