UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey XXIII: The 1989 Season

Abstract

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.

ULVS XXVIII: Manipulating the Desert Environment: ancient walls, floodwater farming and territoriality in the Tripolitanian pre-desert of Libya

“…The results of the 1988 detailed survey of the walls on the wadi-floor are shown in Figs 3 to 5 which cover the 10 km length of the Wadi, as well as its tributaries. The number of walls shown in these new figures indicates the emphases in Barker et al (1991) and Welsby (1992) on more familiar archaeological monuments. The vast majority found in the Wadi Umm el-Kharab are simple check-dams, i.e.…”

“…Earlier ULVS studies of the archaeology of the Wadi Umm el-Kharab have been described by a number of authors (e.g. Barker et al 1991, 1995, Welsby 1992 and in the unpublished ULVS Gazeteer). The Wadi is selfcontained, but has several smaller tributaries (Fig.…”

“…As yet, there is no independent information on the antiquity or contemporaneity of the wall systems. Examination of the dating evidence from pottery studies by Dore (Barker et al 1991;Flower and Mattingly 1995) does however, suggest it is reasonable to assume much of the wall system and most of the extant buildings were originally constructed in the Romano-Libyan period. At other locations in the pre-desert, substantial past occupation and floodwater-farming has been shown to have continued through the Byzantine, and into the Islamic periods, with some major sites such as Gasr Abzam in the Wadi Merdum still demonstrating substantial activity until only c. 400-600 years ago (Gilbertson and Hunt 1988).…”

“…The Wadi Umm el-Kharab is remarkable for the ruins of eight large gsur (large barn-like, thick-walled structures) which visually dominate its lower skyline and give the wadi its name -'Wadi Umm el-Kharab -The Wadi of the Mother of Destruction'. An attempt to record all manifestations of past human activity in this wadi was made in 1988, with the archaeological results being described by Barker et al (1991) and Welsby (1992). Other archaeological remains -open farms, smaller farms, houses, cemeteries, middens were found to be common.…”

ULVS XXV: The Gsur and Associated Settlements in the Wadi Umm el Kharab: an Architectural Survey

“…The wadi was visited by the UNESCO Libyan Valleys team in 1980 Mattingly 1980-1981, 31-33) and again in 1981 and a preliminary investigation of the major monuments was made. In 1989 the Wadi Umm el Kharab was chosen as one of the two areas to be studied in detail (see Barker et al 1991) and as part of the project the gsur and the adjacent settlements were investigated. In the short time available an architectural survey of the eight gsur was undertaken, two were accurately planned (KH41 and KH22) and measured sketches of the others were made.…”