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Garamantes

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Map of the Roman Empire under Hadrian (ruled 117 – 138 AD), showing the location of the Garamantes kingdom, in the desert regions south of the Roman province of Africa proconsularis (Tunisia, Libya).

The Garamantes (Ancient Greek: Γαράμαντες, romanized: Garámantes; Latin: Garamantes) were ancient peoples, who may have descended from Berber tribes, Toubou tribes, and Saharan pastoralists[1][2][3] that settled in the Fezzan region by at least 1000 BC[4] and established a civilization that flourished until its end in the late 7th century AD.[5] The Garamantes first emerged as a major regional power in the mid-2nd century AD and established a kingdom that spanned roughly 180,000 km2 (70,000 sq mi) in the Fezzan region of southern Libya. Their growth and expansion was based on a complex and extensive qanat irrigation system (Berber: foggaras), which supported a strong agricultural economy and a large population. They subsequently developed the first urban society in a major desert that was not centered on a river system; their largest town, Garama, had a population of around four thousand, with an additional six thousand living in surrounding suburban areas.[1] At its pinnacle, the Garamantian kingdom established and maintained a "standard of living far superior to that of any other ancient Saharan society"[1] and was composed of "brilliant farmers, resourceful engineers, and enterprising merchants who produced a remarkable civilization."[1]

Origin and prehistory

The Garamantes may have descended from Libyco-Berber tribes, Toubou tribes, and Saharan pastoralists,[1][2][3] who settled in an area of the Fezzan region by at least 1000 BC.[4] At Takarkori rockshelter, Final Pastoral peoples restructured their society and created burial sites for several hundred individuals that contained non-local, luxury goods and drum-type architecture in 3000 BP, which made way for the development of the Garamantian kingdom.[6] Final Pastoral peoples were also in contact with the Garamantes, who later acquired a monopoly on the oasis-based economy of the southern region of Libya.[7] People of the Tichitt culture in southeastern Mauritania may have also made domestic architectural and ceramic contributions to the Garamantian culture, possibly due to the presence of Sahelian women in Garamantian society as a result of intermarriage.[8] The practice of 'sacking' women from the south has also been attributed to the Garamantes, as well as to later populations such as the Tuareg and Tebu.[9]

History

Portion from the Zliten mosaic found in the Villa of Dar Buc Ammera depicting the execution of Garamantian prisoners through damnatio ad bestias in the Amphitheatre of Leptis Magna, c. 70 CE.

The earliest known written record to document the Garamantes dates to the 5th century BC.[1] Herodotus includes the Garamantes in his description of the ancient Libyan tribes, describing them as "a very great nation" who herded cattle and farmed dates.[10] According to Herodotus the Garamantes used four-horse chariots to hunt "Troglodyte Ethiopians"[11] in their quest for slaves.[12] Herodotus states that "the Libyans in the north and the Ethiopians in the south of Libya are aboriginal, the Phoenicians and Greeks are later settlers”; Libya being the Greek name for Africa west of the Nile.[13][14]

Besides Herodotus, historic references to the Garamantes also appear in several other Greco-Roman sources. After conducting a comprehensive review of quotes on the Garamantes from various sources, including Strabo, Arnobius Adv. Gentes, Ptolemy, and Solinus, David Mattingly et al. (2003) concluded:

Clearly, the perception of some of the Roman writers was that some Garamantians were negroid or very dark-skinned, whilst others saw them as essentially aligned with the Berber peoples. This mixed picture most likely reflects the ancient reality ... On the evidence of the sources alone, the likelihood is that the Garamantes encompassed a mixture of racial types: Berber, negro and various levels of miscegenation.[15]

Roman depictions describe the Garamantes as bearing ritual scars and tattoos. Tacitus wrote that they assisted the rebel Tacfarinas and raided Roman coastal settlements.[16] According to Pliny the Elder, in response to continuous Garamantian raiding, Lucius Cornelius Balbus and other Romans captured fifteen of their settlements in 19 BC. In 202 AD, Septimius Severus captured the capital city of Garama.[17]

The decline of the Garamantian culture may have been connected to worsening climatic conditions, or overuse of water resources.[18] Present-day desert in the Sahara was once agricultural land of fairly good quality that was further enhanced through the Garamantian irrigation system. As fossil water is a non-renewable resource, over several centuries of the Garamantian kingdom, the ground water level fell,[19] thereby, contributing to its end in the late 7th century AD.[5]

Society and culture

Location of the Garamantes in the Fezzan c. 600 AD, before the Islamic conquest.

In the 1960s, archaeologists excavated part of the Garamantes' capital at modern Germa (situated around 150 km west of modern-day Sabha) and named it Garama (an earlier capital, Zinkekara, was located not far from the later Garama). Current research indicates that the Garamantes had about eight major towns, three of which have been examined as of 2004. In addition they had a large number of other settlements. Garama had a population of around four thousand and another six thousand living in villages within a 5 km radius. Up to 50,000 people could have lived in the whole wadi. [20]

Nikita et al. (2011) indicated that the skeletons of the Garamantes do not suggest regular warfare or strenuous activities. Nikita et al. (2011) states: "The Garamantes exhibited low sexual dimorphism in the upper limbs, which is consistent to the pattern found in agricultural populations and implies that the engagement of males in warfare and construction works was not particularly intense. [...] the Garamantes did not appear systematically more robust than other North African populations occupying less harsh environments, indicating that life in the Sahara did not require particularly strenuous daily activities."[21]

The ruins of Garama, one of the major settlements

Archaeological ruins associated with the Garamantian kingdom include numerous tombs, forts, and cemeteries. The Garamantes constructed a network of tunnels, and shafts to mine the fossil water from under the limestone layer under the desert sand. The dating of these foggara is disputed, they appear between 200 BC to 200 CE but continued to be in use until at least the 7th century and perhaps later.[22] The network of tunnels is known to Berbers as Foggaras. The network allowed agriculture to flourish, and used a system of slave labor to keep it maintained.[1]

Slave raiding & trading

Based on Herodotus' account of Garamantes pursuing "Troglodyte Ethiopians",[23] Sonja and Carlos Magnavita (2018) say that "Saharan slave raids against Black Africans in classical times" might be a myth, though they admit that "hunting people for other purposes than for enslaving them is admittedly hard to imagine".[24] Nonetheless, five centuries after Herodotus, Roman merchants established themselves in Leptis Magna (Lybia) and Lixus (Morocco) to purchase the slaves the Berbers brought from Subsaharan Africa.[25][26]

Biological anthropology

Giuseppe Sergi (1951) analysed human skeletal remains from the Fezzan dating from the end of the Pastoral period up to the Roman period in the first centuries AD. Sergi concluded that the Garamantes were mostly of 'Mediterranean' type, similar to modern Berbers, which he termed 'Euroafrican'. He also found an influx of 'Negroid' types and an increase of 'mixed' types dating mostly from the Roman period.[27] In a review of the skeletal evidence analysed by Sergi, M.C. Chamla (1968) found that 46.6% of the individuals were of 'Eurafrican' type (closely related to Berbers), 26.6% were of mixed Eurafrican-Negroid type, and 26.6% were of 'a more predominantly Negroid' type.[28]

According to David Mattingly et al. (2003):

The Garamantes contained a significant component of light-skinned Libyans and some at least of these people were buried in monumental graves. This picture differs from the situation in the Sahara in the late Neolithic, as Chamla's work suggests a higher proportion of negroid types at that date, which might suggest that the creation of Garamantian civilisation involved the in-migration of at least some part of the population from regions to the north or northeast. The cemeteries contain a substantial number (over 50 percent) of individuals of either mixed blood or full negro physionomy. Some of these individuals may have been in poorer graves, but not all of them, suggesting that some individuals of mixed race or black skin were prominent within Garamantian society. Given the literary testimony of Garamantian raids against their 'Ethiopian' neighbours, it is likely that some of the negroes present were slaves or descendants of slaves. The maintenance of strong non-negroid traits into late and post-Garamantian contexts would seem to indicate that intermixing of the races was not completely open and may have been structured within Garamantian society.[29]

Francesca Ricci et al. (2013) analysed skeletal samples from the Garamantian site of Fewet in the Fezzan and found that they were similar to the Mediterranean 'Euroafrican' type identified by Sergi, but with some evidence for gene flow from (probably) sub-Saharan populations, "similarly to what Sergi (1951) suggested discussing the possible hybridization between the “Mediterranean” Group I and the “Negroid” Group IV." This gene flow was more evident in the female skeletons, suggesting an influx of non-local females possibly from the Sahel region.[27][30]

Marta Mirazón Lahr et al. (2010) conducted research on skeletons from Fezzan dating from the Roman era and found that the skeletons clustered most closely with Neolithic Sahelian samples from Chad, Mali, and Niger, and secondarily to Roman Egyptians from Alexandria and Nubians from Soleb. 1st millennium BC samples from Algeria and Tunisia were somewhat more distant but still rather close to the Fezzan skeletons. Lahr et al. concluded that the Garamantes had connections with both the Sahel and northern Africa.[31]

Efthymia Nikita et al. (2011) examined the biological affinities of the Garamantes using cranial nonmetric traits and the Mean Measure of Divergence and Mahalanobis D(2). They were compared to other North African populations, including the Egyptian, Algerian, Tunisian and Sudanese, roughly contemporary to them. Overall, three clusters were identified: (1) the Garamantes, (2) Gizeh and Kerma, and (3) Soleb, Alexandrians, Algerians and Carthaginians. The analysis concluded that the Garamantes were isolated, with the Sahara playing a role as a barrier to geneflow. The distance between the Garamantes and their neighbors was high and the population appeared to be an outlier.[32]

The remains of a young sub-Saharan African woman, which has been dated to the 1st millennium BC and possessed a lip plug that is associated with Sahelian African groups, was buried among other Sub-Saharan Africans that were part of the heterogenous Garamantian population. Power et al. (2019) states: "This ornament demonstrates that some Garamantes individuals shared aspects of their material culture with Sahelian societies more broadly, either through migration or contact, while their burial within Garamantes cemeteries shows their integration into the normative funerary rituals of contemporary Garamantian society. The combination of morphometric and isotopic work further reinforces the view that Garamantian society included individuals of diverse geographical origin, some of whom may have been first generation Trans-Saharan migrants." The craniometric results also identified another sub-group within the Garamantes buried in the Wadi al-Ajjal, with a morphology that is widely observed among Mediterranean people.[33]

Language

Linguist Roger Blench (2006) stated: “The Garamantes, whose empire in the Libyan Fezzan was overthrown by the Romans, wrote in a Libyan script, although we have no evidence they spoke Berber. What they did speak is open to conjecture; the most likely hypothesis is a Nilo-Saharan language, related either to Songhay or to Teda—the present-day language of the Tibesti.”[34]

Script

The Garamantes may have used a nearly indecipherable form of proto-Tifinagh.[35] Blench (2019) states:

One of the most problematic aspects is the language and inscriptions attributed to the Garamantes...Sites in the vicinity of Jarma, the Garamantian capital of what is now known as Fazzan, have abundant inscriptions (Fig. 14.7). 67 They are found cut or painted on dark grey amphorae, in the tombs of Garamantian cemeteries, such as those of Saniat bin Huwaydi.68 A recent project under the auspices of the British Library has digitised most of the known inscriptions and these are described in Biagetti et al.69 Although the inscriptions are in Berber characters, only some are decipherable. Various reasons for this have been suggested; either the messages were deliberately coded, so that only specific readers could understand them. Alternatively, they may have had a ‘ludic’ nature. The most exciting possibility is that they were in a non-Berber language, perhaps Nilo-Saharan or something unknown.[36]

Notes

References

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  3. ^ a b Kirwan, L.P. (1 November 1934). "Christianity and the Ḳura'án". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. Vol. 20. Sage Publications, Ltd. pp. 201–203. doi:10.2307/3854742. ISSN 0307-5133. JSTOR 3854742. S2CID 192397071.
  4. ^ a b Liverani, Mario (2003-10-01). Arid Lands in Roman Times. Papers from the International Conference (Rome, July 9th-10th 2001). All’Insegna del Giglio. ISBN 978-88-7814-266-4.
  5. ^ a b McDougall, E. Ann (25 February 2019). "Saharan Peoples and Societies". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Oxford Research Encyclopedias. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.285. ISBN 978-0-19-027773-4. S2CID 159184437.
  6. ^ Di Lernia, Savino; Tafuri, Mary Anne (March 2013). "Persistent deathplaces and mobile landmarks: The Holocene mortuary and isotopic record from Wadi Takarkori (SW Libya)". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 32: 3–5, 8–14. doi:10.1016/J.JAA.2012.07.002. hdl:11573/491908. ISSN 0278-4165. OCLC 5902856678. S2CID 144968825. Another major shift is recorded approximately 3000 BP: highly formalized architecture (drum-type), increased density (burial fields of several hundred tombs) and grave goods (including exotic items and prestige objects) testify of a deep reorganization of Final Pastoral society, eventually leading to the rise of the Garamantian state (Castelli et al., 2005; Castelli and Liverani, 2005; Biagetti and di Lernia, 2008; Mattingly et al., 2010).
  7. ^ Keita, Shomarka (Jan 1, 2010). "A Brief Introduction To A Geochemical Method Used In Assessing Migration In Biological Anthropology". Migration History in World History: Multidisciplinary Approaches. Brill. pp. 57–72. ISBN 9789004186453. OCLC 457129864.
  8. ^ Mori, Lucia; et al. (October 2013). Life and death at Fewet. Edizioni All'Insegna del Giglio. p. 381. doi:10.1400/220016. ISBN 9788878145948. OCLC 881264296. S2CID 159219731. "The commonalities between the Garamantian traditional architecture, as well as the pottery described in the previous paragraph, with the West African culture of Dhar Tichitt is worth noting. The difference in chronology, being Tichitt older than the Garamantes, and actually contemporary to the Final Pastoral phase, may suggest a role of the former in shaping the latter. Here we are not dealing with a simple assimilation of Tichitt traits in the Garamantian culture, but with their reconceptualization to create new outcomes. [...] this perfectly matches with what was previously suggested in regards to the Garamantian domestic architecture and pottery manufacture (the hypothesis of the Garamantian pottery being made by Sahelian women present in the local communities as result of intermarriage, was already proposed by Gatto in 2005).
  9. ^ Di Lernia, Savino; Manzi, Giorgio, eds. (2002). Sand, Stones, and Bones. The Archaeology of Death in The Wadi Tanezzuft Valley (5000-2000 BP). All’Insegna del Giglio. p. 291. ISBN 88-7814-281-6. For the late 3rd millennium bp, especially in the cemetery of Tahala, we have genetic indication of a marked sub-Saharan flow in the females, when compared to the males: this may be cautiously related to an increasing exogamy of these pastoral groups. Moreover, the 'black', sub-Saharan pool may be hypothetically considered as a first attestation of the practice to get women from southernmost territories. This practice lasted for millennia: according to the historians, Garamantes sacked women from the south, and this habit has been rather spread until the last centuries, especially within the Tuareg and Tebu populations (e.g., Fantoli 1933).
  10. ^ Herodotus. "Book IV". Histories.
  11. ^ Herodotus (1910). History of Herodotus. J.M. Dent. p. 183. ISBN 9780404541408. OCLC 1597464. S2CID 161943748.
  12. ^ Roland Oliver; Brian M. Fagan (1975). Africa in the Iron Age : c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. Cambridge University Press. p. 48. Herodotus reported that the Garamantes used chariots to raid for slaves among the black 'Ethiopians'
  13. ^ Herodotus. "Book II, chapter 16". Histories. If then our judgment of this be right, the Ionians are in error concerning Egypt; but if their opinion be right, then it is plain that they and the rest of the Greeks cannot reckon truly, when they divide the whole earth into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya; they must add to these yet a fourth part, the Delta of Egypt, if it belong neither to Asia nor to Libya; for by their showing the Nile is not the river that separates Asia and Libya; the Nile divides at the extreme angle of this Delta, so that this land must be between Asia and Libya.
  14. ^ Strabo. "Book II, Chapter 5:26". Geography. Now as you sail into the strait at the Pillars, Libya lies on your right hand as far as the stream of the Nile, and on your left hand across the strait lies Europe as far as the Tanaïs. And both Europe and Libya end at Asia.
  15. ^ The archaeology of Fazzan / Ed. by David J. Mattingley. 1: Synthesis. London: Society for Libyan Studies. 2003. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-900971-02-7.
  16. ^ Fage, J. D.; Oliver, Roland Anthony (1975). The Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21592-3.
  17. ^ Birley, Anthony R. (1999) [1971]. Septimius Severus: The African Emperor. Routledge. p. 153. doi:10.4324/9780203028599. ISBN 0-415-16591-1. OCLC 50482171. S2CID 238180946.
  18. ^ Beaumont, Peter (November 5, 2011). "Fall of Gaddafi opens a new era for the Sahara's lost civilisation". The Guardian. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  19. ^ Fentress, E.; Wilson, A. (February 2016). "The Saharan Berber diaspora and the southern frontiers of Vandal and Byzantine North Africa". North Africa under Byzantium and Early Islam, ca. 500 – ca. 800. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. pp. 41–63. ISBN 9780884024088. OCLC 900332363.
  20. ^ Archaeology, Current World (7 January 2005). "Garama: an ancient civilisation in the Central Sahara". World Archaeology.
  21. ^ Nikita, Efthymia; et al. (2011). "Activity patterns in the Sahara Desert: An interpretation based on cross-sectional geometric properties". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 146 (3): 423–434. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21597. ISSN 0002-9483. PMID 21953517. S2CID 1794284.
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  23. ^ Herodotus (1910). History of Herodotus. J.M. Dent. p. 183. ISBN 9780404541408. OCLC 1597464. S2CID 161943748.
  24. ^ Magnavita, Sonja; Magnavita, Carlos (18 Jul 2018). "All that Glitters is Not Gold: Facing the Myths of Ancient Trade between North and Sub-Saharan Africa". Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past. Brill. p. 26. doi:10.1163/9789004380189_003. ISBN 9789004380189. OCLC 1041204346. S2CID 201331821.
  25. ^ Roland Oliver; Brian M. Fagan (1975). Africa in the Iron Age : c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. Cambridge University Press. p. 53. Roman merchants established themselves in the Berber towns in order to buy [...] especially at Lepcis in Tripolitania and at Lixus on the Atlabtic coast of Morocco to deal in the gold and slaves brought across the Sahara by Berber caravan-traders
  26. ^ Harper, Kyle (2011-05-12). Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275–425. Cambridge University Press. pp. 87–88. ISBN 978-1-139-50406-5.
  27. ^ a b Ricci, Francesca; Tafuri, Mary Anne; Vincenzo, Fabio (2013). "The human skeletal sample from Fewet". In Mori, Lucia (ed.). Life and death of a rural village in Garamantian Times. The archaeological investigation in the Oasis of Fewet (Libyan Sahara). Edizioni All'Insegna del Giglio. pp. 319–362. ISBN 978-88-7814-594-8.
  28. ^ Mattingly, David; Edwards, David (2003). "Religious and Funerary Structures". In Mattingly, D.J. (ed.). The Archaeology of Fazzan, Volume 1: Synthesis. Department of Antiquities, Tripoli. The Society for Libyan Studies. pp. 232–233. ISBN 9781900971027.
  29. ^ Mattingly, David; Edwards, David (2003). "Religious and Funerary Structures". In Mattingly, D.J. (ed.). The Archaeology of Fazzan, Volume 1: Synthesis. Department of Antiquities, Tripoli. The Society for Libyan Studies. p. 233. ISBN 9781900971027.
  30. ^ Mori, Lucia; Gatto, Maria; Ricci, Francesca (2013). "Life and death at Fewet". In Mori, Lucia (ed.). Life and death of a rural village in Garamantian Times. The archaeological investigation in the Oasis of Fewet (Libyan Sahara). Edizioni All'Insegna del Giglio. pp. 375–387. ISBN 978-88-7814-594-8.
  31. ^ Nikita, Efthymia; et al. (2010). "Human Skeletal Remains". The Archaeology of Fazzan: Excavations of C.M. Daniels. Society for Libyan Studies. pp. 375–408. doi:10.2307/j.ctv2m7c4xg.16. ISBN 9781900971027. JSTOR j.ctv2m7c4xg.16. OCLC 749919245.
  32. ^ Nikita, Efthymia; et al. (1 February 2012). "Sahara: Barrier or corridor? Nonmetric cranial traits and biological affinities of North African late Holocene populations". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 147 (2): 280–292. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21645. ISSN 0002-9483. OCLC 5156510116. PMID 22183688.
  33. ^ Power, Ronika K.; et al. (2019). "Human Mobility and Identity: Variation, Diet and Migration in Relation to the Garamantes of Fazzan". Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge University Press. pp. 134–161. ISBN 9781108474085. OCLC 1108755670.
  34. ^ Blench, Roger (2006). "Afroasiatic: The Distribution of Afroasiatic and the History of Its Classification". Archaeology, Language, and the African Past. AltaMira Press. p. 155. ISBN 9780759104662. OCLC 62281704. S2CID 162052805.
  35. ^ Werner, Louis (May 2004). "Libya's Forgotten Desert Kingdom". AramcoWorld. 55 (3): 8–13.
  36. ^ Blench, Roger (Feb 14, 2019). "The Linguistic Prehistory of the Sahara". Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge University Press. p. 446. doi:10.1017/9781108634311.014. ISBN 978-1-108-47408-5. S2CID 197854997.

Further reading

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