British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies

The British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies is a British academic body, sponsored by the British Academy, which since 1969 has fostered and developed links between British and Libyan scholars in a wide range of fields including the natural sciences, linguistics, archaeology, history and geography. It publishes a journal, detailed reports on its field projects, and a popular series of travel books. It also runs a regular lecture series in London on a wide range of topics relating to Libyan culture and heritage, which are open to the public.

The Society publishes detailed reports on its field projects as part of a monograph series. In addition, Silphium Press is the popular imprint of The Society for Libyan Studies, dedicated to works of more general interest on Libya. Found only in Cyrenaican Libya, it was appreciated throughout the Mediterranean world from the seventh century BC to the first century AD when it became extinct, probably through overexploitation. Their logo is inspired by images on the coins of Cyrene.

Format: Hardback

Pages: 700

ISBN: 9781900971188

Pub Date: 31 Aug 2013

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Series: Society for Libyan Studies Monograph

Description:

This is the concluding volume of the Archaeology of Fazzān series, bringing to press the combined results of two Anglo-Libyan projects in southern Libya: the pioneering work of Charles Daniels between 1958 and 1977 and the Fazzān Project directed by David Mattingly between 1997 and 2001. The investigations carried out by these two projects allow an entirely new reconstruction and understanding of the historic desert societies of the Libyan Sahara. In particular, the work has shed light on the ancient people known to Greco-Roman writers as the Garamantes, who are now revealed to have been a sophisticated state, with permanent towns and villages and an economy based on oasis agriculture and Saharan trade.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 368

ISBN: 9781900971140

Pub Date: 01 May 2013

Imprint: Silphium Press

Description:

This is the second volume in this series, which was launched to great acclaim in 2009. Cyrenaica (known to the Arabs as the Jabal Akhdar, the Green Mountain) has a terrain which resembles that of Greece or western Turkey. It was settled at an early date by Greeks and subsequently was part of the Roman and Byzantine empires before the advent of the Arabs.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

ISBN: 9781900971126

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2011

Imprint: Silphium Press

Description:

Egypt, Carthage and other African civilisations are well documented but the land and people between them are less well known yet also worthy of consideration. This collection of extracts from classical authors on subjects relating to ancient Libya presents more than fifty writers from Homer to the end of the Roman Empire and provides an eclectic mixture of descriptions of Libya, its people, flora, fauna, climate, geography and episodes in its history as presented by politicians, poets, philosophers, priests, historians and soldiers, both native and foreign.Newly translated and illustrated with a variety of photographs, maps, line drawings and specially commissioned illustrations, with a comprehensive glossary and suggestions for further reading and research, the book is suitable for both the general reader and the specialist.

Travellers in Turkish Libya 1551-1911 Cover

Format: Paperback

Pages: 240

ISBN: 9781900971133

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2011

Imprint: Silphium Press

Description:

From Tripoli to the ancient ruins of Leptis Magna, from the slave markets to the farthest reaches of the Sahara: here is a mosaic of unknown places, handed down to us by the foreign visitors and travellers who experienced them first hand over four centuries (1550-1911). European consuls (and their sisters and wives), archaeologists, explorers, sailors and colonisers have all left colourful accounts of their Libyan experiences: the bustle of the suqs and gossip of the harem, the terrors of slavery, the endless, parched caravan marches across the desert and the characters they met along the way. Almost fifty contributors bring a fresh perspective to a country that has fascinated foreigners for millenia.

The Archaeology of Fazzan volume 3 Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 641

ISBN: 9781900971102

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2010

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Series: Society for Libyan Studies Monograph

Description:

The Archaeology of Fazzan is a major series of reports on the archaeology and history of Libya’s south-west desert region.This volume contains reports and analysis on a series of excavations carried out between 1958 and 1977 by the British archaeologist Charles Daniels, lavishly illustrated by site plans and numerous colour photographs – particularly of the rich artefact assemblages recovered. The publication will be high profile and a significant landmark in work seeking to record information about Libya’s long-term Saharan heritage.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 256

ISBN: 9781900971096

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2010

Imprint: Silphium Press

Description:

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the “War in the Desert”, that epic struggle of the Second World War between Axis (Italian and German) and Allied (principally British Commonwealth) forces for control of North Africa, from 1940 to 1943. The current literature concentrates on the military battles, but war cannot be separated from politics: War and Politics sets out to fill this void by chronicling and analyzing the key political debates.For the first time, Kelly describes the political background to the future of the Italian colony of Libya, and the tribes, sects and factions dwelling in Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and the Fezzan, and their fundamental importance in the development of Libya towards independence in 1951.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 368

ISBN: 9781900971065

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2009

Imprint: Silphium Press

Illustrations: 1 map

Description:

Forty years ago (September 1969) Moammar Gadafi seized power in Libya in a military coup. To mark this event, John Wright has made this selection from his own shorter writings which examine and explain Libya's complex and troubled past - the historical interplay of events, influences and personalities that helped to shape the modern state.From this selection read about.

RRP: £15.00

Format: Paperback

Pages: 232

ISBN: 9781900971089

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2009

Imprint: Silphium Press

Illustrations: 113 illustrations

Description:

This is the first in a new series of guides to the archaeology of Libya, from prehistoric times until the invasion of the Bani Hilal in AD 1051. It deals with a region which offers the visitor not only the classical splendours of UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Sabratha and Lepcis Magna, but also a hinterland which is rich in standing monuments of the Punic, Roman and early Islamic periods. All are described and explained in a comprehensive gazetteer, packed full of plans and photographs, and with GPS coordinates and directions for visiting.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 205

ISBN: 9781900971072

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2008

Imprint: Silphium Press

Description:

In between the search for the Poles, the climbing of Everest and the Space Race, the exploration of the Sahara - a huge swathe of terrain, the size of India - by motor car is one of the untold chapters in the story of twentieth-century exploration. Many people have become fascinated by this area since falling in love with the scenery of 'The English Patient'.

Format: Hardback

Pages: 581

ISBN: 9781900971058

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2007

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Series: Society for Libyan Studies Monograph

Description:

The Archaeology of Fazzan, volume II, Site Gazetteer, Pottery and other Survey Finds, Edited by David J. Mattingly “The Libyan Sahara is one of the richest desert areas for the study of human adaptation to changing environmental and climatic conditions. This is the second volume in a projected series of four reports detailing the combined results of two Anglo-Libyan projects in Fazzan, Libya’s south-west province.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 338

ISBN: 9781900971041

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2006

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Series: Society for Libyan Studies Monograph

Illustrations: 111 figs, 13 tabs

Description:

The Sahara is Libya's outstanding landscape feature and is the source of most of its significant natural resources. This desert region is also extraordinarily rich in historical and cultural heritage that is in itself another valuable resource, through exploitation by Libya's tourism industry. This volume draws attention to the link between the benefits that Libya draws from its Saharan resources (oil, gas, water, minerals and tourism) and the need to safeguard and record aspects of its cultural heritage.

RRP: £45.00

The Archaeology of Fazzan , Vol. 1 Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 454

ISBN: 9781900971027

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2003

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Series: Society for Libyan Studies Monograph

Illustrations: 460 fig, 31 tables

Description:

A detailed report, the first in a series of four, of two Anglo-Libyan projects carried out in the Fazzan region of southwest Libya. This volume outlines the history of the area, the work of Charles Daniels in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and the most recent project directed by David Mattingly. The aims of the project are matched by the sections of this report and include syntheses of survey and excavation evidence for the geography, climate, hydrology and environment, as well as archaeological and historical data.

Format: Hardback

Pages: 462

ISBN: 9781900971010

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2003

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Series: Society for Libyan Studies Monograph

Illustrations: 376 figs, 2 maps

Description:

Christian Monuments of Cyrenaica publishes archaeological studies undertaken between 1953 and 1971 by the late J. B. Ward-Perkins (d.

Excavations at Surt (Medinet al-Sultan) between 1977 and 1981 Cover

Format: Paperback

Pages: 135

ISBN: 9781900971003

Pub Date: 31 Dec 2002

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Description:

The Islamic city of Surt was, even at its peak during the middle and second half of the tenth century AD, a modest settlement. It was, however, a prosperous city, a commercial centre. In addition, it was a military staging place for the Fatimid invasion of Egypt.

RRP: £12.00

Excavations at Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi (Berenice) Volume 1

The mosaics and marble floors

Format: Paperback

Pages: 174

ISBN: 9781915808097

Pub Date: 31 Dec 1998

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Series: Supplements to Libya Antiqua

Illustrations: 110 figs, 16 plates

Description:

The excavations sponsored by the Society for Libyan Studies at Sidi Khrebish (Benghazi) have provided a full account of the Greek settlement and later Roman occupation of the city of Berenice. The published volumes provide the most significant interdisciplinary documentation of the archaeology of an urban site in North Africa, on a scale comparable to Carthage.Volume IV: Part 1: The Mosaics and Marble Floors (D.

Farming the Desert: The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 424

ISBN: 9780950836386

Pub Date: 31 Dec 1996

Imprint: Society for Libyan Studies

Description:

The desert margins of North Africa are extremely rich in archaeological ruins of the Roman period, evidence of dense settlement 2,000 years ago in what are now arid and hostile environments. Historians, geographers and archaeologists have long debated the significance of these sites, explaining the 'Greening of the Desert' variously in terms of environmental change, colonization, external market forces or combinations of factors. The debate so far has been characterized by the lack of scientific data from any one region concerning, on the one hand, the nature of settlement, society and land-use and, on the other, the contemporary climate and environment; this has made it impossible to compare rigorously the strengths and weaknesses of the alternative theories.