This volume is the fourth in a series of four books devoted to recent results and perspectives of the early history of the Sahara, mainly from the archaeological point of view. It presents the results of one of the Trans-Saharan Conferences held at the University of Leicester from 20 to 22 April 2015, in the frame of the ERC-funded Trans-SAHARA project, directed by D. J. Mattingly. As the editors state in the conclusion, ‘while each volume stands alone, there are also strong cross-cutting themes and discussions between them’ (p. 495); this is even more true for this volume, as the theme of ‘mobile technologies’ in the Sahara is strongly related to the development of trade and trade routes, and several of the chapters dealing with specific technologies, such as textile and glass production, have already been addressed in the first volume of the series from a different perspective (D.J. Mattingly et al. [edd.], Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond [2017]). The Central Sahara, where the Garamantian civilisation flourished from the beginning of the first millennium bc to the Arab conquest, is the starting point of a broad debate, which geographically involves all parts of the Sahara and the Maghrib, the Mediterranean regions of Libya and Egypt, the Nile Valley down to the Sudan and the sub-Saharan regions from Darfur in the east to Western Sahara and Senegal in the west. This broad horizon is meant to stress the importance of supra-regional connectivity and exchange, even if archaeological data are unevenly accessible and geographical and chronological gaps are still extremely relevant, calling for the necessity of increasing the available dataset.
The first chapter traces the theoretical framework and the main aims of the research, which is an investigation of what defines technology and how technological knowledge spread and developed in Saharan societies, taking into consideration the inter- and intra-connectivity of the vast desert with its surrounding areas. The choice to speak of ‘mobile’ technologies might raise the question of a diffusionist perspective, which has been strongly questioned and mostly replaced in the recent archaeological debate, especially as far as sub-Saharan Africa is concerned, by an emphasis rather on local and independent origins of technological innovations. But, as is stated, the history of the Sahara is a history of mobility, and there is a strong interplay between technology and the fluctuating environment and people, which makes the region a privileged laboratory for reassessing important questions of technological reception, adaptation and modification. Technology transfer, which may imply vertical transmission from one generation to another or from one social group to another, without any geographical movement, is among the main themes of discussion and is not intended as a substitute term for diffusion. It is highlighted that technology transfers are generally not well-defined linear phenomena of adoption of a completely new foreign technology, rather they represent complex stories of adaptation, cross-craft interactions and even failures (p. 38).
The establishment of oases is considered as a crucial step leading to a network of fixed population hubs, where adaptation and development of technological packages flourished to respond to environmental challenges, such as cultivation and irrigation practices and the introduction of specific animal breeding, to which part of the introduction and Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted. The Garamantes provide a key study for the spread of agriculture in the Sahara, where an ‘integrationist’ model, taken from recent research on the spread of agriculture in Neolithic Northern Europe, may better explain the Saharan spread of agriculture. This model hypothesises a combination of repeated cycles of migration and indigenous uptake, and may be better suited to the Saharan spread of agriculture, with the presence of a Mediterranean/Nilotic package (palm, emmer and wheat) from the early first millennium bc and a later introduction of sub-Saharan crops (peal millet, sorghum) from the later first millennium bc. This more nuanced perspective modifies earlier historical reconstructions indicating either an eastern (Nile Valley) or a northern (Mediterranean coast) provenance of technologies related to the agricultural exploitation of oases and opens a reconsideration of a broader network of contacts also from the south-west (Lake Chad), postulating that agricultural innovations in the Sahara could have different points of origin.
In the second chapter on the technological transfer through the hyper-arid belt, M. Liverani considers the Sahara as a westwards continuation of an arid belt stretching from the Arabian Peninsula, where similar environmental conditions would facilitate transfers. In his view technologies ‘were elaborated elsewhere and introduced in the Sahara in a second stage, to be adapted to the local environmental and cultural tradition’ (p. 55). This diffusionist perspective is defended by pointing out the fact that we should not imply a top-down consideration of givers versus receivers in cultural transfers, but rather intend the receivers as an active party and appreciate the adaptation that any transfer brings about. This comes with a warning to the contemporary anti-diffusionist and ‘interactive’ views on technological transfer, which can be a side-effect of post-colonialism and neo-capitalist globalisation, as much as the diffusionist ones derived from colonialism.
Chapter 3, by A. Wilson, Mattingly and M. Sterry, is devoted to irrigation technologies. Among the relevant questions debated is the introduction of the foggaras, a Saharan variant of the Persian qanāt, which are underground channels bringing running water from a distance to the oases land. It is convincingly argued that their introduction in the Central Sahara dates to the late first millennium bc and spread from the oases of Western Egypt in a westward diffusion, which is visualised in an evocative map, showing also the chronology of abandonment (Fig. 3.5, p. 94). This perspective differs from some recent research on qanāt technology, which tends to advocate for a polycentric origin rather than a technological transfer and which could have been mentioned, at least as a bibliographical reference (e.g. J. Charbonnier and K.A. Hopper, ‘The Qanāt: a Multidisciplinary and Diachronic Approach to the Study of Groundwater Catchment Systems in Archaeology’, Water History 10 [2018], special issue). Their introduction meant an agricultural intensification in the Sahara, strictly related, according to Wilson, to the development of the Saharan and Trans-Saharan trade.
Animal husbandry is a key subject in the Saharan staple economy, and much has been said on the date of the introduction of animals as relevant as camels, for example, in a desert environment. Chapter 5 deals with the movement and management of animals in North and West Africa from 1000 bc to ad 1000, by B.T. Fothergill, V. Linseele and S. Valenzuela Lamas. It presents recent perspectives based on available osteometric data and is a useful and updated summary of the present state of the art. Translocation rather than introduction is the term used, as it captures better the process of movement and transportation, which may imply different cycles of animal movements testified by the existence of different types of the same species in osteometric data from the Trans-Saharan zone.
Metalworking is approached in three different chapters and, here again, the authors aim for overcoming the current debate, split between the proponents of a diffusion of metallurgical knowledge from North Africa and Egypt into sub-Saharan Africa and proponents of an independent invention on the African continent. The chapter by C. Robion-Brunner is particularly interesting in arguing that questions about technological choice in iron smelting, which could be due to belief systems, are often overshadowed by the debate on the origins of ironworking in Africa. African ironworking shows extreme variability, including claims for the invention of many novel iron-smelting processes, not all developed into technological innovation. In the Sahara, metallurgy, similar to glass production, has to face the paucity of fuel, and the evidence presented by Cuénod for the Garamantian oases suggests an industry mainly of transformation, where finished objects were produced from stock or recycled. No technological transfer can be traced, up to now, from the Nile Valley and Meroe in particular, as J. Humphris argues.
Three chapters are devoted to glass technology. A chapter on glass beads, by P. Robertshaw debates their high value in African society and in the Garamantian region, as they participated as part of a performative repertoire that shaped identification. The constant demand for beads led people to develop or learn from others the technology to make new beads from recycled glass. This is evident in the Garamantian context, as Duckworth explains. Her analyses of the chemical composition of glass finds from the Jarma region testify to the evidence of glass recycling and modification, especially in the case of bangles. The problem of fuel in glass production could be partially resolved by the use of animal dung. An interesting outcome is the compositional heterogeneity of some glass objects, which could be the result of manipulation and suggests that the chemical signature of a glass bead – often used to trace glass origin – could be the result of a number of episodes in its history.
An interesting chapter by M.C. Gatto deals with Garamantian ceramic technology, considered as a proxy for exploring the existence of a Trans-Saharan interconnectedness. Gatto focuses, in particular, on the roulette technique, a rolled impression on vessels with the use of a twisted cord. This is a distinctive feature of the Garamantian ceramic repertoire from early Garamantian times and may testify to a connection with the sub-Saharan regions while Garamantian painted ware may have similarities with Berber wares of Mediterranean Africa. The chapter also considers how these changes were introduced, postulating, among different scenarios, the presence of female potters entering Garamantian society either by marriage or through being part of craftsmen groups.
The conclusion draws together the threads of discussion running through the individual chapters and stresses the importance of connectivity as a key theme of the volume. Mobile technology is movement of knowledge and skills ultimately linked to the movement of people, and no technology transfer or diffusion comes without some technological change. This is why, if the origin of a technological innovation is important, variability and local adaptation are equally relevant, especially for the geographical area considered. Connectivity among scholars from different backgrounds and perspectives is also the strength of the volume and of the Trans-Saharan series as a whole. If it is true that the history of the Sahara is still to be written, this volume and the whole series mark a new starting point for future research. The core of the research is the Garamantian heartland, which stands now, from an enigmatic population mentioned in classical sources, as a sophisticated civilisation playing an active role in a complex network of inter-regional contacts, which spread from the Mediterranean coast to the Nile Valley to sub-Saharan areas and West Africa already in pre-Islamic times.
