Sediments of ?Pleistocene and Holocene age infilling an ancient irrigation channel adjacent to the Wadi Gobbeen in Tripolitania are described. The irrigation channel is part of a Romano-Libyan floodwater-farming system. Techniques for estimating the hydrological characteristics of floodwater-farming systems are applied to the irrigation channel to provide an indication of the water-carrying capacity of ancient floodwater-farming systems in the Libyan pre-desert.

This article describes the interdisciplinary methods developed by the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey in connection with the study of ancient agriculture. These methods combine the techniques of settlement archaeology with those of the earth sciences and palaeoeconomics. The interactive nature of the enquiry does not resolve all the questions, but it can help to re-shape those questions and suggest new lines of enquiry. The example of the Wadi Mansur is used here to demonstrate the application of both conventional and new techniques and the contribution this can make to our appreciation of ancient land use in an arid zone. This provisional statement of results describes the geomorphology of the wadi, the settlement archaeology, ceramic dating evidence, palaeoeconomic data (including palynological evidence), wadi wall technology and typology.

This paper discusses the preliminary results of analysis of faunal material from eight sites of Romano-Libyan and Islamic date. The sites are located in the pre-desert of Tripolitania. The samples were in general small and the bones were not well preserved, the degree of fragmentation being high. Although a range of species is represented, the economic strategy depended upon the exploitation of sheep and goats. In the southern part of the study area gazelles were also of importance. Sheep and goats were raised primarily as meat animals, being killed principally during their second year of life. The basic economic system seems to have persisted for a long time, although slight differences can be detected between sites of Romano-Libyan date and of Islamic date.

This short note presents a preliminary list of 21 radio-carbon dates obtained from field samples. The samples came from a variety of types of context (charcoal from hearths or middens, fragments of original timbers) from different types of site (farms, gsur, villages) of varying date (Roman, Byzantine/early Arab, Medieval). The results have been calibrated to present the dates in calendar years to one and two standard deviations. Some preliminary comments are advanced on the comparison between these dates and those derived from the study of the fineware pottery assemblages from the sites.

This paper discusses three groups of rock art in their local, Tripolitanian, context and in terms of their wider relationship with the known corpus of Saharan prehistoric art. The rock carvings at Maia Dib, Udei el Chel/Caf el-Metchia and el-Tolga are described and some preliminary thoughts advanced as to their date and significance. Some suggestions are also made regarding the possible relationship between these carvings and the climatic and environmental changes which characterised the Sahara in later prehistory.

This note gives a preliminary notice of the discovery of a further clausura in western Tripolitnia (Southern Tunisia). These linear barriers are assumed to have performed some function in customs regulation and the supervision of transhumance movements in the frontier zone, rather than being defensive barriers as such. The new discovery suggests that there may well be still others undiscovered in southern Tunisia and western Libya.

This summary report on Archaic Greek pottery from Euesperides, Cyrenaica, describes 60 diagnostic sherds of Eastern Greek, ‘Parian’, Laconian, Corinthian and Attic origin. The material all comes from the earliest occupation levels of the Sidi Abeid sector of the ancient site. However, the question of the exact date of the earliest settlement at Euesperides is complicated by a continuing controversy about the dating of Archaic Greek pottery in general. Only when these more general problems are resolved can a firmer date be assigned on the basis of the identifications in this catalogue.

This summary presents the main results of three seasons of survey and limited excavation work carried out by the Society at Ptolemais in Eastern Libya. The survey concentrated on two major town houses which had been partially excavated by Richard Goodchild (House G and House T), whilst excavation was carried out on the adjacent site known as the North-east Quadrant. All of the sites revealed complex structural histories and it is evident that in this quarter of Ptolemais, at least, life within the town continued well into the Islamic period.

This paper addresses itself to the study of population growth of the small towns in Libya. The Libyan small towns have grown rapidly and it is expected that the majority will continue to grow in the future. Their growth can be attributed to natural increase, internal migration, the influx of foreigners, all of which have been stimulated by the State.