Libyan Studies 38 (2007)

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The Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica (Northeast Libya): renewed investigations of the cave and its landscape, 2007

By Graeme Barker,1 Chris Hunt,2 and Tim Reynolds3

With additional contributions by Ian Brooks4 and Hwedi el-Rishi5

AbstractThe 1950s excavations by Charles McBurney in the great Haua Fteah cave in northeast Libya revealed a deep (14 m) sequence of human occupation going back at least 100,000 years, with evidence for the presence of both Neanderthals and Modern Humans in the Pleistocene, and for Neolithic farmers in the Holocene. In 2007 a renewed programme of archaeological and geomorphological investigation began with the objective of improving understanding of the cave’s occupation sequence and, combined with fieldwork in the landscape, of the history of landscape change and human responses to it. The initial season of fieldwork removed the upper c. 4.5 m of backfill in the McBurney trench; established the robustness of the original faces and their suitability for analytical interventions; recorded detailed running sections spanning from the present day to (at least) the Last Glacial Maximum c. 20,000 years ago; and indicated the potential of the surviving archaeology to reveal not just sequence but also activities or ‘taskscapes’ at the site. The geomorphological fieldwork identified rich sequences of later Quaternary deposits (marine, colluvial, alluvial, aeolian) with the potential to provide significant results regarding the history of climate and environment in the region. Archaeological survey around the cave indicates that the variability of the surface lithic evidence appears to reflect real differences in past human behaviour and use of the landscape and not just post-depositional taphonomic processes. Fifty years after the extraordinary pioneering work of McBurney and his colleagues, the new work demonstrates the continued potential of the Haua Fteah’s unique occupation sequence and the multi-period ‘human landscapes’ around it to transform understanding of early human societies in North Africa.

IntroductionThis report describes the preliminary results of the first season of fieldwork (April 2007) by the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project, a planned study of long term environmental and human history in Cyrenaica, northeast Libya, with a particular focus on the re-excavation of the Haua Fteah cave excavated by Dr Charles McBurney of the University of Cambridge in the 1950s (McBurney, 1967). Because of its geographic location at the boundary of Europe and Africa, Cyrenaica is ideally located to address large scale questions concerning the prehistory of both regions.

The Haua Fteah is an enormous limestone karstic cave situated c. 10 km east of Sousa (the ancient settlement of Apollonia) and c. 20 km north of the ancient Greek city of Cyrene (Fig. 1). It lies on the lowest of a series of terraces that forms the northern escarpment of the Gebel Akhdar, the ‘Green Mountain’, an upland massif with a Mediterranean-style climate

1 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK.2 School of Geography, Archaeology, and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University of Belfast, UK.3 Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck College London, UK.4 Engineering Archaeological Services Ltd., Blaenau Ffestiniog, UK.5 Department of Geography, University of Garyunis, Benghazi, Libya.

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and environment lying between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara, sloping down on its southern side to the Sahara. The cave has an entrance c. 20 m high and an interior roofed area nearly 80 m across, and faces north to the sea c. 1 km away (Figs. 2–4).

The McBurney excavations (in 1950, 1951, and 1955) revealed what is commonly regarded as the most important sequence of human occupation in North Africa, with a depth and richness of occupation evidence unique in the region. The abundant cultural debris, notably stone artefacts and butchered animal bone, suggests that it was probably a site of occupational significance from its earliest use. Although the antiquity of initial occupation could not be determined because the excavations (down to over 13 m below the ground surface) did not reach the bottom of the cultural deposits, the material recovered indicated the use of the cave from at least Middle Palaeolithic times onwards. The project was one of the first to incorporate oxygen isotope analysis into its radiometric dating programme, and from this McBurney estimated that the lowest units he sampled were deposited during the Last Interglacial, what would now be referred to as Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 5a, dated to c. 120 kya (c. 120,000 years ago). Eighteen radiocarbon dates on charcoal indicated the repeated use of the cave through the later Pleistocene and Holocene, the two earliest dates being at the limits of the radiocarbon method 40,000 years before the present (Table 1). In all, seven major cultural phases were defined, from the Middle Palaeolithic to the historic (Table 2).

Figure 1. The location of the Haua Fteah (drawing: D. Kemp).

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The McBurney team also conducted pioneering fieldwork along the coast to the west and east of the Haua Fteah, documenting and collecting artefacts from exposures of Pleistocene sediments along the coastal terraces and in the wadis that exit to the sea from the Cyrenaican escarpment, especially in the Wadi Derna and one of its tributaries, Hajji Creiem (McBurney 1960; McBurney and Hey 1955). They carried out small test excavations in interior caves such as Hagfet ed-Dabba in Wadi Kuf, the material from the latter providing the type evidence for the Upper Palaeolithic industry that McBurney recognised in the Haua Fteah stratigraphy.

The fieldwork and laboratory studies were exemplary for their time, but techniques of archaeological science have developed significantly in the half-century since then. For example, refinement of the oxygen isotope curve suggests that the basal levels reached by the McBurney excavation may date between OIS-5 and OIS-7, the latter c. 195 kya (Moyer 2003). Such a date implies that the deposits span both the Middle-Upper Pleistocene transition c. 130 kya and the Pleistocene-Holocene transition c. 12 kya – the entirety of the last interglacial-glacial-interglacial cycle. A sequence of such longevity represents a unique opportunity for high resolution analysis of changes in climate and environment, and of human responses to these. The apparent mosaic features of the

Table 2. Major phases of occupation defined at the Haua Fteah by McBurney (1967); the Middle Palaeolithic was further sub-divided. BP – before the present.

Phase Cultural designation Age BP

A Libyan Pre-Aurignacian 80,000–65,000

B Middle Palaeolithic 65,000–40,000

C Dabban (Upper Palaeolithic) 40,000–15,000

D Eastern Oranian (Final Palaeolithic) 14,000–10,000

E Libyco-Capsian (Mesolithic) 10,000–7000 (8000–5000 BC)

F Neolithic of Libyco-Capsian Tradition 7000–4700 (5000–2700 BC)

G Historic 2500 BC to the present

Table 1. Radiocarbon dates obtained by the McBurney excavations (source: McBurney 1967).

Layer Uncalibrated date BC

Laboratory reference

VI, top 2910 ± 97 NPL40

VI, lower half 3850 ± 108 NPL40

VIII, upper half 4420 ± 103 NPL42

VIII, lower half 4850 ± 350 W98

X, surface 5050 ± 110 GrN3451

X, upper half 5350 ± 300 W89

XI/XII, surface 8650 ± 300 W104

XIV, lower 10,630 ± 172 NPL44

XV/XIV, interface 10,800 ± 173 NPL43

XVIII, upper 14,120 ± 100 GrN2586

XVIII, lower 16,670 ± 150 GrN2585

XX/XXII, interface 26,550 ± 80 W86

XX 31,150 ± 400 GrN2550

XXVIII ≥34,000 W85

XXVIII 41,150 ± 1300 GrN2564

XXXIII 45,050 ± 3200 GrN2020

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human skeletal material recovered, with robust Neanderthaloid and anatomically modern human traits, raise fascinating questions about the relationship of these two hominin species in the region, questions that dominate the Late Pleistocene archaeology of western Eurasia and North Africa. The later Pleistocene material has the potential to provide critical insights into the nature of coastal North African responses to the Last Glacial Maximum, a time when the Sahara was effectively abandoned by humans. In the mid-Holocene, was farming introduced to North Africa by new people from the eastern Mediterranean, or did indigenous populations of hunter-gatherers develop a commitment to agriculture by themselves? Did these significant migration and/or cultural events coincide with significant climatic events?

In short, the archaeology of the Haua Fteah, in combination with parallel studies of its landscape context, represents a unique opportunity for high resolution analysis of changes in climate and environment over the past 200,000 years, of concomitant changes in the resources available to human communities living in the Gebel Akhdar, and of human responses to the opportunities and challenges presented by such changes. The aim of the project initiated by the fieldwork described below is to reconstruct the history of climate, environment, and human activity in central Cyrenaica by integrating excavations in the Haua Fteah cave with geomorphological, palaeoecological, and archaeological studies in the wider landscape, and with renewed analyses of the McBurney Excavation Archive preserved in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.

Figure 2. Looking south from the coastal plain to the Haua Fteah (photo: G. Barker).

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Excavations in the Haua Fteah By the end of the final (1955) season, the McBurney excavation consisted of an Upper Trench measuring c. 11 m long (west–east) × c. 10 m wide × c. 2.5 m deep, a Middle Trench measuring c. 6 m long × c. 4.5 m wide × c. 6.5 m deep (though McBurney himself did not use the terms Upper and Middle Trench in his report), and a Deep Sounding measuring c. 2.5 m long × c. 2 m wide × c. 3 m deep (Figs 5 and 6). The 2007 work began within the cave by searching for the outline of the Upper Trench. There was a wide depression in the approximate area of the trench (Fig. 7) plus an alignment of stones that was later identified as the Graeco-Roman building foundation described in the 1967 excavation report. A series of small shallow trenches was dug across the estimated line of the Upper Trench edges, and although it was found that the depression did not immediately overlie the McBurney Upper Trench, all the major edges were identified (Fig. 8).

Once the outline of the trench was established, a New Holland JCB-type mechanical excavator was used to empty out the top 1.7 m of the McBurney Upper Trench under close archaeological supervision (Fig. 9). The machine was stopped and depths confirmed as the work progressed. Great care was taken to ensure that in situ archaeological deposits were not disturbed. The east

Figure 3. The Haua Fteah, looking across the open sink-hole or doline into the cave (photo: G. Barker).

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section line of the trench was left buried and the backfill adjacent to it left in place to form a ramp for access as well as protecting this end of the McBurney trench from disturbance (Fig. 5). The mechanical digger also had problems accessing the northern edge of the McBurney trench and most of the backfill adjacent to this was also left in place. The result of the machining was that the McBurney Upper Trench was exposed along its entire western and southern sections and along 3.5 m of its northern edge. The opened trench was then hand-cleaned to expose the original sections. The success of this approach was demonstrated in the identification of McBurney’s excavation nails and tags still in place. During later section cleaning the sample column taken in 1955 could also be identified.

With the Upper Trench emptied of most of the McBurney backfill, the exposed faces on the southern, western, and western part of the northern sides were cleaned (Fig. 10), photographed, and recorded by detailed section drawings at 1:10 scale. The McBurney excavations indicate that the Upper Trench deposits span from the historic period at the top into the Capsian Mesolithic at the base (Fig. 11; Table 2: Layers I–X). The layers and other archaeological features observed were recorded using the Cambridge University Archaeological Unit’s single context recording system (Fig. 12). The exposed faces were examined for stone artefacts and other indicators of human activity such as food remains (animal bones and shells of edible terrestrial and marine molluscs). An extensive series of spot samples of charcoal and shell was taken for radiocarbon

Figure 4. Looking north from a position immediately above the Haua Fteah, over the sink-hole or doline, towards the coastal plain. The inlet on the west is the mouth of the Wadi Hereira, and that on the right is the mouth of the Wadi Hashluf (photo: G. Barker).

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(14C) dating from each cleaned and recorded face, each sample being numbered individually and its location marked on the relevant section drawing. The rationale for collecting shell, a material that can give less reliable 14C dates than charcoal because of the potential take-up of additional carbon by the living animal from its habitat, is to undertake a comparative analysis dating charcoal and shell from the same layer: if shell dates can be demonstrated to be reasonably accurate in comparison with charcoal dates from the same layer, we can use shells in the future as one approach to dating layers that lack charcoal.

In addition to the spot samples taken for the dating programme, a series of sediment samples running from top to bottom of the east-facing Upper Trench face was taken at 5 cm intervals

Figure 5. Plan of Haua Fteah: (left) the McBurney (1967) plan, showing the Upper and Middle Trenches and the Deep Sounding; and plan (upper right) and section (lower right) of the 2007 excavations of the McBurney backfill: the Upper Trench cleared apart from an access ramp, and two ‘slots’ cut into the Middle Trench backfill (drawing: D. Kemp).

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to be analysed for information on the depositional environments (see below, The natural environment). A c. 3 kg bulk sample was also taken from each archaeological layer for water flotation to recover charcoal and carbonised plant remains and for wet sieving the residues for very small artefacts such as the microdebitage from knapping stone tools, small fragments of animal bone, and microfauna. The bulk samples were taken from two columns cut c. 15 cm into the east-facing section, in the southern and northern parts respectively and were processed using water from a freshwater spring at Soussa. Charcoal fragments were recovered from all layers, from some of them in marked abundance, giving cause for optimism for the survival of carbonised plant material amongst them.

Following this work, two soundings were cut into the backfill of the McBurney Middle Trench: ‘Slot 1’ in the central part of the trench and ‘Slot 2’ against the east-facing section (Fig. 5). These soundings respected the step originally created by McBurney (Fig. 6), and opened up part of the top 2 m of the McBurney Middle Trench as measured from the top of the step, exposing material spanning the Capsian, Eastern Oranian, and Dabban parts of the cultural sequence, approximately McBurney’s Layers X–XX (Figs 12 and 13). The dates obtained by the McBurney team from the layers at the depths we reached in the Middle Trench, of 16,670±150 BP (GrN2585) from Layer XVIII and 26,550±80 BP (W86) from the interface between Layers

Figure 6. ‘General view on completion of the operation’ at the end of the 1955 season. The photograph is taken looking west, and shows the east-facing section of the Upper Trench and (obscured, but with the access ladders visible) the Middle Trench (photo: R. Inskeep and published as Plate I.5 (b) in McBurney 1967; reproduced here with permission of Mrs A. Inskeep).

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XX and XXII, suggest that a principal objective of our initial season, of creating running sections (allowing for the step between the Upper and Middle Trenches) spanning from the present through the Holocene to as far back as the Last Glacial Maximum (the LGM, c. 22–20,000 BP), was achieved. The sections were cleaned, recorded, and drawn in the same manner as those of the Upper Trench, and spot samples of charcoal and shell were taken for dating purposes. Slot 1 was also sampled for pollen and phytoliths in a similar fashion to the section in the Upper Trench; bulk samples were not taken in sequence, but two 1 kg ‘scoping’ samples were taken for flotation from a charcoal-rich layer low down in the sequence (probably equivalent to McBurney’s Layer XVII) to assess the potential for the survival of carbonised plant material in deposits of Pleistocene age.

In addition to the work of clearing the McBurney trench, the Graeco-Roman building exposed at the top of the east-facing face was investigated as it was exposed by the section cleaning (Fig. 14). The building has not been published in full and its status remains somewhat in doubt. Our investigation revealed that the stone work did not provide a structure itself but was used to support timber uprights, confirming a statement made by McBurney in his summary of results published in the 1967 monograph. A sherd recovered from a layer associated with the

Figure 7. Looking west across the general area of the McBurney excavations, before the start of the 2007 fieldwork (photo: G. Barker).

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destruction of the building is late Roman/Byzantine in date (Riley 1979: 267–8). McBurney speculated that the thick charcoal layer over these remains represented a destruction layer, but this was not confirmed in the present work.

One further investigation was also undertaken. The step between the upper and middle parts of the McBurney trench in its southwest corner was not well marked on the published sections and after the initial cleaning of the Upper Trench following the machine work we observed a marked undulation or mound in the southwestern corner of the step. It was decided to investigate the irregularity to see if it was in situ archaeology, or a product of earlier collapse/slumping at the time of or following the McBurney excavation, or an artefact of our own cleaning work. A small slot measuring 80 cm (north–south) × 30 cm (east–west) excavated to a depth varying between 30 and 10 cm (as a clear archaeological layer lay beneath) indicated that the former hypothesis was correct. The deposit can be correlated with McBurney’s Libyco-Capsian Layer X, and the abundant lithic collection we collected from the small slot (881 pieces of worked stone) confirms this. The assemblage (Fig. 15) included 51 backed bladelets (over half of them burnt) along with six burins, five burin spalls, and an endscraper. Preliminary analysis suggests that this represents a retooling event where stone elements were removed from their hafts and old hafted tools may have been burnt. The likelihood is that the sediments were preserved by a large rock that is visible in the southwest corner of the main trench in a photograph taken at the end of the 1955 season (Fig. 6), no longer present.

Figure 8. Looking southwest across the general area of the McBurney excavations, showing the outline of his Upper Trench as located by test pits (with standing figures) (photo: G. Barker).

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The natural environment (Chris Hunt with Hwedi el-Rishi)The geomorphological and palaeoecological fieldwork focussed on three main areas of investigation: the structure and origin of the Haua Fteah; the nature of the cave’s fill, and its implications for the depositional environment, how this may have changed through time, and how it may have impacted the archaeological record; and the nature of the landscape around the Haua Fteah, how it may have changed through time, and the potential implications of such changes for people using the cave in terms of changing opportunities and constraints. A further objective was, through these studies, to contribute to wider debates regarding climate and environmental change through the later Quaternary in North Africa, and the impact of these changes on human populations over time, including the changing ways in which human populations may have dealt with changing environments as ‘modern’ capabilities developed (traditionally defined at the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic transition). Work was also done to provide baseline data to underpin these studies, to evaluate the current variability of climate, and to provide information about the distribution of natural resources and how this might have changed through time. In total 148 localities were located, described, and sampled for environmental work, in addition to the Haua Fteah. The following is an outline account together with some initial results where these are available, though at this stage most must clearly be regarded as provisional.

Figure 9. A mechanical excavator clearing the backfill of the McBurney Upper Trench (photo: G. Barker).

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The structure, origin, and fill of the Haua FteahThe Haua is a compound feature. In front of the cave proper is a sink-hole or doline filled with sediment (Figs 3, 4, and 5). Most of the feature has modern sediment on the surface, but calcreted and reddened stratified scree deposits are exposed in a zone up to 4 m wide on the west side of the doline. The edge of these cemented deposits is sinuous and probably reflects a small fault. On the rock wall behind these deposits is a reddened, calcreted, and occasionally slicken-sided surface that extends to about 3 m above the cemented scree level, suggesting another fault. The faults are consistent with the fill subsiding episodically into the doline. The early users of the Haua Fteah, whose associated deposits are now some 15 m below the present-day ground surface, would almost certainly have walked into the cave, another feature consistent with subsidence. Technically the cave appears to be a ‘tafoni’, a feature formed by granular disintegration which starts below the ground surface. There are also small phreatic features in the sides of the cave, suggesting ancient cave formation below an ancient groundwater level. There are large areas at the back of the feature where granular disintegration is actively proceeding, marked by whitish, floury rock. Samples of this floury limestone have been taken for analysis in the laboratories at Queen’s University Belfast.

The fill in the cave is well-stratified, as described by McBurney (1967). The angular nature

Figure 10. Cleaning the east-facing section of the Upper Trench. The sharp vertical line above the third figure from the left is the southern edge of the original 1951 trench. The edge of the Middle Trench is visible by the feet of the kneeling figures (photo: G. Barker).

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of most stones and the predominantly silty nature of the matrix of the deposits (Fig. 13) are consistent with rockfall and aeolian silt deposition being the dominant depositional processes, although small-scale wash processes are shown by small trough-sets in a few layers. As described above, samples of sediment have been taken at 5 cm intervals (or finer where merited by the stratification) through the 4 m of deposits exposed in the 2007 season for geochemistry, mineralogy, and grain size to identify the depositional environments in detail.

Landscape and landscape changeThe nature of the landscape around the Haua Fteah, and how it has changed through time, was addressed in two ways. The first approach consisted of the detailed sampling of the cave sediments in the Haua Fteah, as described above. In addition to the sedimentological work described above, the samples will be analysed for pollen and particulate organic matter. This will provide information about the changing vegetation, sea level, and environment around the cave over the last 20,000 years. The second approach was the survey and sampling of the Quaternary deposits located within c. 1 km of the cave, with a focus on the terrain between the Wadi Hereira/Wadi Botamssa to the west and the Wadi Hashluf to the east (Fig. 4). Many of

Figure 11. The east-facing sections of the Upper and Middle Trenches, as recorded by R. Inskeep (source: McBurney 1967, Fig. I.4).

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Figure 12. The east-facing sections of the Upper Trench and upper two metres of the Middle Trench, as recorded in 2007 (drawing: D. Kemp).

Figure 13. The east-facing sections of the Upper Trench and Slot 2, looking west. Scales: 2 m (photo: G. Barker).

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the Quaternary deposits are clearly much older than the cave sediments sampled in the Haua Fteah so far and most are indurated with pedogenic (soil) carbonate or calcrete. Samples from all the deposits described below were taken for pilot analytical and dating studies.

The oldest deposits so far identified are ancient marine deposits relating to a former sea-level of +60 m asl (above present sea level), which are widely exposed on the lower slopes near the cave. These contain lithic artefacts which most probably relate to people using the beach gravels as a lithic source during the period of sea level rise recorded by these deposits. The lithic technology associated with this ancient beach deposit is consistent with a later Middle Pleistocene or later age. There are few indications of climate, except that the marine fauna in these deposits is of modern Mediterranean aspect, thus consistent with warmth.

A second set of marine deposits relates to a former sea level of about 8–11 m asl, probably dating to the last interglacial (c. 125,000 years BP) (Fig. 16). This was a time of considerable warmth, as is indicated by the fauna associated with these deposits.

The marine deposits are overlain by colluvial (hillwash and scree deposits) and then aeolian sand dune deposits, which were generated during an episode when sea level was lower than it is today. The

Figure 14. Looking south to the north-facing section (Section 2.2) of Trench 3, showing the stone foundations of the Graeco-Roman structure on the left and associated sediments on the right (by the vertical 30 cm scale). The black charcoal-rich deposit visible immediately below the central white portion of the scale is the ‘destruction layer’ described by McBurney. A late Roman/Byzantine sherd was found in this part of the section (photo: G. Barker).

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Figure 15. Stone tools from the slot excavated in deposit likely to be McBurney’s Libyco-Capsian Layer X: 1. endscraper; 2. burin as a burin spall; 3. burin; 4. dihedral burin; 5. burin on a backed bladelet; 6. backed blade-flake; 7. partially backed blade-flake; 8–9. backed blade-flakes; 10–11. truncated and backed blades; 12–14. backed bladelets; 15–16. microlithic crescents. Scale: 4 cm (drawning: T. Reynolds).

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colluvial deposits relate to a period of considerable sediment mobility, probably as a result of limited vegetation cover caused by cold/arid climates. These deposits also contain occasional flake-based stone artefacts.

Younger than the sand dune deposits are extensive alluvial fan and old wadi alluvial deposits, which contain flake-based lithics. The alluvial fan deposits are overlain in a number of places by sites with short blades likely to be of terminal Pleistocene or later age. The alluvial fans accumulated during phases of high sediment mobility, probably as the result of limited vegetation cover caused by climatic stress, either aridity or temperature. Root nodules in some layers of the deposits are consistent with at least occasional episodes with a considerable vegetation cover. Mollusc faunas are consistent with aridity rather than low temperature.

Laterally equivalent to the alluvial fan deposits are stratified screes, which also contain lithic artefacts at several sites. The screes are composed of shattered rock, presumably as a result of frost-weathering, suggesting temperatures lower than present and sufficient moisture for frost weathering to occur. The screes are interbedded with palaeosoils containing mollusc faunas consistent with arid rather than cold conditions.

Of similar or younger age are deposits in a number of cave sites containing stratigraphies and artefacts consistent with a number of depositional events between the Late Pleistocene and

Figure 16. Figure standing beside marine deposits relating to a sea level about 8–11 m above the present sea level, probably dating to the last interglacial (c. 125,000 years BP). Looking northeast (photo: G. Barker).

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the present day (Fig. 17). Younger wadi alluvium is present at a number of localities. Some of the younger wadi

alluvium is overlain by sites containing Roman-period potsherds; other sites are clearly post-Roman to recent in age. The significance of these deposits is not yet clear: by comparison with other areas around the Mediterranean they may have a climatic origin or relate to episodes of human impact.

It is apparent from the deposits described above that the climate, and consequently environment, varied considerably during the Late Quaternary, from interglacial periods with a high sea level and a benevolent climate to glacial periods at times characterised by cold and aridity. It is also apparent that during the last glacial period there were episodes of increased temperature and sometimes also increased rainfall. Humans were present during climatic phases of all types, throughout the period represented by the sampled sediments. Thus even early in the last glacial period and probably before the arrival of modern humans, people were able to exploit changing and sometimes relatively extreme environments. Clearly, these results have considerable significance for our understanding of the past environments and the opportunities they offered to the human populations exploiting them. During times of low sea (sea levels worldwide were c. 130 m below present sea levels at the Last Glacial Maximum, for example), the territory available to human populations was more extensive than during times of high sea level, an observation which has significance for the availability of resources including bedrock

Figure 17. Cave CP1541 exposed in a road cutting northeast of the Haua Fteah, containing sediments with artefacts and animal bones of late Pleistocene age at base, and Holocene-age sediments above (photo: G. Barker).

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resources such as chert. The wider issues of climate and environmental change through the later Quaternary in North Africa and the impact of these changes on human populations over time will be assessed as the project progresses.

Baseline data and the current variability of climateTo provide baseline data, a number of samples was taken from deposits accumulating at the present day, in caves and wadis, and from soils on a transect southwards from the coast across the Gebel Akhdar to the desert margin c. 80 km inland. These will be analysed in the same way as the ancient samples. From these analyses it will be possible to make firm comparisons with the ancient materials. Sampling for a dendrochronological study was done by coring trees in the Wadi Kuf and in the Wadi Botamssa close to (and west of ) the Haua Fteah. The dendrochronological study should provide a clear indication of modern climate variability as a supplement to available meteorological records. It may also provide the foundation for a longer-term investigation of the climatic history of Cyrenaica, if ring-patterns can be matched with sufficient accuracy.

The distribution of natural resourcesOf critical importance for the early users of the Haua Fteah were sources of chert for artefact production. During geomorphological and archaeological survey a number of chert sources was located and sampled. Laboratory analysis will show which of these sources was utilised for the lithic artefacts recovered from the Haua Fteah and other sites. Preliminary indications are that some artefacts were derived from distant sources: this work will thus need to be extended considerably in future seasons.

Human activity in the landscapeFollowing the pattern used by the geomorphological study, the archaeological investigation of the landscape also worked from the known to the unknown. It was decided to walk a transect across the line of the cave to identify sites in the landscape and to develop an understanding of human activity over the area between the two wadis that define a triangle of land with the Haua Fteah in the middle: the Wadi al-Heiyra/Wadi Botamssa to the west and the Wadi Hashluf to the east. A c. 2 km-long transect was walked using a team of five walkers, walking c. 10 m apart and travelling along a line divided into stints of 20 paces. At the end of each stint the number of lithic artefacts seen was recorded. No material was collected at this point as removal might hinder later work by removing diagnostic pieces. This walk provided a background against which ‘sites’ could be identified, as well as showing the link between landform and artefact density. This link is as much a result of soil movements as people’s activity and shows the risks of simply using basic counts of artefacts in a high-energy environment. The background frequency of material varied with extremes of 60–80+ pieces per walker per stint, but numbers between 5–10 were much more common.

Once a background understanding was achieved, a series of 1 m × 1 m squares was selected for collection using topography as a control; test squares were targeted at the terraces and slopes specifically. Collection sizes again varied considerably, from four to 152 pieces per

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1 m × 1 m square. (The higher numbers derived from arable areas where material is more likely to have been brought up to the surface.) Three test squares were located on the coastal terrace (CPP1000, CPP1001, CPP1002), one on the slope to the next terrace (CPP1003), three on the next terrace (CPP1004, CPP1005, CPP1006), one on the next slope (CPP1007), and three on the next terrace (CPP1008, CPP1009, CPP1010), bringing the sequence to the cave level. An additional test was made above the cave level (CPP1011) and a further test on the slope beyond (CPP1012).

Test squares CPP1013 and CPP1016 were 5 m × 5 m pick-ups aimed at identifying behavioural aspects to the lithic scatter. CPP1013 yielded 1,263 pieces and showed an area of small informal cores being reduced into flakes and bladelets. The absolute number of pieces is artificially high because the collection zone included material collected by natural processes into shallow scoops. The second large pick-up, at CPP1016, targeted an outcrop of chert on a small north-facing knoll. A total of 84 pieces was collected, and showed similar reduction patterns to the material from CPP1013. This knoll had two levels of outcropping cherts: a tabular ‘drape-like’ layer of brown chert which appears to have been commonly used for making artefacts by prehistoric populations over different periods; and a stratigraphically-lower level where a grey-brown chert occurs in large irregular cobbles that is easier to work than the brown chert, and which also appears to have been used frequently in different periods. The systematic walking transect ended at this knoll, but a reconnaissance trip beyond it to the south as far as the top of the next ridge revealed another chert outcrop with much larger lenticular nodules spread over a large area, the debris around this outcrop having a greater ‘Mousterian appearance’ than the multi-period debris around the chert outcrops on the transect.

Topographic survey (Ian Brooks)A series of surveys using a Zeiss Elta R55 Total Station was undertaken in support of the excavation work within the cave and the environmental and archaeological work in the landscape described in the preceding sections. Two initial stations were defined by use of a Garmin Etrex Summit hand-held GPS with a resolution of 4 m. This allowed for an approximate grid reference and north direction to be defined. The UTM/UPS projection and WGS 84 map datum were adopted to define the grid used by the GPS and thus the surveys. The elevations suggested by the GPS were adjusted to the local sea level by surveying back to sea and correcting the station heights. Subsequent stations were defined by use of the Total Station. The survey data proved impossible to download in the field, so X, Y, and Z coordinates were recorded by hand and typed into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Post-fieldwork processing and drawing creation are being carried out using NRG Survey Package.

The survey files were separated into four data files:

• ‘Pre-excavation’: a contour survey of the cave and its immediate environs, together with the location of the test pits excavated to locate the edges of the McBurney Upper Trench;

• ‘Landscape’, including: three transects of readings from the cave to the coastline; an outline of the coastline including the lower rock shelves; the break of slope defining the cliffs

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marking the entrance to the Wadi Hashluf; various points for the geomorphological study; and the location of the cave CP1541 found in the road cutting (Fig. 17);

• ‘Wadi Botamssa’: a survey of the terraces within a section of the wadi associated with the geomorphological and tree ring studies;

• ‘Excavation’: the location of the excavated trenches, the datum lines of the recorded sections, and the location and final size of the spoil heap.

The pre-excavation and landscape surveys were carried out by I. Brooks and L. Basell, the remaining surveys were undertaken by I. Brooks assisted by R. Hoskins, C. Hunt, I. Parsons, A. Pryor, and T. Reynolds.

ConclusionThe initial season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project achieved its primary goal of removing the 1950s backfill of the upper segment (c. 4.5 m) of the McBurney trench and establishing the robustness of the original faces and their suitability for analytical interventions. The logistical success of the first season of excavation also provides grounds for confidence regarding the feasibility of the challenging task of excavating the lower parts (c. 10 m) of the trench in the future. It has enabled the construction of detailed running sections on the western and southern faces, spanning from the present day to (at least) the Last Glacial Maximum. A comprehensive series of charcoal and shell samples has been taken from these sections for 14C dating, together with sediment samples to gain information on the environments in which the deposits accumulated, the vegetation of the surrounding landscape and, potentially, human activities in that landscape. Flotation of organic residues indicates the good survival of carbonised botanical remains from both Holocene and Pleistocene contexts. The 2007 season deliberately sought to avoid significant excavation of intact archaeological deposits, but two small interventions proved effective. The first provided reliable stratified evidence for the destruction in late Roman times of the Graeco-Roman structure at the top of the McBurney sequence. The second, in a deposit clearly related to McBurney’s Libyco-Capsian Layer X, suggests that the quality and quantity of the unexcavated lithic material probably have the potential to yield insights into the ‘taskscapes’ represented by the site, in this case a retooling event.

The geomorphological fieldwork has shown that extremely rich sequences of later Quaternary deposits exist in northern Cyrenaica and that these include many types of material suitable for sophisticated analysis, with the potential to provide significant results regarding the history of climate and environment in the region, probably over the past 200,000 years. The initial survey of the archaeological landscape in which the Haua Fteah is located has indicated that there is a low density but more-or-less ubiquitous ‘background scatter’ of Middle Palaeolithic materials present and that a more patchy distribution exists of later material. Whilst post-depositional factors are likely to have patterned the data significantly, the 2007 survey also indicates that the surface lithic evidence does reflect real differences in past human behaviour and use of the landscape, differential patterns of mobility and so on, and not just post-depositional taphonomic

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processes. To a considerable extent, the success of the 2007 fieldwork will not be apparent until the

results of laboratory analyses and dating programmes are available. Future seasons are likely to include, as well as deeper excavation in the Haua Fteah and associated palaeoenvironmental studies: selective investigations of other cave sites for archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data; extensive survey of Quaternary deposits in northern Cyrenaica in conjunction with a programme of archaeological field survey; and the coring of a number of doline-fills in the area round the Haua Fteah for pollen-analytical studies. The initial season of archaeological, geomorphological, and palaeoecological fieldwork has inevitably raised many more questions than it has provided answers. Nevertheless, it has also demonstrated, fifty years after the extraordinary pioneering work of McBurney and his colleagues, the continued potential of the Haua Fteah’s unique occupation sequence and the multi-period ‘human landscapes’ around it to transform understanding of early human societies in North Africa.

AcknowledgementsWe would like to acknowledge in particular the permission of the Department of Antiquities of Libya to undertake the project, the financial support of the Society for Libyan Studies for the fieldwork, and the significant help in kind provided by the Department of Antiquities in Tripoli and Cyrene. The personal support of the President of the Department of Antiquities, Dr Giuma Anag has been vital to the success of the project. Invaluable support for all aspects of the fieldwork was provided by the Department of Antiquities, in particular Mustapha Turjman (Tripoli), Abdelgader al-Muzeini (Controller of Antiquities, Cyrene), staff of his office (Faraj Abdulati, Fawzi al-Raed, Monsif Khatab, Said al-Anabi), Ibreike Quinhe (Inspector of Antiquities, Apollonia), and Abdessalam Kawash (Inspector of Antiquities, Derna); by staff of the Department of Archaeology, Omar al-Mukhtar, University al-Beida (Salah Agrab al-Hassi, Mohammed Touati, Fathallah Khalifa); by Ahmed Rabeh, Curator of al-Beida Museum; by Ahmed Buzaian and Lamine al-Houni (Department of Archaeology, University of Garyunis, Benghazi); and by Paul Bennett, Chair of the Society for Libyan Studies. Special thanks are due to the team’s cook Am’Saad el-Awami and his assistant Hamada el-Awami. The project could not have developed as successfully as it did without the unflagging commitment, enthusiasm, and expertise of Fathullah Khalifa and Mohammed Touati. Dora Kemp of the McDonald Institute kindly prepared Figures 1, 5, and 12 for publication. The field team consisted of: Faraj Abdulati, Said al-Anabi, Andrea Balbo, Graeme Barker, Laura Basell, Ian Brooks, Richard Hoskins, Lamine al-Houni, Chris Hunt, Monsif Khatab, Abdessalam Kawash, Iain Morley, Mike Morley, Isabel Parsons, Alex Pryor, Fawzi al-Raed, Tim Reynolds, Hwedi Mohammed el-Rishi, Chris Stimpson, and Mohammed Touati. The fieldwork took place from 1 April to 21 April 2007.

ReferencesMcBurney, C.B.M. 1960. The Stone Age of Northern Africa. Penguin Books, London.McBurney, C.B.M. 1967. The Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica) and the Stone Age of the South-East Mediterranean, Cambridge

University Press, Cambridge.McBurney, C.B.M. and Hey, R.W. 1955. Prehistory and Pleistocene Geology in Cyrenaican Libya: a record of two

seasons’ geological and archaeological fieldwork in the Gebel Akhdar hills, with a summary of prehistoric finds from neighbouring territories. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Moyer, C. 2003 The Organisation of Lithic Technology in the Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic Industries at the Haua Fteah, Libya. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.

Riley, J. 1979. The coarse pottery from Berenice. In Lloyd, J.A. (ed.), Excavations at Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi (Berenice). Vol. 2, Economic Life at Berenice, Sculptures and Terracottas, Amphoras and Plain Wares. Department of Antiquities, Supplement to Libya Antiqua 5, Tripoli: 91–467.