A small Christian monument of centralised plan built against the West Wall of Apollonia was excavated and slightly restored by the Libyan Department of Antiquities under the directorship of the late Professor Goodchild during the sixties. In 1967 the present writer, then architect to the Michigan Apollonia Expedition, was commissioned to make a set of drawings of the monument as a basis for its publication by Professor Goodchild to appear in the Michigan Report. Professor Goodchild's untimely death in 1968 nullified the project and eventually in its stead only a cursory notice of the monument appeared. The substantive treatment of the monument, utilising the prepared set of drawings, was reserved for the long laboured Corpus of Christian Antiquities of Cyrenaica. Unfortunately in turn this design was frustrated by the death of Professor Ward Perkins in 1986 so that the detailed drawings of the monument remained unpublished for 25 years. In 1991 old prints of the drawings were recovered and are published here with a commentary.

This small square monument with a dome on four pillars giving a rudimentary cross-in-square plan is of late sixth century date. It is clearly sepulchral, whether it be a simple tomb or a martyrion. Thus in spite of its provincial guise it is of interest and significance (together with the Church at Qasr el Lebia) in the long vexed question of the origins of the ecumenical Byzantine cross-in-square plan.

The critical criteria for regional agricultural development are water and heat. The Jebel el Akhdar region has a semi-arid climate with a marked water shortage except in the winter months. In this paper estimates are made of the runoff which offsets the dry spring and summer and of the storage in the aquifers.

The water level records in such regions as El Marj confirm gradual and regular lowering of the water level in the main aquifer. The associated rise of the salt water/fresh water interface is alarming. Great attention must be paid to variation of such storage reservoirs. This situation in the El Marj area is relatively stable compared with other regions of Libya, reflecting the limited demand and relative storage, particularly when water is utilised from the El Gharigh flood.

The imbalance in the hydrological basin needs more care in its management and use.

Silphium is the source of Cyrene's wealth. It is possible that the first colonists who landed in Cyrenaica realized the many qualities of the plant and decided at once to take advantage of it. Maybe, the Minoans knew about it too, as Sir Arthur Evans found some inscribed tablets from Cnossos with symbols very like those represented on later Cyrenaican coins.

Silphium is represented on coins possibly as the symbol of Cyrenaica and a branch of silphium is also shown held by a female divinity in clay statuettes. A rare coin shows a female figure sitting on a high stool, holding out her arms towards a plant of silphium. I think that she is not a goddess, but Cyrene itself, guardian of silphium and of the land where silphium grows and I suggest that a limestone head found in Lamluda could belong to a statue of the same type.

After the archaic period, there are many legends related to silphium and also to Aristaeus who is said to have discovered the plant. After the royal period, the symbol of silphium loses its first position on coins and is nearly forgotten in art, but in the 2nd century AD it appears again in two groups of capitals, one in Beida and one in Cyrene. It is a sort of deliberate revival of the old legends and old iconographies that wants to confirm and demonstrate that the great political power of Cyrene (due to silphium) has returned even if the plant of silphium itself has become very rare.

This paper describes an integrated series of sedimentological and palynological studies of the arenaceous deposits which infill the large alluvial basin of Grerat D'nar Salem, which is located on a limestone plateau in the semi-arid pre-desert of Tripolitania north-west of the town of Beni Ulid. This research shows that in the early and middle Holocene this depression was occupied by a large semi-permanent or permanent water body which was surrounded by a grass-steppe vegetation with some tree and shrub species, perhaps growing in wetter stream- and wadi-beds. Sometime in the mid-Holocene the region became much more arid, the lake disappeared, matching the pattern of environmental change observed elsewhere in northern Africa. The geomor-phic environment became dominated by aeolian processes, interrupted by occasional winter floods, in a landscape dominated by grass steppe — essentially the situation that has continued to the present day. It is clear from general biogeographical and geomorphic considerations that Romano-Libyan floodwater farming in the region must have brought about significant changes in the character of wadi floors. Field survey indicates that it has also left a legacy in the contemporary distribution of plants, animals and runoff in the modern landscape. Nevertheless, no clear evidence has emerged from this study that the widespread and intensive flood-water farming, evidenced by the archaeological remains in the area, was associated with either a climate or a landscape notably different from that of today. The new palynological evidence suggests that the nature of the related ancient cultivation at Grerat is better viewed as a monoculture, rather than the mixed farming deduced previously for wadi-floor areas. There is no evidence that any naturally-occurring environmental change was associated with the introduction or loss of floodwater farming in the region. There is some sedimentological evidence that such activity might have led to problems of soil salinity in this basin.

The limestone relief, discovered near the motel in New Shahat in 1984, is one of a group of votive reliefs of the later Hellenistic period (2nd-1st centuries BC). The group, from various Libyan sites, depict Libyan sanctuaries, and are of especial interest in reflecting the close relationship between the Greek and native populations of Cyrenaica. The new find is unusual in devoting a large space to two pastoral scenes. They represent an aspect of the cult of a deity, probably Demeter, who was believed to bestow the Libyan people with meat, milk, hair, wool and other products. With these earthly goods Demeter brought the promise of fertility. Women feature prominently in the relief, as in her cult.

The Qarabulli Member of the Jifarah Formation in Wadi ar Raml comprises a thin sequence of chalks, chalky silts and carbon-rich silts draped over a dune-shaped top surface to the Karawah Member. The carbon-rich layers contain rootlets and are interpreted as marsh deposits. The chalks display thickening in the lows and thinning on the highs and yield a mollusc fauna indicative of deposition in semi-permanent, freshwater ponds. Correlation shows that basal beds in the lows are older than those on the highs confirming that the member was deposited on a pre-existing dune-shaped surface. Internal sedimentary structures in the Karawah Member sands suggest that they, and hence the dune-shape, are aeolian in origin. Drowning of the dunes was gradual, initially flooding the lowest troughs and eventually lapping over the crests. Conditions fluctuated between lacustrine and marsh before final inundation resulted in deposition of chalk over the whole section. Destruction of lamination in the underlying aeolian sands of the Karawah Member indicates that the ponds were sourced by upward movement of ground water.

Trench 330, begun in 1990, was extended. The earlier phases of building II were examined and in two places what is thought to be the bottom of the sequence has been found. A further area of building I was exposed. It is now thought likely that building I wholly post-dates building II and general considerations suggest that the whole sequence should be accommodated within the Ottoman Turkish period. Below the sequence a thick layer of possibly natural clay was discovered, which has interesting implications for the location of earlier settlement.

Drawings made in 1958 of the Beida Sanctuary peristyle afford a basis for comment on characteristic architectural developments in Cyrenaica, seen as part of the Oriental Hellenistic world.

Since this complex is dated epigraphically to Hadrianic times it offers information on the chronological compass of forms and motifs which are well established at a much earlier period (3rd century BC). Notable features are the mixing of elements from different orders and the use of the cordiform angle pier often in association with the Rhodian-type peristyle.

The emergence of these devices can be seen in the Apollo Temple at Bassae, and they are subsequently formalised in the so-called Argolid School. This style was spread about the Hellenised Orient in the wake of Alexander's conquests. It can be seen particularly in Ptolemaic Alexandria, but owing to the destruction of almost all the free-standing building at Alexandria the bulk of the evidence comes from the Ptolemaic provinces, notably Cyrenaica, Cyprus and Southern Palestine/Arabia.

The details of the Balagrae peristyle also show the retention of some old established Cyrenaican regional manners (Doric Capital with moulded abacus, simplified Ionic Capital, etc) and the complete absence of any specifically Roman innovations either of design or construction.

During the final field season of the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey a detailed examination of the eight gsur in the Wadi Umm el Kharab was undertaken and is reported upon in this article. The work involved an architectural survey of the buildings, with accurate plans being made of two of them and measured sketches made of the others. Small scale excavations were undertaken in two of the gsur and the associated settlements were investigated. The study highlighted the diversity in design and construction of the buildings, three major types being noted. The chronological and social implications of this diversity are discussed. The possible functions of the gsur and of the individual rooms within them are considered, but much more work is required before the relationship of the gsur and the settlements which exist immediately adjacent to them can be discussed in a meaningful way.