Study of borehole data in the foothill region of the Jabal Nafusah shows that the Suq al Jum'ah palaeowadi, which cuts the jabal east of Gharyan, comprised a major drainage channel which extended in the subsurface far out from the jabal into the southern part of the Jifarah Plain. The channel is filled with sands and gravels. Basalt lava flows, channelled along the valley in outcrop for 36 km, extend for a further 48 km in the subsurface. The palaeowadi was possibly initiated in the Pliocene and appears to have been completely filled and abandoned by the end of the Pleistocene. During Holocene rejuvenation of the drainage system, the Wadi al Majanin developed as the major wadi in the region. It did not, however, excavate the palaeowadi but instead followed a different but roughly parallel northward trend.

The classification/chronology system which Mori put forward in 1965 for the rock-drawing sequence of the Acacus mountains has not since then been modified. It now needs re-examination, taking into account the recently acquired archaeological, palaeoclimatological and archaeozoological data and also the rock-drawing sequence of the Tassili. Indeed, several schools are found in both massifs. Firstly, this article summarises the archaeological results from recent excavations, mainly from Ti-n-Torha; the 14C dates relevant to rock-pictures are set within their context and evaluated. Secondly, a new classification/chronology system is proposed, which matches the data provided by the other disciplines and the Tassilian sequence. Only some of Mori's initial units have been kept. Among the Acacus engravings, some have slight traits belonging to the ‘Naturalistic Bubaline’. Other engravings are considered unclassifiable. As for the paintings, the Round Heads are represented by their final phases only. A ‘Uan Amil Herders’ group corresponds to the ‘Final Bovidian’, not to the Early Bovidian. Finally the ‘Ti-n-Anneuin Herders’ group is the most strongly represented in the Tassili as well as in the Acacus mountains. It is contemporary with the Horse Period. Some sets of paintings also appear as unclassifiable. Whether the Garamantes are to be linked with the most recent schools remains questionable.

This report presents the preliminary results of the final season of the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey, that took place in October 1989. The fieldwork was divided in two parts. The first part of the work concentrated on the settlements in the Wadi Buzra, a northern tributary of the Wadi Sofeggin, especially at Souk el Awty. The major monument here consists of a substantial church (published elsewhere by D. A. Welsby in this volume), which was investigated by architectural survey and limited excavation, as were the surrounding late Romano-Libyan farms. The modern name of the settlement suggests that it may have been an important centre in Islamic as well as the Romano-Libyan periods, but the excavation did not obtain conclusive chronological evidence. The second part of the fieldwork was in the Wadi Umm el-Kharab, a southern tributary of the Sofeggin. Here, the team carried out a detailed study of a series of fortified farms of the later Romano-Libyan period, to compare with the open farm of the earlier Romano-Libyan period in Wadi el Amud previously studied by the project. An analysis of the constructional details of the major farms was integrated with excavations to recover stratified dating evidence from within the farms and faunal and botanical evidence from associated middens, and with a survey of the water-control systems of walls down the length of the wadi. The study indicates that the wadi was settled by people living in open farms and nucleated settlements in the first four centuries AD, but that by the fifth and sixth centuries AD these were replaced by fortified farms. There is evidence that the occupants of the fortified farms cultivated the wadi within an integrated economic system characterised by centralised food storage, rather than as independent units.

This article reports on the work carried out by the UNESCO Libyan Valleys project in 1989 within the church at Souk el Awty in the Wadi Buzra. It includes a detailed analysis of the upstanding structure of the building together with the results of the trial excavations conducted within it. The place of the Souk el Awty church amongst the other churches in the pre-desert and on the coast is discussed, and dates suggested for its initial construction and subsequent modification when an eastern apse was inserted into the nave. The suggestion by some scholars that this eastern apse was the mihrab of a mosque is dismissed.

The author discusses a gold dinar, found at Cyrene, of the Caliph al-Waleed bin Abd el-Malik, and its place within the Umayyad reformed coinage.

This article presents some sherds of glazed, medieval pottery which were found on the surface at Tolmeita in the vicinity of the Headquarters of the Dux. This pottery suggests a period of occupation at Tolmeita from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries AD. There is a brief discussion of the possible role of Tolmeita as a port for Barqa's trade. Yakubi, al-Idrisi and Abu al-Fida are quoted as they all mention Tolmeita by name.

Trench 330. Below recent structures the remains of two (possibly related) complexes of buildings were uncovered. Building I was a sunken, probably rectangular, courtyard bounded by a colonnade. Building II was mud brick. Seven major phases were identified. Pottery suggests a terminus post quem in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries AD.

Trench 340. Below very recent features was a brick barrack block, which probably dates to the 1930s. Below this was a building constructed on mud brick, of at least two principal phases, probably of similar date to Buildings I and II in Trench 330.

The Finds. Twenty-three coins were recovered. Two are probably comparatively early in date (Abbasid or Fatimid). Considerable quantities of pottery were recovered (see Appendices I and II). Other finds of note were a glass weight, probably of Fatimid date, and a small head carved in bone.