The Desert Migrations Project is a new interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional collaborative project between the Society for Libyan Studies and the Department of Antiquities. The geographical focus of the study is the Fazzan region of southwest Libya and in thematic terms we aim to address the theme of migration in the broadest sense, encompassing the movement of people, ideas/knowledge and material culture into and out of Fazzan, along with evidence of shifting climatic and ecological boundaries over time. The report describes the principal sub-strands of the project's first season in January 2007, with some account of research questions, methods employed and some preliminary results. Three main sub-projects are reported on. The first concerns the improved understanding of long-term climatic and environmental changes derived from a detailed palaeoenvironmental study of palaeolake sediments. This geo-science work runs alongside and feeds directly into both archaeological sub-projects, the first relating to prehistoric activity and mobility around and between a series of palaeolakes during wetter climatic cycles; the second to the excavation of burials in the Wadi al-Ajal, exploring the changing relationship between material culture, identity and ethnicity across time, from prehistory to the early Islamic period (the span of the main cemetery zones). In addition, some rock art research and a survey of historic period sites was undertaken in the Wadi ash-Shati and Ubari sand sea.

The coastal alluvial fan sequences of Cyrenaica are important archives of environmental change data, but hitherto relatively little has been known about their formative processes and rates. The Wadi Zewana coastal fan near Tolmeita was studied and a range of dating techniques (U-Th, ESR and OSL) applied to selected components of the stratigraphy. The sequence spans the last two global glacial periods separated by an Interglacial. Cemented alluvial fan gravel units yielded U-Th leachate-residue ages of 201 ± 18 ka, 179 ± 15 ka and 138 ± 8 ka respectively. The fan toe units are interdigitated with bioclastic beach rock deposits dated to 150 ± 10.9 ka corresponding to an Interglacial high stand in sea level and marine recession sequence featuring transgressive lag gravels, beach sand and cemented aeolian dunes dated to 121 ± 8 ka. Within the Wadi Zewana catchment a complex cut and fill history is evidenced. Aggradation phases dated to 76 ± 4 ka, 42.1 ± 5.1 ka and 12.5 ± 1.5 ka are broadly coincident with global glacials and stadials, whilst during the Last Interglacial and successive interstadials the drainage system underwent entrenchment, manifested on the coastal plain as telescopic fan segmentation and associated fan head trenching.

This article describes the interdisciplinary methods developed by the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey in connection with the study of ancient agriculture. These methods combine the techniques of settlement archaeology with those of the earth sciences and palaeoeconomics. The interactive nature of the enquiry does not resolve all the questions, but it can help to re-shape those questions and suggest new lines of enquiry. The example of the Wadi Mansur is used here to demonstrate the application of both conventional and new techniques and the contribution this can make to our appreciation of ancient land use in an arid zone. This provisional statement of results describes the geomorphology of the wadi, the settlement archaeology, ceramic dating evidence, palaeoeconomic data (including palynological evidence), wadi wall technology and typology.

A fourth season of work was carried out in the Spring of 1984. The centrepiece of the programme was the investigation of the well-preserved farm in the Wadi el-Amud (Lamout). The main farm buildings were excavated, faunal and botanical samples were collected systematically from within and between them, the field systems and sluices were examined in detail and investigations begun on the geomorphological and hydrological context. This report presents the basic description of the archaeological data resulting from excavation and survey; a second report will present the results of the various laboratory studies which were generated by the field work.

The second season of the Desert Migrations Project took place in January 2008, with work following several substrands. The Burials and Identity component of the project is the subject of this report. Excavation and survey work were concentrated in the Watwat embayment, expanding on, and completing the work begun in 2007. Forty burials have now been excavated from the approximately 2,500 surveyed by the project team in a series of different cemeteries and burial zones within the closed valley that cuts back into the escarpment of the Massak, approximately 3 km southwest of Jarma. The most exciting discovery this year was the recovery of two mummified bodies from the UAT008 cemetery, along with further well-preserved textiles, including some exquisitely woven multi-coloured fragments. Another major discovery was a richly furnished Garamantian burial (UAT050.T5), containing numerous imported vessels (fineware, glass and amphorae) from the Roman world. Additional excavations included two child burials from GSC048, located in a modern quarry due south of Jarma, and a preliminary investigation of one of the Taqallit cemeteries, located approximately 30 km to the west (to be the subject of the main excavation effort in 2009).