As British Ambassador to Libya between 2002 and 2006 the author has been directly involved in many of the major changes and developments that have taken place between Libya and Britain in recent years. This paper, which was originally presented as a lecture to the Society for Libyan Studies in London on 8 February 2007, describes these recent developments and the role they have played in repairing relations between Libya and Britain and with the wider international community.

Cet article traite de la question de l'origine de l'écriture libyco-berbère et de son développement. Après un aperçu sur les alphabets locaux du Nord et du Sud, une discussion sur les différentes opinions émises sur le sujet est donnée avec la mise en relief des arguments des tenants de la thèse locale et de ceux qui pensent que le libyco-berbère dérive du punique ou d'un prototype inconnu. L'important site inscrit d'Irlarlaren (Nord du Tadrart Akakus) est ensuite présenté. Plusieurs exemples graphiques sont empruntés à ce site ancien des Garamantes. Afin de déterminer leur origine et évolution et pour permettre de débattre de façon nouvelle la question de l'origine du libyco-berbère, deux graphies spiralées, très répandues dans le Sahara central et méridional sont examinées. Celles-ci sont en effet considérées ici comme des indices paléographiques permettant à la fois d'appuyer la thèse «classique» de l'origine du libyco-berbère à partir du (phénico-) punique et de soutenir l'antériorité du tifinagh ancien par rapport aux autres branches libyco-berbères. La même approche a été faite pour d'autres lettres libyco-berbères présentant des similitudes graphiques (et phonétiques) avec le (phénico-) punique. Après cela, le mode de formation des autres lettres est envisagé sous ses différents aspects: multiplication des traits et des points, barres à points, rotation, etc. En conclusion, l'hypothèse d'une écriture inspirée aux alentours du VIe s. av. J.-C. par le monde punique et développée par les Garamantes est argumentée. Il s'agit là d'arguments divers sur les synchronismes entre les Carthaginois et les Garamantes, et le rôle de ces derniers, mis au centre de ce débat.

Recent work in the Wadi bel Gadir in the southern chora region of Cyrene, in particular the discovery of two temple precincts by the Italian Mission (Missione Archeologica a Cirene della Università degli Studi di Urbino) as well as an intensive topographic survey by the newly reconstituted University of Pennsylvania Expedition (now the Cyrenaica Archaeological Project) is providing important information about urban development to the west and southwest of the city of Cyrene. This paper offers an overview of the previous work in the area and some thoughts on the potential implications of the recent discoveries by the Italian Mission led by Professor Mario Luni and the Cyrenaican Archaeological Project (CAP) directed by Professor Susan Kane.

Tripoli's Protestant Cemetery is a place of some mystery. One of the most persistent of these mysteries is the whereabouts of the £200 Sterling that the former British Consul General in Tripoli, Colonel Hanmer Warrington, publicly claimed to have deposited in the Bank of England around 1841 to maintain his family mausoleum and the rest of the cemetery. Research at the Bank of England and in the National Archives in Kew, London, has thrown fresh, but not conclusive, light on this matter. Another of the cemetery's mysteries are the five graves, said to be those of some of the United States sailors killed in Tripoli harbour in 1804. In the 1950s and 1960s these graves were the focus of an annual American diplomatic and military commemoration ceremony. But were the graves really what they were supposed to be?

As is the case in most Third World cities, Benghazi's urban growth has outpaced infrastructural development. The unexpected rapid growth has generated many typical urban problems particularly in the area of transportation and road accidents. The increase in vehicular traffic is affecting the entire fabric of urban life as the growing number of private cars begins to overwhelm Benghazi's road system. In 1999 12% of all deaths in Libya were caused by road traffic accidents and in 2000 the cost of road traffic accidents was put at more than 15 million LD. This paper argues that the existing public transport system could be better used through incorporation of small-scale services, like local taxis and minibuses, and new technology where feasible.

The author suggests that improvement and development in the transportation sector be devoted entirely to buses and intermediate public carriers because of their complementary nature: buses operate on fixed routes and schedules, while minibuses have the flexibility to reach areas inaccessible by buses. In addition to decreasing demand for parking spaces in the central area, minibuses might further bring about traffic reduction and decreases in congestion, minimising road traffic accidents and thus preventing delays for both private automobiles and bus riders.

An unregistered rock-cut tomb in Cyrene has been identified as that previously visited by two early explorers to Cyrene. Pacho recorded an inscription, which he published, and the interior was recognised as being that shown in Porcher's Watercolour 98 and the plan Watercolour 94 which he presented, with many others, to the Trustees of the British Museum in 1865.

The 1950s excavations by Charles McBurney in the great Haua Fteah cave in northeast Libya revealed a deep (14 m) sequence of human occupation going back at least 100,000 years, with evidence for the presence of both Neanderthals and Modern Humans in the Pleistocene, and for Neolithic farmers in the Holocene. In 2007 a renewed programme of archaeological and geomorphological investigation began with the objective of improving understanding of the cave's occupation sequence and, combined with fieldwork in the landscape, of the history of landscape change and human responses to it. The initial season of fieldwork removed the upper c. 4.5 m of backfill in the McBurney trench; established the robustness of the original faces and their suitability for analytical interventions; recorded detailed running sections spanning from the present day to (at least) the Last Glacial Maximum c. 20,000 years ago; and indicated the potential of the surviving archaeology to reveal not just sequence but also activities or ‘taskscapes’ at the site. The geomorphological fieldwork identified rich sequences of later Quaternary deposits (marine, colluvial, alluvial, aeolian) with the potential to provide significant results regarding the history of climate and environment in the region. Archaeological survey around the cave indicates that the variability of the surface lithic evidence appears to reflect real differences in past human behaviour and use of the landscape and not just post-depositional taphonomic processes. Fifty years after the extraordinary pioneering work of McBurney and his colleagues, the new work demonstrates the continued potential of the Haua Fteah's unique occupation sequence and the multi-period ‘human landscapes’ around it to transform understanding of early human societies in North Africa.

The Desert Migrations Project is a new interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional collaborative project between the Society for Libyan Studies and the Department of Antiquities. The geographical focus of the study is the Fazzan region of southwest Libya and in thematic terms we aim to address the theme of migration in the broadest sense, encompassing the movement of people, ideas/knowledge and material culture into and out of Fazzan, along with evidence of shifting climatic and ecological boundaries over time. The report describes the principal sub-strands of the project's first season in January 2007, with some account of research questions, methods employed and some preliminary results. Three main sub-projects are reported on. The first concerns the improved understanding of long-term climatic and environmental changes derived from a detailed palaeoenvironmental study of palaeolake sediments. This geo-science work runs alongside and feeds directly into both archaeological sub-projects, the first relating to prehistoric activity and mobility around and between a series of palaeolakes during wetter climatic cycles; the second to the excavation of burials in the Wadi al-Ajal, exploring the changing relationship between material culture, identity and ethnicity across time, from prehistory to the early Islamic period (the span of the main cemetery zones). In addition, some rock art research and a survey of historic period sites was undertaken in the Wadi ash-Shati and Ubari sand sea.