This volume forms the final part of a series edited by David Mattingly and dedicated to the Archaeology of Fazzān. The previous volumes, published in Reference Mattingly2003, Reference Mattingly2007 and Reference Mattingly2010 were devoted respectively to a synthesis of the work done by the Fazzān Project (FP) in the years 1997–2001 and by Charles M. Daniels (CMD) in the 1960s; site gazetteer, and description of pottery and other finds; and the excavations of Daniels in the Wādī el-Ajāl. The Archaeology of Fazzān volume 4 presents a detailed account of a single oasis centre, Garama/Old Jarma, which was the capital of the Garamantian kingdom, the earliest complex polity of the Sahara. According to the FP investigation the city was founded around the fourth century BC and continued to be occupied for almost 2,500 years, through the Islamic and Early Modern periods. In the 1930s, under the Italian Colonial regime, the few inhabitants of Old Jarma, affected by malaria, were moved to the new town, determining the final abandonment of the settlement.
The report presents the results of survey and excavation done by the FP in Old Jarma and by the British/Libyan team directed by Charles Daniels that worked at the site in the years 1962–1969. A great asset of the book is the reassessment of the results of early work done by Mohammed Ayoub, who was Controller of Antiquities in the 1960s. His work indeed consisted in clearance excavation of a large portion at the centre of the site, which involved the demolition of substantial areas of standing buildings relating to the site's later phases. In particular, the two major mosques of the town were completely demolished without any data collection.
The volume is composed of five parts, thematically arranged, with an additional sixth section on a CD, providing appendices and catalogues. Part 1 presents the aims and context of the FP archaeological investigations at the site. The history of the settlement is reconstructed in detail through the analyses of the literary evidence, starting from the first attestation of the Saharan people in the fifth century BC (Herodotus' Histories, 4.183) to the contemporary era. The paucity of references to the town in Islamic sources is related by Mattingly to the loss of a political centrality and economic relevance of the Wādī el-Ajāl, mainly due to the eastward shift of the main caravan routes in Medieval times, centred in Zuwīla and later Trāghan and Murzuq. Accounts by the European travellers from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century confirmed a progressive loss of importance and abandonment of the town, even if they reported the presence of imposing ancient ruins. The survey performed by the FP is here included as a complement to ancient sources and introductory background to the following chapters. Particular interest is devoted to the reconstruction of the Medieval town's urban layout, badly altered by the dismantlement of a big area at the centre of the old town carried out by Ayoub's excavations in order to reach the Garamantian structures. Unpublished notes by Daniels, air photographs dating to 1958 and contemporary satellite imagery together with a digital topographical survey were employed to draw a general map of the settlement. Defence structures, like the town wall, the moat surrounding the site, the city gates, towers and posterns were mapped and radiocarbon dated from the eighth to the seventeenth century AD. A smaller wall circuit is suggested for the Garamantian settlement, enlarged by adding an entire quarter with the Medieval qasabah on the south-western fringes of the older town, probably in the fourteenth–fifteenth century AD, a time when the Khurmān people, maybe descendants of the Garamantes, gained control over Eastern Fazzān.
Part 2 is devoted to the excavations at Old Jarma and after a presentation of the results of the work of Ayoub and Daniels, the new investigation by the FP is discussed. The latter focused on four adjacent zones, labelled GER001.G1–G4. G1 was the main excavation sector with G2 a standing section at its edge that had been first recorded by Daniels. Area G3 was a small trench opened over the corner of a building partially investigated by Ayoub. G4 comprised a series of soundings below the foundations of a Garamantian temple. A small amount of recording was also done on a structure first identified by Ayoub and then documented by Daniels. The data collected by Ayoub is deeply problematic in nature and hardly has any scientific value. Instead, the archaeological data systematically collected by the FP led to a reassessment of the chronology and stratigraphic sequence previously established in the light of the new data, up-to-date methodology and overall study of the cultural material. A sequence of ten main occupation phases was reconstructed for the site. A systematic collection of samples provided 44 radiocarbon dates ranging from the eighteenth–nineteenth century AD (Phase 1) to the fourth–third century BC (Phase 10), in an uninterrupted sequence which was accurately linked to the stratigraphy of the settlement. Among the most complex architectural structures brought to light are those pertaining to Phase 3, which were possibly related to a mosque and dated from the eleventh to the thirteenth century BC. The main phases pertaining to the Garamantian period (6–10) showed the presence, from the beginning of the settlement (fourth century BC), of two-roomed architectural units in mud brick and, already from the second–first centuries BC, the use of stone footing for important buildings, like in Temple GER001.3 (Ayoub's Building E). This suggests that the site started acquiring a monumental character, which surely mirrored socio-political changes, before the arrival of the Roman Empire in Africa.
The stone architectural elements from the monumental buildings of the Garamantian phase are presented in Part 3, along with discussion of evidence from both excavation and survey relating to the urban layout and domestic buildings of the Garamantian and Islamic periods. If the decoration of some of these buildings certainly recalls Mediterranean models, and ashlar masonry was employed in high status buildings at Jarma from the late first and second centuries AD, the use of dressed stones in the site is dated back to the latter centuries BC. Likely Mediterranean influences reached the Garamantes with the inclusion of the Sahara in the Phoenicio-Punic trade network. The question of whether the development of such a specialised craftsmanship in the region is due to the physical presence of artisans from the coast or rather to people trained further north, in the pre-desert zone, introducing new techniques to the local people, is answered by Mattingly and collaborators suggesting the active adoption and re-elaboration of the Classical tradition rather than the passive reception of a ‘package of technical aid’ sent from the coast. Such interpretation supports the reconsideration of the Garamantes as a major civilisation, making conscious choices in engaging with Roman culture. This is further evidenced by the development of public building, where architecture appears as an original synthesis of the local tradition (i.e. the two-roomed basic plan of Temple GER001.3, which recalls the earliest house plans in the whole region, as attested by the Italian work in the Wādī Tanezzuft — see Mori Reference Mori2013), where influences from the Mediterranean coast (like colonnaded halls and stepped façades) are reconceptualised and adapted to Saharan traditional forms.
The finds from the excavations are presented in Part 4, divided between pottery, glass, figurines, ground stone tools, other small finds, botanical and faunal remains. Pottery and ground stone tools, as expected, represent the major classes, but among the numerous minor classes of finds ingot moulds, maybe for jewellery working, dated to the Classic and Late Garamantian times were reported. Clay figurines, which are among the first examples of Central Saharan plastic art, find parallels also in the evidence from Fewet (southern Fazzān) dated to the Proto-Urban phase (Mori Reference Mori2013). Finally, an exceptional potsherd with an Old Libyan inscription dated to the first – early second century AD confirms the literate state-level of the Garamantian civilisation already in the Classical phase. Radiocarbon dated pearl millet and sorghum grain point to their introduction in the region by the fourth–second century BC, probably related to the foggara irrigation technology while the arrival of cotton is dated to the third–fourth century AD. The faunal assemblage instead suggests frequent meat consumption, inferred by the provision of animals at prime meat age, during the Classic and Late Garamantian phases, which differs form contemporary data from the Wādī Tanzzūft region (Mori Reference Mori2013) and would suggest a richer lifestyle at the capital of the kingdom.
Part Five of the volume aims at reconstructing the overall political and socio-economic history of the settlement, from its foundation by 400–300 BC to its final abandonment in the 1930s with a main focus on the Garamantian phases, and most of all the Classic and Late periods, which certainly saw the flourishing of the site. The material presented provides a unique diachronic dataset for a Saharan site, allowing the analysis of changes across time in the material culture, diet and trading connections. The role of Garama in the Wādī el-Ajāl and surrounding regions is debated in order to show the true urban character of the settlement, inserted in a complex landscape where other sites, like Qasr ash-Sharrāba, reached a similar urban status. Most likely the Garamantian settlement system consisted of a few large towns, which served specialised functions, had subsidiary settlements, and were balanced by a number of rural villages, reliant to some extent on the larger sites for economic and political support. A demographic estimation of 65,000–100,000 individuals is given for the Garamantian period, based on surveys and excavation combined with the funerary data, and modelled also on the basis of environmental constraints and carrying capacity reported for the Wādī el-Ajāl in different periods. A far different population density of 12,000 people for the Fazzān in the Garamantian period was proposed by Liverani in Reference Liverani2005. Such discrepancy is related to the poor knowledge of the actual urban layout both of the main centres and of small villages and hamlets in Garamantian times. Garama itself is known only for the monumental buildings of the 1960s excavations, and from the main FP excavation area (G1), whose architectural phases are not sufficient to reconstruct the actual topographic density of the town in the Garamantian period. Qasr ash-Sharrāba's plan was indeed reconstructed by using satellite imagery and air photographs, and the actual aspect of the Garamantian town is unknown.
The appendices and catalogues on a CD enrich the volume with beautiful colour pictures, drawings and detailed descriptions of the cultural material analysed in its stratigraphic context.
As for the previous volumes, The Archaeology of Fazzān 4 is an impressive achievement by David Mattingly and his collaborators. Their work at Jarma represents an essential piece of evidence for the reconstruction of the early history of the Sahara and North Africa, and has dramatically changed the traditional perception of the Garamantes, recognising their role in developing the first urban state in the history of Libya. Though there are many questions still open for further studies, the ground-breaking research at the base of the entire “Archaeology of Fazzān” series has set solid and outstanding scientific foundations for future investigations. Extra value is also added by the richness in illustrations — the entire volume has colour pictures — and the quality of the publication. This book is certainly among the major recent contributions in the field of Saharan and Garamantian archaeology and it is a fundamental source for any scholar interested in remarkable archaeological research.
