This paper, based on an Olwen Brogan Memorial Lecture presented to the Society for Libyan Studies on 4 May 2005, reviews the Italian archaeological research started in 1955 with the pioneering work of Fabrizio Mori in the Acacus Mountains and surroundings (Libya, Central Sahara). In particular, the article explores the theoretical and methodological shifts of the last fifteen years, from an ‘adaptionist’ point of view to a ‘new vision’ based on cultural landscape and local knowledge. The paper ends with a call for a new ‘African’ approach to Saharan archaeology, underlining the necessity of international projects—able to link Mediterranean, Saharan and sub-Saharan regions—for some particularly endangered segments of the archaeological record, i.e. rock art and funerary monuments.

A funerary monument dating from the second half of the second century ad was discovered in 1997 in the western suburbs of Leptis Magna. The Latin inscription engraved on the monument states that it was dedicated to two brothers, Pompeius Nabor and Pompeius Ba[rea], by their father. The monument is an interesting example of small-scale funerary buildings which imitated the large mausolea of the Tripolitanian interior and which are associated with the middle class citizenry of Leptis.

This paper provides a preliminary record of a recently damaged Roman farm and late Roman fortified building (gasr) located in the eastern suburbs of Benghazi. The remains of the farm buildings are briefly described, together with the more substantial remains of the gasr. The site was truncated during the building of a new road, with further damage occurring during the construction of a major water main and the building of new houses. The plight of Gasr Shibna and other sites threatened by development in the outskirts of Benghazi is discussed, with the conclusion that these sites are representative of the ongoing, rapidly increasing and widespread destruction of Libyan cultural heritage by development across the country as a whole. The paper concludes with an appeal for the development of a stronger, well-resourced Department of Antiquities, the establishment of a National Sites and Monuments Record to assist with the curation and protection of ancient sites and improved planning legislation to ensure that future prosperity is not being secured at the cost of Libyan heritage.

When the Beechey brothers sailed to Tripoli in 1821 in HMS Adventure to begin their survey work along the coast of Libya, a young midshipman, William Robinson, was aboard on his first voyage. He sent home letters describing shipboard life and the Libyan coast as he saw it, reportedly strewn with wrecks, Tripoli and the castle, the ‘Basha’ and Colonel Warrington, Leptis Magna and the ruins which he sketched, Benghazi where the sea had recently eroded the land, leaving Berenice ‘open to view’, Bomba, Derna and the Gulf of Syrtis, the desertification and the wildlife.

A short note was published in the 1999 volume of Libyan Studies with the title ‘Cyrene. Other Men's Memories’. This note proceeded on the circumstances that virtually all early participants in the exploration and excavation of Cyrene, being adventurous men in an expansive age, carried memories of Cyrene to distant parts of the world. James Hamilton, the author of the travel-book, Wanderings in North Africa was included in the roll call of these men. However, it was observed that, exceptionally, nothing could be stated with certainty about him after his journey through Cyrenaica to Egypt (or for that matter, before his arrival in Cyrenaica). Therefore instead of referring to his later memories of Cyrene, note was taken of very unusual memories which he records came to him while in Cyrene. Recently, documentary information concerning Hamilton has come to light, and it is now possible to speak reliably about his activities in the years immediately following his travels to Cyrenaica. In this way it can be said that his immediate memories of Cyrene had the most untoward and unexpected setting imaginable.

In the course of research on Alan Rowe's Cyrenaican expeditions, when he was Special Lecturer at Manchester University, Rowe's career as an Egyptologist came unexpectedly to light from his personal papers, national archives and the records of various museums. What emerged was a picture of a man who had an active life, not only in Egypt and Cyrenaica, but also in Australia, Palestine and Syria.

The charismatic Consul-General Hanmer Warrington held his post in Tripoli for thirty-two years, during which time he cultivated a good, if tempestuous, working relationship with the Bashaw and the other foreign consuls. The large Warrington family was raised there. When they outgrew the Consulate building, which dated from 1774, the Consul designed a country house, and had it built two miles outside the town. It was near this house, and by the sea, that in 1830 he and the other consuls founded a walled Protestant Cemetery for the burial mainly of Europeans. This cemetery was rediscovered and studied by Abdulhakeem Amer Tweel of Tripoli, who is in the process of publishing a book on the subject.

This note reports on a paper presented at the American Institute of Archaeology 107th Annual Meeting (Montreal January 2006). The theme of the American Institute of Archaeology Annual meeting was ‘Management and Preservation of Cultural Heritage’. The Euesperides Project presented a paper on Euesperides (Sidi Abeid, Benghazi), the Archaic Greek settlement founded in the sixth century BC. Although the site was declared a protected area for its historical and archaeological importance, it still lacks effective protection. The site, important also from a naturalistic point of view, is used as an illegal rubbish dumping area and is awaiting a long-promised wall to prevent indiscriminate access to it.

The paper stressed that many sites in Libya are in need of preservation and protection, even more so after the opening of the country to tourism. The need to develop new infrastructure, if not carefully planned in respect of the cultural heritage, may result in indiscriminate development, as witnessed at Apollonia, where a harbour was being built near the site, obliterating the ancient port. The paper discussed also the Project's proposal presented to the local authorities, concerning the realization of an archaeological park and museum of the history of Benghazi. These projects are important not only to attract tourists, but above all for the local schools and educational programmes directed to inform the younger generations about the importance of their past.

The 2006 rock art survey continued the systematic identification and recording of rock art panels in the Wadi al-Hayat, started in 2004–5. Over 350 carved panels, comprising well over 1000 engraved images, were recorded and added to the digital database for the project. Anecdotal accounts of rock paintings were also followed up, and some meaningful observations were made.

As the concentration of known carvings in the wadi grows, trends in their content and distribution begin to demonstrate some interesting patterns. Detailed analysis of the distribution patterns is currently hampered by an unreliable chronological sequence, and discoveries this season have cast doubt on the validity of the established sequence for this area, with wider implications for Saharan rock art.

This paper is a preliminary report on the eighth and final fieldwork (Spring 2006) season of the excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi). Work continued in Areas P and Q on the Sidi Abeid mound, in Area R in the lower city and on the processing of finds from the 2006 and previous seasons.

In Area P excavations continued below the primary floors of the antepenultimate phase in Room 5a where a series of inter-cutting pits beneath the primary floor provided a section through the stratigraphy to natural. The results of the work showed that occupation in the sixth to fourth centuries BC was less intensive and accumulated at a slower rate than in the Hellenistic period. Three phases of early activity were represented, with the earliest levels dated to the period c. 580–560 BC. A comparable picture emerged in Area R, but in Area Q a second-phase set of buildings laid out in or after the late sixth century BC, with houses flanking the street, persisted until late in the life of the city. Excavations in Area Q Extension revealed a large circular building with an internal floor of terracotta sherds set in cement, tentatively interpreted as part of a set of public baths. A late reuse of the building was indicated by a number of plaster-lined tanks formed over the terracotta floor. The presence of the building was taken to indicate that the building and an associated street, aligned over an in-filled quarry, may have been inter-mural, suggesting that the late city was of greater size than hitherto thought.

Selected finewares, coarsewares and amphorae from the excavations are presented, together with preliminary observations, resulting from the environmental sampling of occupation deposits.