Three seasons of intensive survey in the central Tripolitanian pre-desert, primarily in the regions of the Wadis Sofeggin and Zem Zem, have provided a new basis for the study of pre-desert cultures. Not only have hundreds of new sites been discovered, but the combination of environmental and geomorphological studies with archaeological survey is now providing important information about the underlying mechanisms which supported them. An increasing settlement density and social complexity can be identified in the Romano–Libyan period together with the development of intensive farming and elaborate irrigation systems. There is little evidence for significant climatic change to account for this increased settlement intensity or for its subsequent decline. The explanation for this must probably be sought in a complex relationship between social organisation, population change, and the agricultural system, and its impact on the environment.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the agricultural potential for a selected area in the northeast of Libya. The area is Wadi Derna which lies in the eastern slope of Jabel El Akhdar. The agricultural project is a multi-purpose scheme involving several inter-linked aims. The main ambition is to increase the total percentage of land under crops and to do this by replacing shifting cultivation by settled farming under irrigation.

A modified Penman formula was used to calculate the potential evaporation and the deficit of water in the area and to suggest the need for supplementary irrigation.

In the period 1980 to 1982 the Libyan authorities began planning for the economic and social development of the country to the year 2000. This article examines the special factors that influenced the formulation of the Sabha regional plan. Particular attention is focussed on the background for oil exports and income and the impact this had on official attitudes to economic planning in Libya. The various options proposed for the Sabha regional plan are examined together with their implications for agriculture, which was used in the plan as the sector into which all other developments were tied to give an integrated and truely regional plan for change.

The name of the Libyan god Gurzil has been discovered in a neo-Punic inscription found in Tripoli in the last century. The importance of this new evidence for the religion of the ancient Libyans is discussed.

Extensive British excavations were carried out at Sabratha in 1948–51 under the joint direction of John Ward-Perkins and Kathleen Kenyon. No definitive report on the work done has since been published, and following the deaths of both directors this task has now been assigned to the writer. An interim account is given of the excavations which took place, drawing particular attention to the evidence for the development of the town as a whole, and of the forum area in particular. It is hoped that the surviving documentation will enable the completion of a substantial report.

The paper presents the results of an examination of two Roman kiln sites located by the late R. G. Goodchild, at Tazzoli and Ain Scersciara in the Gebel. They produced amphorae of forms Tripolitana I-III together with coarse wares and tiles. The material is described and illustrated, and the fabrics are examined petrologically as a guide to identification.

A reappraisal of the Roman period ruins at Ain Wif has been made following the identification there of traces of defensive walls. These walls are interpreted as being the robbed-out remains of a Roman fortlet and possibly also a tort on the same site. Two phases of military occupation were also evident in modern drain trenches being cut across the site and are attested epigraphically for the military bath-house by the spring. Ceramic evidence from the site suggests that the initial phase lies within the second century, whilst the Severan occupation, known from an inscription to begin early in the third century, represents a second phase. The previous view of the site as an undefended road-station, with a military presence only under the Severan emperors is no longer tenable. Moreover, the new evidence indicates that there was some measure of military organisation in the hinterland of the Emporia prior to the accession of Septimius Severus at the very end of the second century AD. The importance of the site also lies in its large civilian and indigenous population who continued to occupy the site long after the military had departed.

A conch shell fragment from a colourless glass fishbeaker was found during excavations at the Garamantian site of Saniat Gebril in the Wadi el-Agial, Fezzan. Fishbeakers are blown vessels with separately made sea creatures added in rows to the external surface. Complete examples of such vessels come from Rome, Cologne and Trier, with fragments from the Lebanon, Egypt, Italy and ? Spain. A diatretum beaker from southern Hungary is decorated with similar marine creatures. When dated the beakers are ascribed to the fourth century AD. It seems likely that the fishbeaker originated in the eastern Mediterranean area and may be associated with some pagan cults, and Christianity for whom the fish was a popular image. Early Christianity flourished in Antioch and Alexandria, both cities in areas associated with glass making. Egypt is the most likely source for the Fezzan beaker. Not the only Roman luxury glass found in the area, it is however notable that such a sumptious and no doubt expensive vessel should be found in a relatively isolated, and desert part of the Roman world.

A provisional typology for the Islamic glazed and domestic pottery from the excavations of the Fatimid mosque at Ajdabiyah is presented. The bulk of this pottery is likely to belong to the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. In addition, attention is drawn to the results of a programme of petrological analysis of the fabrics. Functional and typological variation was found to relate to fabric variation.

A list of 57 theses on Libyan topics successfully presented to British Universities from 1960–1981 is presented as a guide to the range and scope of research in this area.