OasCiv: Making Oasis Civilisation in the Moroccan Sahara

Saharan prehistory and Neolithic rock art has attracted considerable archaeological attention in recent decades, but the Protohistoric and Medieval phases of settlement and activity are neglected by comparison. Knowledge of the ancient populations of the Sahara remains constrained by lack of archaeological investigation, the biased testimonies of the ancient sources and the uncritical assumptions of modern scholarship about Berber (Amazigh) peoples. Apart from the PI's work in S Libya on a people called the Garamantes, there has been an almost complete lack of field investigation of these societies, especially those of the W Sahara.
Our recent demonstration of pre-Islamic origins of the earliest oasis agriculture and sedentary settlements in the Wadi Draa in the Moroccan W Sahara challenges a long-held model that has characterised the pre-Islamic populations of the W Sahara as essentially nomadic pastoralists and denied the evolution of oases there before the early Medieval 'Arab' conquest of N Morocco and Muslim investment in Saharan trade. This much earlier date for the establishment of first oases marks a major paradigm shift. Our proposed project seeks to investigate the character of the Protohistoric societies responsible for this transformation in the first millennium AD. The early Medieval story of the peoples of the Moroccan Sahara is also neglected, but of the highest significance to the emergence of the first Islamic states in N Africa (8th-10th centuries) and the great Medieval empires of the Almoravids and Almohads (11th-13th centuries). These began as revitalisation movements involving the oasis communities of S Morocco, but, for lack of robust archaeological data, the Saharan and Amazigh roots of Islamic civilisation have never been fully evaluated. This project thus seeks to re-evaluate the contribution of endogenous Amazigh groups to the emergence of sedentary farming and urbanised states in Morocco during the Roman/early Medieval eras.
This project will identify how and why complex societies emerged in the W Sahara by conducting the first scientific excavations of Protohistoric and Medieval settlements, cemeteries and farming landscapes recently discovered in the Wadi Draa. We argue that the emergence of oasis societies is critical to understanding how Saharan trading networks and Islamic empires such as the 11th-century Almoravids were subsequently established. The research potential has been demonstrated by our pilot survey, revealing well-preserved landscapes and hundreds of sedentary sites linked to precocious oasis development in the Draa. The next phase of work will investigate exactly how and more precisely when this occurred. It will put 'flesh on the bones' of a new paradigm for understanding the ancient Saharan populations and provide a much needed counterbalance for the hitherto unique (and possibly exceptional) case study of the Garamantes as a precocious Saharan state-level society. By providing the first robust data-sets on the historic peoples of the Moroccan Sahara, this pioneering project will advance knowledge and understanding of both Protohistoric and Medieval phases, intersecting with wider debates about e.g. sedentarisation, urbanisation and state formation, migration, technologies, trade and connectivity in North Africa and well beyond. The work will draw out the Saharan particularities of these key societal developments.
Using interdisciplinary methods, we shall investigate palaeoeconomy, technological capability, social organisation and religion and cultic practices of these desert populations. Four excavation seasons will target a series of different archaeological sites to illustrate the varied aspects of these societies, their economies and belief systems. The exploration of oasis civilisation existing alongside pastoral groups in the Sahara will mark both a fundamental scientific advance and a finding of considerable significance beyond academia.

As further explained in our Pathways to Impact document, the research has wide implications beyond academia. We have identified the following beneficiaries:
National policy makers. The Moroccan government and its regional government agencies are strong supporters of the project in an area that has seen limited prior heritage work but that has high potential. Annual work programmes are agreed with them along with police clearances and access to some sites within military sectors of the valley. We are working with colleagues in the Moroccan heritage service (INSAP) to influence policy makers to enhance heritage protection and to develop a strategy for the management and exploitation of the valley's extraordinary heritage. We have already succeeded in getting the Governorat of Zagora to intervene in a case of stone-robbing from a major site. Government officials and diplomats interested in strengthening UK-Moroccan relations will be engaged through invitations to public lectures, workshops, conferences, media appearances and exhibitions arising from the project.
The Moroccan Antiquities service. Our collaborating organisation, INSAP, benefits not only from our data collection, but also through skills transfer to their staff on the project. Young Moroccan archaeologists and heritage professionals, including University students will gain valuable experience in field skills, rapid documentation, site management and public outreach - enhancing future job prospects by developing transferable and employability skills. We shall also build research capacity by providing opportunities for Moroccan colleagues to publish in high-profile international journals.
The local community. Community engagement work focuses on an established relationship with the Maison de Culture in Zagora, providing a framework for local engagement and dissemination activities. We have already established links with local heritage civic society groups, working collaboratively with them and encouraging them to take active measures to protect sites under threat from modern development. The local people are predominantly Amazigh and thus recognise the cultural importance of the pre-Islamic phases of the valley's history (e.g. ancient 'Libyan' inscriptions found by our survey are similar to the modern Berber script). In 2016 we created a travelling exhibition, displayed at the Zagora Maison de Culture and in the other regional centre at Ouzerzate and three public lectures have been delivered in Zagora (attended by >300 people). In the new project we shall develop our public engagement and local impact work- giving annual public lectures, organising a new traveling exhibition (designed for easy transport and erection in schools and community centres up and down the valley).
Tourism bodies. The current tourism operators - hoteliers, guides and foreign travel companies - will benefit from our work and its potential to enhance the marketability of the valley to visitors during the peak winter tourist season. The tourism sector is Morocco's second largest employer after agriculture. There is currently no public museum within the valley, though a growing flow of tourists on walking and 4WD heritage tours. Museums and tourist boards in both countries, at national and local level, will be involved in arranging exhibitions and displays related to the project and we shall provide relevant didactic materials to them.
In terms of achieving our long term goals, the predicted discoveries - especially the painted tombs, the hillforts with rock art and Medieval Zagora town - have the potential to form the core of a permanent museum and we shall work with the range of local stakeholders - from government officials and policymakers, to local activists and tourism agents, to the local community - to achieve the inauguration of such a museum. Whilst the full establishment of the museum will likely extend beyond the project's timeframe, this is nonetheless a valid impact goal.