This article considers three lithic artefacts (two sidescrapers and a gouge or plane) discovered at Augila Oasis, located in Cyrenaica along the dried riverbed of Wadi Nashoof and once directly in the line of the Western Desert trade and pilgrimage route. The three Augila tools belong to the so-called bifacial tradition, which spread in the eastern Sahara during the mid-Holocene, from c. 6000 to 4800 BC, and find parallels among the mid-Holocene production of the northern edge of the Farafra Oasis and other contexts of the Egyptian Western Desert. The presence of the bifacial tradition in the Lower Nile Valley and in the Libyan littoral could have unfolded through exchange networks during periods of favourable climatic condition in the mid-Holocene.

The area encompassing the Acacus and Messak mountains in South Western Libya, similarly to the other central Saharan massifs, is characterized by a deeply eroded landscape where Quaternary geo-archaeological archives are rare, especially Pleistocene ones, making it difficult to understand and contextualize past human dynamics within a solid chrono-paleoenvironmental framework. Except for the few caves and open-air contexts where Pleistocene sedimentary sequences are preserved, the vast majority of archaeological evidence from the region is represented by lithic artefacts found on the surface of deflated open-air sites. Nonetheless, artefacts still stand as the main references used to build a rough framework for population dynamics through time. Although the evidence is not as solid as we would like, it allows us to at least reconsider connecting the human presence solely to ‘green’ phases, as a number of population dynamics related to arid landscapes have inferably occurred in the late Middle Pleistocene and in the Late Pleistocene. Coping with changing or difficult ecological settings could have been a driver at different times for behavioral adjustment, large scale displacement, increased interactions between populations and diffusion of technological innovations.

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).

Since 1989, the Society for Libyan Studies has been carrying out, in conjunction with the Libyan Department of Antiquities, excavation and fieldwork in El Merj (Dore 1990, 1991, 1992) which is held to be the site of two earlier towns named Barqa (also spelled Barca and Barka), one of medieval date and the other Greek, as also of a Roman-period village. In this paper I wish to review critically the evidence for the identification of El Merj as medieval Barqa.

The broad outline of the case is as follows: a town called Barqa is mentioned by a considerable number of medieval authors writing in Arabic. To judge from them the town flourished between the ninth and eleventh centuries AD but declined thereafter. The association of the names Barqa and El Merj with a single site seems to stem from one author, Ibn Sa 'id, writing in the thirteenth century, though even he is tentative in his identification (see below). After the fourteenth century there is a period which is devoid of information. By the eighteenth century the town(s) of Barqa/El Merj had disappeared (i.e. ceased to be inhabited) but local memory preserved the name and location of El Merj because Pacho visited its ruins and recorded the name in 1825 (see below). About twenty years after this a new town called El Merj began to grow up around a castle newly built by the Ottoman authorities on the remains of an earlier town. This town was called Barce by the Italians but reverted to being called El Merj after the second world war, and was finally destroyed by an earthquake in 1963.

The use of pottery distributions to identify trade contacts is one of the most important tools in the archaeologist's repertoire. Recent examples of such studies, concentrating on the classical period in Cyrenaica, have produced evidence which provides valuable new insights into changing trade patterns for which there is precious little historical information. There is, at present, a debate over Cyrenaica's trading contacts during the classical period in which Fulford has proposed a definite bias towards trade with the eastern Mediterranean (Fulford 1989) whilst Lloyd has challenged the lack of emphasis given to Italian imports (Lloyd forthcoming). Abulafia's reassessment of the Pisan bacini has likewise stimulated debate on the development of trade contacts, this time in the medieval period (Abulafia 1985). Such studies rely upon two points; the first is a well-documented corpus of material and the second is a detailed background knowledge of the wares and fabrics in general circulation to which the corpus can be related. On both points medieval archaeologists are clearly still at a disadvantage to those working on the classical period, and an attempt to understand Cyrenaica's medieval trade contacts from its ceramic assemblages cannot therefore achieve the same detail as, for example, Fulford's work (1989) has done. Nonetheless, an examination of the material which is available, and a discussion of its significance, is the intention of this paper.

In winter 1987–8 Mr Ramadan Kwaider of the Department of Antiquities at Cyrene found a marble block, inscribed on three faces, in die lower levels of the Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore in the Wadi Belgadir; it had been uncovered by a combination of burrowing foxes and winter rains, and is now, by his prompt action, safe in Cyrene Museum (inv. no. 3480). Our preliminary report on it is awaiting publication in Libya Antiqua; we offer here the three texts, with discussion of some of their points of interest.

The history of the block, which was three times re-used, is a vivid reminder of the value of marble at Cyrene, all of it imported and therefore very rarely to be discarded when out of date or damaged, if it could be made to serve another turn. Its findspot solves an uncertainty about the attribution of some other inscriptions to the Wadi Belgadir Sanctuary. More significantly still, it provides a new and suggestive document relating to Roman taxation in Cyrenaica.

Only the third and final inscription on the block (Fig. 1) can be said with certainty to belong to the sanctuary. This was cut on a face which measures w. 0.97 m × ht. 0.35 m × d. 0.23 m and was dressed with a claw chisel, but not polished. The letters (ht. average 0.04 m) were lightly cut, rather narrow for their height, in a style dateable approximately to the Hadrianic and early Antonine periods; but although the layout, with quite careful centering, is respectable, the cutting is light so that the letters would only be easily legible if over-painted. The top surface, when the block is in this position, has been hollowed out, presumably for the insertion of the base carrying the statue implied by the text.

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.

The Libyan Department of Antiquities has begun to investigate the many chamber tombs cut into the rock scarps surrounding the oasis of Jeghbub (=Jarabub/Gerabub). Some notice of this work was given at the Congress of Cyrenaican Studies in Rome (1996) by the Director of the Department. This communication called to mind a visit to Jeghbub made more than forty years ago. The visit afforded occasion for a brief investigation of these tombs, which because of a mischance has hitherto not been recorded. 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.

Among the more striking finds made during the Society's excavations at Sidi Khrebish is the upper part of an inscribed marble stele which had been re-used, unfortunately with the inscribed face upwards, as a paving stone in the basilica. It is of white marble, probably from the Greek islands, slightly tapered towards the top, measuring 0·46 - 0·47 m. in width × 0·97 in height and 0·19 in depth. A very simple moulding runs round all four sides some 15 cms. from the top. It is chipped along all edges, badly worn on the face, especially in the central area, and pitted and cracked as well, especially in the lower part, probably by an attempt to break it up. A section of unknown size has in fact been hacked off at the bottom.

The text is often hard to read and I am sure that more could be extracted from the worn areas with time and patience; but it seems desirable to offer a provisional publication as quickly as possible.

In late April 1909 the young Egyptologist Oric Bates led a three-week survey expedition to Cyrenaica under the sponsorship of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for the purpose of locating a suitable site for archaeological excavation. Participants in the expedition included Richard Norton, Allison V. Armour, and Russell C. Sturgis, Jr. At the conclusion of the expedition Bates sent a full report to the sponsors, who filed it away without acknowledgement. The report, which is published here for the first time, details this first official American expedition to Cyrenaica. Correspondence is discussed that reveals why the Archaeological Institute of America and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston chose to ignore the report and to dismiss Bates abruptly from the project just several days after the report was submitted. The role that Norton played in Bates' dismissal is also examined.

Cyrenaica, excluding the Jebel Akhdar, forms part of the Libyan Sahara. It is a true desert with a mean annual rainfall generally less than 20 mm, and a land surface of sand, gravel or rock, largely devoid of vegetation (Plate 1). Yet a few thousand years ago, the Libyan Sahara, as elsewhere in North Africa, enjoyed an abundant rainfall and supported a varied flora and fauna as can be seen from pre-historic rock paintings. The abundant rainfall filled huge subterranean reservoirs which since then have been slowly draining to the Mediterranean Sea or low lying sabkhats and inland lakes. In consequence of the moderate relief of the Sahara and the wide regional extent and uniform structure of the sedimentary basins which form the reservoirs, the groundwater bodies occur in huge flow systems which may extend over several hundreds of miles. The reservoirs' thicknesses vary but the two most important series, the Continental Intercalaire or Nubian, and the Continental Terminal of mid-Tertiary to recent age, frequently exceed 3000 feet. Two major flow systems occur in Cyrenaica, in the Sirte and Kufra basins (Fig.1).

Until oil was discovered in the late nineteen fifties, groundwater development in Cyrenaica was mainly concentrated in coastal areas where the prevailing rainfall is sufficient to permit some recharge, and in a few interior scattered oases — Giarabub, Jalo-Augila, Kufra and Tazerbo, where the ground surface lies close to the upper phreatic (water table) surface of regional groundwater systems.

Oil exploration requires fairly large supplies of water for the main drilling operations. During exploration in the Sirte basin it was discovered that water of variable quality could be found virtually anywhere at moderate depths between 100 and 500 feet below ground level. Oil company practice to obtain temporary water supplies is to drill two or three simply constructed water wells to a few hundred feet below the water table, and to pump by air lift. The wells are subsequently capped, when no longer required.

The price inscription on an Attic black-glossed lekanis is discussed. The lekanis was found during the excavations of one of the houses in the Greek colony of Euesperides. Its significance is considered alongside the small number of price inscriptions known from Cyrenaica. Price inscriptions draw attention to the low value of Attic pottery in antiquity, and the Euesperides graffito is considered against some of the literary and epigraphic evidence used in recent discussions.

A central Tunisian red slip ware lamp from Sabratha, published by D. M. Bailey in 1994, should be classified as Type Salomonson I/Atlante I. Its discus decoration is a personification of Autumn, a standing female figure with a basket of fruit as a seasonal attribute and a Cupid (Eros) sitting on it. The prototype of the moulded decoration motif appears as an appliqué on a Hayes 171 el-Aouja sigillata jug of C1 quality. The lamp, which probably dates from the third quarter of the third century or the late third century AD, was subjected to chemical analysis and comparison with recently published reference groups from central Tunisian pottery-making centres showed that it was made at the central Tunisian fine-ware potteries at Henchir el Guellal near Djilma. A/D and C1-C4 sigillata as well as Type Atlante IV A, VI B, VII A1, VII A2 and VIII C1a lamps were produced there from about the second quarter of the third century until the mid fifth century AD.

The Qasr Al Haj Formation, comprised of alluvial fan gravels and sands with calcrete horizons, is subdivided into five members separated one from the other by surfaces of discontinuity. These surfaces, defined primarily by erosion and soil formation, can be followed northwards into the Jifarah Formation thus allowing detailed correlation of the fan-gravel deposits with the finer fluvio-aeolian sands and silts of the floodplain. Thick deposits of cemented and uncemented gravels at Wadi Ghan contain at least two horizons of basaltic lava flows. Previously reported finds of artifacts from this gravel sequence together with the possibility of radiometric dating of the lavas, may provide a much-needed chronostratigraphic framework for the Quaternary deposits of the north-west Tripolitanian region.

Silphium 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.

Trench 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.

The economic poverty of Tripoli in the Seventeenth century was such that the piratical activities of its corsair fleet were of major importance to both the town and the Ottoman regime. An unpublished journal written by Thomas Baker (British Consul between 1679–1685) contains detailed information about the arrival and departure of both merchant ships and corsairs and about the value of prizes taken by the pirates and brought to Tripoli. These data are of great value in demonstrating the impact of the corsairs on the political and economic relationships of Tripoli with the European powers. If the corsairing was too successful, Tripoli was liable to be attacked by these powers. But on the other hand, when the authorities were constrained by treaties with the Europeans to limit the activities of the corsairs, the resulting economic hardship threatened the internal stability of the regime.

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.