This fourth (and final) volume in a series of reports from the Fazzān Project on the archaeology of Saharan oases is commendable for a number of reasons. The volume not only serves to document a poorly understood area of Libya—the Fazzān—but also presents a new model for the study of complex oasis settlements in the Sahara through a multi-authored series of integrated interdisciplinary reports. It usefully publishes both old and new survey and excavation evidence in the best possible scientific light. This includes discussions of two Anglo-Libyan projects: the survey work of Charles Manser Daniels (1965 & 1969) and the excavation work of the Fazzān Project (1997–2001), directed by David Mattingly in conjunction with the Department of Antiquities, Libya, as well as a report on exploratory clearance excavations (1962–1967) by Mohammed Ayoub, Controller of Antiquities of the Fazzān. Finally, the volume is a model joint publication venture by the Society for Libyan Studies and the Department of Antiquities, Tripoli, with financial assistance from BP Exploration Limited.

In an age when it is increasingly difficult to publish excavation reports other than in a greatly reduced synthetic format with the full dataset archived elsewhere, this volume is a reminder of how important it can be to present a complete and inclusive package of research (a CD accompanies the volume). The scope of this publication is well justified by the authors’ claim that: “Writing an urban biography for a settlement that has been anonymous for much of its recorded history may seem an overambitious aim [. . .] However, a key argument of this volume is that, through judicious use of the available primary sources and mobilisation of the fullest range of archaeological data, it is possible to reconstruct richly textured urban biographies that have interpretative power [. . .] to construct an overall synthesis of Old Jarma that is more than the sum of the parts, combining evidence relating to the history, architecture, material culture and human lifeways” (p. 505).

This volume amply delivers on the authors’ claim. It is a richly detailed account of a single oasis centre, Old Jarma, in its wider context. Jarma is identifiable as Garama, the capital of an early Saharan civilisation known to Greco-Roman writers as the Garamantes. It was an occupied settlement for almost 2500 years (c. 400 BC–AD 1930s). The Garamantes created a remarkably complex system of oasis settlements, some urban in character, which were sustained by intensive agriculture and advanced irrigation technology as well as by trans-Saharan trade. As demonstrated by the evidence in this volume, their economic fortunes were directly linked to the fluctuations and directions of that trade.

This volume is composed of six parts: Part 1: a full gazetteer of the surveyed sites; Part 2: excavation reports from the Libyan and Anglo-Libyan campaigns; Part 3: ‘Architectural Synthesis’; Part 4: ‘Finds Reports’, a wide-ranging and detailed series of specialists’ reports (with associated catalogues in the appendices) that cover the stratigraphy, architectural elements, pottery, glass, small finds and stone tools, as well as archaeobotanical and faunal remains; Part 5: ‘Concluding Synthesis’, organised chronologically by period and then thematically by topics such as structural character, cultivation and diet, manufacturing and evidence of trade; and Part 6 (on the accompanying CD): ‘Appendices and Catalogues’. Plans are also underway to make these data available via a web repository.

Through discussion of a wide range of sites, settlements and their associated finds assemblages, this volume convincingly establishes the importance of inter-connectivity in the Libyan Sahara over time, and shows how, long before the historically documented trans-Saharan trade in the Islamic period, many oases supported sedentary populations. These findings are significant both in the context of debates about Saharan states but also for the study of the urbanisation of neighbouring areas of Roman and sub-Saharan Africa.

While this volume is the last in the intended series of publications relating to the Fazzān Project, the series is an integral part of an ongoing scientific research programme to study the Garamantes in the context of the pre-Islamic Sahara. A line of successive projects continues to advance this research: the Desert Migrations Project, the Peopling the Desert Project and, the latest, the Trans-Sahara: State Formation, Migration and Trade in the Central Sahara (1000 BC–AD 1500). This new five-year project, funded by the European Research Council, was slated to begin in 2011, the year of the Libyan Revolution. Ironically, rather than going to Libya to begin his project, Mattingly, along with other archaeologists working in Libya, helped instead to compile for NATO a list, with coordinates, of important archaeological sites and museums in Libya, to be placed in all targeting information systems so that the sites might be avoided during military operations. The data of the Fazzān Project were an important contribution to this effort during the Libyan Revolution.

The optimistic words in the preface and acknowledgements to this volume—“Following the dramatic events of the Arab Spring in 2011, this book heralds a fresh start for Libya's heritage” (p. xxvii)—may sadly not be realised for some time. The post-revolutionary period has brought chaos and near state collapse to Libya, not the anticipated peace that was hoped for. Today, the country faces more significant threats—and actual damage—to its heritage sites due to unmanaged, unregulated development and continued civil disorder than was the case during the turmoil of the revolution. It may not be possible for the Trans-Sahara Project to begin its work in Libya for some time to come. Yet the model of research and publication represented by this volume, a cooperative effort between British academic institutions, Libyan government agencies and commercial industry is one that needs to be repeated again in the future, as soon as the situation on the ground allows, for the benefit of all parties. In the meantime, the evidence presented in this volume provides important documentation of what is fast disappearing in Libya.