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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