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The Fezzan Project 1998: preliminary report on the second season of work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

David J. Mattingly
Affiliation:
School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester
Mohammed al-Mashai
Affiliation:
Department of Antiquities, Tripoli
Hamza Aburgheba
Affiliation:
Department of Antiquities, Tripoli
Phil Balcombe
Affiliation:
School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester
Edward Eastaugh
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham
Mark Gillings
Affiliation:
School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester
Anna Leone
Affiliation:
School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester
Sue McLaren
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Leicester
Peter Owen
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Manchester
Ruth Peiling
Affiliation:
Oxford University Museum/Oxford Archaeological Unit
Tim Reynolds
Affiliation:
Cambridgeshire County Council
Lea Stirling
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, University of Manitoba, Canada
David Thomas
Affiliation:
MacDonald Institute, University of Cambridge
Derek Watson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield
Andrew I. Wilson
Affiliation:
Magdalen College, Oxford
Kevin White
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Reading

Abstract

The Fezzan Project is investigating the last 10,000 years of human settlement, landscape evolution and climatic change in the Germa region in southern Libya. The second season in February–March 1998 comprised interdisciplinary research in archaeology and geography, centred around excavation and survey work carried out at the site of Old Germa. To date, three phases of mud brick buildings have been partially explored. In addition, wider geomorphological study and archaeological survey and fieldwalking were carried out elsewhere in the Germa/Twesh oasis and around el-Hatiya. Numerous sites were discovered, including a new hillfort of Zinchecra type and several valley centre ‘villages’ of Garamantian/Roman date. Artefactual studies were carried out on pottery and lithics, animal bones and seeds. Further work on the subterranean irrigation features, the foggaras, have confirmed their pre-Islamic origins.

Type
Archaeological Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1998

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