| Back	Geoarchaeology | Prehistoric Archaeology | Rock Art | Historic Archaeology | Archaeobotany

Historic Archaeology

The Garamantian Period

Aghram Nadharif

A fortified citadel has been discovered in the Barkat oasis, a few kilometres south of Ghat, with the Berber name of Aghram Nadharif (Fig. 1); excavation activities were concentrated on this site between 1997 and 2001. These five archaeological campaigns uncovered the topographical layout of a settlement measuring 140 x 50 m, with walls built in the local sandstone on a rocky spur in an area where the wadi Tanezufft narrows, strategically important to control the passage of caravans (Fig. 2). The settlement is surrounded by a massive wall of irregular shape, around 2 m thick, with four guard towers protecting access points to the site. Access ramps lead to two town gates placed at the northern and southern limits of the eastern side of the citadel; this side overlooks the wadi, and the rocky substratum is higher (Fig. 3). Two further entrances open up at around the mid-point of the eastern and western walls, the latter facing the oasis. The settlement is a labyrinth of narrow lanes leading to housing units of more or less regular ground plan: two adjacent and intercommunicating rectangular rooms, with dimensions ranging between a minimum of ca. 3.50 x 4 m, to a maximum of ca. 5.50 x 5 m for the largest house excavated so far. The interior space of these domestic units is characterized by the presence of circular pits, generally cut into the rocky floor and plastered, and small chambers built in mud brick and slabs of sandstone leaning against the walls of the rooms, and used to store foodstuffs (Fig. 4).

Fig. 1 - The ruins of the Garamantian citadel of Aghram Nadharif Fig. 2 - 3D reconstruction of the Aghram Nadharif citadel Fig. 3 - Plan of the northeastern access ramp to Aghram Nadharif

Top Page

Fig. 4 - The housing units AN9-AN13

The gradual abandonment of the site, which shows no signs of violent destruction, nor of fire, and the continuous use of these stone structures as shelters, has led to the rooms and the pits being emptied, and complicated the stratigraphy of these chambers.
These have nevertheless yielded a large quantity of pottery dating to the Garamantian age, forming an important basis for the typological classification of this type of materials in the area during this historical period.

Carbon-14 dating and the analysis of archaeological finds, have allowed the structure to be dated to the 1st-4th centuries AD, in the late Garamantian period when commercial contacts between the Mediterranean coast and the desert hinterland are also documented by classical epigraphical sources.

Alongside locally produced pottery, we have found fragments of Roman pottery, especially oil amphorae of the type Tripolitania 1 and/or 3 and fragments of oil lamps, and pottery with incised or painted decorations, also imported, but originating from southern or southeastern areas, testifying to the site’s important role as a commercial crossroads.

On the opposite bank of the wadi, a vast necropolis belonging to the town stretches southwards; this will form the object of a topographical and archaeological investigation during future excavation campaigns. Most of the tombs are of typically Garamantian type (of “drum” shape); although the tombs were mostly emptied during the 1940s, during a French archaeological mission in the Fezzan, a new investigation will allow us to study construction types and ritual typologies.

Top Page

| Back	Geoarchaeology | Prehistoric Archaeology | Rock Art | Historic Archaeology | Archaeobotany

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