A matter of ephemerality: the study of Kel Tadrart Tuareg (southwest Libya) campsites via quantitative spatial analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT. We examined the settlement structure from the Kel Tadrart Tuareg, a small pastoral society from southwest Libya. Our objective was to apply spatial analysis to establish the statistical significance of specific patterns in the settlement layout. In particular, we examined whether there is a separation between domestic and livestock spaces, and whether particular residential features dedicated to guests are spatially isolated. We used both established statistical techniques and newly developed bespoke analyses to test our hypotheses, and then discuss the results in the light of possible applications to other case studies.Key Words: campsites; Kel Tadrart Tuareg; settlement layout; spatial analysis INTRODUCTIONThe study of pastoral settlements has traditionally held a problematic position in the archaeological literature. Allegedly invisible and likely impermanent, nomadic campsites have challenged generations of archaeologists and a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches. The ephemeral nature of their structural remains in fact limits our capacity to identify settlement layouts and ultimately the reconstruction of the past use of space, whether this is the overall extent of the area where daily activities where performed or the identification of specific spatial patterning of the build environment.

Land use for animal production in global change studies: Defining and characterizing a framework

“…Faunal remains (animal bones) provide one of the best evidences for animal production, and although there are some complications inherent in interpreting assemblages (Brochier, ; Chang & Koster, ), distinctions between production systems need to be explored with regional or continental databases (see, e.g., Manning et al., ). There is also a need for incorporating cross‐disciplinary evidence and methods in order to make reconstructions more robust, for example, combining archeological and paleoecological evidence, and/or using modern analogues to infer past land use (Biagetti, Alcaina‐Mateos, & Crema, ; Clarke, ; Dunne et al., ; Ejarque, Miras, & Riera, ; Evershed, ; Gaillard, Birks, Emanuelsson, & Berglund, ; Gifford‐Gonzalez, ; Graf & Chmura, ). For example, Conolly, Manning, Colledge, Dobney, and Shennan () combined species distribution modeling with faunal and modern environmental data in order to investigate changes in the past ranges of Bos primigenius and Bos taurus in southwest Asia and Europe.…”

“…Faunal remains (animal bones) provide one of the best evidences for animal production, and although there are some complications inherent in interpreting assemblages (Brochier, 2013;Chang & Koster, 1986), distinctions between production systems need to be explored with regional or continental databases (see, e.g., Manning et al, 2013). There is also a need for incorporating cross-disciplinary evidence and methods in order to make reconstructions more robust, for example, combining archeological and paleoecological evidence, and/or using modern analogues to infer past land use (Biagetti, Alcaina-Mateos, & Crema, 2016;Clarke, 2015;Dunne et al, 2012;Ejarque, Miras, & Riera, 2011;Evershed, 2008;Gaillard, Birks, Emanuelsson, & Berglund, 1992;Gifford-Gonzalez, 1991;Graf & Chmura, 2006 Studies of vegetation dynamics are also useful in understanding past land use (Foster, 1992;Foster et al, 2003;Verheyen, Honnay, Motzkin, Hermy, & Foster, 2003), either as a direct indicator of land use (e.g., forest biodiversity: Dupouey, Dambrine, Laffite, & Moares, 2002;Vellend, 2004), or in order to understand vegetation response to a particular type of land use, such as the effects of grazing intensity on grassland plants (Mcintyre & Lavorel, 2001;Noy-Meir, Gutman, & Kaplan, 1989). In addition, studies on chemical soil characteristics may provide insight into past land use, and vice versa (Goodale & Aber, 2001;Verheyen et al, 1999).…”

Small-scale societies and environmental transformations: coevolutionary dynamics

“…The work discusses a long-term perspective on climatic adaptive capacity of these societies, highlighting key adaptive traits that have been relevant to foster resilience dynamics climate-related hazards regions. Continuing with drylands, the work by Biagetti et al (2016) explores functional and social stresses at settlement level as part of small-scale societies' dynamics in the hyper arid environment of the Sahara. Moving to more recent times, long-term community responses to droughts are explored by Grau-Satorras et al (2016) during the early modern period in the Mediterranean.…”

Intra-site Spatial Analysis in Ethnoarchaeology

“…These methods were recently applied to investigate ethnoarchaeological contexts Biagetti et al (2016),. used spatial statistics to analyse spatial distributions of small pastoral campsites of the Kel Tadrart Tuareg in SW Libya.…”

“…Later they applied and compared their method on an ethnoarchaeological case-study so to test the robustness of their method and its applicability in archaeological cases. Similarly, spatial statistics on modern Tuareg campsites allowedBiagetti et al (2016) to quantitatively test the degree of structure separation, which had been previously proposed for pastoral sites on the basis of ethnographic interviews. The possibility of quantifying and thus normalizing this reported behaviour implies its possible recognition in archaeological contexts.…”