A fourth season of work was carried out in the Spring of 1984. The centrepiece of the programme was the investigation of the well-preserved farm in the Wadi el-Amud (Lamout). The main farm buildings were excavated, faunal and botanical samples were collected systematically from within and between them, the field systems and sluices were examined in detail and investigations begun on the geomorphological and hydrological context. This report presents the basic description of the archaeological data resulting from excavation and survey; a second report will present the results of the various laboratory studies which were generated by the field work.

Interpretations of ancient wall-technologies in the Libyan pre-desert are briefly reviewed. The forms, patterns, distributions and geological/geomorphic/hydrologic relationships of walls in a series of study areas are described and interpreted with the aid of a new, non-genetic, ‘wall-technology’ classification. The remarkable hydrological and geomorphic insights of their constructors are clear. Several wall types are shown to have been primarily concerned with functions other than water control, although this aspect is usually dominant. In some cases the location of the walls appears to have been likely to exacerbate the perennial problems of soil erosion and gullying, in others walls appear to have been constructed specifically to control soil erosion. These data have implications for reconstructing past land use and evaluating the degree of success or failure experienced in particular situations.

Digital image data from the Landsat satellite Multispectral scanner have been analysed using a Dipex Image Processor. The image data were classified by a clustering algorithm to produce a thematic map for trial use in areas of archaeological interest. The archaeological, pedological, geomorphic and geological importance of these new data are discussed in the context of ground data obtained during the UNESCO April 1984 field season.

This is a summary of a paper given to members and guests of the Society of Libyan Studies in London on 6th June 1984. The authors use the technique of stable isotope analysis of carbon and oxygen in samples of marble taken from carefully selected monuments in Lepcis Magna to compare statue types and architectural decoration. Controversial views on the origins of the sculptors working at Lepcis Magna are also examined in the light of this method.

Nine Latino-Punic inscriptions from Roman Tripolitania are discussed in detail, and their wider context discussed. Not only do they attest to the prevalence of the Punic language in Roman Tripolitania, but also provide interesting data about the Neo-Punic language. They also shed light on the history of the ancient Roman province of Tripolitania and the Roman military and civil organisation in the zone of the ‘limes’.

A summary account of the Byzantine bath-house at Tocra is given. Goodchild excavated this well-preserved structure in the 1960s, but died before producing a published account. Although the evidence of some late features had been removed then, a structural analysis of the building is still possible, showing three main periods of construction and use probably extending into the early Islamic period.

The creation of the Libyan-Tunisian border through the Jafara plain, in the wake of the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881, was to be codified in a formal treaty in 1910, just before the Italian occupation of Libya and the outbreak of the Italo-Libyan wars. However, the border, as then defined, had little to do with any prior social, political or economic reality – Muslim political theory is more concerned with communal sovereignty than with territorial control, while the Jafara plain had always been a region of local political autonomy. In reality, it represented the complex attempts by local military commanders, with the full support of the French administration in Tunis, to maximise French territorial control at the expense of the Turkish administration in Tripoli. The abandoned village of Dahibat, at the foot of the Jabal Nafusa, provided an ideal means of applying such control, particularly as the original population was anxious to return and the French were able to use their anxiety as a means of applying concepts of territorial sovereignty to the Jafara. However, in creating a rigid territorial division, the French authorities also created the grounds for resistance at a local level that eventually expressed itself first through the First World War jihad movement in the Jafara and later formed part of the Tunisian independence movement.

The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea will shape worldwide maritime management and offshore jurisdiction for generations to come. Libya will gain substantially from the new convention notably in respect of a 12 nautical mile territorial waters, and the acquisition of one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the Mediterranean. The known resources of this zone are not abundant, though some useful oilfields have been found. Several of Libya's offshore boundaries remain to be fixed, and Libya's claim to the Gulf of Surt as ‘historic waters’ creates some uncertainty. An upsurge in Libyan offshore activity, including conservation activities, is likely in the future.

Vertical, tubular borings, either simple or subdivided into cells by horizontal, spirally ornamented partitions of cemented fine silt, are common in the uppermost part of Unit Q3 of the Quaternary floodplain deposits in the eastern part of the Jeffara Plain. The structures display many features similar to those found in nests constructed by tube-dwelling, solitary wasps and bees. The size of the cells, the spiral construction of the partitions and the general architecture of the cells is closely comparable to the nest structure of the large carpenter bee Xylocopa virginica krombeini Hurd., and it is suggested that the Quarternary nests were constructed by a bee of Xylocopid type.

The problems of how to define small urban centres are considered and different criteria are assessed (size, function, status, etc). The evidence derived from Libyan censuses is examined and a classification of urban centres in Libya is proposed.

This inscription was found over the door of wadi el-Bir near Shemech (Wadi Soffegin) and is now in Lepcis Museum. It consists of three lines and it reads:

The inscription has been treated previously by Goodchild (1950, 137), Sznycer (1965, 100–101), Vattioni (1966, 45–46; 1976, 550–555), Levi della Vida (1967, 263), Krahmalkov (1973, 61–64), Polselli (1976, 237–238) and Elmayer (1983, 90–91).

A suggested translation is as follows:

Libya's further economic development depends on the careful use of its coastal aquifers and the economic exploitation of the substantial but remote groundwater resources of the south. The former have been seriously impaired by over-use and the Libyan government has decided to assure water supplies for agriculture, industry and for urban use by moving up to 3 km3 per year of fossil groundwater to the Gulf of Surt and later to the Gefara Plain. The article discusses the scope and significance of the plans and comments on the agricultural implications and the likely ultimate use of the water.

The authors have had extensive experience in the adaptation of the South Australian dryfarming rotation of cereals and medicago to Libyan agriculture. This paper examines the use of annual medicago (medics) in Libya and notes the way it can reverse the modern trends of declining yields and pasture. The Australian system of medic/cereal rotation is compared with Romano-Libyan practice and contrasted with modern European farming. It is suggested that medicago may have been one of the underlying factors in the notable success of Romano-Libyan farming and that it has a major role to play in future agricultural regeneration.