Recently
a new friend of mine asked me to research for him the prehistory of his region,
Jebel Gharbi. I knew nothing about this
area, but after reading up on it, I discovered that these mountains played an
important role in human history. While
no long-lasting civilizations like the Garamantes inhabited Jebel Gharbi, the
region can boast of something arguably more important. Beginning in the Middle Stone Age (roughly
60,000 years ago), Jebel Gharbi was home to groups of modern human beings (Homo sapiens), who settled around the
area’s abundant water supply and utilized its raw materials to make stone
tools. Moreover, the position of these
mountains between West Africa and the Middle East, as well as between the
Mediterranean and the Sahara, made it an important crossroads for the spread of
Stone Age technologies and domesticated plants and animals. The importance of Jebel Gharbi, and
Libya more generally, to early human development is one reason why preserving
Libya’s cultural heritage is all of humanity’s responsibility.
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| Jebel Gharbi, a photo by Mr. Sadik al-Kiesh |
Jebel
Gharbi is a narrow mountain range that divides the Jafara Plain, where Tripoli
is, from the Tripolitanian Plateau. The
city of Nalut lies at the western end of the range and Gharyan at the eastern
end. In between are the towns of Yafran,
ar-Rujban, Jadu, Shakshuk, and Kabaw, today home to important Arab and Berber
communities. Significant for the
prehistory of the region are the perennial springs and the deep wadis that flow
north to the Jafara Plain. The most
important of these are Ain Shakshuk, Wadi Ain Zargha (Ras al-Wadi), and Wadi
Ghan. Jebel Gharbi has been the subject
of an ongoing archaeological research project by the Libyan-Italian Join Mission founded by Professor Barbara Barich of Sapienza University of Rome. This project has provided important insights
into the early human occupation and development and I owe them for the findings I present here.
About
60,000 years ago humans were drawn to Jebel Gharbi’s abundant supply of
workable stones and water. These hunter-gatherers practiced a form of stone working that scholars have called
Aterian Industry. Aterian Industry is
very important because it is believed that the first modern humans (Homo sapiens) invented it. We human were not always as we
are today, but we had to invent technologies, like stone working, farming, and
writing. Aterian Industry represents a
huge step in this process.
Humans
in Jebel Gharbi made Aterian tools until about 30,000 years ago, when the
technique disappears. Archaeologists
have found little evidence of human activity for the next 10,000 years! But about 20,000 years ago a new tool
making technique appeared, called the Iberomaurusian Industry. This industry was likely brought to the
region by a new group of people, just as Aterian Industry was likely brought by
people from what is now Morocco.
About
10,000 years ago, Iberomaurusian Industry was replaced by a new way of making
stone tools, called Capsian. Again
scholars think that a new group of people arrived in Jebel Gharbi bringing
their technologies with them. The people
who practiced Capsian Industry were possibly speakers of the Afro-Asiatic language
family, a group of languages that includes Arabic, Hebrew, Ancient Egyptian,
and Berber. It is possible, therefore,
that Capsians were the ancestors of the Berbers.
In
the following millennia humans made more advances. For a long time humans had been
hunter-gatherers; they had relied on what they could find. But about 8,000 years ago in North Africa
humans started experimenting with ways to grow plants and keep animals. If humans could master farming and
pastoralism, they would have more regular access to food. Scholars used to think that grains, such as
wheat and barley, and animals, such as sheep and goats, were brought to North
Africa from the Middle East in a single moment.
But now they are not so sure.
There is some evidence that sheep and goats came to North Africa
both from the East, through Egypt, and the West, through Spain and
Morocco. Jebel Gharbi lies in between
and would have helped spread new technologies and cultures.
This
is the real significance of the region.
Jebel Gharbi is so rich in human history because of its natural gifts
and its important role in transmitting new cultures and technologies between
faraway peoples and places. Jebel Gharbi
is one shining example of the wealth of Libya. I am always looking for new topics to write about, so if you are interested in a particular time and place, please feel free to message me and I will do my best to tell you more about it!
