ULVS XIV: Archaeozoological Evidence for Stock-raising and Stock-management in the Pre-desert

Clark, Gillian

doi:10.1017/s0263718900007044

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Grant, that from the very prolific midden KhlOOl in the settlement by gsur Kh41/1004, the skeletal material showed a marked rarity of bones from domesticates, sheep and goat predominating amongst the latter. This may indicate, if the results from this midden are typical of those in the Kharab, that animal husbandry for meat was not a major feature of the economy because stock would have competed for the same fields as cultivated plants, and the presence of bones of wild species (gazelle and antelope) suggests that hunting made an important contribution to the meat diet of the people in the wadi just as at the Wadi el-Amud farm (Clark 1986). Two samples from within this midden, recovered in 1980, were dated by the radiocarbon technique to the period (at 2 sigma level) AD 430-865 and AD 395-655.…”

Section: Wadi Umm El Kharabmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…There seems little doubt that these early pre-desert farms were substantial enterprises capable of producing oil and wine in surplus for the coastal markets. Animal husbandry at el-Amud, though, was very similar to the traditional Bedouin system on the evidence of the faunal remains from the middens, with gazelle hunting also important for the meat supply (Clark 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey XXIII: The 1989 Season

et al. 1991

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This report presents the preliminary results of the final season of the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey, that took place in October 1989. The fieldwork was divided in two parts. The first part of the work concentrated on the settlements in the Wadi Buzra, a northern tributary of the Wadi Sofeggin, especially at Souk el Awty. The major monument here consists of a substantial church (published elsewhere by D. A. Welsby in this volume), which was investigated by architectural survey and limited excavation, as were the surrounding late Romano-Libyan farms. The modern name of the settlement suggests that it may have been an important centre in Islamic as well as the Romano-Libyan periods, but the excavation did not obtain conclusive chronological evidence. The second part of the fieldwork was in the Wadi Umm el-Kharab, a southern tributary of the Sofeggin. Here, the team carried out a detailed study of a series of fortified farms of the later Romano-Libyan period, to compare with the open farm of the earlier Romano-Libyan period in Wadi el Amud previously studied by the project. An analysis of the constructional details of the major farms was integrated with excavations to recover stratified dating evidence from within the farms and faunal and botanical evidence from associated middens, and with a survey of the water-control systems of walls down the length of the wadi. The study indicates that the wadi was settled by people living in open farms and nucleated settlements in the first four centuries AD, but that by the fifth and sixth centuries AD these were replaced by fortified farms. There is evidence that the occupants of the fortified farms cultivated the wadi within an integrated economic system characterised by centralised food storage, rather than as independent units.

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Section: Wadi Umm El Kharabmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey XXIII: The 1989 Season

et al. 1991

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“…The move to agriculture did not mean that pastoralism was eliminated. Indeed, the archaeozoological evidence from the predesert indicates that stock-raising and management remained a significant part of the economy (Clark 1986). This evidence accords well with the idea that what occurred in the pre-desert was not a change in the subsistence economy per se, but a 'movement' along the pastoralism-agriculture continuum towards greater agricultural production.…”

Section: Charting the Transformation Of The Pre-desertmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rome without Romanization: Cultural Change in the Pre‐Desert of Tripolitania (First–Third Centuries AD)

Grahame

1998

Oxford J Archaeology

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The pre-desert of Roman Tripolitania was one of the most remarkable regions of the empire. From the first to the sixth centuries AD it supported a thriving agricultural community, despite the marginality of the environment. The initial transformation took place at a time when Rome was actively campaigning against the tribes of the true desert. That the settlement of the pre-desert had something to do with Roman action seems obvious enough, but paradoxically the material culture of the pre-desert shows little direct Roman influence. This paper resolves this dilemma by arguing that settlement of the pre-desert came about largely because of the social dynamics of its indigenous nomadic inhabitants. It is argued that Roman military success brought political stability to the pre-desert and that this inadvertently created the conditions that enabled certain sections of pre-desert society to abandon a nomadic existence in favour of a more sedentary one, based on agriculture. This paper explores the reasons why this took place and discusses cultural change in the Tripolitanian pre-desert in light of these conclusions.

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“…Before this particular component of the UNESCO project, there was an almost complete lack of information on these subjects: regional-scale interpretations being obliged either to extrapolate ideas obtained from examination of materials excavated by the UNESCO team at the archaeological sites studied, or being dependent upon models of the character of ancient agricultural practices (see Barker^ al. 1991; Barker and Jones 1981;1982;Chatterton and Chatterton 1984;Clark 1986;Dorsett et al 1984;Gilbertson et al 1984;1987;in press;Hunt et al 1986;1987;Jones 1985;Jones and Barker 1980;1983;Van der Veen 1985).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ULVS XXVI: Sedimentological and Palynological Studies of Holocene Environmental Changes from a Plateau Basin Infill Sequence at Grerat D'nar Salem, near Beni Ulid, in the Tripolitanian Pre-desert

1993

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This paper describes an integrated series of sedimentological and palynological studies of the arenaceous deposits which infill the large alluvial basin of Grerat D'nar Salem, which is located on a limestone plateau in the semi-arid pre-desert of Tripolitania north-west of the town of Beni Ulid. This research shows that in the early and middle Holocene this depression was occupied by a large semi-permanent or permanent water body which was surrounded by a grass-steppe vegetation with some tree and shrub species, perhaps growing in wetter stream- and wadi-beds. Sometime in the mid-Holocene the region became much more arid, the lake disappeared, matching the pattern of environmental change observed elsewhere in northern Africa. The geomor-phic environment became dominated by aeolian processes, interrupted by occasional winter floods, in a landscape dominated by grass steppe — essentially the situation that has continued to the present day. It is clear from general biogeographical and geomorphic considerations that Romano-Libyan floodwater farming in the region must have brought about significant changes in the character of wadi floors. Field survey indicates that it has also left a legacy in the contemporary distribution of plants, animals and runoff in the modern landscape. Nevertheless, no clear evidence has emerged from this study that the widespread and intensive flood-water farming, evidenced by the archaeological remains in the area, was associated with either a climate or a landscape notably different from that of today. The new palynological evidence suggests that the nature of the related ancient cultivation at Grerat is better viewed as a monoculture, rather than the mixed farming deduced previously for wadi-floor areas. There is no evidence that any naturally-occurring environmental change was associated with the introduction or loss of floodwater farming in the region. There is some sedimentological evidence that such activity might have led to problems of soil salinity in this basin.

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ULVS XIV: Archaeozoological Evidence for Stock-raising and Stock-management in the Pre-desert

Cited by 10 publications

References 4 publications

UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey XXIII: The 1989 Season

UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey XXIII: The 1989 Season

Rome without Romanization: Cultural Change in the Pre‐Desert of Tripolitania (First–Third Centuries AD)

ULVS XXVI: Sedimentological and Palynological Studies of Holocene Environmental Changes from a Plateau Basin Infill Sequence at Grerat D'nar Salem, near Beni Ulid, in the Tripolitanian Pre-desert

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