OasCiv: Making Oasis Civilisation in the Moroccan Sahara

Lead Research Organisation: University of Leicester
Department Name: Sch of Archaeology and Ancient History

Abstract

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.

Planned Impact

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.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description Fieldwork planned for 2020 was impacted by the COVID pandemic, leading to its cancellation/postponement, but this was eventually accomplished in November/December 2021 with highly significant outcomes. This put fieldwork a year behind the original planned schedule (further seasons of fieldwork have followed in November-December 2022, February- March 2024, with the final season planned for November-December 2024). As a result of this and also a change in the main PDRA employed in the project, the end date of the project has been moved back to 30 June 2025. At the same time, considerable progress has been made using previously gathered field data and new satellite image and GIS analysis, to categorise, map and analyse diachronic settlement in the Wadi Draa. On the strength of the results obtained, we now have an agreement with the UK Society for Libyan Studies to publish a series of Open Access e-monographs presenting the work of the project. The write up of the first 2 planned e-fascicles (a comprehensive gazetteer of sites and a period by period and thematic summary of the data) has advanced significantly through the work of the project PDRA, Martin Sterry. The Gazetteer volume is 100% completed, has been through acadmic review and is in final revision for publication in summer 2024. Significant elements of the synthesis volume are also complete (c.66%) and writing is advancing fast on the remaining sections, for target publication late 2024. In an area where only a handful of archaeological sites had been previously documented we have identified c.2,500 sites - one of the external readers specifically highlighted the importance of the discoveries in a region where so little was previously known. Radiocarbon dates already obtained have allowed us to identify the initial stages of sedentary settlement, linked to oasis farming, to date it to the pre-Islamic period (early-mid 1st millennium CE). Another focus of the work concerns the further development of settlement and oasis farming in the Medieval period and the project is well on the way to producing a uniquely detailed study for this period. An ERC grant awarded to the Co-I will allow additional excavations on further Medieval sites and additional scientific analyses of medieval materials complementing the AHRC work. The project team has published in Gold Open Access format two major articles, one on the Late Iron Age sites and the other on Medieval sites. A small grant awarded by another funder in 2021 has allowed a series of additional AMS (radiocarbon) dates to be obtained (broadly these confirm suspected dates on a series of sites under consideration for excavation as part of the OasCiv work). Grant application to NEIF in 2022 and 2023 for batches of 20 AMS dates arising from the 2021 and 2022 excavations were both successful. Metallurgical and archaeobotanical finds are now undergoing analysis in the UK. The sites excavated in 2021 included a settlement and an internationally significant set of painted tombs of the late Iron Age. The latter will be the subject of the 3rd planned fascicle in the Open Access publication series - on which work by the project team has also now begun. The 2022 excavations focused on a series of sites on the south side of the Wadi Draa in the BOU sector. The main effort was concentrated on a Medieval fortified site (BOU003 - with a deep sounding made down to the original ground surface below the site) and a late Medieval/early modern open settlement (BOU051 - where a substantial part of a single complex house was excavated, along with some small-scale work on a mosque and marabout tomb). In addition work was also carried out on a series of field/garden/canal systems associated with these sites and some vestigial evidence of Iron Age activity that preceded the medieval phase (mainly a series of silos with carbonised cereal grain associated). The finds from the house were particularly rich, especially from a store room, with numerous intact pottery vessels. The February 2024 excavations then focused on 2 hilltop settlements, one late Iron Age (LAR002), the other early medieval (LAR003/004) on the north side of the river opposite BOU057 etc. The suite of excavations in the LAR/BOU settlement sites will be presented in volume 4 of the monograph series, exploring the long-term study of settlement and activity in this crucial region. Detailed botanical sampling and flotation work in 2021-2024 has yielded a good suite of material for further study. Further sampling work focused on evidence of metallurgy of both Iron Age and Medieval date.
Exploitation Route There are major implications for the dating of the earliest Iron Age oasis settlements in the Western Sahara and also for the understanding of how medieval societies developed farming and trade and the overall population base. We anticipate that the radiocarbon dates on botanical remains will confirm the earliest evidence for cereal and date cultivation in the Western Sahara, significantly pushing back the initiation of oasis farming in this region. The 2022 fieldwork added considerable datasets to the emerging picture which now need further study ahead of publication. Completion of the final season of planned fieldwork and further study of excavated finds are needed to fully realise the outcomes. However, the publication of the two articles, the overall survey results and the 2021-2024 excavations are significant research contributions and landmark publications on the themes the project is addressing.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Environment

Leisure Activities

including Sports

Recreation and Tourism

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

 
Description Despite the difficulties of the pandemic, our Moroccan partner (Professor Youssef Bokbot, INSAP) has been advancing our plans to establish a local museum in Zagora, the main town in our study area. A building was made available and the first exhibition materials installed on the region's archaeology in 2022. These panels were produced in French and Arabic (with Berber headings) by a third party agency, but making substantial use of our data, plans, maps and photographic imagery. However, due to the COVID pandemic the exhibition centre has not yet been officially opened. During the 2021 field season, when we excavated a series of uniquely important painted tombs and an associated settlement, we had high level meetings with regional and state officials to discuss the future preservation and presentation of the area's heritage. This included a visit to the excavation by the director of the Moroccan national antiquities service (INSAP) - a 4 day round trip from his base at Rabat, another by the Berber cultural affairs advisor to the Moroccan Prime Minister, various representatives of the regional Governorat at Zagora and local political leaders from all the villages in the vicinity. This enabled the project team to significantly raise awareness of the huge importance of the archaeology in the Wadi Draa and the opportunities for this to exploited for the benefit of the local community. At the end of the season Bokbot and Mattingly had a personal meeting with the Zagora Governor, at which he agreed to appoint a guardian to protect the tombs we had excavated (this protection is still continuing in February 2024) and some outline ideas were presented to him for a longer term development of an archaeological and ecological park in the desert area centred on the tombs. We understand the regional Governorat is now developing plans, with significant external funding, for a Geo-Parc in the region, that will feature both archaeological heritage and natural ecology of the desert to support sustainable tourism and local education and identity/cultural values. These discussions are continuing with local stakeholders in 2024 and there will be an exhibition on the project during our November season, with further opportunities to feed in to planning of the Geo-Parc development. During the 2021-2024 seasons, a Moroccan film maker has recorded interviews with team members and footage of the digs for a documentary on the project. We do not have a schedule for the film to be finished, but we anticipate that it will be screened on Moroccan TV towards the end of the project. All in all, there has been significant progress of our impact agenda this year, in line with our plans. The project excavations have continued to receive further visits from local officials and interested parties, building on the previous work we have done to establish relationships with the local community and regional government.
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

 
Description EVERYDAY ISLAM: Becoming Muslim: Cultural Change, Everyday Life and State Formation in early Islamic North Africa (600-1000
Amount € 1,498,688 (EUR)
Funding ID 949367 
Organisation European Commission H2020 
Sector Public
Country Belgium
Start 01/2021 
End 12/2025
 
Description National Environment Isotope Facility (NEIF) award of 20 AMS (radiocarbon dates) for the OasCiv project
Amount £12,819 (GBP)
Funding ID 2637.0423 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2023 
 
Description National Environment Isotope Facility (NEIF) award of 20 AMS (radiocarbon dates) for the OasCiv project (in kind value £12,999)
Amount £12,999 (GBP)
Funding ID 2495.0422 (NEIF number) 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2022 
End 06/2023
 
Description Society for Libyan Studies, small grant (for radiocarbon dates)
Amount £2,997 (GBP)
Organisation Society for Libyan Studies 
Sector Learned Society
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2021 
End 03/2022
 
Description Collaboration with University of Leicester Centre for Endangered Archaeology and Heritage 
Organisation University of Leicester
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The OasCiv project is now an affiliated research project within the new Research Centre for Endangered Archaeology and Heritage at University of Leicester (which is also directed by the PI). This will help to give greater visibility to the OasCiv project and to enhance publicity of its work and results. It is also hoped that the Centre will facilitate impact building aspects of the project.
Collaborator Contribution The Research Centre comprises a grouping of researchers working on aspects of Endangered Heritage. There will be future in kind and potential direct £ contributions to report in future years
Impact Will have more to report on this in 2023
Start Year 2022
 
Description Keynote on early Islamic world at Edinburgh 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Keynote presentation on early Islamic world
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Online Lecture to International Research Centre (RomanIslam Centre Hamburg, Germany) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Lecture was on one of main discoveries of OasCiv project, the painted tombs of BOU057. This was one of the first public presentations of the discoveries
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Online lecture for the Annual General Meeting of the Society for Libyan Studies 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The AGM Lecture was on Desert Landmarks? Rethinking State and Society in the Ancient Sahara - addressing Oasis Civilisations of Libyan and other regions of the Sahara, including Southern Morocco. The AHRC funded work was explicitly highlight and source of funding acknowledged. The recorded lecture is available for download from the Society's webpage.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.societyforlibyanstudies.org/recorded-lectures-and-webinars/
 
Description Online presentation on archaeology of medieval Sahara (Institute of Classical Studies London) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A presentation entitled Trade without trace: Gold, Slaves and the Transformation of the Medieval Sahara held as part of a seminar series on deserts in the ancient world at the Institute of Classical Studies which was online and reached international audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Podcast with History Hit on ancient desert civilisations (including Moroccan work) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact I was interviewed for the History Hit Ancient History Podcast (overall title The Garamantes: Farming the Sahara) and the hour long discussion was released in December 2020 on multiple platforms, e.g. the URL entered in box below
I do not have figures on number of listeners, but the audience is international and large. My University has also distributed the link to our students and I have circulated it to international contacts. The AHRC project is mentioned specifically in the podcast and the source of funding acknowledged
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://play.acast.com/s/the-ancients/thegaramantes-sovereignsofthesahara
 
Description Presentation of results of the Oasis Civilisations project to an international conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Lecture delivered in French at conference in Rabat, Morocco on 12/5/23 attended by Moroccan Minister of Culture and national head of antiquities service in Morocco (INSAP)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation on archaeobotanical results (Reading, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation of paper on archaeobotanical results from the Wadi Draa at national workshop on environmental archaeology hosted by the University of Reading. The paper sparked questions and discussion and disseminated the results of the project to a specialist audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation on medieval Sahara, IIAS 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This paper titled 'New light on the medieval Sahara' presented the medieval results from the Wadi Draa at the FEllows Forum (online) at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem which sparked questions and discussion and dissemenated the results to a broad audience
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation on medieval results (Hamburg) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper titled 'Medieval archaeology in the Moroccan Sahara: settlement dynamics in the Draa valley' presented the medieval results from from fieldwork in the Wadi Draa at workshop at the Rome-Islam Center at the University of Hamburg which sparked questions and discussion and disseminated the results to a broad audience
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation on metallurgy results (EAA Belfast) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This paper titled 'Copper production and oases development in the Medieval Moroccan Sahara' presented the results of archaeometallurgical analysis of copper from the Wadi Draa at the European Archaeology Annual Meeting in Belfast which sparked questions and discussion and dissemenated the results to a broad audience
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.e-a-a.org/eaa2023
 
Description Presentation on metallurgy results (Historical Metallurgy Society, UK) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper titled 'Copper production in the Medieval Moroccan Sahara' presented the results of archaeometallurgical analysis of copper from the Wadi Draa which sparked questions and discussion and disseminated the results to a broad audience
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation on metallurgy results (UCL arch science seminar) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This paper presented the results of archaeometallurgical analysis of copper from the Wadi Draa which sparked questions and discussion and dissemenated the results to a broad audience
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Public lecture online on Desert Civilisation (Centre for Landscape Studies Annual Lecture) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Lecture title: In the Shadow of the desert: the making of Roman Africa
The lecture was online and I believe will also be made available as a recording at some point. Although the primary audience was interdisciplinary academic audience, the event was also open to and advertised to general public.
The Moroccan work was referred to in the lecture and funding source acknowledged
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020