Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g5fl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T08:46:08.754Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Northern Libyan Desert Ware: new thoughts on ‘Shell-tempered Ware’ and other handmade pottery from the Eastern Marmarica (north-west Egypt)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2014

Anna-Katharina Rieger
Affiliation:
Department of Oriental Art and Archaeology, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Heike Möller
Affiliation:
Department of Classical Archaeology, Albrecht-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany

Abstract

A group of handmade pottery from the Eastern Marmarica (north-west Egypt) can be associated with the indigenous population of the region, subsumed as nomadic Libyans. A discussion of its type and fabric – mainly shell-tempered – leads to questions about its chronology as well as the ethnic and cultural background of the producers and users of these wares. Stratified finds and a diligent assessment of the reliability of associated pottery from surface find-spots will seek to fix the chronology of Northern Libyan Desert Ware (NLDW).

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barker, G., Antoniadou, A., Armitage, S., Brooks, I., Candy, I., Connell, K., Drake, N., Farr, L., Hill, E., Hunt, C., Inglis, R., Jones, S., Lane, C., Lucarini, G., Meneely, J., Morales, J., Mutri, G., Prendergast, A., Rabett, R., Reade, H., Reynolds, T., Russell, N., Simpson, D., Smith, B., Stimpson, C., Twati, M. and White, K. 2010. Cyrenaica Prehistory Project 2010. Libyan Studies 41: 6388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnard, H. 2008. Eastern Desert Ware: traces of the inhabitants of the Eastern Deserts in Egypt and Sudan during the 4th-6th centuries CE. British Archaeological Reports International Series 1824. Archaeopress, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, O. 1914. The Eastern Libyans. MacMillen and Co, London.Google Scholar
Bates, O. 1927. Excavations at Marsa Matruh. Harvard African Studies 8: 125–97.Google Scholar
Boardman, J. and Hayes, J. 1973. Excavation at Tocra 1963-1965. The archaic deposits II and later deposits. British School at Athens Suppl. 10. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Brothwell, D.R. and Brothwell, P. 1998. Food in antiquity. A survey of the diet of early peoples. Ancient peoples and places 66. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Colin, F. 2000. Les peuples libyens de la Cyrénaïque à l'Egypte d'après les sources de l'Antiquité classique. Académie Royale des Sciences et des Lettres de Belgique, Brussels.Google Scholar
Cooney, W. 2011. Egypt's encounter with the West: race, culture and identity In Boatright, D., Corbelli, J. and Malleson, C. (eds), Current Research in Egyptology. Oxbow Books, Oxford4352.Google Scholar
Dore, J.N., Leone, A. and Hawthorne, J. 2007. Pottery and other finds. In Mattingly, D. (ed.), The Archaeology of Fazzan. Volume 2, Site Gazetteer, Pottery and other Survey Finds. Society for Libyan Studies Monograph 7, London.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1946. Topographical terms in common use among the Bedouin of Cyrenaica. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 76.2: 177-88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, J. 1976. Pottery: stratified groups and typology In Humphrey, J.H. (ed.), Excavations at Carthage conducted by the University of Michigan 1 (1975). Ceres Productions, Tunis: 47123.Google Scholar
Hayes, J. 1976a. Roman Pottery in the Royal Ontario Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.Google Scholar
Hounsell, D. 2002. The occupation of Marmarica in the Late Bronze Age: An archaeological and ethnographical Study (unpublished. PhD thesis, Liverpool).Google Scholar
Hulin, L. 1989. Marsa Matruh 1987, preliminary ceramic report. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 26: 115-26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulin, L. 1999. Marmaric Wares: some preliminary remarks. Libyan Studies 20: 1116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulin, L. 2001. Marmaric Wares: New Kingdom and later examples. Libyan Studies 32: 6778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulin, L. 2002. The Shell-Tempered Ware. In White, D.Marsa Matruh I: The Excavation. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology's Excavation on Bates's Island, Marsa Matruh, Egypt 1985-1989. Prehistory Monographs 1. Society of Aegean Prehistory, Philadelphia: 91103.Google Scholar
Hulin, L. 2009. Western Marmarica Coastal Survey 2009: preliminary report. Libyan Studies 40: 95103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulin, L., Timby, J., Muftah, A.M., and Mutri, G. 2010. Western Marmarica Coastal Survey 2010: preliminary report. Libyan Studies 41: 155–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulin, L. 2011. Pragmatic Technology: Issues on the Interpretation of Libyan Material Culture. In Duistermaat, K. and Regulski, I. (eds), International Connections in the Ancient Mediterranean, Proceedings of the Conference at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute, Cairo, 25th to 29th October 2008 (OLA 202). Peeters, Leuven.Google Scholar
Hulin, L. in press. The art of the possible: identifying interaction and change in eastern Libya in the material record of the Roman-Byzantine period. In Sternberg, T. (ed.), Changing deserts: integrating environments, people and challenges. Whitehorse Press, Isle of Harris.Google Scholar
Leahy, A. (ed.) 1990. Libya and Egypt c. 1300 – 750 BC. School of Oriental and African Studies and the Society for Libyan Studies, London.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D.J. (ed.) 2010. = Mattingly, D.J., Daniels, C.M., Dore, J.N., Edwards, D. and Hawthorne, J. 2010. The Archaeology of Fazzn. Volume 3, Excavations carried out by C.M. Daniels. Society for Libyan Studies, Department of Antiquities, London.Google Scholar
McBurney, C.B.M. 1967. The Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica) and the stone age of south east Mediterranean. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Möller, H. in prep. Ptolemäisch-römische Keramik in der Marmarica. Nordwestägyptens Wüstenrandgebiet als Produktionsort und Mittler (PhD thesis, Freiburg/Munich).Google Scholar
Möller, H. and Rieger, A.-K. in prep. Graeco-Roman pottery from the Eastern Marmarica. A semi-arid region as place of production and mediator. In Papadimitriou, N.P (ed.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Ware, Cooking Ware and Amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology and Archaeometry, BAR SeriesGoogle Scholar
Orton, C., Tyers, P. and Vince, A. 1997. Pottery in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Peacock, D. 1982. Pottery in the Roman world: an ethnoarchaeological approach, Longman Archaeology Series, London.Google Scholar
Peacock, D.P.S. and Fulford, M.G. 1984. Excavations at Carthage: The British Mission. Vol. I.2: The Avenue du President Habib Bourguiba, Salammbo. The pottery and other ceramic objects from the site. University of Sheffield, Sheffield.Google Scholar
Rieger, A.-K., Vetter, T. and Möller, H. in press. The Desert Dwellers of the Marmarica (Western Desert) as a Case Study for the Eastern Desert. In: Barnard, H. and Duistermaat, K. (eds), The History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Rieger, A.-K. and Möller, H. 2011 in press. Kilns, commodities and consumers – Greco-Roman pottery production in the Eastern Marmarica (NW-Egypt). Archäologischer Anzeiger 2011.1.Google Scholar
Rieger, A.-K., Vetter, T., Möller, H., Pöllath, N. and Großkopf, B. in prep. On the route to Siwa: the ancient roadhouse at Abar al Kanayis on the Marmarica-Plateau (NW-Egypt), in preparation for Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Kairo 67, 2011.Google Scholar
Riley, J.A., 1979. The coarse pottery from Benghazi. In Lloyd, J.A. (ed.), Excavations at Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi (Berenice) II. Supplements to Libya Antiqua 5. Tripoli: Department of Antiquities, Tripoli: 91497.Google Scholar
Rusch, W. and Stein, L. 1988. Siwa und die Aulad Ali. Akademie Verlag, Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, F. 2001. Evidence for Late Bronze Age Libyan Culture at the New Kingdom Egyptian Fortress of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham, Current Research in Egyptology: 97102.Google Scholar
Simpson, F. 2003. Evidencefor a Late Bronze Age Libyan presence in the Egyptian fortress at Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham (unpublished PhD thesis, Liverpool).Google Scholar
Snape, S. 2010. Vor der Kaserne: External Supply and Self-Sufficiency at Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham. In Bietak, M., Czerny, E. and Forstner-Müller, I. (eds), Cities and Urbanism in Ancient Egypt. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna: 271-88.Google Scholar
Vetter, Th., Rieger, A.-K., Klammer, O. and Möller, H. in press. Water, routes and rangelands: ancient traffic and grazing infrastructure in the Eastern Marmarica (Northwestern Egypt). In Riemer, H. and Förster, F. (eds), Desert Road Archaeology in the Eastern Sahara. Africa Praehistorica 26.Google Scholar
White, D. 1994. Before the Greeks came: A survey of the current archaeological evidence for the Pre-Greek Libyans. Libyan Studies 25: 3144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar