Al-Muqrinat cave was first visited by the Italian researcher Umberto Paradisi in June 1964, after he was told by the locals of its location. Paradisi in turn conducted the first field study in the region. Archaeologist Charles McBurney made some observations on the study particularly with respect to the history of the engravings and the site was referred to as being the first discovery of rock art in the Green Mountain. No further field studies were carried out until 2001, when Libyan student Saad Buhajar investigated the site as part of his master's research. This article is the result of intermittent visits to the cave over a period of 27 years and provides the accurate descriptions of findings including new discoveries.

During the excavations of the team of the University of Chieti in the area of Ain Hofra, in the East necropolis of Cyrene, several interesting sculptures were found in tombs A and C, also called the Tomb of the Sarcophagi and the Tomb of the Sculptures. In this paper a specific find from Tomb A is presented, as it is a rare example of a Mithraic relief from a private funerary context. The find has only previously been published for the translation and presentation of the inscription; however, an analysis and interpretation of the relief together with the inscription has never been tackled. The very fragmentary lid is made of white marble, presenting a very lively iconographic sequence of Mithraic schemata, in combination with a metrical inscription within a central tabula ansata. The find context is particularly monumental and is characterized by two Temple Tombs built in ashlar masonry located on the plateau of Ain Hofra overlooking the wadi (canyon) and the fertile terraces below. This multidisciplinary article looks at the iconographic elements, the epigraphic implications and the monumental context of the Mithraic reliefs.

Situated on the westernmost corner of the Southern Necropolis, Tomb S181 is an important rock-cut monument, unlike any other thus far known in Cyrene. The presence of a Doric false peristyle running all around the chamber is unique in the context of the Cyrenean funerary culture, as it seems to elaborate and modify the model of the Internal Doric Frieze (seen in famous tombs of the near-by Western Necropolis) in a new, previously unpublished solution. Tomb S181 casts further light on the complicated relationship with the Alexandrian funerary world. This paper describes the tomb and considers it from multiple and different points of view: traditional art-historical comparisons are sought in order to cast light on the chronology but, on the other hand, the display strategies are also analyzed to reconstruct the importance of this monument for the Cyrenean monumental funerary tradition. Tomb S181 is certainly a hybrid entity, the product of a local culture accepting but also deeply modifying Alexandrian influences in terms of architecture and, possibly, also of funerary ritual behaviours. Tomb S181 clearly attests the vitality of rock-cut funerary architecture in Cyrene during the Hellenistic period.

This article revisits archival excavation records of the Roman garrison at Bu Njem. Past research on the archaeology of Bu Njem often considered the site in isolation from its extramural settlement and from the content of its ostraca, focusing on the morphology of the fort, and the composition of the garrison: this offers the opportunity to study the garrison as an extended military community in its interconnected social, cultural and economic settings. Since the completion of fieldwork led by Rebuffat between 1967 and 1980, there have been significant advances to the research on the Garamantes, the understanding of trade in the Sahara and the nature of Rome's North African frontiers. These advances allow for a rethinking of the interpretation of the evidence from Bu Njem. This article focuses on the archaeology of the military base and the extramural settlement. Building on existing research, the results add to interpretations of the activities in the garrison, recognise the urban character of the garrison settlement, and in doing so, improve our understanding of social and economic activities on the frontier.

This paper publishes the texts of three new Roman milestones and two other Latin texts from the vicinity of Bani Walid. These stones were found lying on the ground in the western suburbs of the city, apparently having been collected up and put aside by the landowners in clearing their fields to grow crops on their farms. Although previously postulated, these milestones are the first confirmation that a Roman road ran through Bani Walid. As a group these new texts offer new insight into the development of the transport infrastructure and agricultural economy of this Pre-Desert zone in the third century AD.

Crossing literary evidence with archaeological data, we discuss the history of a site known as ‘Marsa Djazira’ by following the evolution of its toponym. During the Phoenician-Punic era, this site was described as a city/urban establishment with a harbour known as ‘Gaphara’. In late Roman times its name was most likely changed to ‘Minna Villa Marsi’, as the Marsi family of the aristocracy of Leptis Magna probably built a luxury residence (villa) and exploited the port to export olive products from its estates in the hinterland of Leptis Magna. In the Middle Ages, the site underwent another toponymic change to ‘Ras Chacra’ and became an official maritime station (port) on the shipping lanes. In the late Middle Ages, the ancient toponym ‘Gaphara’ reappeared again with a slight distortion as ‘Gasr Jafara/Djefara’. This last name was known when the site was already ruined and abandoned.

This article addresses the lack of literature on grinding and crushing techniques and its equipment in Africa Proconsularis. A new typology is presented, along with their geographical distribution. The types of stones used are also discussed, in relation to provenance, suitability and technological innovations. The conclusion questions what we know and what future research needs to address.

It is generally believed that Tripolitanian historiography began with the chronicle of Muḥammad b. Ghalbūn in the first half of the 12th century AH/18th century AD, before expanding in the 13th/19th. This pattern tends to forget that other players – unfortunately now lost – predated that modern historical writing. The oldest one seems to be related to a Tripolitanian scholar, ʽAlī b. ʽAbd Allāh b. Maḥbūb al-Ṭarābulusī, who lived at the end of the 5th/11th century/beginning of the 6th/12th, who settled in the East and wrote a short chronicle to give an account of the history of his hometown. This article aims to gather all the data related to him and his works, to show the formation of a local memory in the wake of the political autonomy acquired by Tripoli from the beginning of the 5th/11th century.

This article investigates the development of urbanism and architecture at the site of Sala (Chellah), from the end of the first century BC to the latter half of the second century AD. By looking at the transformations in the town's civic centre from the Mauretanian to Roman imperial period, the aim is to assess how the layout and function of public spaces and buildings were reshaped to respond to new ideas of monumentality. A range of research methodologies are applied to address this question, including architectural, archival, and archaeological analyses, as well as the use of 3D digital modelling. The case study of Sala is of particular importance, as it shows how certain pre-Roman monuments were kept in use within new public contexts, and how imperial-style, urban and architectural features were introduced in the town as part of trends that can be recognized across North Africa and the Roman Empire more broadly.

Throughout the second century AD, the civic centres of the wealthy coastal cities of Africa Proconsularis underwent deep-rooted changes. Up to this point local stone had been largely employed for their buildings, but from the Hadrianic period onwards there was an increasing use of marbles, which were imported with considerable efforts and at great expense. These marbles came primarily from Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, and brought with them new architectural concepts, as well as architects and artisans who have been generally identified as ‘Italian’ and ‘Eastern’ in past scholarship. This article will examine a temple, a structure presumed to be a portico, and a basilica from the harbour city of Meninx, located in southern Djerba (Tunisia). The exceptionally good preservation of these buildings’ architectural components and the documentation produced during their on-site recording in 2017–18 allow for a detailed understanding of their original building processes. This will show how mobile the building industry of the Roman Empire was during the second century AD, which in turn challenges any attempts of an overly schematic territorial placement of architectural concepts, building traditions, and the provenance of the artisans themselves.

This article draws on the notion of collective memory to address the experience of urban space in antiquity. Focusing on Timgad in the Severan period as a case study, it mainly engages with the city plan and its streets, the public buildings that lined them, and their honorific inscriptions. Based on top-down and bottom-up processes, it highlights how the built landscape was staged to create a memory of the urban space and its development, but also how the inhabitants themselves were able to contribute to fostering this memory through everyday urban practices.

Recent scholarship on North African cities has done much to dispel earlier assumptions about late antique collapse and demonstrate significant continuity into the Byzantine and medieval periods. Yet urban changes did not affect North Africa evenly. Far less is known about the differing regional trajectories that shaped urban transformation and the extent to which pre-Roman and Roman micro-regions continued to share meaningful characteristics in subsequent periods. This article provides a preliminary exploration of regional change from the fourth to the eleventh century focused on a zone in the Central Medjerda Valley (Tunisia) containing the well-known sites of Bulla Regia and Chimtou. We place these towns in their wider historical and geographical setting and interrogate urban change by looking at investment in public buildings and spaces, religious buildings and housing, and ceramic networks. The process of comparison identifies new commonalities (and differences) between the sites of this stretch of the Medjerda River and provides a framework for understanding the many transformations of North African cities over the long late antiquity.

Early Islamic religious architecture in North Africa displays a marked change from earlier Classical and Christian buildings in their general neglect of exteriors in favour of interior (i.e., courtyard) façades. This feature may be due partly to the nature of Islamic worship, as it was common to virtually all early mosques, yet builders in the central and eastern lands of Islam soon began to adopt such exteriorizing features as domes, towers, and colourful decoration. Maghribi builders, however, maintained their preference for modest exteriors for many centuries, mostly focusing decoration on interior façades and spaces, and differentiating it from much Islamic architecture elsewhere.