A Trans-Saharan Caravan Route in Herodotus

Carpenter, Rhys

doi:10.2307/500150

Cited by 24 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One of these concerns the existence of a 'Garamantian' trans-Saharan chariot route from Ghadames, via the Tassili, Ahaggar and Adrar des Iforas highlands to the Niger bend near Gao (Lhote 1954;. Not surprisingly such a notion has its critics (Milburn 1985;Salama 1958) as well as supporters (Camps and Gast 1982;Carpenter 1956). Another matter is the identification of the people and places whose names were carried in Balbus' triumph.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavation and Fieldwork amongst the Garamantes

Daniels

1989

Libyan stud.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Garamantes exercised a powerful hold upon the Mediterranean imagination during the early and high Empire (Daniels 1970; Desanges 1962; Merighi 1940; Romanelli 1959; Ruprechtsburger, forthcoming). Remote and beyond the southern limits of the African provinces, they represented the mythical south, only accessible after perilous desert travel; they were inextricably interwoven in people's minds with swarming serpents, fabulous fountains and precious stones, with the silent noon tide of the terrifying desert and such inhuman creatures as men with no voices or no heads, strapfoots, Goat-Pans and Satyrs (Pliny, N.H. 5.1.7).The reality of Roman contact with them was no less exotic. The last entry of all in the Fasti Triumphales (CIL I2, p. 50) on the Arch of Augustus in the Roman Forum commemorates a triumph celebrated on 27th March 734 A.V.C. (19 BC) by L. Cornelius Balbus, ex Africa: below, the stone surface remains rough and no further names follow. But Balbus' honour was much more noteworthy for he was not even a Roman by birth (PIR2 C1331; Thomasson 1960, 11). Like his famous uncle, Caesar's Balbus, he was a full-blooded Spaniard hailing from Cadiz (Gades) — and the only foreigner ever to be accorded a triumph, the Elder Pliny informs us (N.H. 5.5.36). His rise to fame came about through a steadfast devotion to Caesar's cause, for which he was ultimately rewarded by Augustus with consular rank (Velleius 2.51.3), and became Proconsul of Africa in ?20 BC (Syme 1939, 80, 235, 325, 339, 367).

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavation and Fieldwork amongst the Garamantes

Daniels

1989

Libyan stud.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Later, towards 2500-2400 cal BP, low lake levels were observed at Borkou and Kanem, probably fed by the inputs of Bhar el Ghazal. This long river, which is now fossilized, ran until around Koro-Toro to form vast wetlands in the Borkou depression, where the lowest point of the Chad basin is found, at 165 m. It is in this environment and on the banks of this river that the exploration of the Nasamons was achieved, as told by Herodotus in his famous historical work (in Berthelot 1927;Carpenter 1956). Herodotus, who died in 424 BC, reported that an expedition of the Nasamons-who lived in the Syrte, north of Libyaleft towards the south and, after a long voyage, apparently got to what is now the Borkou, to the east of the BPays Bas^of Chad.…”

Section: -2300 Cal Bpmentioning

confidence: 93%

Populations and Climatic Evolution in North Tropical Africa from the End of the Neolithic to the Dawn of the Modern Era

Maley

Vernet²

2015

Afr Archaeol Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At the end of the Neolithic Era, during the third millennium BCE, there were fewer humid periods, and the sub-Saharan and Sahelian zones from the Atlantic to Lake Chad assumed their current geographical form. Since then, the climate has continued undergoing major variations. The succession of climatic episodes, humid or dry, is pointed out along with the episodes' complex interactions. These variations are placed in parallel to cultural phases of evolution in archaeology and history. Climate-related events have always had heavy consequences on the peopling of this vast region, often subject to extreme natural conditions. The relative synchronism between the principal cultural trends from west to east across the Sahel seems to have often been subject to swings in the climate and the resulting environmental changes.Résumé La fin du Néolithique, au cours du III e millenaire BP, a correspondu à l'affaiblissement des périodes humides et à la mise en place de la géographie actuelle dans la zone sud-saharienne et sahélienne, qui s'etend de l'Atlantique au lac Tchad. Depuis cette époque le climat a cependant continué à beaucoup varier. La succession des differents épisodes climatiques, phases humides ou phases arides-et leurs interactions complexes-est precisée. Ces faits climatiques sont mis en parallèle avec l'évolution archéologique et historique des differentes phases culturelles. Dans cette immense region, souvent à la limite des conditions naturelles extrêmes, les évènements climatiques ont toujours eu des conséquences très importantes sur l'évolution des peuplements humains. Le relativement bon synchronisme des principaux changements culturels, d'ouest en est à travers la bande sahélienne, paraît avoir été fréquemment Afr Archaeol Rev (2015) 32:179-232 contrôlé par le rôle directeur des changements climatiques majeurs et des variations environnementales qui en ont resulté.

show abstract

“…The more optimistic group attempted to reconstruct, from the distribution of rock-engravings of chariots and from mentions of the Garamantes in Greek and Roman authors, a picture of trade across the Sahara between sub-Saharan Africa and the Classical, especially Roman, Mediterranean, controlled by the Garamantes, 'middlemen' in the trade (Wheeler 1954, 95Á107;Lhote 1955;Carpenter 1956). Most others, while admitting some contact between Rome and the Garamantes and occasionally through them to sub-Saharan Africa, denied that there was a regular trade of any real importance; an occasional luxury traffic in ivory, animal skins and wild beasts, but no significant trade in gold or slaves (Rostovtzeff 1957, 335Á339;Law 1967;Swanson 1975;Salama 1981, 525;Milburn 1985b, 283;Mattingly 1995, 155Á157).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Saharan trade in the Roman period: short-, medium- and long-distance trade networks

Wilson

2012

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the evidence for Saharan trade in the Roman period in the light of recent fieldwork in the Libyan Sahara by the Fazzan Project and the Desert Migrations Project and by the Italian Mission in the Acacus. The results of these projects suggest that trade between the Roman world and the communities of the Sahara was substantially greater than believed a few years ago and highlight the transformative effect that contact with the ancient Mediterranean had on Saharan society, especially on the Garamantes of Fazzan. But this paper also argues that in focusing chiefly on trans-Saharan commerce, much previous research has misunderstood the nature and importance of Saharan trade in antiquity. Relatively few types of goods were traded all the way across the Sahara from south to north or vice-versa in the Roman period. Rather, we should be thinking principally in terms of a network of interdependent sub-systems, of short-, medium-and long-distance exchange; the trans-Saharan traffic was only one part of this network. Moreover, Saharan trade * and especially the shortand medium-distance subsystems * also provoked transformations in the frontier zones of Roman North Africa. The abundant evidence of Roman imports to Fazzan discovered by British fieldwork there also calls into question the universal assumption that trans-Saharan trade in the medieval and modern periods exceeded the scale of trans-Saharan trade in antiquity; this is based on no good evidence at all and may be entirely false. Comparison with better documented periods suggests that the Roman world was capable of absorbing a trans-Saharan slave traffic at least as large as that of the medieval period and the evidence of Roman imports points to a substantial trade, of which slaves were probably a major component, via the central routes across the Sahara. Saharan trade in antiquity was organised around a set of drivers that were very different from those of the medieval trans-Saharan trade, with a key role played by the development of a substantial agriculturally-based trading state within the Sahara itself, the Garamantes. The collapse of Saharan trade in late antiquity is related to the decline of Garamantian authority and is linked in part to the emergence of new tribal conglomerations in the frontier zones between the fourth and sixth centuries AD.Cet article examine les données relatives au commerce trans-saharien pendant la période romaine à la lumière de travaux récents effectués dans le Sahara libyen par Le Projet Fazzan, le Desert Migrations Project, et la mission italienne dans l'Acacus. Les résultats de ces projets indiquent que les échanges entre le monde romain et les communautés du Sahara étaient de nettement plus grande envergure qu'on ne le supposait il y a quelques années. Ils illuminent par ailleurs le rôle *

show abstract

A Trans-Saharan Caravan Route in Herodotus

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Excavation and Fieldwork amongst the Garamantes

Excavation and Fieldwork amongst the Garamantes

Populations and Climatic Evolution in North Tropical Africa from the End of the Neolithic to the Dawn of the Modern Era

Saharan trade in the Roman period: short-, medium- and long-distance trade networks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About