The presently accepted ceramic chronology places the earliest episodes of Greek colonisation in Libya some three to four decades earlier than the traditional historical dates. A similar offset between the archaeological and historical chronologies can be seen at Naukratis and other Archaic Greek sites. A review of ‘fixed points’ for Archaic dating shows that the balance of evidence now strongly favours a reduction of late seventh to early sixth century BC Greek ceramic chronology by three to four decades. Such a reduction would bring harmony between the archaeological and historical pictures for the founding of the Cyrenaican colonies, restoring confidence in the account given by Herodotus.

At some date shortly after the Persian conquest of Egypt (525 BC) a Persian army dispatched by the satrap of Egypt, Aryandes, was encamped on the Lykaian Hill outside the city of Cyrene, threatening its capture. How far hostilities had advanced is not known, but very soon the army abandoned its position and marched off on the return way to Egypt (Herodotus IV, 16–67, 200–203). Herodotus' account is an involved story how the Persian force came to be in Cyrenaica, and it is not clear why it departed from Cyrene with little achieved there. The episode would be of limited substance except for the chance discovery of some antiquities in the region of the Persian camp. About 20 years later, in 498 BC, a Persian force was deployed in Cyprus to reduce the city of Paphos in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Cypriote uprising to support the Ionian revolt. A siege mound was raised against the city wall employing an unexpected variety of material. Latterly the mound has been excavated and afforded wide ranging information. Hitherto these archaeological facts have not been considered in conjunction, and an attempt to do so may be instructive.

Libya in the last nine centuries has been dramatically transformed from a multi-religious, predominantly Berber speaking State into an almost Arabised, Muslim nation. This transformation is considered in relation to the emergence of the Ribāṭ and the Murābiṭīn, including the Ashrāf. This article explores the linguistic and historical roots of the Ribāṭ, Murābiṭīn and Ashrāf. It also examines the spread of Ṣufism in Libya, and die influence both the Ṣūfi orders and the Murābiṭin and Ashrāf have had on Libyan politics and society.

This article examines the trial in 1843 and 1844 of Giovanni Battista Caruana, a Maltese, for the murder of a Jew in Tripoli. He was found guilty but was not executed because the victim's impoverished wife agreed to accept compensation. The case took place against the background of the British government's increasing impatience with what they saw as uncontrolled Maltese and Ionian communities, leading to the enactment of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act of 1844. It also demonstrated the importance of the individual authority of the Consul, Hanmer Warrington, and the extent to which consuls' personal objectives and opinions weighed on the development of British policy, and the extent to which Warrington's concern to uphold the law coincided with that of the Pasha of Tripoli, so that the case led to a close identification between the local government and the British consular representative.

Exploring the musical soundscape of a city like Tripoli is fascinating as much as it is challenging to retrieve meanings underlying the same soundscape. The fine blend between, for instance, ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ musical practices and aesthetics, appertaining to this soundscape, presents the music researcher with a complex scenario to investigate. For this purpose, contemporary music research recognises music ethnography (superficially defined as the writing about the way people get involved in and make music) as a means by which such scenarios can be explored. In line with this, the present article explores Tripoli's musical soundscape by presenting vignettes of people listening to music, actively participating in musical events, as well as making music. Such depictions must shed light on the musical life in contemporary Libya with particular focus on the musical life in Tripoli. The commentary accompanying these vignettes links the sound not only with the people interacting with it, but also with the events that generate it, the place in which it evolves and the socio-cultural context that endows it with meaning.

A small limestone half-figure from Alan Rowe's 1957 excavations in Cyrene was recently found to have the word ΘEA lightly inscribed on the polos. The authors describe the sarcophagi with which this figure may have been associated, together with the burial artifacts found within them. It is rare to find ΘEA used in this way, although two examples from Eleusis provide useful parallels. One is a votive plaque, the other a large relief, and each portrays the Eleusinian deities whose iconography is discussed here and compared with that of the Cyrene ΘEA example and also other uninscribed Cyrene half-figures.

In the so-called ‘Ninfeo dell'Ercole’, located along the cardo maximus of Leptis Magna, there is a column made from the red marble that the Romans called Marmor Iassense or Carium, after the ancient town of Iasos in Caria (Asia Minor), where quarries have recently been identified. Although this marble began to be exploited probably in Hellenistic times, most experts believe that its extensive trade started only in the third century AD, and increased in the followings centuries, when its occurrence became conspicuous in Asia Minor and in other eastern and central Mediterranean regions. The fact that this column in Leptis Magna belongs to a monument dating from the second half of the second century AD now provides positive evidence for the circulation of marble Iassense in earlier times. Moreover, particularly interesting is the peculiar composition of the stone, in which both the veined and the breccia-like varieties are present. This feature is rather uncommon and particularly significant, for the two types have usually been considered quite distinct. Recent investigations conducted in the quarries of Iasos, however, have revealed that the two varieties can coexist in the same outcrops.

Cyrene is the tide of an oil on canvas by Edward Calvert (1799–1883), an English artist of the Victorian age, who was a follower of William Blake and member of the group the ʿAncientsʾ. The figure of Cyrene reproduces the Aphrodite statue (sc. Figure M) from the East Pediment of the Athenian Parthenon; probably Calvert studied the marble sculpture in the ʿTemporary Elgin Roomʾ of the British Museum, when he was a student at the Drawing and Life school of the Royal Academy. The painting is difficult to date, but the hairstyle of Cyrene could pertain to the 1830s or 1840s. The unusual subject could be influenced by the first English expeditions in North Africa.

In 1906 Hanns Vischer travelled by camel from Tripoli, Libya to Kukawa, Nigeria. His journey was followed almost 100 years later by John Hare, as part of a campaign to raise awareness for the plight of the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel in China and Mongolia. A gifted amateur artist, Vischer illustrated a number of the localities visited during his journey. By coincidence, during his re-creation of the return journey, John Hare produced a comparable photographic record. This short note introduces Vischer's watercolours as a source for the comparative assessment of the landscape today and 100 years ago, and provides a supplement to ‘The Vischer family archives’, published in Libyan Studies 34: 175–182.

This article reports on survey work carried out in December and January 2004/5 to identify and record rock engravings in the Wadi al-Hayat (previously called the Wadi al-Ajal). This work builds on previous surveys carried out under the aegis of the Fezzan Archaeological Project (FAP) (Barnett 2002; Barnett and Roberts 2003; Mattingly et al. 2003).

During this season, systematic survey identified over 300 engraved panels which included all stylistic ‘phases’ known to be present in the wadi (Barnett in Mattingly et al. 2003). When these engravings are incorporated into the spatial distribution model derived from previous field seasons, the preliminary patterns this model describes are no longer wholly applicable. Instead, a more complex and subtle spatial distribution is indicated, in which there appears to be the interplay of several separate relationships between die engravings and die cultural landscape. To avoid misleading interpretation, detailed analysis of die rock art and integration with cultural and environmental data will be attempted only once a full dataset has been gathered on completion of the fieldwork. In the meantime, this paper describes what has been achieved this season. It presents a broad overview of the patterns of rock art distribution as they appear so far with an incomplete dataset and points die way to future fieldwork.

One of the key additional aims of the fieldwork this season was to develop an appropriate recording ʿtoolkitʾ. This included piloting state-of-the-art digital technology to establish its accessibility and value in this environment. Working in collaboration with a team from the University of Bristol, die project applied surface laser scanning to capture 3-dimensional digital data from 14 separate engraved panels. This is die first time this technique has been used to record rock art in North Africa and this provided an unprecedented opportunity to explore its potential for future heritage applications.

This paper is a preliminary report on the Spring 2005 season of the excavations at Euesperides (Benghazi). Work continued in Areas P and Q, and on the processing of finds from the 2005 and previous seasons. In Area P a series of domestic deposits dated to the last quarter of the fourth or first quarter of the third century BC was excavated, including a hearth, a probable domestic altar and associated votive deposits, and a series of post-holes perhaps connected with furniture and a loom. Two small external yard areas seem to have been used for purple dye production. In Area Q late occupation to the west of the street is dated to the late fourth century BC; to the east of the street, the latest stratigraphy appears to have been truncated and the occupation levels so far excavated here date from 470 down to 300 BC.

Selected finewares from the excavations are presented, ranging in date from the sixth to the third centuries BC. Work on the coarse pottery and amphora assemblages has begun to distinguish products of different production centres within Cyrenaica. Besides demonstrating the quantities of imported coarsewares from Corinth, the Aegean and the Punic world, we can now recognise four classes of Cyrenaican amphorae, including exports present at Punic Sabratha. The study of the wall plaster, environmental remains and other finds are also briefly discussed.

Euesperides is a site both of archaeological importance and of considerable scientific interest for its rare wetland vegetation, but both of these aspects remain vulnerable to ongoing damage as a result of urban development, uncontrolled rubbish dumping and a lack of effective protection of the site.