The methodology of an on-going study of the desert grass, Panicum Turgidum Forsk, at Wadi Zigzah, near Brack, is described. The emphasis is on making an integrated study of the grass to establish its role in the local ecosystem.

In 1881 the Italian explorer Giuseppe Haimann and his wife made a two-month journey through the Gebel Akhdar from Benghazi to Derna, travelling under the auspices of the Società d'Esplorazione Commerciale of Milan and Haimann's report first appeared in the Bollettino della Società Geografica in 1882. Haimann's sober assessment of Cyrenaica's potential contrasts favourably with the later accounts of Italian journalists and other visitors who in the early twentieth century had their own reasons for presenting Turkish North Africa to the Italian public as a veritable Paese di Bengodi – a Land of Cockaigne. But 30 years before the Italian intervention of 1911, Haimann had come to the conclusion that Cyrenaica – ‘in ancient times so civilised and prosperous’ – might be restored to new life if agriculture, industry and commerce ‘were to be given an effective impulse’.

One of the problems faced by archaeologists engaged in field surveys is the need to gain an overall view of a study area together with data on the character of its terrain. Air-photographs have for 50 years or more provided a valuable source of such data but they are often difficult to obtain or too expensive to commission. Satellite imagery has since the early 1970s been available and it is suggested that such imagery together with well tried methods of terrain analysis and land evaluation could provide the basis of economical strategies for archaeological surveys. It is also demonstrated that such an approach can help in predicting the level of settlement in different types of terrain.

This paper describes material recovered over the last few years from sites at Marsa Gezirah, near Misurata, in an attempt to assess their nature. Site A, which has recently suffered severe damage, appears of particular importance as a small port on the edge of the Sebkha, with evidence of brisk commercial activity for the last two centuries BC.

The sedimentological properties of samples collected from exposures in wadi floors are reported. These studies emphasise the natural variability of erosional and depositional processes in this environment. Some of the sedimentological changes observed appear to be of archaeological significance. They indicate that in the recent geological past, either increased flooding occurring as a result of natural environmental fluctuations, or irrigation practice, has caused the elevation of saline groundwaters in the wadi floor sediments to levels which might have had deleterious effects on the contemporary agricultural system. Sites at the margins of the wadis are more sensitive to such changes than those more centrally located on the wadi floor. No evidence for significant climatic change at the times of the extensive Romano-Libyan occupation of the pre-desert region has been detected. There is, however, evidence of much wetter periods in the more distant past, which have left a legacy of mature soils on the basalt plateaus, which may have been extensively used in the Romano-Libyan period.

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.