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The Garamantes of Fezzan: Excavations on Zinchecra 1965–7

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Summary

The Garamantes inhabited Fezzan, now the Saharan province of the Libyan Arab Republic, their capital, Garama, lying c. 105 miles west of Sebha in the wadi el Agial. After an unruly early history they appear to have become pacified and open to Roman influence. Before Garama was founded the tribe inhabited the promontory fortress of Zinchecra c. 2½ miles to the south-west, where excavation has revealed three main periods of occupation. The earliest consists of rock-scooped hearths, the second of rough dry-stone and frond shelters with stone-lined hearths. The third is more complex with buildings ranging from rough shelters to well-built mud-brick ‘houses’, the latest of which date to the first century B.C. and employed dressed stone in their basal courses. At the start of this period a complex of enclosure banks and walls was thrown around the base of the spur. Finally the site was abandoned to cemeteries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1970

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References

page 37 note 1 The problem of the transliteration of names is a difficult one. In spite of attempts to produce a modern and uniform version great variation still exists, and no matter what form is used here someone will object. I intend, therefore, to employ the traditional forms still widely current, e.g. on the 1966 edition of the World Aeronautical Chart. As the pronunciation of these is somewhat Italianate a more phonetic version is given, where necessary, after the first occurrence.

page 37 note 2 It is basically a shortened and revised version of a much longer report which will appear in Libya Antique (the Journal of the Department of Antiquities of the Libyan Arab Republic). In that report are fuller descriptions of the excavated and surveyed sites together with 405 pottery vessels and small finds, grouped by provenance, and additional building plans—omitted here for reasons of space.

page 38 note 1 An archaeological bibliography is short: the most important works are Scavi Sahariani’, Monumenti antichi, XLI (1951), 150552Google Scholar, and Dr. Ayoub's publications: Excavations at Germa the Capital of the Garamants (1962)Google Scholar; Excavations in Germa between 1962 to 1965 (1967)Google Scholar; The Rise of Germa (1968)Google Scholar; and The Expedition of Cornelius Balus 19 B.C. (1968).Google Scholar

page 39 note 1 Reports by Dr. Ayoub listed above.

page 39 note 2 Geog. iv. 6. 3.

page 39 note 3 Herodotus, Histories iv, 183.

page 39 note 4 Pliny, N.H. v. 34 ff.

page 39 note 5 Tacitus, Annals iii. 74. 3.

page 39 note 6 Tacitus, Histories iv. 50 and Pliny, loc. cit.

page 39 note 7 The terms ‘Roman’ and ‘Roman-date’ throughout are used of the period or culture of an object and do not imply a Roman settlement in or annexation of the Garamantian Kingdom.

page 41 note 1 The number of each fragment (or artefact) in figs. 10 and 11 has been preceded by the letter f to avoid confusion with fig. or site numbers.

page 54 note 1 Noted but unexplained by Dr. F. Sattin, Libya Antiqua, ii, 81.

page 55 note 1 The graffiti on several terra sigillata dishes from the Saniat ben Howedi cemetery (now in Sebha Museum) are hardly in the same category.

page 55 note 2 Scavi Sahariani, p. 229.

page 55 note 3 Ibid., p. 230. The building was partly excavated by Professor Caputo and completed by Dr. Ayoub: Excavations at Germa the Capital of the Garamants, pp. 13–14 with fig. 2, where it is called the Third Villa.

page 55 note 4 Scavi Sahariani, pp. 231–3 with fig. 16.

page 57 note 1 Op. cit., pp. 220–4 with figs.

page 57 note 2 Ibid., fig. 6.

page 57 note 3 Ibid., fig. 8.

page 58 note 1 The problem of the place of origin of these vessels was not solved by a comparison with material from Sabratha. Dr. Kenyon very kindly spent time comparing and discussing the material, but it is clear that very little of the wadi pottery can be paralleled at that coastal site. A study of the comparable material from Leptis and the pre-desert area is, therefore, all the more necessary.