In view of the renewed concern with them it may now be opportune at least to put on record some surviving impressions of these tombs, mentioning unlooked-for contents and their background. The 1996 excavations at Lepcis Magna. The third season of excavation of a Roman town house adjacent to the theatre of Lepcis Magna took place in September 1996. The whole ground plan of the house had not previously been exposed and this was the primary task of the 1996 fieldwork. The site was then abandoned until the fourth century when the building was reoccupied, and the interior layout changed.
Final abandonment seems to have taken place in the fifth century.
The cisterns and well of the house were also examined, and probably what are the first waterlogged archaeological deposits from North Africa were sampled. They include large amounts of organic domestic waste. The animal bone of all three seasons was examined by Jane Sidell, and included much butchered material. Keith Wilkinson discusses the palaeoenvironmental material and future hopes for its scientific examination. During 1997 a Lepcis Magna web site has been opened up to provide up to date news of the project.