bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dedications in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Cyrene
Authors: Kane Susan
Published: February 2016

Yes, Asclepius, statues. Do you see how even you give way to doubt? I mean statues, but statues living and conscious, filled with the breath of life, and doing many mighty works; statues which have foreknowledge and predict future events by the drawing of lots, and by prophetic inspiration, and by dreams, and in many other ways; statues which inflict diseases and heal them, dispensing sorrow and joy according to men's deserts.

Asclepius24a (3rd century AD Hermetic Dialogue, trans. W. Scott)

In the 1971 and 1978 seasons, the University Museum of Philadelphia Expedition to Cyrene excavated two fragmentary limestone statues of seated females in the extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone in the Wadi bel Gadir. One of these two life to over-life size statues (Statue I) was found within the early Imperial S8 Sacred House and the other (Statue II) was retrieved from the broken vaulted roof of Tunnel A, down the slope directly to the north of this house. Both statues may be dated, on grounds of style and archaeological context, to the first half of the first century AD. By virtue of their large size, findspots, and unusual construction, a case may be made that these statues were intended to represent one or both of the Sanctuary's two goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, and used for special rituals, possibly associated with the thesmophoria festival known to be celebrated here.

Statue I (Fig. 1) is fragmentary, only the lower part of a draped female seated on an oval chest (carved in two joining blocks) is preserved, as well as some non-joining fragments of her veiled head and shoulders. The oval chest is entwined by a snake. One block of Statue II remains (Fig. 2), consisting of the right half of a female figure's lower body and part of the chair, possibly a backless one, on which she is seated. This figure holds a plate in her lap filled with fruits, breads, and a piglet's head. It seems reasonable to conjecture that the two statues represent Demeter and/or Persephone. Statue I is seated on an oval chest, probably thekiste, in which the sacred objects of the goddesses were kept. The sacral importance of the chest is underscored by the snake which wraps itself around it. Statue II holds a plate of offerings, among which is a piglet's head (the sacrificial victim used for the Thesmophoria).
The Imperial Family as Seen in Cyrene
Authors: Walker Susan
Published: February 2016

In the summer of 1989 a new electricity cable was laid from New Shahat to the Caesareum of Cyrene, its course following the line of the road made in the 1920s through the (now largely abandoned) village of old Shahat. The construction of the road had already revealed several blocks of an engaged Doric architectural order in the unexcavated southeastern quarter of the ancient city; from the trench cut in 1989 were recovered parts of eight marble sculptures susceptible of interpretation, less identifiable fragments of other figures in marble and limestone, and a number of ashlar blocks with drafted margins cut in local limestone. Though the architectural finds suggest the presence of a substantial public building, the sculptures were apparently found packed in a row, giving the impression of having been deliberately buried during preparation for transit to a lime kiln. Without excavation no more can be said of their original context, beyond what may be gleaned from an examination of the sculptures themselves.

This paper is concerned with six of the more complete marble statues, which form an interesting, if not aesthetically distinguished group of portraits of members of the first Roman imperial family. The six survivors fall into three sub-groups, which are briefly described below; there follows an assessment of the relationship of the statues to contemporary portraits of the imperial family from Cyrene and elsewhere.

Two of the statues are carved in Pentelic marble, and are of exceptional scale. Of these the better preserved is a figure of a woman originally cut from one block to stand about 2.10 metres high but now sliced from top to base through the thicker part of the lower torso and horizontally through the whole torso into pieces 20–30 cm high, presumably to facilitate delivery, perhaps by hand, to the lime kiln (Figs 1–2). The unveiled woman is dressed in tunic and cloak, the latter swept over her left shoulder in the manner of the Kore of Praxiteles, a type well known in the Cyrenaican repertoire. The cloak is drawn far from the right side of her body, suggesting that her right forearm, now lost, was raised to hold an object (Fig. 3, right). The hair is waved to either side of a central parting, and drawn back from the face in thick tresses which are massed wide of the head to fall into a looped plait below the nape of the neck and over the edge of the cloak (Fig. 4). Around the face is a row of pin-wheel curls; there is no break in the curls at the central parting of the hair, and the curls come close to the ends of the eyebrows. The lower earlobes are exposed. The face is broad and round, with a low brow accentuated by the hairstyle, plump cheeks and a small receding chin. The nose and mouth are badly damaged, but the mouth appears small. The eyes are large, round and wide-set (Fig. 5).
Langue et Politique: À Quoi Sert la Dialecte dans la Cyrénaïque Romaine?
Authors: Dobias-Lalou Catherine
Published: February 2016

En Cyrénaïque, comme dans le reste des contrées de la Méditerranée orientale passées sous le contrôle romain, le grec reste la langue écrite prédominante. Des inscriptions latines y apparaissent aussi, en nombre limité; elles sont l'objet de la communication de G. Paci. On a enfin retrouvé quelques bilingues, mais c'est surtout en grec que, pour longtemps, on grave ce qui doit être porté À la connaissance du public.

Or, dira-t-on, en quelle forme de grec sont rédigées ces inscriptions? On sait que dans les siècles précédents existe un concurrence entre le dialecte local, seul présent aux VIe et Ve siècles et une forme de langue plus internationalement répandue À partir du IVe siècle, que l'on appelle du nom grec de ‘“langue” commune’, la koinè. Dans certaines régions, la koinè s'est répandue brutalement, éliminant très largement, voire complètement, le dialecte local qui a pu continuer À être parlé sans laisser de traces écrites dans l'épigraphie hellénistique ou romaine. Cette koinè, si elle est sur beaucoup de points conforme À l'usage attique, le doit probablement au prestige intellectuel d'Athènes aux Ve et IVe siècles. On a pu montrer récemment que la koinè s'était développée très tôt en Macédoine et cette découverte confirme et éclaire le lien entre l'expansion linguistique de la koinè et l'expansion politique d'Alexandre et des épigones. De langue dominante culturellement, elle est devenue langue dominante administrativement et politiquement. En Cyrénaïque, il est clair que la koinè est arrivée par l'Egypte et non directement d'Athènes, en dépit de liens anciens et assez étroits entre les deux régions.
Le iscrizioni in lingua latina del la Cirenaica
Authors: Paci G.
Published: February 2016

Lo stanziarsi dei Greci in terra di Cirenaica nella seconda metà del VII secolo a.C. e la loro ininterrotta permanenza nella regione fino al tramonto della civiltà antica hanno dato luogo ad una mirabile fioritura di civiltà che noi conosciamo grazie alle testimonianze archeologiche, alla letteratura e alla cospicua messe dei documenti epigrafici: uno sviluppo civile tanto più sorprendente, per la sua ampiezza e ricchezza, ove si consideri l'isolamento in cui la popolazione greca è venuta a trovarsi — dal punto di vista geografico — rispetto alla restante nazione greca e ove si pensi alla forte e continua pressione cui la stessa fu sottoposta, d'altra parte, ad opera della popolazione indigena. Infatti i Greci non furono i soli ad abitare la regione: essi occuparono, arrivando, una terra già abitata da una popolazione libica, mentre successivamente — in età ellenistica — sopraggiunse una forte comunità ebraica; infine è da registrare una presenza romano-italica, pure abbastanza consistente, documentata per via epigrafica (vd. sotto) a partire dal I sec. a.C.

La superiore civiltà greca esercitò un forte influsso sulla popolazione libica, o almeno su una parte di essa, e su quella ebraica, che furono più o meno profondamente ellenizzate: tanto che è possibile rintracciare — attraverso l'onomastica — una varia presenza di individui libici ed ebraici nell'epigrafia greca della Cirenaica (Masson 1976; Lüderitz 1983), che ne attesta anche l'avvicinarsi ad alcune istituzioni cittadine. Per contro non abbiamo, almeno finora, una autonoma produzione epigrafica Ubica o semitica dalla regione.
Procope de Césarée et la Cyrénaïque du 6e. s.ap J.C. (résumé)
Authors: Roques D.
Published: February 2016

L'intérêt qu'offre l'oeuvre de Procope de Césarée pour la connaissance de l'Antiquité tardive et protobyzantine est évident pour quiconque est familier avec cette période, et l'ouvrage récent, et excellent, que lui a consacré Av. Cameron (Oxford, 1986) est venu opportunément mettre en lumière cet auteur, d'ailleurs beaucoup plus lu dans le monde anglo-saxon qu'en France. Il valait la peine, dans le cadre du 2e Colloque International de Cambridge sur la Cyrénaïque, d'étudier le témoignage que Procope nous a laissé (De Aedificiis, VI, 2, 1–23) sur ‘les Deux Libyes’, puisqu'aussi bien au 6e. s. le découpage administratif ne coïncide pas avec les données de la géographie naturelle.

Les rapports qu'entretiennent la réalité littéraire et la réalité archéologique ne pouvaient constituer l'essentiel de cette étude, car, comme l' a bien montré Av. Cameron, on ne saurait lire l' oeuvre de Procope comme un guide touristique: en effet l'information que fournit l'écrivain est déformée, tant en raison du caractère inéluctablement rhétorique des ouvrages littéraires de l'Antiquité qu'en vertu de la tendance certaine de Procope à la propagande, ce qui ne saurait surprendre chez un historiographe officiel. On a donc commencé par resituer le passage étudié dans l'ensemble de l'oeuvre, puis, après avoir proposé une traduction française du texte — traduction qui n'est en fait qu'un fragment de la traduction complète (achevée, mais non encore publiée) du texte —, on a tenté de définir successivement les sources, la structure et la signification du témoignage de Procope, avant d'étudier en dernier lieu la relation du texte avec les réalités archéologiques actuellement connues.
From the Memory of History: The Painted Room at Bardia
Authors: Mohamed Fadel Ali
Published: February 2016

Bardia has a natural deep-water harbour confined by cliffs, making it an ideal submarine haven. It held a strategic position in the last war in connection with the capture of Tobruk, and was used by both the Germans and British as a supply base (Fig. 1). Set back from the shoreline were numerous single-storey, flat-roofed buildings overlooking the harbour, one of which was a lookout post where the mural under discussion survives.

On 30th December 1941 the Allies launched a decisive attack on Bardia (Liddell Hart 1953, 177–178), which surrendered on 2nd January 1942 (Murphy 1961, 511–512). On 27 th January Rommel had struck again at Benghazi; General Auchinleck gave orders to withdraw, and formed a front line near Gazala in early February.

According to its contemporary War Diary, the 5th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment arrived in the Western Desert from Palestine and Syria on 20th February, and two days later took over from the 11th Indian Brigade approximately 20 miles south of Gazala (W.O.169/5076). One of the soldiers in this batallion was Private John Frederick Brill 4617871 of the Royal Army Service Corps, the artist of the mural in the Painted Room at Bardia.
To East and West: the Mediterranean Trade of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania in Antiquity
Authors: Fulford M. G.
Published: February 2016

In the context of the North African littoral Cyrenaica and Tripolitania appear almost as fertile islands, surrounded by desert on three sides and the Mediterranean to the north (Fig. 1). Between Cyrenaica and Egypt the desert runs to the sea, while between Cyrenaica and Tripolitania lies desert which stretches up to the shores of the Gulf of Sirte. Only to the west of Tripolitania is there a thin coastal strip of cultivable land which runs past the island of Djerba, turning north past Gabes to the productive lands of central Tunisia. As the crow flies only some 350 miles (450 km) separate Berenice (Benghazi), the most westerly of the cities of Cyrenaica from Lepcis Magna, her nearest neighbour among the Tripolitanian cities. While a land-route existed along the north African coast, the destinations it offered were clearly limited. Transport by sea not only offered the opportunity for the most economical long distance movement of bulk commodities such as grain, olive-oil and wine — the staples of the ancient world — but it also presented a greater range of possible destinations.
Libya: Some Aspects of the Mediaeval Period, First–Ninth Century H/Seventh–Fifteenth Century AD
Authors: Brett M.
Published: February 2016

The difficulty with the study of Libyan history, certainly before the sixteenth century, is twofold: firstly the definition of Libya as a subject, secondly the lack of information. The definition of the subject starts from the modern political boundaries, which do not predate the Ottomans; the lack of information must be related to the fact that most of the territory is desert, and peripheral to the concerns of wealthier and more powerful neighbours — Egypt, Tunis, Kanem/Borno, and the maritime empires of western Europe. Instead of a positive entity of which the modern political limits are only the most recent expression, it is all too easy to see a hollow space between neighbours north, south, east and west. How to fill that space conceptually and evidentially is the problem explicit or implicit in all the literature over the years since the foundation of the Society for Libyan Studies. This essay does not aim to be exhaustive, simply to indicate the lines of thought and investigation, and offer some conclusions.
Work on the Early Ottoman Period and Qaramanlis
Authors: Pennell C. R.
Published: February 2016

Research on Libya during the first Ottoman and Qaramanli periods has been handicapped by the lack of a theme. Much work on these periods has been done to a large extent as spin-off from other research contingent on Libya, and new publications in European languages have been few. Their effect has been to cast a bright light on some corners of the subject, but the rest has been left in deep shadow. What follows is a summary of what has been done, together with some suggestions about where concerned research might be directed.

A starting point for any research is bibliography. Bono (1982) provides a general guide to western sources on Libya which includes material on the period, while his earlier article (Bono 1979) concentrates on scarce published sources, some of which come from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

Another problem facing researchers is access to contemporary material. There is an immense quantity of consular material in archives in Britian, France and in particular Italy, some of which has been used. Individual longer accounts have been published as well, particularly of manuscript sources.

Among the most interesting manuscripts are the longer, coherent accounts of people who stayed in Tripoli for extended periods. The journals of Thomas Baker, the English Consul in Tripoli between 1677 and 1685, fall into this category, and are discussed below. The guidebook written in 1767 by Anthony Knecht, British Vice-Consul, gives considerable information about the diplomatic, political and economic life of the city (Pennell 1982).

Another way of dealing with these extensive sources is to write commentaries on them. In the first issue of Libyan Studies the works of James Bruce, the Scottish eighteenth century traveller, were discussed (Cumming 1970). This is also the approach adopted by ‘Imad al-Din Ghanim (1982), in his article in Arabic about an anonymous French account, translated into German in 1708 (Allerneuster Zustand der Afrikanischen Konigreiche Tripoli, Tunis and Algier, von einem gelehrten Jesuiten bey verricheter Skavelosung, Hamburg 1708).
Political Geography in the Literature on Libya 1969–1989
Authors: Blake G. H.
Published: February 2016

Political geography can be taken to include the geographical analysis of formal political territories of all kinds, and an interest in political spheres of influence. Thus defined, Libya must have provided an almost unparalleled range of topics for study in the past 20 years. Internal administrative districts have been changed three times. The international boundaries of the state have been the subject of debate and dispute. In 1975 Libya occupied a large tract of northern Chad and became heavily involved in the Chadian civil war in 1980. Maritime boundary delimitation began in the 1980s and Libyan claims to historic water status for the Gulf of Sirte were disputed by the United States. At least eight attempts at political mergers with other states have been made by Colonel Qadhafi, while other Libyan foreign policy adventures have been widespread, especially in Africa. In the face of this plethora of geopolitical activity it is disappointing to report that the political geography of Libya has not received the attention it deserves from scholars in Britain or elsewhere. Only in one area of study — international boundaries — is the literature reasonably plentiful, and of a high calibre (detailed bibliographies in Alawar 1983; Lawless 1987). While this emphasis may be justified on the grounds that Libya's boundaries are major potential ‘flashpoints’ (Copson 1982) it leaves a great deal of potentially useful geopolitical insights as yet unexplored. No publications have been traced for example on the implications of the changing location of Libya's designated capital city, from Tripoli to Benghazi — Tripoli to Beida to Tripoli and now — conceivably — to Sirte.
Some Notes on the Donatist Schism
Authors: Birley A. R.
Published: February 2016

Recent work on the highly significant Donatist religious schism in late Roman Africa is reviewed, supported by an Appendix tabulating a draft chronology of Donatism. Particular attention is paid to the controversy surrounding the date and origins of the schism. The ‘revolutionary fringe’ of the Donatist movement, the Circumcellions, is also discussed, with specific reference to arguments concerning the social status of this group. A third section outlines the participation of Tripolitanian bishops of both Catholic and Donatist persuasion at the great Conference of Carthage in AD 411. The social historical importance of the extensive documentation is illustrated at several points by reference to illuminating insights into life in late Roman Africa.
‘Tripolitanian Sigillata’: A Response
Authors: Kenrick P. M.
Published: February 2016

I am grateful to Dr. Soricelli and to the Editor for the opportunity to see this interesting article in advance of publication. The evidence presented here of chronology, distribution and petrology seem to me to offer compelling reasons for supposing the ware discussed to have been produced in Campania, and this is further supported by the names of the potters and their occasional use of the Greek alphabet. (This was a factor to which I had not given adequate weight in suggesting an origin in Punic North Africa). As to the precise origin of the ware within the region, I am dubious of the significance of two wasters found on their own in separate excavations: an accident in the later life of a vessel may on occasion be indistinguishable from an original fault in firing, and a greater concentration of wasters would be necessary to have the force of definite proof. Besides which, the foot of the cup illustrated in Figure 3.24 is not typical for Production A/‘Tripolitanian’ Sigillata. Soricelli is undoubtedly right in suggesting that a plurality of similar wares was produced in different parts of Campania (and probably other parts of Southern Italy and Sicily) during the first centuries BC and AD. Their individual characterisation will depend on the publication and study of a great deal more material from the region and the present article represents an important step along that road. And as we know that the products of Campania could so readily find their way into distant markets throughout the Mediterranean, so the identification of more of these products is likely to be of relevance to excavators working in many different parts of the Roman World.
The Development of Libya's Air Links with Britain
Authors: Marghani A. B.
Published: February 2016

The development of air traffic between Britain and Libya is described, from its origins after World War II to the present day. Several key stages are analysed, notably the Air Services Agreements of 1953 and 1972. The changing terms of Anglo-Libyan air links reflect the broader political shifts of a period which has seen Libya transformed from a colonial territory to a prosperous independent nation state. In spite of the current hiatus in air traffic between Britain and Libya, the close links between Libyan aviation and Britain give hope for the future.
IRT895 and 896: Two inscriptions from Gheriat el-Garbia
Authors: Mattingly D. J.
Published: February 2016

IRT895 refers to the construction of aburgusat Gheriat in the reign of Severus Alexander. From its location when first discovered it is clear that it related to the building of the circular tower about 1 km north-east of the fort and not to the fort itself. Up until now the tower has generally been considered of post-Roman date.IRT896 refers to repairs to the fort under Gordian III. A suggestion is made about the garrison of Gheriat at that date and the history of this unit, thecohors I Syrorum sagittariorum, is reviewed.
The Centenaria of Roman Tripolitania
Authors: Elmayer A. F.
Published: February 2016

Controversy surrounds the reason why the centenaria were introduced into the pre-desert area of Tripolitania. This paper examines two conflicting theories; that of Goodchild that they were military in origin and that of Brogan and the Unesco Libyan Valleys team that they were in the main merely substantial private dwellings. The main contribution of this study is to provide new evidence from Latino-Punic inscriptions that the centenaria were private dwellings on private land.
The French occupation of the western Jafara and the village of Dahibat, 1890-1891
Authors: Joffé E. G. H.
Published: February 2016

The creation of the Libyan-Tunisian border through the Jafara plain, in the wake of the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881, was to be codified in a formal treaty in 1910, just before the Italian occupation of Libya and the outbreak of the Italo-Libyan wars. However, the border, as then defined, had little to do with any prior social, political or economic reality – Muslim political theory is more concerned with communal sovereignty than with territorial control, while the Jafara plain had always been a region of local political autonomy. In reality, it represented the complex attempts by local military commanders, with the full support of the French administration in Tunis, to maximise French territorial control at the expense of the Turkish administration in Tripoli. The abandoned village of Dahibat, at the foot of the Jabal Nafusa, provided an ideal means of applying such control, particularly as the original population was anxious to return and the French were able to use their anxiety as a means of applying concepts of territorial sovereignty to the Jafara. However, in creating a rigid territorial division, the French authorities also created the grounds for resistance at a local level that eventually expressed itself first through the First World War jihad movement in the Jafara and later formed part of the Tunisian independence movement.
The Reinterpretation of the Latino-Punic Inscriptions IRT 889 and 893 from Tripolitania
Authors: Elmayer A. F.
Published: February 2016

This inscription was found over the door of wadi el-Bir near Shemech (Wadi Soffegin) and is now in Lepcis Museum. It consists of three lines and it reads:

The inscription has been treated previously by Goodchild (1950, 137), Sznycer (1965, 100–101), Vattioni (1966, 45–46; 1976, 550–555), Levi della Vida (1967, 263), Krahmalkov (1973, 61–64), Polselli (1976, 237–238) and Elmayer (1983, 90–91).

A suggested translation is as follows:

‘Flavius Dasama and his son Macrinus, the chief (or: commander) of the district, have made (this) centenarium to guard and protect the whole zone’.
The Cyrenaican Expedition of Giuseppe Haimann
Authors: Wright J.
Published: February 2016

In 1881 the Italian explorer Giuseppe Haimann and his wife made a two-month journey through the Gebel Akhdar from Benghazi to Derna, travelling under the auspices of the Società d'Esplorazione Commerciale of Milan and Haimann's report first appeared in the Bollettino della Società Geografica in 1882. Haimann's sober assessment of Cyrenaica's potential contrasts favourably with the later accounts of Italian journalists and other visitors who in the early twentieth century had their own reasons for presenting Turkish North Africa to the Italian public as a veritable Paese di Bengodi – a Land of Cockaigne. But 30 years before the Italian intervention of 1911, Haimann had come to the conclusion that Cyrenaica – ‘in ancient times so civilised and prosperous’ – might be restored to new life if agriculture, industry and commerce ‘were to be given an effective impulse’.
Urban Planning in Libya
Authors: Kezeiri S. K.
Published: February 2016

Libya is one of the few countries in the Middle East to have a full coverage of Urban Plans and two generations of Master and Layout Plans have been provided by foreign consultants. The aim of urban planning in Libya is to provide urban amenities and infrastructures to all towns large or small and this article reviews how this has developed.
The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey V: Sedimentological Properties of Holocene Wadi Floor and Plateau Deposits in Tripolitania, North-West Libya
Authors: Barker G. W. W. , Gilbertson D. D. , Griffin C. M. , Hayes P. P. , Jones D. A.
Published: February 2016

The sedimentological properties of samples collected from exposures in wadi floors are reported. These studies emphasise the natural variability of erosional and depositional processes in this environment. Some of the sedimentological changes observed appear to be of archaeological significance. They indicate that in the recent geological past, either increased flooding occurring as a result of natural environmental fluctuations, or irrigation practice, has caused the elevation of saline groundwaters in the wadi floor sediments to levels which might have had deleterious effects on the contemporary agricultural system. Sites at the margins of the wadis are more sensitive to such changes than those more centrally located on the wadi floor. No evidence for significant climatic change at the times of the extensive Romano-Libyan occupation of the pre-desert region has been detected. There is, however, evidence of much wetter periods in the more distant past, which have left a legacy of mature soils on the basalt plateaus, which may have been extensively used in the Romano-Libyan period.
Excavations at Tocra and Euhesperides, Cyrenaica 1968-1969
Authors: Jones G. D. B.
Published: February 2016

Preliminary results of survey and limited excavations at Euhesperides (Benghazi) and Tocra are discussed. At Euhesperides part of one residential insula was excavated and a mosaic discovered. Evidence is presented that the insula and the city defences are contemporary, dating from the early fourth to the third centuries BC. The earliest stratified levels beneath the floors of the insula date to the early sixth century BC. The work at Tocra comprised a full survey of all visible archaeological remains. In particular, close study and limited excavation of the Byzantine Fortress suggest that the structure survived long beyond the Arab invasions of AD 642.
An Integrated Study of the Desert Grass, Panicum Turgidum Forsk, in a Fezzan Djebel System
Authors: Turner D.
Published: February 2016

The methodology of an on-going study of the desert grass, Panicum Turgidum Forsk, at Wadi Zigzah, near Brack, is described. The emphasis is on making an integrated study of the grass to establish its role in the local ecosystem.
Excavations at Sabratha, 1948–1951
Authors: Kenrick P. M.
Published: February 2016

Extensive British excavations were carried out at Sabratha in 1948–51 under the joint direction of John Ward-Perkins and Kathleen Kenyon. No definitive report on the work done has since been published, and following the deaths of both directors this task has now been assigned to the writer. An interim account is given of the excavations which took place, drawing particular attention to the evidence for the development of the town as a whole, and of the forum area in particular. It is hoped that the surviving documentation will enable the completion of a substantial report.
Amphora Production in the Tripolitanian Gebel
Authors: Arthur P.
Published: February 2016

The paper presents the results of an examination of two Roman kiln sites located by the late R. G. Goodchild, at Tazzoli and Ain Scersciara in the Gebel. They produced amphorae of forms Tripolitana I-III together with coarse wares and tiles. The material is described and illustrated, and the fabrics are examined petrologically as a guide to identification.
A Glass Fishbeaker from Fezzan
Authors: Tagart C.
Published: February 2016

A conch shell fragment from a colourless glass fishbeaker was found during excavations at the Garamantian site of Saniat Gebril in the Wadi el-Agial, Fezzan. Fishbeakers are blown vessels with separately made sea creatures added in rows to the external surface. Complete examples of such vessels come from Rome, Cologne and Trier, with fragments from the Lebanon, Egypt, Italy and ? Spain. A diatretum beaker from southern Hungary is decorated with similar marine creatures. When dated the beakers are ascribed to the fourth century AD. It seems likely that the fishbeaker originated in the eastern Mediterranean area and may be associated with some pagan cults, and Christianity for whom the fish was a popular image. Early Christianity flourished in Antioch and Alexandria, both cities in areas associated with glass making. Egypt is the most likely source for the Fezzan beaker. Not the only Roman luxury glass found in the area, it is however notable that such a sumptious and no doubt expensive vessel should be found in a relatively isolated, and desert part of the Roman world.
Islamic Wares from Ajdabiyah
Authors: Riley J. A.
Published: February 2016

A provisional typology for the Islamic glazed and domestic pottery from the excavations of the Fatimid mosque at Ajdabiyah is presented. The bulk of this pottery is likely to belong to the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. In addition, attention is drawn to the results of a programme of petrological analysis of the fabrics. Functional and typological variation was found to relate to fabric variation.
Higher Research on Libyan Topics in British Universities 1960–1981
Authors: Riley J. A.
Published: February 2016

A list of 57 theses on Libyan topics successfully presented to British Universities from 1960–1981 is presented as a guide to the range and scope of research in this area.
Industrial Standardisation in Cyrenaica during the Second and Third Centuries A.D.: The Evidence from Locally Manufactured Pottery
Authors: Riley John
Published: February 2016

A detailed study of the coarse pottery of Cyrenaica, and particularly Berenice, in the Hellenistic and Roman periods (Riley, in press) indicates that, with the exception of the total disappearance of locally made amphoras, the Romanisation of Cyrenaica made no impact on the local pottery industry until around the middle of the second century A.D. Indeed, at a time of rapidly increasing prosperity in Cyrenaica from the Augustan period, the local pottery industry continued to produce poor quality goods in general. These were generally of the poor, shell rich fabrics (for these and Cyrenaican fabrics in general, see Riley, 1979), and comprised a wide range of variation within broad type groupings, which were of the characteristic, elegantly curved Hellenistic tradition.

When change came, around the middle of the second century, it was sweeping. The poorer quality shell rich fabric was superceded by the harder, sturdier, lime rich fabrics, and a completely new repertoire of angular and corrugated forms was introduced. This development appears to follow a similar pattern in the Aegean region during the early part of the second century, so that by the latter part of that century there is a striking typological similarity between the various coarse wares in Greece, Crete and Cyrenaica.
Resources and Development in the al Khalij Region of Libya
Authors: McLachlan Keith
Published: February 2016

During 1979 and the early part of 1980 the Government of Libya was engaged in a review of the state of social and economic development of the country with a view to preparing a long-range strategy to the year 2000. The exercise involved assessment of the position in 1979 and examination of alternative courses of economic change for the country as a whole and for its constituent regions. While this was far from being a first essay in economic and social planning, it represented a new time horizon (twenty rather than five years) and a rather different approach from previous proposals. In particular, it had become apparent from 1980 that Libyan oil reserves, when set against probable production to reserves ratios for the 1980-2000 period, would be fast depleting by the turn of the century. The last two decades of the twentieth century could be the last years in which Libya could lay the basis for economic survival while still comparatively wealthy from the proceeds of bulk oil exports.

This short article will set out to discuss the resource base of the al Khalij area which was the source of the largest part of Libyan crude oil and natural gas supply and which might be expected to be the region on which Libyan prosperity might be founded in the post-oil era.
Tripoli — City, Oasis and Hinterland — Reflections on the Old City 1551 to the Present
Authors: McLachlan Keith
Published: February 2016

On the surface, the old city of Tripoli appears to have survived without serious damage to its morphological and architectural character into the modern period. But the entire function of the castle and suk has changed radically since the early years of the present century, beginning with the arrival of the Italian colonial regime in 1911. Even earlier, in the mid-nineteenth century, an important change is to be seen in the removal of the Karamanli Bashaws as rulers of Tripolitania and the institution of Ottoman control, from which time Tripoli ceased to be the seat of political power and an independent centre of corsair activity. Under Turkish administration there were but few changes in the structure of Tripoli and its environs, though illustrations of the period suggest that a number of official institutions set up buildings outside the old city and a slow but perceptible move began to establish settlements around the city walls. The pace of development of modern Tripoli was much accelerated by the Italian colonial occupation, though the larger part of this ‘new’ Tripoli was occupied by and served the needs of the Italians rather than the indigenous population. The population of Tripoli was reported as 13 841 in 1914 (di Agostini: 1917), entirely contained within the old city, and these social groups remained in their traditional areas in many cases until the violent upheavals caused by the collapse of the Italian colonial administration and the coming of political independence to Libya. Rapidly rising personal incomes in the period after 1961, resulting from the diffusion of oil wealth and particularly the concentration of economic activity in the hands of the merchants and the urban population of large, led to abandonment of the greater part of the old city of Tripoli. The old Arab and Jewish quarters alike are now taken over for temporary accommodation for recent (and often foreign immigrants) and for storage of goods. It may well be that physical decay of the city has been retarded but that the functional decay of the area is far advanced. Possibly this may be viewed as a fitting epitaph on a city that historically never succeeded in establishing clear and lasting control over its hinterland.
A New Hand Mirror from Roman Libya
Authors: Lloyd-Morgan G.
Published: February 2016

Although some examples of hand mirrors are known from older excavations in Libya, a rock cut tomb at Sidi Hussein, Benghazi, has recently produced a piece with radiate edging, the first example of this type to be recorded for the country.

The mirror unfortunately lacks its handle. It has the usual standard form of disc, decorated on the back with two heavy series of concentric circles at edge and centre, with, between them, a single circle. The radius of the piece is about 5.6 cm measured to the tip of a perfect ray. There are fourteen surviving rays, though originally there were probably sixteen. At the back there are traces of the solder plate of the handle in the form of a fleshy stylised willow leaf.

The origin of this type of mirror can be traced back to the hand mirrors represented on South Italian painted pottery of the fourth and third centuries B.C., as shown for example on a small Apulian oinochoe in Chester (pl.B). No actual examples have yet been found, though a mirror which may well be related was found during excavations at Locri Epizephyrii and is now in the Museo Nazionale, Reggio di Calabria (inv. no.5201).

The Roman radiate mirror has a border with between ten and thirty rays, usually with a simple terminal knob giving the characteristic profile. As with all Roman hand mirrors, the handle was separately cast using a bronze with a slightly higher percentage of lead than was used in the disc, probably so as to give extra weight and balance to the piece, as well as to aid the casting process.
Another Funerary Portrait from Cyrenaica in the British Museum
Authors: Bonanno A.
Published: February 2016

A peculiar and very distinct group of portraits have in recent years aroused the interest of an increasing number of students of Roman art. These are the Cyrenaican funerary portraits, some 117 of which were studied and published for the first time as a separate series by E. Rosenbaum in 1960. Several of these portraits have found their way into European collections of ancient sculpture in these last two centuries. One is presently housed in the Museo Nazionale in Rome, and six are in the possession of the Museum Authorities in Malta. Six of the portraits published by Rosenbaum come from the British Museum. To these a seventh one (PLATE 00) should be added, which has remained unpublished having escaped the attention of both Rosenbaum and the compiler of the volume devoted to Cyrenaica of the Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani for Great Britain. Considering the easily noticeable character of this type of funerary sculpture it is somewhat surprising that neither of the two distinguished scholars became aware of the existence of this portrait. It has to be said, however, that no mention of it is made in either Smith and Porcher, or the catalogue of sculpture of the British Museum.
The Traditional House in the Oasis of Ghadames
Authors: Evans J. Martin
Published: February 2016

The large scale housing programme of the Libyan Government is changing the appearance of many of the towns of Libya. As part of this programme, the National Housing Corporation have recently adopted new standards for housing design, in order to ensure that the houses are better suited to the needs of the population in different parts of the country. During the investigations to develop new standards, the traditional housing in a number of regions of the country was studied, with a special emphasis on the way it relates to the climate and the way of life of the inhabitants. One of the most interesting traditional house forms was found in the oasis of Ghadames. My interest in the houses of Ghadames is not only in their history, their location in Libya or the climatic extremes to which they are subjected, but in the unusual form developed to provide protection from the climate, and the way that this form relates to the social patterns.

Ghadames lies on the western border of Libya, close to the junction with the borders of Algeria and Tunisia. It is located about 400 km from the coast, and about 450 km from Tripoli. The journey from Tripoli can be made in a few hours by the regular internal flight or in a day by car or bus. After leaving the green coastal strip the road crosses the Jafara plain and climbs the escarpment at Nalut. From Nalut the road runs south across the steppe and desert, past the oases of Sinawn and Derj to Ghadames.
A Survey of Islamifying Trends in Libyan Law since 1969
Authors: Mayer Ann
Published: February 2016

The commitment to reinstatement of the sharī‘a, or traditional law of Islam, has been a striking feature of the programme of Libya's revolutionary government. Before 1969, legal development in Libya had conformed to the universally observable trend in Islamic societies of introducing secular laws on Western lines at the expense of the sharī‘a. True, the sharī‘a had not been superseded in Libya to as great an extent as in some countries, but its influence was largely restricted to matters of personal status and the regulation of certain traditional Islamic institutions. Civil and commercial codes on the French model had been introduced, and the Libyan Penal Code was inspired by the French and Italian versions. In 1971 the Revolutionary Command Council set up a commission to revise Libyan law in accordance with the sharī‘a, a task given renewed emphasis in 1975, when a law was passed reorganizing the commission. Since 1971 a number of laws modelled on the sharī‘a have been promulgated and, presumably, more are yet to come.

An understanding of this remarkable development has been slow in coming. Information on Libyan law is regrettably difficult to obtain outside Libya, and many potentially illuminating sources remain unavailable to Western students. The impression one gleans from the incomplete materials presently available is that broad guidelines for the work of the commission revising the laws have been set. On a given legal issue the most lenient solution is to be selected from among the doctrines of the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, with consideration being given to the public welfare (maṣlaḥa) and Libya's traditional adherence to the Mālikī doctrine. However, one would like to know much more about the rationale underlying the specific enactments. Nonetheless, since this important trend has now been under way for several years, a tentative assessment, even if based on an inadequate range of sources, is long overdue.
Sidi Khrebish - A Note on the Coarse Pottery
Authors: Riley J. A.
Published: February 2016

The quantity of stratified coarse pottery from Sidi Khrebish has been considerable and preliminary study has of necessity been concentrated on important groups from sealed contexts which span the period from the second century B.C. to the seventh century A.D.

The earliest group is from a cistern of second century B.C. date; the next is from excavation underneath Roman period concrete floors which produced mid-first century A.D. material, while the largest group is from the infill of Roman period cisterns and destruction levels and can be dated to the mid-third century A.D. Information is somewhat scanty for the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. but groups of pottery representing the Byzantine period were recovered in some quantity from the destruction levels of the church and its cistern. A good group of Islamic glazed fine ware and coarse ware was associated with late occupation within the church.

Space does not permit more than a brief survey of the most common and distinctive coarse ware forms from the excavation.

In general, throughout the period of Berenice, the locally made coarse ware form shapes seem to have been influenced from the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in the second and third centuries A.D.

The commonest form of second century B.C. cooking pot is rounded, having a short neck with two vertical ‘strap’ handles from the shoulder merging with the rim (fig. 1). Another distinguishing feature of pottery from this period is a semicircular handle from the body with an indentation at the top where it has been pressed to the rim (fig. 2). Both types are of the distinctive local ‘fossil gritted ware’, the fabric of which ranges from orange brown to dark pink. The clay contains fairly large roughly circular flat flakes of bluish-grey grit, which, when split open, reveal segmented spiral fossil remains. This fabric is very common in all periods.
Survey of Islamic Sites
Authors: Hutt Antony
Published: February 2016

The main intention of this survey, for which I was awarded the first Libya Fellowship of the Society, was to examine a number of sites in Libya and also in adjacent countries which are either of the same period as the monuments in Ajdabiyah, or have relevance to the development of these monuments.

On the way to Libya I visited the related, if somewhat later monuments of Palermo, built in the Arabo-Norman style, but utilizing both workmen and a number of constructional techniques from North Africa. I was fortunate in being guided around the various sites by members of the Ente per i Palazzi e Ville di Sicilia, and was able to use the recent study of Palermo by Mrs D. L. Jones, currently awaiting publication. The architectural details, and many of the designs and patterns involved relate very strongly to the north African forms, and emphasise the fact that the Mediterranean was still much more of a linking than a divisive factor even after the Muslims had lost control of Sicily and some of the other islands.
Tripolitania, Hadd Hajar
Authors: Holmes Peter
Published: February 2016

Mr. Peter Holmes was able to return to photograph the wall in the Gebel south-west of Asabaa, called Hadd Hajar, mentioned in the Society's Second Annual Report, 1970–1, p. 11. Pl. VIII shows one of his photographs. In the foreground is Ras at-Tays al-Abyad, and the main wall below, which runs for 6 km. to Ras Sa'id. A small quantity of pottery found by the watch-tower was clearly Roman, and included an amphora rim and small pieces of late Roman lamp. 2½ km. south of Hadd Hajar near its south-west end another watch-tower was found on Ras at-Tays al-Aswad.