Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:49:39.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Libyan Period Royal Burials in Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Abstract

This 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.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1995

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

Abouhamed, M. S. 19761977. Neo-Punic tombs near Leptis Magna. Libyan Studies 8: 2734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayoub, M. S. 19661967. The royal cemetery at Germa: a preliminary report. Libya Antiqua: Annual of the Dept. of Antiquities of Libya 3-4: 213219.Google Scholar
Aboub, M. S. 1968a. Cemetery of Saniat Ben-Howidy. Excavations in Germa (Fezzan).Google Scholar
Ayoub, M. S. 1968b. Fezzan: a short history.Google Scholar
Bailey, D. M. 1972. Crowe's tomb at Benghazi. Annual of the British School at Athens 67: 111, pls. 1-4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D. M. 1988. Crowe's tomb at Benghazi — a postscript. Libyan Studies 19: 8794.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banks, K. M. 1984. Climates, Cultures and Cattle: The Holocene Archaeology of the Eastern Sahara.Google Scholar
Barker, G. 1981. Early agriculture and economic change in North Africa. The Sahara: ecological change and early economic history. Menas Monograph 1 (Allan, J. A., Ed.).Google Scholar
Bates, O. 1914/1970 reprint. The Eastern Libyans: an essay. Frank Cass and Co., Ltd.Google Scholar
Bentley, G. R. 1987. Kinship and Social Structure at Early Bronze IA BAB Edh-Dhra', Jordan: a bioarchaeological analysis of the mortuary and dental data. Univ. of Chicago: PhD Dissertation.Google Scholar
Bietak, M. 1968. Season report. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 23: 79114.Google Scholar
Bietak, M. 1984. Problems in Middle Bronze Age chronology: new evidence from Egypt. American Journal of Archaeology 88: 471488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bietak, M. 1985. Tell ed-Dab'a. Archiv für Orientforschung 32: 130134.Google Scholar
Brissaud, P. 1987. Cahiers de Tanis I. Edition Recherche sur les Civilisations 75: Paris.Google Scholar
Brissaud, P. 1988. La necropole royale de Tanis, etat des recherches: 1983-1986. The Archaeology of the Nile Delta: Problems and Priorities: 159163. (van den Brink, E.C.M., Ed.).Google Scholar
Brogan, O. 1964. The Roman remains in the Wadi el-Amud. Libya Antiqua 1: 4756.Google Scholar
Cadenat, P. 1957. Fouilles à Columnata. Campagne 1956-1957 — La nécropole. Libyca 5: 4981.Google Scholar
Camps, G. 1974. Les Civilizations Préhistorique de l'Afrique du Nord et du Sahara.Google Scholar
Camps, G. 1985. Adebni. Encyclopédie Berbère II: Ad-Aguh-n-Tahlé: 119125.Google Scholar
Camps, G. 1987. Ammon. Encyclopédie Berbère IV: Alger-Amzwar: 596599.Google Scholar
Camps, G. 1989. Ateban. Encyclopédie Berbère VIII: Asarkae-Aurès: 10081011.Google Scholar
Camps, G. 1991. Bazinas. Encyclopédie Berbère IX: Baál-Ben Yasla: 14001407.Google Scholar
Capot-Rey, R. 1939. Le nomadisme dans l'Afrique du Nord-ouest d'après P. G. Merner. Annales de Géographie 48: 184190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerny, J. 1965. Egypt: from the death of Ramesses III to the end of the Twenty-first Dynasty. The Cambridge Ancient History II, Chapter XXV (revised).Google Scholar
Davies, G. 1977. Burial in Italy up to Augustus. Burial in the Roman World: 1319. (Reece, Richard, Ed.).Google Scholar
Di Vita, A. 1964. II ‘limes’ romano di Tripolitania nella sua concretezza archeologica e nella sua realtà storica. Libya Antiqua 1: 6598.Google Scholar
Dyson-Hudson, N. 1972. The study of nomads. Journal of Asian and African Studies 7: 229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El Mahdy, C. 1989. Mummies Myth and Magic in Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1949. The Sanusi of Cyrenaica. London: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Gellner, E. 1969. Saints of the Atlas. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Giddy, L. 1987. Egyptian Oases.Google Scholar
Goff, B. L. 1979. Symbols of Ancient Egypt in the Late Period: Twenty-First Dynasty. Religion and Society 13.Google Scholar
Goodchild, R. G. 1976a. The Romano-Libyan cemetery at Bir Ed-Dreder. Libyan Studies: Selected Papers: 590–71.Google Scholar
Goodchild, R. G. 1976b. Roman sites on the Tarhuna plateau of Tripolitania. Libyan Studies: Selected Papers: 72106.Google Scholar
Gsell, S. 1901. Les Monuments antiques de l'Algérie.Google Scholar
Gsell, S. 1911. Atlas archéologique de l'Algérie.Google Scholar
Gsell, S. 1928. Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord.Google Scholar
Habachi, L. 1954. Two pyramidions of the XIIIth dynasty from Ezbet Rushdi El-Kebîra (Khatâ'na). ASAÉ 52.2: 478479.Google Scholar
Hornung, E. 1982. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many (Der Eine und die Vielen) (Translated by Baines, John).Google Scholar
Johnson, D. L. 1969/1974. The Nature of Nomadism.Google Scholar
Kitchen, K. A. 1990. The arrival of the Libyans in Late New Kingdom Egypt. Libya and Egypt c. 1300-750 BC: 1528 (Leahy, A., Ed.).Google Scholar
Leahy, A. 1985. The Libyan Period in Egypt: an essay in interpretation. Libyan Studies 16: 5165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lhote, H. 1982. Les Chars Rupestres Sahariens: des Syrtes au Niger, par le pays des Garamantes et des Altantes.Google Scholar
McHugh, W. P. 1974. Cattle pastoralism in Africa — a model for interpreting archaeological evidence from the Eastern Sahara Desert. Arctic Anthropology Suppl. 11: 236244.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D. J. 1983. The Laguatan: a Libyan tribal confederation in the Late Roman Empire. Libyan Studies 14: 96108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meillassoux, C. 1973. On the mode of production of the hunting band, 187-203, in French Perspectives in African Studies. London: Oxford Univ. Press (Alexandre, P., Ed.).Google Scholar
Merner, P.-G. 1937. Das Nomadentum in Nordwestlichen Afrika. Berliner Geographische Arbeiten 12; Stuttgart: J. Engelhorn.Google Scholar
Montet, P. 1947. La nécropole royale de tanis I — Les constructions et le tombeau d'Osorkon II à Tanis.Google Scholar
Montet, P. 1951. La nécropole royale de Tanis II — Les constructions et le tombeau de Psousennes à Tanis.Google Scholar
Montet, P. 1960. La nécropole royale de Tanis III — Les constructions et le tombeau de Chéchanq III à Tanis.Google Scholar
O'Connor, D. 1990. The Nature of Tjemhu (Libyan) Society in the Later New Kingdom. Libya and Egypt c. 1300-750 BC: 29114 (Leahy, A., Ed.).Google Scholar
Pauphilet, D. 1953. Recherches archeologique a Tejerhi et dans l'Ouadi el Ajal. Mission au Fezzân.Google Scholar
Peters, E. L. 1977. Patronage in Cyrenaica, 275-290 in Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean Societies. Duckworth (Gellner, E. and Waterbury, J., Eds).Google Scholar
Peters, E. L. 1990. The Bedouin of Cyrenaica: studies in personal and corporate power.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petit-Maire, N. 1981. Aspects of human activity in the coastal occidental Sahara in the last 10,000 years. In The Sahara: Ecological Change and Early Economic History. Menas Monograph 1 (Allan, J. A., Ed.).Google Scholar
Reygasse, M. 1950. Monuments Funéraires Préislamiques de L Afrique du Nord.Google Scholar
Ritner, R. K. 1990. The end of the Libyan anarchy in Egypt: P. Rylands IX. Cols. 11-12. Encoria 17: 101108.Google Scholar
Rowe, A. 1956. The round, rectangular, stepped and rock-cut tombs at Cyrene. Cyrenaican Expedition of the University of Manchester, 1952.Google Scholar
Rowe, A. 1959. An account of the excavated areas of the cemeteries at Cyrene and of objects found in 1952. Cyrenaican Expedition of the University of Manchester, 1955, 1956, 1957.Google Scholar
Sattin, F. and Gusmano, G. 1964. La Considdetta ‘Mummia’ Infantile Dell'Acacus. Supplements to Libya Antiqua I.Google Scholar
Spooner, B. 1973. The Cultural Ecology of Pastoral Nomads. An Addison-Wesley Module in Anthropology 45.Google Scholar
Stadelmann, R. 1971. Das Grab im Templehof Der Typus des Königsgrabes in der Spätzeit. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 27: 111123.Google Scholar
Stucchi, S. 1964. La tomba a tumulo presso Messa in Cirenaica. Libya Antiqua 1: 127131.Google Scholar
Trigger, B. G., Kemp, B. J., O'Connor, D., Lloyd, A. B. 1983. Ancient Egypt: A Social History.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, D. 1990. Provisional evidence for the seasonal occupation of the Marsa Matruh area by late Bronze Age Libyans. Libya and Egypt c. 1300-750 BC: 114. (Leahy, A., Ed.).Google Scholar
Williams, G. 1963. Green Mountain: an informal guide to Cyrenaica and its Jebel Akhdar.Google Scholar
Winorath-Scott, A. and Fabbri, M. 19661967. The horn in Libyan prehistoric art and its traces in other cultures. Libya Antiqua: Annual of the Dept. of Antiquities of Libya 3–4: 233239.Google Scholar
Weis, H. 1959. Der antike Fezzan — das Glacis des Limes Tripolitanus. Jahresheft des Österrichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien XLIV, Beiblatt.Google Scholar
Ziegert, H. 1967. Dor el Gussa und Gebel Ben Ghnema.Google Scholar