UPDATE: WEEK 3—PROTECTING THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF CYRENE, LIBYA

During the third week, the team was able to visit, document, and evaluate the condition of 17 main sites, which varied from large agricultural settlements, some of which contained fortified buildings to small defensive towers.

In addition to the fortified houses, the area contained many rock-cut chamber tombs, which have niches above and on the sides of their entrances that were, in ancient times, places for funeral statues.

In addition to the architectural elements that indicate the flourish of the olive oil and wine industry, there are many huge rock-cut water tanks observed particularly on the northern edge of the survey area between Tert and The al-Qubba, which indicates the volume of agricultural activity in this area during ancient times.

From each site, we collected distinctive pottery sherds to be used for dating purposes. When we returned to our rest house in the evening, we enjoyed washing, sorting, and classifying pottery, which would later be shared with specialists for study.

In parallel, the team continues to enter the data into the GIS database and produce maps showing the different aspects of these sites, including their geographical locations, functional features, types of damage, and threats.

In addition to the impact of natural factors such as plant growth, wind, and others, most of these wonderful sites are unfortunately being destroyed and bulldozed, and illegally excavated!

The local people in the survey area continue to be very cooperative, opening the doors of their farms to show us important archaeological remains that we would not have known existed without their cooperation and understanding of the nature of our work. We reiterate here our thanks to them.

Read Every Weekly Update of ASOR’s Cyrene Cultural Heritage Survey

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4