The Latest Research in the Jebel Gharbi (Northern Libya): Environment and Cultures from MSA to LSA and the First Neolithic Findings

The Italian-Libyan Archaeological Project was launched in the early 1990s with the aim of investigating the development of human occupation in the region. Particular emphasis was given to the Final Pleistocene and Early Holocene phases in order to study the transition from late hunter-gatherer societies to the earliest food-production experiments. At the beginning of our research, only limited information was available for the region. The main discoveries were the results of Charles McBurney's work, the co-author together with R.W. Hey) of the first geomorphological outline of Wadi Ghan.1 The current multidisciplinary project is based on a collaboration between archaeologists and geomorphologists to reconstruct sedimentary and anthropic sequences and study their relative interrelations. The research has been based on a territorial approach and was carried out along the Ghan and Ain Zargha wadis which are the two main water courses and also the strategic communication routes within the jebel. Fieldwork included surveying, the systematic collection of lithic assemblages and the stratigraphic excavation of test pits at sample sites. Georeferenced satellite images were essential tools for locating newly detected sites, while the application of radiometric dating techniques (C14, U/Th and OSL in particular) provided the first absolute datings for this area. During recent missions, research also looked at the most recent deposits that developed after the arid phase corresponding to the younger Dryas (after 10,000 bp). These aspects were initially investigated in the Shakshuk area and then in the area next to it, in the Wadi Basina and Josh area, which are all located in front of the Jefara plain, continuing west to Nalut. The Wadi Basina sites seem related to pastoral movements between the plain and grazing up on the plateau; both rock art and tumuli in the Nalut area can be attributed to pastoral groups. Despite the importance of this evidence, for the moment they are isolated features and need to be placed within a more precise chrono-cultural context. In fact, the Neolithic context of northern Libya needs to be more accurately defined in order to evaluate its relationships with southern Libya as well, which belonged to the cycle of Saharan cultures. This most recent research phase has also included a sampling programme in the areas that were a source of the raw materials used in MSA and LSA industries, which has prompted many useful considerations on the ways the area was used by prehistoric societies. Some of the results of this programme are presented in Giuseppina Mutri's section below.