In April 1974 the Department of Archaeology of the University of Garyounis (Benghazi) commenced a series of training excavations at Tocra, in co-ordination with the Department of Antiquities of Libya. The area chosen, to the north of the southern decutnanus near the centre of the walled city, was previously unexcavated and its surface was almost featureless (Fig. I). The seasons from 1974-1983 were conducted by Dr T. Suleiman, who concentrated his programme of training on selected trial trenches within the area, organised on a grid system of rectangles each 20 by 40 m. These trial trenches were taken down to bedrock. Suleiman published these excavations in three volumes (in Arabic), and concluded that the site probably represented the agora of Tocra (Sulciman 1986.21).

In April 1985 supervision of the excavations passed to A. Abusbee and then to F. Bentaher. The latter concentrated on the search for evidence of the Late Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, using a system of controlled clearance combined with sondages to establish stratigraphy, largely confined to the later occupation. Occasional soundings to bedrock were undertaken to ascertain the presence of earlier occupation. With hindsight it is clear that sub-phases and mud-brick structures were undoubtedly missed using this method. The development of stratigraphic archaeology in Libya has been a slow process, hut following the University's collaboration with the British mission to Euesperidcs, the ongoing University excavations at Tocra (in an area to the north of that published here) have since 1996 adopted more controlled stratigraphic techniques, with single context recording; with the result that more mud brick structures and late sub-phases are being identified.

The excavations between 1985 and 1992 uncovered the remains of six buildings. The stratificd materials spanned four main phases of occupation and included a large proportion of coarsewares. The four phases recognised are described here under the following terms: Hellenistic (second century BC to first century AD); Roman (first to mid third centuries AD); Latc RomanIByzantine (mid third to mid seventh centuries AD); and Islamic (mid seventh century An onwards). Analysis of the building plans shows that there were further sub-phases, not rccognised during excavation, detectable by the manner in which some walls abut others of the same broad phase.

Libyan Studies issue 30 1999 [French] (793 kB)

Libyan Studies issue 25 1994 [English] (544 kB)

Libyan Studies issue 31 2000 [English] (1.31 MB)

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