Lost Cities of the Sahara

University of Leicester ^ | July 26, 2000 | Barbara Whiteman

[SunkenCiv]

...the Garamantes - a mysterious desert people of Greco-Roman date (broadly 500 BC AD 500)... Inhabiting a region that had already been for several thousand years a hyper-arid desert environment, with negligible rainfall, elevated summer temperatures and blistering expanses of barren sand and rock... have long been an enigma. They were depicted by Roman sources as ungovernable nomadic barbarians, who raided the settled agricultural zone and cities of the Mediterranean littoral. Following up earlier work by Daniels, the current project allows a different picture of the Garamantes to be drawn. Archaeological evidence shows them to have been a complex and urbanised society, with a strong emphasis on oasis agriculture a picture far removed from the shiftless nomads of our ancient sources...

With over 500 Garamantian sites now recorded, and many susceptible to dating for the first time, a reappraisal of this early Libyan state can be made on the basis of concrete evidence. The picture that emerges is of a powerful Saharan polity, employing a wide range of material culture and architectural styles to reinforce a pronounced social hierarchy. Faunal analysis shows that there were animals in the diet, notably sheep/goat, but it is clear that pastoralism lagged far behind sedentary agriculture in this desert kingdom... the very scale of Garamantian irrigated agriculture may have had a long-term impact on the aquifer they were tapping into... by the later middle ages all the foggaras appear to have been abandoned in favour of small-scale garden cultivation based on wells.

[SunkenCiv]

This reminds me of the Loulan fabrics, western China, much older than this though:

2000-year old textile produced by the Garamantes people of the Libyan Central Sahara.

[SunkenCiv]

The Tassili n’Ajjer [Algeria] : birthplace of ancient Egypt ?
Journal 3 | 04-05-08 | Phillip Coppens
Posted on 04/05/2008 4:08:59 PM PDT by Renfield
8 posted on 04/06/2008 5:15:41 PM PDT by Fred Nerks
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1997350/posts?page=8#8

Ancient lakes of the Sahara
Innovations Report | Jan 19, 2006 | University of Reading
Posted on 01/21/2006 4:14:03 AM PST by Tyche
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1562135/posts

[thecodont]

Very pretty fabric!

[SunkenCiv]

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[GeronL]

Sounds like they had to regress because the acquifer ran dry. Wait, the climate was changing back then too?? How is that possible?? Aren’t we always being told that only modern human industries can do that??

[SunkenCiv]

They liked colorful stuff, definitely, at least as much as we do. Here's something I spotted reprised in the Oct issue of BAR, originally in the 2008 issue, an article about Afghanistan:

[GeronL]

Was the Sahara a green and jungle-like place back then?

[SunkenCiv]

Modern (such as it is) Libya has been building a mother of a water conduit to tap desert aquifers for coastal use. Yeah, that’ll work. No point in learning from the experiences of people for the Time of Ignorance.

[GeronL]

Interesting... don’t think I have seen reference to clear glass back much in those days.

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, forgot to ping.

[GeronL]

Why couldn’t “modern” Libya just desalinate ocean water using their oil for the energy? Or even a large solar desalination plant like a superlarge greenhouse?

[JoeProBono]

B-24 Bomber Lady Be Good. This aircraft was discovered in the Libyan Desert 16 years after it lost its way back from a World War II mission to bomb Naples, Italy on 4 April 1943. The plane was found in 1959 by an oil exploration team, miraculously preserved by the desert environment. The next year the bodies of eight of the nine crew members were recovered by Quartermaster Graves Registration personnel.

[SunkenCiv]

Clear glass used to be placed in ancient Syria (Aram), but it really came into its own during the Roman Empire. Sez here on the wiki-wacky that Roman glassmaking was centered on Trier, in Germany. Anyway, regardless, if you’re ever near this, go to it:

http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=1674

[GeronL]

thanks

[SunkenCiv]

It would seem like a natural in any country with a lot of waste ground, lots of sun, and access to the sea. It would require a water to water heat exchange system so that the more briny solution that has been giving off evaporation in the heat could be freshened with less briny solution from the sea. It could run off photovoltaics and windmills (not necessarily wind-generated electricity), but fairly low-maintenance, be very low cost, and the condensation process could take place up a hill in a buried tank (actually a series of them) with no vent. It would be extravagant in size for the amount of freshwater made, but cheap as all get-out.

[SunkenCiv]

That’s interesting, I never knew that any of the crew was found. Thanks JPB.

[thecodont]

Clear glass used to be placed in ancient Syria (Aram), but it really came into its own during the Roman Empire.

Does the Italian surname Vetro mean "glassmaker"?

[GeronL]

Oh... good ideas.

definitely not for the desert islands unless they have a compact way of doing it.

[GeronL]

Probably where in-vitro came from too.... they made glass and their italians.... come on...

[Inyo-Mono]

Bttt.