By Will Raynolds

 

Libyan scouts participate in a mock excavation in Janzour (Photo: Talal Bariun).

In the relative calm that prevailed in the aftermath of the 2011 Libyan revolution, young Suleiman al Magrisi traveled with his parents to the pine forest surrounding the Greco-Roman archaeological site of Cyrene, the most popular picnic spot in Libya’s Green Mountain region. “I saw a group of children wearing uniforms, and they invited me to join them in some games. It turned out that they were also from Benghazi, and the next thing I knew, they invited me to join their organization,” he recalled. This chance encounter with the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides of Libya (BSGG) changed his life.

Now a 20-year-old student of electrical engineering, al Magrisi rose through the ranks and currently leads a troop of thirty scouts, meeting with them every week for activities like campfires and lectures. With more than 20,000 members, the BSGG is the largest civil society organization in the country. “Our programming is often focused on history. I encourage my troop to come to meetings dressed in traditional Libyan clothes rather than their uniforms to encourage a sense of pride in our rich past,” he explained. “Still, I am dealing with teenage boys, and they want more than lectures. I need to get them outside and take them to places that connect them to history directly.”

Opportunities for such field trips have become scarce in recent years. Since a spike in violence in 2014 that led to the withdrawal of most western embassies, museums around the country have been closed to the public in order to better protect their priceless displays. From the national museum in the Red Castle in Tripoli to the stunning collections at the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Sabratha, Leptis Magna and Cyrene, a wealth of artifacts attest to the nomadic peoples who once roamed North Africa in prehistory, the inception and growth of Punic and Greco-Roman cities, the flourishing of early Christianity, and the arrival and spread of Islam. For the time being, this material remains safely behind closed doors, but sensible measures taken for protection impede efforts like al Magrisi’s to foster pride in Libyan history.

To help mitigate this challenge, employees of the Libyan Department of Antiquities (DoA) and volunteers from the BSGG laid the groundwork for a series of “pop-up” museums. Inspired by workshops sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and Oberlin College featuring the work of museum exhibit designer Paul Orselli, they created temporary displays and outreach activities to ensure that young Libyans had better opportunities to learn about their history and their role in protecting it.

Currently, the employees of DoA have no regular operating budget, yet their work continues. From warding off looters and illegal encroachment to conducting damage assessments and maintenance at Libyan sites caught in the crossfire during years of conflict, the list of their pressing responsibilities is long. To make greater headway with limited resources, DoA has been seeking assistance from ordinary citizens willing to work to safeguard Libyan cultural heritage sites for the future.

Given some additional training and the chance to work directly alongside DoA archaeologists, members of the BSGG are contributing much needed volunteer support for the mission of DoA. As part of a collaborative agreement with the U.S. Department of State, the ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives has recently played a pivotal role in this work, sponsoring and supervising the implementation two jamboree-style workshops: one in the western town of Janzour, a suburb of Tripoli, and one at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Cyrene.

During the “pop-up” activities, Scouts and Guides worked closely with DoA staff, learning more about Libyan heritage through presentations and training activities. Following the scouting philosophy of “learning by doing,” participants then worked alongside DoA staff. With support from ASOR to defray the cost of travel, lodging, and workshop equipment, the joint teams were able to meet critical needs on site.

A DoA representative presents to scouts on Libyan history in the “pop-up” museum hosted in a large tent normally deployed for social occasions like weddings and funerals. (Photo: Talal Bariun).

 

Janzour

“When the scouts first arrived, they knew nothing about archaeology. They had never seen an archaeological site, and we had them camp right next to one,” explained Intisar al Arebi, an archaeologist who works for the Tripoli office of DoA. Thanks to the support of al Arebi and other government archaeologists like her, scouts from Tripoli, Khoms, and Sebratha gathered at the enclosed compound of the Janzour Museum for three days in March, pitching their tents next to a complex of Punic and Roman tombs dating to the 1^st-4^th centuries AD.

According to al Arebi, DoA staff offered the group an overview of Libyan history, explained how they uncover and study evidence about the past, and helped them understand their role in protecting archaeological sites for the future. Under DoA supervision, the group of 32 participants then carried out a small training excavation. “By the end of it, I had scouts coming up to me saying that they want to become archaeologists and join DoA. This might seem like a small thing, but it is very unusual in the Libyan context, where every kid says they want to be a doctor or an engineer. We really managed to get our message across,” al Arebi recalled with pride.

Participants pitched tents on the museum grounds, staying on site for the multi-day program (photo: Talal Bariun).

 

A scout engaged with the training excavation unearths a “find” planted by the organizers (photo: Talal Bariun).

 

On the final day, DoA and BSGG hosted an open house to spread their joint message to a broader audience, urging the parents of the scouts and the community at large to do their parts to protect Libyan cultural heritage. “We find that speaking to kids is really the gateway into the entire family,” al Arebi reported. “The kids get excited and get their parents involved rather than the other way around. When we saw a scout leading his grandfather around the site and explaining it to him, we knew our model for outreach was working.”

The workshop concluded with an open house for the public (Photo: Talal Bariun).

 

Cyrene

Following the success in Janzour, there was a strong interest in replicating the program elsewhere. Fadl abd al Aziz, the former Inspector of Antiquities at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Cyrene, saw tremendous potential in using a workshop with the scouts to go beyond outreach and actually put the volunteers to work cleaning the site. Cyrene, first settled as a Greek colony in the 7th century B.C., continued to prosper under the Ptolomies and later the Romans. It continues to attract large numbers of Libyan tourists, like the Scout leader Suleiman al Magrisi and his family, who travel to the site from nearby cities in order to enjoy the ruins on a breathtaking promontory overlooking the forested hills of the Green Mountain and the Mediterranean Sea. This region receives so much rain (and even snow) that plants grow quickly, and DoA staff struggle to stay on top of routine maintenance. Abd al Aziz believed that with supervision from DoA, the scouts could contribute significantly to the preservation of the site.

Temple of Zeus at Cyrene (photo: Will Raynolds).

 

DoA launched a public exhibition in July, reinforcing a powerful message: even though Libyan sites and collections are currently under threat, there is much that can be done to protect them. With this show of support from DoA, BSGG saw an opportunity for a further “pop-up” event on the sidelines of the exhibition. Over 5 days, 52 BSGG participants from Tripoli, Benghazi, Al Beidah, and Shahat convened at Cyrene to celebrate Libyan cultural heritage and work alongside Abd al Aziz and his team of DoA archaeologists

DoA and the Libyan Interim Government hosted the First Exhibition of Retrieved and Received Artifacts in Shahat. (Photo: Talal Bariun).

 

Abd al Hafid Jaber, one of the Scout leaders, was surprised by the unusually strong turnout: “We initially organized the event with fifteen Scouts in mind, but word of this event travelled. We actually had to cap attendance on the basis of the limited resources and turn some troops away.” Abd al Aziz prioritized site cleaning and stabilization of the area surrounding the House of Jason Magnus, a portion of the site renowned for its in situ mosaic floors. DoA site conservation staff gave hands-on tutorials in site maintenance, and the team began carefully removing plants that had taken root on and near the mosaics.

DoA and BSGG work on site maintenance near the House of Jason Magnus (photo: Talal Bariun).

 

Libyan scouts screen cleared debris for mosaic tesserae (photo: Talal Bariun).

Suleiman al Magrisi, the Scout leader from Benghazi, felt fortunate that he and his troop were among the participants. “This was a chance for me to return to the same site where my scouting experience first started and make a lasting contribution. We all worked hard, and we managed to accomplish in four days what would have normally taken the DoA team an entire month. By the end, the scouts and the government employees were working on site side by side, as though we were from the same family.”

Scouts clean the dust off mosaic floors, helping the public better appreciate the richness of Cyrene (Photo: Talal Bariun).

 

The team also erected several small canopies, providing a space to directly engage the public. Every day, roughly 30 visitors came to the site to learn more about their work, and the team was also interviewed by local radio and television stations. Another civil society organization supporting local orphans was so inspired by this work that they also volunteered. DoA and BSGG are convinced that this model of cultural heritage outreach combined with active volunteer work can be successful at other sites such as Ptolemais, Leptis Magna, and Sabratha.

Libyan Scout and Girl Guide Participants from the Shahat Workshop (photo: Talal Bariun).

 

How You Can Help

While Libya remains politically fractured and volatile, DoA and BSGG plan to expand their partnership through additional similar workshops, regularly incorporating Scout volunteers to assist with ongoing site maintenance and monitoring programs. Intisar al Arebi, the DoA archaeologist, sees this collaboration as a vital way to push for cultural heritage protection nationwide at a time when government employees can be viewed with suspicion: “The employees of DoA can still travel around the country to work on these projects and mentor Scouts, and the BSGG are seen as a non-political actor in every community. Sometimes, a partner like BSGG is better able to win trust or advocate for a site, because they are not seen as being allied with a government or faction.”

Your ongoing support for ASOR helps make this kind of programming in Libya possible. Contributions to defray the volunteers’ expenses helps to keep them in the field, involving a new generation in the preservation of Libyan cultural heritage at a time when volunteer efforts can play a critical role.

In the Libyan context, a small amount of support can go a long way. One hundred twenty five dollars ($125) will enable one volunteer to participate in one of these “pop-up” activities for five days, and an entirely new iteration of the “pop-up” museum can happen at one of Libya’s other sites in need for $4,500. Thank you for considering a donation to support these activities. Click here to make a donation (and choose “Cultural Heritage Initiatives” from the drop-down menu).

If you would like more information about donating to this project, please e-mail Dr. Andy Vaughn, ASOR’s Executive Director.

Will Raynolds is Project Manager for Cultural Heritage Projects at ASOR CHI.