Garamantian agriculture: the plant remains from Jarma, Fazzan

Abstract

Abstract Excavations at Jarma, associated with the ancient capital of the Garamantes, Garama, in the Fazzan, southern Libya, have recovered a long sequence of charred and desiccated plant remains. The archaeobotanical analysis of the samples have provided an insight into the crop plants cultivated by the Garamantian period occupants of Jarma, and the nature of crop processing activities, plant use and disposal. A broad range of cereal, fruit and fibre crops have been identified which demonstrate both winter and summer season cultivation in the region from the end of the first millennium BC. A sophisticated arable regime relying on foggara irrigation was practised.