This paper presents some information on Libyan pottery from Marmarica, based on the results of recent fieldwork in the vicinity of Marsa Matruh and Zawiyet umm-el Rakham. The local coarsewares are hard to date, but some New Kingdom period sherds can be identified. In the Graeco-Roman periods shell-tempered wares are found, in the form of a bag-shaped jar, production of which continues until at least the 7th century AD, to judge from the association of some of these sherds with amphorae of Riley's type Late Roman 13.

This article presents evidence for the exploitation of marine resources at Sabratha, including the salting of fish and production of garum, as well as purple dyeing from the Murex shellfish. These activities may in certain periods of the city's history have been of some importance to Sabratha's economic life, alongside the export of olive oil from the city's hinterland. There is evidence also of various minor crafts and service activities of the sort perhaps to be expected in many Roman towns — bakeries, ceramic manufacture, and glass production.

The purpose of this paper is to record the involvement of primary-age children from a Libyan-administered school in Marsa-el-Brega in basic archaeological practice, both in the classroom and in the field. The site of Boreum (as identified by Goodchild in 1951), which is in an area adjacent to the school, was used for fieldwork. As well as describing the methodology that was applied, the outcome of the work at Boreum is recorded, in the hope that it will be shown that not only is such practice viable, but also that the results can make a small but useful contribution to our knowledge of such sites.

Some hitherto forgotten documents from Smith and Porcher's exploits at Cyrene were discovered in Edinburgh. These consisted of draft copies of despatches and a collection of their photographs, one of which showed the only contemporary view of the marble seated figure they identified as ‘Archippe’ on the grounds of an inscription on the base, but left in Cyrene on their departure. A resemblance was noticed between the ‘Archippe’ photographed in 1861 and an enigmatic seated figure now situated near the Apollo Sanctuary. The two-line inscription subsequently found on this statue identifies it as the one described by Smith and Porcher, and also by previous explorers.

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.

Richard Goodchild was much concerned for the men who had preceeded him in connection with the discovery and rebirth of Cyrene. It seems, therefore, a fitting contribution to his memory to deal in their memories: the memories of Cyrene evoked by antipodal circumstances such men came to experience in their subsequent careers. The curtain is raised on half a dozen of these men who took all the chances offered by the 19th-century world, so full of opportunity for the talented and resolute.

Until the recent resumption of British fieldwork in the Fezzan, knowledge about the Garamantes was largely based on the interim reports of the extensive fieldwork carried out there by Charles Daniels between 1958 and 1977. Following the death of Charles Daniels in 1996, a new project based at the Universities of Leicester and Newcastle is undertaking the full publication of his work. This first interim report discusses progress with the preparation of a survey gazetteer for the Ubari-Germa area of the Wadi el-Agial, reports of the major excavations and the development of a ceramic type series on the basis of excavated material from Zinchecra, Germa and Saniat Gebril.

This report summarises the work of the third season of the Fezzan project which took place in January 1999. The main environmental findings of the project team of specialist geographers are providing confirmation of dramatic climatic and environmental change over the last 100,000 years and give more precise dates for some of these changes. The excavations in Old Germa (ancient Garama) have continued through Islamic levels, with elements of five main phases of buildings now having been recorded. Additional standing structures, including one of Germa's main mosques, have been surveyed. Field survey around Germa has revealed further new settlement sites of prehistoric, Garamantian and Islamic date. Of particular importance is a series of lithic and pottery scatters relating to neolithic occupation along the edge of the Ubari Sand Sea, to the north of Germa. Further investigation of the irrigation channels (foggaras) has revealed significant new information about their size, construction and probable date. The report concludes with a brief preliminary analysis of changing settlement patterns over time.

This paper reports on the first season of a new project at Euesperides (Benghazi) aimed at studying the urban development and economy of the city. Two area excavations were started, the first on the site of early Hellenistic pebble and tessellated mosaics discovered in 1998, and the second in what appears to be an area of houses and workshops built against the city wall on the east side of the mound of Sidi Abeid. Geophysical survey and surface prospection was also undertaken; it appears that the lower-lying extension to the city was much larger than previously thought, and several modifications are necessary to previously published plans of the site. Much of the lower city is covered with large spreads of deliberately crushed shells of Murex trunculus, indicating the production of purple dye on a significant scale. Other evidence of urban production was also recovered, notably metal-working, while study of the ceramic assemblage shows widespread trading connections, with significant imports of coarsewares besides the expected fineware and amphora imports.