MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Libya
Index
Throughout the period of Punic and Greek colonization of the
coastal plain, the area known as Fezzan was dominated by the
Garamentes, a tribal people who entered the region sometime before
1000 B.C. In the desert they established a powerful kingdom astride
the trade route between the western Sudan and the Mediterranean
coast. The Garamentes left numerous inscriptions in
tifinagh, the ancient Berber form of writing still used by
the Tuareg. Beyond these and the observations of Herodotus and
other classical writers on their customs and dealings with the
coastal settlements, little was known of this extraordinary and
mysterious people until the advent of modern archaeological
methods.
The Garamentes' political power was limited to a chain of oases
about 400 kilometers long in the Wadi Ajal, but from their capital
at Germa they controlled the desert caravan trade from Ghadamis
south to the Niger River, eastward to Egypt, and west to
Mauretania (see Glossary).
The Carthaginians employed them as carriers of
goods--gold and ivory purchased in exchange for salt--from the
western Sudan to their depots on the Mediterranean coast. The
Garamentes were also noted as horsebreeders and herders of longhorned cattle. They succeeded in irrigating portions of their arid
lands for cultivation by using foggares, vast underground
networks of stone-lined water channels. Their wealth and technical
skill are also attested to by the remains of their towns, which
were built of stone, and more than 50,000 of their pyramidal tombs.
Rome sent several punitive expeditions against the Garamentes
before concluding a lasting commercial and military alliance with
them late in the first century A.D.
Data as of 1987
|
|