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DMP IX: Summary Report on the Fourth Season of Excavations of the Burials and Identity team

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

David Mattingly
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Hafed Abduli
Affiliation:
Université de Sousse, Tunisia
Hamza Aburgheba
Affiliation:
Department of Antiquities, Tripoli, Libya
Muftah Ahmed
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK Department of Antiquities, Tripoli, Libya
Misbah Ali Ahmed Esmaia
Affiliation:
Department of Antiquities, Tripoli, Libya
Steve Baker
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Franca Cole
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, UK
Corisande Fenwick
Affiliation:
Stanford University, USA
Mireya Gonzalez Rodriguez
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Matthew Hobson
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Nadia Khalaf
Affiliation:
Oxford Archaeology, UK
Marta Lahr
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, UK
Victoria Leitch
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, UK
Farès Moussa
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh, UK
Efthymia Nikita
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, UK
David Parker
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Anita Radini
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Nick Ray
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Toby Savage
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Martin Sterry
Affiliation:
aSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK
Katia Schörle
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, UK

Abstract

The fourth season of the Burials and Identity component of the Desert Migrations Project in 2010 focused on completion of excavation work at two main cemeteries (TAG001 and TAG012) and smaller-scale sampling work at a number of nearby cemeteries. The investigation of a number of burials in a semi-nucleated escarpment cemetery TAG063 produced interesting new information on Proto-Urban Garamantian funerary rites, dating to the latter centuries BC. The excavations at TAG001 were extended to two areas of the cemetery characterised by different burial types to the stepped tombs that were excavated in 2009. A second type of fairly monumental burial was identified, but these had been heavily robbed and it was not possible to demonstrate conclusively that these pre-dated the stepped tombs. Most of the other burials excavated were simple shaft burials and were relatively sparsely furnished with imported goods, in comparison with the larger tombs, though quite a lot of organic material was identified (matting, wood, gourds, textiles and leather). At TAG012, a series of additional mudbrick tombs was emptied. All had been robbed, but pockets of the original fill and associated finds survived intact, yielding some interesting assemblages. The majority of these tombs appear to be Late Garamantian, though some contained artefacts from much earlier times.

Type
Archaeological Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2010

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References

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