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Ethnoarchaeology and Ethnohistory have traditionally been part of the Mission’s activities. More recently, during the Nineties, ethnoarchaeological attention has been focussed on the formative processes of the archaeological record and on the identification and visibility of pastoral sites.
Since 2005 some ethnographic and ethnohistorical data collected during 2003 and 2004 campaigns have began to be systematically evaluated, becoming thus organic and active component of the Mission. Both disciplines may be thus considered as the expected outcome of the long lasting tradition of the Italian archaeological research in the Fezzan.
Beside the area’s undoubted
scientific interest, the current situation (>tutela e salvaguardia)
necessitates that a broader role be played by archaeologists working
in the Acacus Mts. Shifting our attention to the present (sensu lato)
may contribute to the melding of local and general knowledge and rise
the awareness about the cultural mileu and the natural environment.
This branch of research can be subsumed within the category of anthropological studies devoted to supply ethnographic material for analogy in archaeological field. Following Kramer’s (1996) definition, Ethnoarchaeology is to be regarded as “ethnographic fieldwork carried out with the express purpose of enhancing archaeological research by documenting aspects of sociocultural behaviour likely to leave identifiable residues in the archaeological record”. In a broader sense, Ethnoarchaeology can play a determining role in understanding the relationships between humans, resources and environment, and the shape that these assume in space. |
Some dry season campsites 
Animal management in the campsite |
After more than fifty years of researches devoted to the past of the area the activities of the Mission deals with the study of the people currently living in the area of the Acacus Mts. A key concern of the project is to pinpoint major traits of Kel Tadrart herdsmen - a contemporary Tuareg pastoral community of the Tadrart Acacus - in order to provide a coherent model which will serve as a source of comparison for archaeological research on past herder societies. It is noteworthy that the area under study is nowadays hyperarid, with very low annual (> 30mm) average rainfall. Fieldwork has already established a preliminary quantification of Kel Tadrart presence in the area, which adds up to less then ten families, each one composed by five individuals on average. They own sheep, goats and, more rarely camels, and have access to the market located in the neighbouring towns of Ghat and Al Awainat. Tourism represents an increasing source of income, but animal husbandry is still the major task for those who reside along the Acacus valleys. Some of their main camps used during dry season have already been located and mapped, outlining several differences in site location, architecture, structures arrangement and others. Such unevenness raises some issues concerning variability in choices performed inside of the same community, susceptible to be explored from their own perspective, juxtaposed to the researcher’s one. Major aims of the project are to: |
General view of a dry season campsite
Dwelling structure made of plant material |
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A valuable and often neglect source for archaeology is Ethnohistory. This discipline deals with ethnographic and historical records, and its methods includes the use of oral and written sources, as well of music, ecology, ethnographic museum collections, etc. A few sparse notes are to be found in the literature about the Acacus Mountains from the Twenties and Thirties, these offer some insight into the demography and general characteristics of the Fezzan during the colonial period. Investigating the recent past (that is, up to some generations ago) can help in taking into account people's own sense of how events are constituted, and their ways of culturally constructing the past. The ProjectBeside the collection of information through interviews and the limited written sources, this segment of research deals also with the archaeology of recent past. Tangible evidences of sub-contemporary human activities constitute the material correlate to the oral and scarce written sources telling about the last decades of the area. Corrals, pens, remains of dwellings, saddles, tanks, traps for wild animals, and various items are to be found in the shelters and caves of the Acacus Mts. Local people are generally able to recognize and remember the “owner” or the “user” of several of those facilities. Along some valleys those evidences have been mapped, recording the intensity of human frequentation. Major aims of the project are:
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Abandoned campsite
Abandoned per for young livestock
Elements of traps used |
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Italian-Libyan Archaeological Mission in the Acacus and
Messak - Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"
Via Palestro 63, 00185 Rome - Italy | Tel/Fax: [+39] 06.4467661 E-mail:
info@acacus.it
Images protected: © Archivio Missione Italiana
nell'Acacus e Messak Università di Roma La Sapienza
