bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Managing Agricultural Resources in Libya: Recent Experience
Authors: Allan J. A. 
Published: February 2016

Since the revolution of September 1969 very bold and expensive experiments have been mounted to test the productivity of Libya's soil and water resources. Ten years on it is appropriate to review these experiments in terms of the extension of the irrigated and cultivated area as well as with respect to the impact of such innovations on the renewable natural resources base and the viability of agricultural production in existing or changed economic circumstances.Libyan economic development takes place in the special circumstances of an oil economy in which the massive oil revenues accruing to the government are deployed almost exclusively through the public sector via ministries and secretariats. In an oil economy a special and inescapable burden of responsibility falls to the government to lead and direct economic and social change (Penrose 1973, p7) and this role has at no time been avoided by the revolutionary government. On the contrary there has been a progressive rationalisation of activity and property since 1969 so that by 1979 almost all commercial and industrial activity, as well as housing and services were controlled by government agencies.The agricultural sector has been affected by this trend towards public intervention directly through the capital invested in cultivation, irrigation and livestock and indirectly through the control of the marketing of agricultural products. The final phase of this interaction is seen in the new proposal to reorganize the farming of the coastal strip of the Jefara Plain and the coastal area as far as east Misuratah, with a view to creating viable agricultural units able to support a Libyan family with no outside labour. The economic, social and ideological implications of this proposal are immense not to speak of the opportunity which such a reorganization would present for the rational management of the crucial and much impaired groundwater resource upon which irrigated farming depends in the favoured and therefore ‘over-developed’ coastal strip.
The Petrological Investigation of Roman and Islamic Ceramics from Cyrenaica
Authors: Riley J. A. 
Published: February 2016

The methodology of Mediterranean pottery study (for all periods, but especially for the Roman period) has developed considerably over the past fifteen years, and the range of questions asked of it has been greatly extended. Alongside the traditional approach to pottery studies, which concentrates on typology and chronology, there has been an increasing emphasis on the characterization and determination of the origin of pottery using scientific methods, and also a growing awareness of the importance of pottery quantification (i.e. expressing the relative frequency of different pottery types or styles).It is as a result of these latter two developments that coarse, functional wares can now be used convincingly to complement and greatly extend the economic information provided by fine, decorative wares. Cyrenaica has been in the fore-front of this research (see summary in Humphrey 1979), and it is the purpose of this article to provide a preliminary examination of one aspect, namely the contribution of petrological analysis to our understanding of Cyrenaican local pottery fabrics, and of coarse ware imports.Before a satisfactory typology of pottery from any area can be established, and before that pottery can be used most effectively as evidence for the resolution of economic problems, it is essential that the local fabrics should be recognised. Although visual classification of pottery fabric types is often possible on the basis of subjective factors such as general appearance, texture, hardness, nature of inclusions, etc. (as described in Young in press), there are often problems when attempting to establish their origin. This is normally best done by scientific analysis, using either geological or chemical techniques. It is rapidly becoming the routine practice to analyse fabrics, in the first instance, by geological methods (to identify the major inclusions within the clay), and then, if necessary, by chemical methods (which analyse the elemental composition of the clay).
The Olive Boom. Oil Surpluses, Wealth and Power in Roman Tripolitania
Authors: Mattingly D. J. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThis paper is a sequel to an earlier study of the archaeological evidence for olive oil production in Roman Tripolitania, and combines archaeological information on olive presses with the evidence for trade in Tripolitanian oil, as manifested by the identification of Tripolitanian containers (amphorae). Attention is drawn, in particular, to the apparent correspondence between conclusions made in respect of the settlement data and of the socio-economic significance of stamps on Tripolitanian amphorae. Both sets of data support the view that the urban elite of the region, and in particular that of Lepcis Magna, had control of a very considerable quantity of surplus oil production and that this constituted a major source of individual prosperity, in part manifested by the extravagant donations of public buildings. The notable wealth of the Lepcitanian aristocracy enabled increasing numbers from amongst it to participate at a high level in the central government of the Roman Empire as senators or equestrians. The culmination of this process was the elevation of Septimius Severus as the first African Emperor in AD 193. His reign brought clear short term advantages to his home town, but after his death and the assassination of both his sons by AD 217, the fortunes of the town changed for the worst. Under Severus the town had offered the Roman State a voluntary ‘tax’ in olive oil and this together with the absorption of much land into Imperial estates must have taken a significant amount of agricultural surplus out of local control. In an Appendix, some comments are made on the problems of attempting to quantify the scale of oil production, and some broad estimates are suggested.
ULVS XIX: A Reconnaissance Survey of the Cenozoic Geomorphology of the Wadi Merdum, Beni Ulid, in the Libyan Pre-desert
Authors: Gilbertson D. D. , Hunt C. O. , Hivernel F. , Burnett J. E. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractA geological reconnaissance of the Beni Ulid — Wadi Merdum region of the pre-desert of Tripolitania shows that at least twenty, stratigraphically distinct geomorphic events can be recognised from field exposures, field mapping and the analysis of Spacelab metric camera photography. The earliest events are provisionally attributed to the early Cenozoic and include uplift, tilting, faulting, the formation of karstic and karst-tectonic landforms, and erosion by meandering river systems. Some of these valleys were infilled with lava flows from the south-south-west in the ?late Palaeocene/early Eocene. Re-excavation of the ancient landscape by rivers followed. Pleistocene deposits of powerful, often braided rivers occur in the wadi floor. The wadi sides are clothed in complex sequences of alluvial fans, screes, windblown, waterlain and anthropogenic deposits, sometimes with weathering horizons and calcretes of uncertain stratigraphic significance. The plateaux contain large alluvial basins, palaeosols, soils and weathering horizons of uncertain age. Accelerated soil erosion caused by human activity appears to have been important in the area — slope deposits of scree and midden between 4 and 8 metres in thickness have accumulated beneath one gasr during a 500 year period. The most recent deposits identified are complex aeolian deposits at the wadi edge and the interdigitating series of floodloams and aeolian sands on the wadi floors.
ULVS XX: First Report on the Pottery
Authors: Dore J.N. 
Published: February 2016

This report deals only with the fine pottery since it is this material which provides, in the first instance, the dating for the sites in the survey area. A full report on all the pottery is in preparation.The fifth season of the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey was completed at the end of October 1989. The work of the first three seasons resulted in the development of a model for the socio-economic hierarchy in the area of the Valleys. Two particular types of site (the Farms known as Opus Africanum farms and the Gsur) were considered to be the sites which dominated this hierarchy during different periods of the history of the area. On the basis of the pottery evidence, we established that the Opus Africanum farms were associated with the early period and the Gsur with the later period; there was some indication of decline from around the end of the fourth century.The aim of the two most recent seasons was to examine particular examples of these two types of site. In 1984 an Opus Africanum farm was examined situated in Wadi el Amud; its occupation began in the second half of the first century AD. Most recently, in 1989, two areas were examined, and these were chosen for research because of the possibility that they were only occupied in the late period: firstly, Wadi Buzra which flows into Wadi Mimoun and secondly Wadi Umm el Kharab which flows into Wadi Nafad.
El Merj (Ancient Barca) — A Summary Report on the 1989 Season
Authors: Dore J.N. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractIn this first season several exploratory trenches were sunk with encouraging results. There is a considerable depth of stratigraphy over the whole town, sufficient, it would seem, to preserve substantial remains, and there is evidence of considerable occupation in the medieval Islamic period, as well as some material of Greek and early Roman date. In the 1990 season, it is planned to open a much larger area and begin the systematic controlled excavation of the Islamic levels, and it is hoped that, in the coming years, the combined expertise of this Anglo-Libyan venture will bring to light the town whose importance is hinted at in the historical sources.
ULVS XXII: Crustose Lichen Affecting the Geological Interpretation of Digital Landsat Imagery of the Tripolitanian Pre-desert
Authors: Pyatt F. B. , Gilbertson D. D. , Hunt C. O. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractWhite surface encrustations developing on basalt which had the same ‘reflectance signature’ on digital Landsat imagery as that from the limestone terrain in the Tripolitanian pre-desert are shown at the Wadi Gobbeen to be the thalli of the crustose lichen of the genus Aspicilia. The reproductive structures and ascospores of the lichen are described. The lichen is seen to be aiding the weathering and disintegration of the basalt cobbles. The absence of the thalli on the sides and underneath of cobbles currently resting upon the present land surface may suggest that soil erosion has been rapid in the recent past.
Excavations at El Merj (Ancient Barca) – A First Report on the 1990 Season
Authors: Dore J. N. , Kennet Derek 
Published: February 2016

AbstractTrench 330. Below recent structures the remains of two (possibly related) complexes of buildings were uncovered. Building I was a sunken, probably rectangular, courtyard bounded by a colonnade. Building II was mud brick. Seven major phases were identified. Pottery suggests a terminus post quem in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries AD.Trench 340. Below very recent features was a brick barrack block, which probably dates to the 1930s. Below this was a building constructed on mud brick, of at least two principal phases, probably of similar date to Buildings I and II in Trench 330.The Finds. Twenty-three coins were recovered. Two are probably comparatively early in date (Abbasid or Fatimid). Considerable quantities of pottery were recovered (see Appendices I and II). Other finds of note were a glass weight, probably of Fatimid date, and a small head carved in bone.
Excavations at El Merj (Ancient Barca): a First Report on the 1991 Season
Authors: Dore J. N. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractTrench 330, begun in 1990, was extended. The earlier phases of building II were examined and in two places what is thought to be the bottom of the sequence has been found. A further area of building I was exposed. It is now thought likely that building I wholly post-dates building II and general considerations suggest that the whole sequence should be accommodated within the Ottoman Turkish period. Below the sequence a thick layer of possibly natural clay was discovered, which has interesting implications for the location of earlier settlement.
Silphium in Ancient Art
Authors: Fabbricotti Emanuela 
Published: February 2016

AbstractSilphium is the source of Cyrene's wealth. It is possible that the first colonists who landed in Cyrenaica realized the many qualities of the plant and decided at once to take advantage of it. Maybe, the Minoans knew about it too, as Sir Arthur Evans found some inscribed tablets from Cnossos with symbols very like those represented on later Cyrenaican coins.Silphium is represented on coins possibly as the symbol of Cyrenaica and a branch of silphium is also shown held by a female divinity in clay statuettes. A rare coin shows a female figure sitting on a high stool, holding out her arms towards a plant of silphium. I think that she is not a goddess, but Cyrene itself, guardian of silphium and of the land where silphium grows and I suggest that a limestone head found in Lamluda could belong to a statue of the same type.After the archaic period, there are many legends related to silphium and also to Aristaeus who is said to have discovered the plant. After the royal period, the symbol of silphium loses its first position on coins and is nearly forgotten in art, but in the 2nd century AD it appears again in two groups of capitals, one in Beida and one in Cyrene. It is a sort of deliberate revival of the old legends and old iconographies that wants to confirm and demonstrate that the great political power of Cyrene (due to silphium) has returned even if the plant of silphium itself has become very rare.
Fieldwork at EI Merj (Ancient Barca): A First Report on the 1992 Season
Authors: Dore J. N. , Rowan J. S. , Davison J. P. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThe principal aim of this season's investigations was to obtain contextual information on the geological, geo-morphological and hydrological processes operating within the environs of El Merj, to complement existing archaeological evidence. Provisional conclusions show that broad similarities exist between profiles obtained at two points on the site suggesting that the central area of the site has undergone a similar depositional history. The site seems to have been subject to regular inundation by flood events, occurring 1–2 times per year, which deposited significant quantities of silty-clay sediment eroded from terra rossa soils of the Jebel Akhdar. Less frequently, coarse-grained gravel and cobble deposits were introduced to the profiles, indicative of the effects of much rarer high magnitude floods.
Libyan Period Royal Burials in Context
Authors: Gosline Sheldon Lee 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThis essay will examine to what extent the archaeological evidence from North Africa does or does not reveal an indifference to permanent funereal memorials in the form of monumental superstructures. In particular, comparison will be made with the royal tombs of Tanis from the Libyan Period in Egypt. The validity of the Marxist derived assumption that nomadism is a lifestyle unconcerned with monuments to the dead will also be considered in this context.In historical times, coastal North Africa has been colonized repeatedly, and each group has provided an additional layer of cultural influence. While this colonial process did not eliminate the influence of the underlying native system, this layered colonization of Cyrenaica and the various indigenous groups of the region had a profound effect on the development of funerary architecture. Hybrid funerary systems and architectural forms developed, and it is perhaps a synthesis of these forms which could truly be labelled as ‘Libyan’, since it is their unifying features which define the characteristic attributes of that culture's approach to the treatment of their dead.
Excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi), 1995
Authors: Lloyd J. A. , Buzaian A. , Coulton J. J. 
Published: February 2016

In April 1995 a three week season of excavation was conducted at the ancient city of Euesperides by the Society for Libyan Studies and the Department of Archaeology, Gar Younis University, Benghazi, in collaboration with the Libyan Department of Antiquities. This note provides a brief account of the main findings.The background to the new work at the site is as follows: in the early 1990s unauthorised excavations for a shopping precinct took place immediately to the north of the known archaeological zone of Sidi Abeid, bringing to light huge quantities of pottery and other artefacts of the Greek period. Eye-witnesses report also the removal of large quantities of ancient building stone during these operations. Following initiatives by the Department of Antiquities and Gar Younis University a legal judgement was obtained suspending further construction (the court case is continuing) and archaeological investigations were set in train.The condition of the site was brought to the attention of Drs Susan Walker and Joyce Reynolds during their visit to Benghazi in September 1993. A year later, following further visits by the first-named author of this note (in December 1993) and by the Libya Society's Chairwoman, Dr Walker, and Head of Mission, Professor Graeme Barker (in Spring 1994), a joint programme of research was agreed and a two-year contract with the Department of Antiquities was signed in Tripoli. The Society was able to divert resources immediately to the site, and the results of the ensuing investigation, which benefited greatly from the participation of the Department of Archaeology, are reported elsewhere in this volume. The field directors, Drs Peter Hayes and David Mattingly, very kindly made available the full records of this work in advance of the excavations.
Prosopographica: Kyrene
Authors: Habicht Ch. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractOn the list of names in the Cyrenaean inscription published by Fadel Ali Mohamed and Joyce Reynolds in Libyan Studies 25 (1994) 213f. Professor Habicht comments (1) that Aiglanor (1.1), Heniochus (1.2) and Polianthes (1.4) are specifically Cyrenaean names; (2) that Karneades Aiglanoros (1.1) can be identified with a Cyrenaean honoured at Sparta in c. 188 B.C.; (3) that Polianthes son of Kartisthenes in 1.4 may be a brother of Mnasarchos son of Kratisthenes listed at Delphi as a Cyrenaean host of sacred envoys in the late third or early second century B.C., and Kallimachos (1.5) may be identical with the Kallimachos who is another Cyrenaean host listed in the same document.
Possible Sabrathan and Oean Amphora Stamps
Authors: Barton Ian M. 
Published: February 2016

AbstractIs it possible to identify amphora stamps from Sabratha and Oea amongst those recorded from Tripolitanian Type III amphorae of the early third century AD? Number 7 in the list given by Manacorda and Mattingly begins with the letters SAB, and could be identified with a member of the family recorded in IRT2. A more dubious possibility is no. 6. It is also suggested that stamps beginning with the letter O (nos 17 and 19) might be products of Oea.
A Preliminary Report on the Small Finds from Excavations at Lepcis Magna 1994-95
Authors: Ashton Sally-Ann 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThis is a short report on a selection of the small finds from the excavations of a Roman house which lies to the west of the theatre at Lepcis Magna. The pottery and coins from the current levels of excavation have been dated to the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD; however, many of the objects seem to be residual. One of the most interesting finds was a solid bronze ring, decorated with two female figures. The object seems to have been functional, with the ring and the bars on which the woman are seated being attached to a soft material such as leather. These characteristics, which can be found on parallel examples, along with other bronze artefacts from the site suggest that the former was part of the decoration of a horse drawn carriage. Several pieces of jewellery were found including two gemstones which were once part of a finger ring, dating from the 2nd century AD. The first is a garnet and shows the goddess Artemis/Diane in her role of huntress, holding a bow and arrow. The second, which is a cornelian, is decorated with a portrait of a youth and may well be a local copy of a type circulating at the time. Many pieces of locally crafted bone and ivory were also found, including a bone plaque with a floral decoration which was originally intended as a decorative inlay for a small object such as a box. A similar piece from Egypt has been dated to around the 3rd or 4th centuries AD.
Signa Venerandae Christianae Religionis: On the Conversion of Pagan Sanctuaries in the Dioceses of Africa and Ægyptus
Authors: Teichner Felix 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThe edict of the emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III of AD 435 laid down the laws on the juridical dissolution of pagan sanctuaries and the annexation of the temple property. The probability of tallying such historically confirmed situations with archaeological finds always poses a difficult methodical question. A small number of interesting examples from the late antique Dioceses Africa and Ægyptus therefore deserve the author's closer attention: the temple of Apollo at Cyrene, the three-aisled Christian basilica at the ‘Vetus Forum’ of Lepcis Magna, the Jupiter Dolichenus Temple at the port of the same city (all in Libya), and the basilicas in Sbeitla (Sufetula), Djebel Oust (both in Tunisia) and Tipasa (Algeria).Unfortunately, in none of these cases, could the exact date of rebuilding be established. But even so, it is obvious that the edict of Theodosius II cannot be considered as a definitiveterminus ad quem. Archaeological as well as historical facts indicate that the process of destroying pagan cults and transforming temples into Christian sites lasted for almost a century (early fourth up to the mid-fifth). Theodosius Il's edict thus legalised a custom that had already been in practice for decades.
A Bibliographic Review: Studies of Libya's International Borders
Authors: Ciarli Stefano , McLachlan Keith 
Published: February 2016

AbstractThe Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has, since 1980, been involved in no fewer than three important judgments at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, dealing with Libya-Tunisia, the Libya-Malta and the Libya-Chad boundaries. The Government of Libya accepted all the judgments made at the ICJ without equivocation.The settlement of the Mediterranean continental shelf issues with Tunisia (1982) and with Malta (1985) may be seen as technical adjustments leading to a fixing of boundaries in undemarcated areas. Both judgments were comparatively favourable to Libya and extended Libya's area of hydrocarbon activities off-shore.In the matter of Libyan land claims to the Aouzou strip on the Chad borderlands, the situation was rather different. The international boundary between Libya and Chad was laid down under a 1955 convention. In 1972 the Libyan Government annexed the Aouzou strip. The ICJ gave its judgment on 3rd February 1994, by 16 votes to 1 finding that the boundary between the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Republic of Chad is defined by the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighbourliness concluded on 10th August 1955 between the French Republic and the United Kingdom of Libya, thus restoring the Aouzou strip to Chad.A select bibliography of sources dealing with Libya's international boundaries is attached, itemising key texts in Western languages.