## SOCIETY FOR LIBYAN STUDIES
ANNUAL REVIEW 2021-22 running foot | **1**
## **CONTENTS**
|About the Society for Libyan Studies|4|
|---|---|
|Council and Ofcers|5|
|President’s Letter|6|
|Director’s Letter|7|
|Notes from Libya|9|
|Research Grants|11|
|Society-afliated Projects|15|
|Events|17|
|Publications|23|
|Library and Archive|25|
|The Year in Figures|27|
|Financial Report|28|
**ABOUT THE SOCIETY FOR LIBYAN STUDIES**
The address of the Society is:
c/o The British Academy, 10–11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH.
The Society maintains a website at http://www.societyforlibyanstudies.org. The General Secretary may be contacted by email at gensec@societyforlibyanstudies.org
The Society is a Registered UK Charity, no. 259262, founded in 1969 with the object of promoting studies in regard to Libya. To this end, it seeks through its activities:
- to support and undertake research relating to the history, antiquities, culture, languages, literature, art, institutions, customs and natural history of Libya;
- to organize and promote missions to Libya for these purposes;
- to cooperate with other organisations sharing the same fields of interest;
- to arrange for the publication of research in these fields;
- to hold lectures and meetings, to publish an annual journal (Libyan Studies) and other publications which will enhance and promote public knowledge of all aspects of Libyan culture and society.
The Society is governed in accordance with Rules first adopted in 1969 and subsequently modified in 1974, 1982, 2010, 2019 and 2020. The Society is recognised by the Charity Commission as an unincorporated association. The President is elected at the Annual General Meeting for a term of four years; the Director is elected for a period of three years, which may be extended to a maximum of five years; the Assistant Director, the Treasurer, the Head of Mission and the Editor of the Society’s journal are elected annually and may be re-elected without limit; the remainder of the Council is composed of up to eight Ordinary Members who are elected annually and may be re-elected, subject to a maximum continuous period of service of four years. In proposing Ordinary Members for election, the Council seeks to secure as wide a range of skills within its fields of interest as possible. The Officers and Council, who constitute the trustees of the charity, confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Society’s aims and objectives and in planning future activities and setting the grant-making policy for the year.
The Society receives the major part of its funds from the British Academy, to be used ‘to benefit the UK research endeavour’. It is therefore incumbent upon the Council to confirm that the grant payments from the British Academy have been applied in accordance with the agreement between the Academy and the Society, and the aims and objectives of the Society as stated in its rules and declared to the Charity Commission for England. Council confirms that, in respect of the accounts presented herewith, this is so.
**4 |** About the Society for Libyan Studies
## **COUNCIL AND OFFICERS**
The Officers and Council on 31 March 2021 were as follows:
## **Officers**
President: PROFESSOR ROBERT FOLEY, MA, PhD, ScD, FBA, FSA, FLS Vice Presidents: PROFESSOR GRAEME BARKER, MA, PhD, CBE, FBA, FSA SHIRLEY STRONG, MBE Director: CORISANDE FENWICK, BA, MA, PhD, FSA Honorary Treasurer: OLIVER KIMBERLEY, MA, ACA Assistant Director: NICCOLÒ MUGNAI, BA, MA, PhD Head of Mission: PAUL BENNETT, MBE, BA, Hon. D.Litt, FSA, CIFA Honorary Archivist: PROFESSOR EMERITUS CHARLOTTE ROUECHÉ, MA Editor, Libyan Studies: VICTORIA LEITCH, BA, MPhil, DPhil Council: PROFESSOR DAVID ATKINSON, BSc, PhD SALEM EL-MAIAR, MPhil, FRGS SAM NIXON, MA, PhD CHARIS OLSZOK, MA, PhD NICHOLE SHELDRICK, MA, DPhil General Secretary: PAULINE GRAHAM Honorary Librarian: DAWN WRIGHT, BA, DipLib Publications Manager: VICTORIA LEITCH, BA, MPhil, DPhil
## **Research Grants Committee**
The Director The Honorary Treasurer The Assistant Director The Head of Mission PROFESSOR KEVIN MACDONALD, BA, PhD, FSA (Committee Chairman) SAUL KELLY, BA, PhD
## **Publications Committee**
The Director The Honorary Treasurer The Assistant Director The General Secretary Editor of Libyan Studies Publications Manager PROFESSOR JONATHAN HILL, MA, PhD
Council and Officers | **5**
**PRESIDENT’S LETTER**
I am about to step down as President of the Society for Libyan Studies. I took up the post in 2018, and how different the world was then. Worrying events there were aplenty, not least, for those in the UK, the build-up to Brexit, but nothing to match the scale of a pandemic that has killed at least fifteen million people and totally transformed the behaviour and economies of people and countries across the world, and the largest European conflict since World War II. The ripples of these events will be felt everywhere, including Libya, for years.
Such events may make concerns about the epigraphy of Leptis Magna a luxury, but what is happening in Ukraine echoes a decade of turbulence in Libya. The physical and cultural heritage of a country, its language, its pride in its past, remain significant and become amplified in times of national peril. Work such as that carried out by the SLS in collaboration with Libyan colleagues and institutions
can play an important role in the preservation of these heritages, as well as their interpretation. Not that the SLS is just concerned with the past. Our remit has expanded more and more to cover the contemporary world, and we are proud of the way in which the Society is becoming a locus for research on current issues, such as migration and environmental change.
It is not just the world that has changed over the last four years, but it has also been an eventful period for the Society. As I said in my report last year, the academic world has transformed since the formation of the Society, and we need to adapt. The most significant of these adaptations has been our decision – ratified at the recent Emergency General Meeting – to change the name of the Society. Once we have undergone the necessary changes in legal status, the Society will evolve into the British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies. This will achieve a number of goals – we will align ourselves with our sister institutions such as the British School at Rome; it will reflect our expanded geographical interests; and it will preserve our unique and special link with Libya. The Officers and Council are excited about the opportunities this will open up, especially as the British International Research Institutes, of which we are one, work increasingly together and collaboratively.
This means that I shall step down at the AGM as the last of the Presidents of the Society for Libyan Studies, before my successor rises, phoenix-like as the first president of BILNAS. I have been proud to serve the Society over the last four years, and work with the other officers in charting a way forward for the Society in what have proved to be turbulent times. Let us hope for the world more generally, for Libya in particular, and for BILNAS, a more peaceful future.
##
**6 |** President’s Letter
## **DIRECTOR’S LETTER**
As this Annual Report amply illustrates, 2021–22 has been a very rich year for the SLS. We are extremely grateful to all our new and existing members for their continued support of the SLS and its activities in these challenging times, whether through renewing subscriptions, donating or helping to raise the international profile of the SLS over the past year.
Our research activity goes from strength to strength. We have awarded new grants to UK scholars to conduct research on storytelling in the Libyan Diaspora and Libyan migration politics, reflecting the Society’s broader remit to fund research across the humanities and social sciences. This year, we also established a new ‘Postdoctoral Writing Fellowship’ scheme aimed at supporting early-career researchers who do not yet hold a permanent academic position by giving them time to bring their work to publication. The lifting of travel restrictions also permitted the completion of a number of archaeological and ethnographic projects in Libya, the
Sudan, Canary Islands and Tunisia which were funded prior to the pandemic and necessarily had to be postponed. I am also delighted to share the news of two new grant schemes which we will launch in the coming year. Thanks to the support of the British Academy, the SLS will run a new large grant scheme for researchers working on contemporary issues in the broader North African region this summer. A generous legacy donation supports a new SLS fund – the Celia Hensman Fund – which will offer small fellowships to Undergraduate, Masters and PhD students studying in the UK to conduct dissertation research or undertake archaeological fieldwork placements in North Africa. These small fellowships will provide a pivotal opportunity for the next generation of UK scholars to spend time in the region.
We have taken advantage of the digital turn to increase our publication and outreach activity. This year’s publications include the open-access publication of N. Sheldrick’s archaeological monograph _Building the Countryside_ and a new, significantly updated, online edition of _Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania_ (https://irt2021.inslib. kcl.ac.uk/en/) published in collaboration with King’s College London and the British School at Rome. We also published A. Goudie’s _Camel Tracks_ in our Silphium Press imprint, available as an ebook as well as hard copy. Our online Zoom lecture series has once again proved very popular and attracted large audiences from around the globe, and we hope to continue to hold some online lectures in the future alongside our revived in-person events in London and the UK.
We have also made further progress on the digitisation of the SLS Archive held at the University of Leicester. The SLS has a long and distinguished history of archaeological research in Libya and over the past few years, we have focused resources on digitising the photographs, plans, notes and other materials in the Archive, as well as augmenting the Heritage Gazetteer of Libya (https://www.slsgazetteer.org/) with King’s College London. We were able to fund two posts for early-career academics to continue this work last year. Our John Dore Scholar, Dr Ahmed Buzaian has been busy digitising photographs, handwritten notes and notebooks from Sabratha, Ghirza, Lepcis, Cyrene, Tocra and Fazzan and the Society now possesses a digital library of over 11,000 items. The next step is to upload and integrate these with the
Director’s letter | **7**
Heritage Gazetteer so that this rich digital collection is publicly available and our Kenyon Fellow, Dr Valeria Vitale, has developed workflows to aid this process. We have now appointed Felicity Crow as the SLS Archivist at the University of Leicester where she will complete the basic catalogue of the archive. We continue to seek funds to continue this important work to make the Society’s archive accessible to all.
This is also a year of great change for the SLS. The SLS is one of eight British Academy sponsored institutes, collectively known as the British International Research Institutes (BIRI). Our activities are funded primarily by the public purse and we, along with other institutions serving the humanities and social sciences, need to demonstrate our relevance and value-for-money, particularly as the UK recovers from Covid-19. With this in mind, the SLS had already made some major changes over the past few years to demonstrate its value within the UK’s overseas research infrastructure and its role in supporting cutting-edge research in the humanities and social sciences in the wider North African region.
This year, the SLS took two significant steps forward in ensuring its continued success and sustainability in the future. At the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 2 March 2022 via Zoom, the Council proposed two resolutions to change the name of the SLS and to change its legal status. These were passed with overwhelming support, by the members present.
The name of the Society will therefore change to the ‘British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies (BILNAS)’ following the AGM on 30th June 2022. Adopting ‘British Institute’ in the name will bring it in line with most of the other BIRIs and including ‘Northern Africa’ in the name more aptly reflects the Society’s current geographic remit and UK research activities in the wider North African region. Keeping ‘Libya’ in the name affirms our continued commitment to Libya and our Libyan colleagues and friends, as well as reflecting the Society’s rich heritage of collaborative research in Libya. Our journal _Libyan Studies_ , our fieldwork in Libya and our rich archives and library of Libyan materials will remain integral to the activities of BILNAS, and we will continue to fundraise specifically for these successful assets supported by our dedicated Head of Mission. It is our hope that this change of name which reflects both the wider geographical focus of the Society and its enhanced status within the BIRI will help to attract additional members and sponsorship, and so ensure the future of the Society.
The second change will be to the legal structure of the Society, which was constituted over fifty years ago in a less litigious and less regulated world. The SLS is currently what the Charity Commission calls an ‘unincorporated association’, and in the coming year, we will change the institution to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. This is a new form of charity introduced in 2013, which retains many of the benefits of an unincorporated association, including limited liability, while avoiding the costs associated with establishing and running a limited company. Charitable Incorporated Organisation status is more appropriate to the larger organisation that the Society has become and for the trustees by limiting their liability.
I am very much looking forward to seeing members at the British Academy in October at our first in-person event since the start of the pandemic to celebrate the launch of the new British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies.
**8 |** Director’s Letter
**NOTES FROM LIBYA**
## _From our Head of Mission, Professor Paul Bennett_
The situation for Libya’s valuable cultural heritage has been encouraging over the last year, with survey projects and initiatives to protect endangered sites.
## **MAREA AND DOA CYRENAICA COASTAL SURVEY**
Ahmad Emrage and a Department of Antiquities (DoA) team completed their survey of the coastal strip between Tocra and Derna, including underwater reconnaissance. The survey sought to determine the condition of archaeological sites and the degree of development in those areas, using remote survey techniques based in the UK and Ireland, and ground (and marine) truthing by the Libyan team. The project, funded and jointly led by MarEA (Maritime Endangered Archaeology) based at the universities of Ulster and Southampton has also been supported with a grant from SLS. A second stage of the survey between Tocra and Benghazi (funded partly by the Society) is about to start.
## **NEW LIBYA COASTAL EROSION SURVEY**
Kieran Westley and Nic Flemming are looking to start a new survey of the Libyan coastline, focussing on erosion, in collaboration with several coastal geomorphology experts, and some students in Libya. The idea is to compile an inventory of erosion extent over the decades at numerous different sites between Benghazi and Tobruk. Aerial photographs and Remote Satellite space images will check the position of the coastline over time with extreme accuracy, to understand the causes and mechanisms of erosion in order to determine whether certain sites can be protected in the future. This is an important UK-Libya collaborative initiative that the Society hopes to support.
## **ITALIAN MISSION IN CYRENE**
Members of the Italian mission visited Cyrene late in 2021. The core site is in a good condition but the necropolis, especially Baggara and El-Darb, has new houses and recently bulldozed ground everywhere. In the Apollo Sanctuary the excellent work of clearance and maintenance by the former Controller, Fadel AlAziz has been continued under new management, but garbage on site seems to be an issue that needs watching.
## **MANAGING LIBYA’S CULTURAL HERITAGE**
The first phase of the MaLiCH (Managing Libya’s Cultural Heritage) run by Dr Will Wootton of King’s College, University of London, Department of Classics, has been completed. A series of lectures and presentations have been delivered online to members of DoA, and in the case of Ghadames, the Ghadames City Promotion and Development Authority (GCPDA), responsible for maintaining the sites. An early, positive outcome has been the submission to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee by the GCPDA of a comprehensive World Heritage Management Plan for the site. The plan’s main objective is to lift Ghadames out of the UNESCO Endangered World
Notes from Libya | **9**
Heritage Sites List. My part in the project was completed earlier this year with a series of written presentations translated into Arabic and delivered online by Dr Ahmed Buzaian. The project in now focussing on Lepcis Magna and Sabratha and will be seeking similar outcomes for both sites.
## **EUESPERIDES**
The Department of Antiquities in Benghazi has decided to oppose two proposed developments close to the site of Euesperides and may approach the Society for help.
- A local football club is seeking to build shops over a significant part of the surviving Sebkha-es Selmani. The area threatened is known to have contained part of the ancient harbour of Euesperides and a substantial part of the Lower City (Agora), with city wall and towers and an elaborate network of preserved streets and buildings.
- A second site for housing proposed by a private developer who claims to own the land, lies between the Sidi Abeid and Martyrs cemeteries, immediately east of the previous site. Land immediately east of a modern north-south highway that bisects the Agora and ground immediately south of the Sidi Abeid cemetery (Acropolis) still retain some potential for surviving archaeological remains.
##
**10 |** Notes from Libya
## **RESEARCH GRANTS**
In 2021–22, the Society awarded four grants for a total of £30,640 to UK-based scholars at different career stages for research on Libya and North Africa. Ongoing uncertainties and travel restrictions due to Covid-19 kept having an impact on research projects, which resulted in a declining number of applications for fieldbased activities. For this reason, the Society introduced a new series of ‘Postdoctoral Writing Fellowships’ aimed at early-career researchers who do not hold a permanent academic position. These awards are designed to support the writing-up of already completed research in the form of one or more major journal articles, or a significant portion of a monograph, which will benefit the progress of the awardees’ academic career.
## ~~PILOT PROJECT AWARDS~~
**Dr Barbara Spadaro (University of Liverpool) – £3,480** _**Broadcasting the art of the Libyan diaspora: a research and podcast series**_
This award will allow Dr Spadaro to meet artists of the Libyan diaspora and professionals of audio storytelling, to explore new research development practices, and to enhance her understanding of co-creation through the production of a new type of research output. The project aims to produce a podcast series on four female artists of the Libyan and Italian diasporas who, from a position of displacement and through a variety of media (from videoart to the graphic novel), explore questions
_Interview with Libyan curator Najlaa El-Ageli at the Serpentine Pavillion, 2021 (photo B. Spadaro)._
Research Grants | **11**
of transcultural memory, heritage, belonging, power, and the media of History in the contemporary world. This podcast series of 3–5 episodes will be developed in collaboration with a team of professional audio storytellers experienced in research dissemination and broadcast. This pilot project will help to evaluate the feasibility of a larger research, scholarship, and impact project involving more artists and cross-sectorial collaborations.
## ~~RESEARCH AWARDS~~
**Dr Gerasimos Tsourapas (University of Glasgow) – £7,160** _**The Libyan migration state**_
This interdisciplinary project draws on migration and refugee studies, political science, sociology, and international relations to understand the central role that labour immigration enjoyed in Libya between 1951 and 2011. Building on previous work examining Libyan migration politics through the prism of external Arab and nonArab actors, the project draws on previously unexamined archival work to identify the workings of the ‘Libyan migration state’. Moving beyond standard interpretations of labour immigrants’ developmental contribution to the contemporary Libyan state, the aim is to identify the domestic political and foreign policy role that cross-border mobility enjoyed under both King Idris and Colonel Gaddafi. The project’s research output will identify the importance of Libya in processes of regional migration governance in North Africa and the wider Mediterranean, thereby paving the way for novel interpretations of the continuing interplay between migration, politics, and power in contemporary Libya.
_Poster of Gaddafi on the Libyan border, next to a slogan reading ‘Relationships are between people, not between governments’ (photo Wikimedia Commons, JPRoger)._
**12 |** Research Grants
## ~~POSTDOCTORAL WRITING FELLOWSHIPS~~
**Dr Evan Arthur Hill (Queens University Belfast) – £10,000** _**Very early shell beads from the Haua Fteah (Libya)**_
The Haua Fteah is perhaps the most important cave sequence in North Africa. In the re-evaluation of the archaeology of the cave led by Graeme Barker, a substantial number of shell beads of varying ages (from ~100,000 to 9,000 years old) was recovered. While these objects, which are of international significance because they are some of the oldest known shell beads associated with Early Modern Humans, have been known about for some time, no opportunity has presented itself for them to be properly recorded and written up. This fellowship will provide the framework to support the detailed analysis, recording, photography, and publication of this important assemblage.
_Examples of shell beads from the Haua Fteah. 1: Antalis sp. Tr. M, Context 10001, Capsian, showing ochre staining. 2: Columbella rustica, Context 10001, Capsian c. 9,000–10,000 cal BP, with ochre staining. 3: Columbella rustica, Tr. D, Context 1000, ~102,000 + 8,700 BP (Jacobs et al. 2017: J Hum Evol 105, 69–88). 4: (a) cut marks and yellow ochre staining; (b) notching off the columella of the shell; (c) drilling and smoothing on Columbella rustica from Epipalaeolithic layers; (d) top of shell removed, potentially to aid with stringing (photos E.A. Hill)._
Research Grants | **13**
## **Dr Kumail Rajani (University of Exeter) – £10,000** _**Between Qum and Qayrawān: reconstructing Fatimid libraries of North Africa**_
This project aims to reconstruct the Fatimid libraries of third/ninth century Qayrawān. Soon after the Fatimids established their hegemony over North Africa, a new genre of literature was produced under the rubric of ‘ulūm Āl al-Bayt (sciences of the progeny of the Prophet). Works on history, theology, law, polemics, esoteric sciences, allegorical interpretation of the Qur’an, biographical literature among several other were produced. It is evident that Fatimid scholars had to have recourse to earlier collections of Medina, Egypt, Yemen, Baghdad, and Qum as they cite them consistently in their writings and incorporate them into their works. These early collections, most of which no longer exist, equipped the scholars with the raw material from which they formulated and systematized various aspects of Isma‘ili beliefs and practices.
_A folio from_ Mukhtas.ar al-us.ūl _of ‘Alī b. Muh. mmad b. al-Walīd (d. 612/1215) (Alavi Bohra Dawat Collection, Baroda, India)._
##
**14 |** Research Grants
**SOCIETY-AFFILIATED PROJECTS**
## **MANAGING LIBYA’S CULTURAL HERITAGE**
Managing Libya’s Cultural Heritage (MaLiCH) is a three-year project funded by the ALIPH Foundation with the Society for Libyan Studies as one of the key partners. Since March 2020 the project team, led by Dr Will Wootton at King’s College London, has been working with the Libyan Department of Antiquities (DoA) and the Ghadames City Promotion and Development Authority (GCPDA) to produce the documentation necessary to remove three of Libya’s World Heritage Sites from the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger. To achieve this aim, we are building capacity amongst their staff and planning emergency interventions at the sites in line with their management plans.
## **TRANS-SAHARA PROJECT**
The European Research Council funded Trans-SAHARA project, directed by Professor David Mattingly, reached its conclusion during the year with the publication of the final pair of the four-volume Trans-Saharan Archaeology series (see below). This co-publishing venture between the Society and Cambridge University Press has proved a great success and was celebrated at the AGM in December 2020.
## **BULLA REGIA**
This flagship project sponsored by the Society and directed by Dr Corisande Fenwick and Dr Moheddine Chaouali aims to reconstruct the urban development of Bulla Regia from its Numidian origins to its abandonment in the Middle Ages and to understand the diet, nutrition, health, lifestyle, origins and mobility of its late antique inhabitants through excavations and bioarchaeological analyses. The planned final season in September 2020 was cancelled due to Covid-19 and it is hoped that we will be able to complete the excavations in 2021–22. In the interim, the project team have been conducting isotopic and a DNA analysis on samples in the UK and working on the analysis of the mosaics uncovered.
## **HAUA FTEAH**
The now completed Haua Fteah excavations directed by Professor Graeme Barker, partly sponsored by the Society, are at the publication stage. In 2020 an article was published on sedimentary and human responses to aridity in Mediterranean caves (Farr, L., R. Inglis & G. Barker); and in 2021 a video conference for the Society, _The Little Ice Age in the Southeast Mediterranean and Southern West Asia_ (C. Hunt). The main volumes are in preparation.
Society-affliated Projects | **15**
_Finewares from the Euesperides excavations._
## **EUESPERIDES**
Work on the publication of the Society-sponsored Euesperides excavations directed by Professor Paul Bennett and Professor Andrew Wilson are underway. The first monograph publication will be the finewares, followed by the overall excavation reports and other finds. These publications are now vital to underpin the importance of the archaeological levels of the Greek city of Euesperides (the first Benghazi), to demonstrate to the local authority, to landowners and local people why they are worth saving. An additional part of the project is the conservation of the archives, presently held at Tocra. The archives span a period from the sixth century BC to the tenth century AD, and constitute an unparalleled teaching resource, and need to be saved for future generations of archaeologists.
**16 |** Society-affliated Projects
## **EVENTS**
## _From Dr Niccolò Mugnai, the Society’s Assistant Director_
This was a busy year for the Society in many ways. Our series of events covered a broad range of topics, both thematically and geographically, reflecting the breadth of initiatives that are at the heart of the Society. While it was initially hoped to host some of these events in person, the ongoing uncertainties related to the sanitary situation suggested otherwise and we decided to carry on with online webinars via Zoom. Like in the previous year, these webinars proved to be successful and well-attended by international audiences; recorded talks are available to watch via our YouTube channel. With the launch of the new events series in the autumn 2022, we aim to move to a mixed format of online and in-person talks. The Society was particularly pleased with the enthusiasm of the speakers who contributed to our events with presentations of their work on Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and beyond, from prehistory up to the modern period. One of our key goals was to further foster collaborations among the British International Research Institutes (BIRI) through organization of joint events – a path we envision will continue in the years to come. Together with the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA), a joint lecture series was hosted this year on ‘ _Northern African – Ottoman Relations in History (17th – 20th Centuries_ )’, featuring three talks throughout September-November 2021.
## **6 April 2021**
## **Dr Ahmad Emrage (University of Benghazi)** _**From Ohio to Cyrenaica: Libyan archaeological heritage matters**_
This talk outlined the academic and field archaeological activities that have been conducted by Libyan archaeologist Dr Ahmad Emrage since September 2019. This presentation included a summary of his experience as a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Oberlin College in Ohio, USA, and a general account of archaeological works – including excavations, surveys, and cultural awareness programmes – that Dr Emrage supervised and participated in at different locations in Cyrenaica, in cooperation with local Libyan, British, and American institutions.
_Training excavations at Cyrene in 2020 (photo S. Jarrary)._
Events | **17**
## **11 May 2021**
## **Dr Louise Rayne (University of Newcastle)**
## _**Resilient past water management in the Near East and North Africa**_
In this lecture, Dr Louise Rayne explored the past development of water management in the context of future sustainability. She discussed oasis case studies from Morocco, Libya, and Iraq. Oases are environments created as a result of long-term, human-environment interactions but are vulnerable to human adaptability to changes (environmental, social, political). Although traditional methods of irrigation have been seen as sustainable, archaeological evidence for this is needed. Dr Rayne applies an interdisciplinary methodology to her research, using satellite imagery, archived data, and fieldwork to map the traces of past water management features.
_Shafts of a dry khattera (groundwater collecting tunnel, also known as foggara or qanat) lined with stones, Morocco, November 2021 (photo L. Rayne)._
## **8 June 2021**
## **Prof. Chris Hunt (Liverpool John Moores University)**
## _**The Little Ice Age in southeast Mediterranean and southern southwest Asia**_
This talked explored climatic changes during the Little Ice Age in northern Libya, Tunisia, southern Jordan, and the Persian Gulf, which led to severe drought across
_A boulder emplaced by one of the Little Ice Age floods in Wadi Kouf in the al-Jebel al-Akhdar (photo C. Hunt)._
**18 |** Events
the region with approximately halving of rainfall, especially during the 17th century. The droughts seem to have been sufficient to cause the collapse of ancient floodwaterfarming systems in Tripolitania and the resulting food shortages led to cannibalism in Benghazi and some other Libyan cities. Malnourished refugees hid in caves in the Cyrenaican countryside, leading to a distinctive archaeology. Rare catastrophic rainfall was associated with the general drought, causing enormous but short-lived floods across the region.
## **30 September 2021 (SLS-BIAA Lecture Series) Dr Odile Moreau (Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier III)** _**Late Ottoman period Libya in the Age of Reforms (1835–1912)**_
This joint SLS-BIAA lecture by Dr Moreau intended to shed light on the interrelationships between the provinces that today constitute ‘Libya’ and the Ottoman Empire, as they developed during the late Ottoman period, in the Age of Reforms, after the promotion of the Tanzîmât, from 1835 to 1912. Particular attention was paid to the reframing and the evolution of Ottoman – ‘Libyan’ relationships and interactions at the time of the ‘Question d’Orient’ (The Eastern Question).
## **26 October 2021 (SLS-BIAA Lecture Series)**
## **Prof. Benjamin Fortna (University of Arizona)**
## _**The Ottoman-Italian war of 1911–12: conflict and consequences**_
In this SLS-BIAA lecture, Prof. Benjamin Fortna reflected on the OttomanItalian War in North Africa of 1911–12 in light of its consequences for the Ottoman Empire and the wider Islamic world. Although the Ottomans had to abandon the fight against the Italians due to the Balkan Wars, the ‘Trablusgarb War’ had consequences that reached well beyond the relatively short duration of the conflict.
_Ottoman irregular officers at the Darna front, 1912 (photo Tunca Örses Arşivi)._
Events | **19**
## **9 November 2021**
## **Dr Paul Scheding (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich)** _**Micro-regional urbanism in Roman North Africa**_
During the second century ad, North Africa experienced a significant economic growth. The local elites, who were responsible for enhancing cityscapes with monuments, were also involved in agricultural production in the respective territories, although there was a considerable degree of variation in the conditions of land use, organization of production, and administration across North Africa. The focus of this talk was on the large number of small cities in the hinterland of Roman Carthage and their relationship to different estates. Using the example of Carthage’s _pertica_ and the ‘boom’ of the late second century ad, this lecture discussed how agricultural organization and socio-economic development influenced cityscapes in this micro-region.
_Arch of Trajan at Mactaris, Tunisia (photo P. Scheding)._
## **25 November 2021 (SLS-BIAA Lecture Series) Dr John Slight (Open University)**
## _**The British-Ottoman war and the Sanussiyya invasion of Egypt**_
This SLS-BIAA talk provided a background to the final act of Ottoman relations with Libya during the First World War, and the establishment of Idris as-Senussi as Emir of Cyrenaica. From late 1914, Ottoman officers and officials worked assiduously to enfold the Sanussiyya within their wider policy of jihad against the Entente powers. This led to Ahmad as-Senussi’s declaration of jihad against the British and the Sufi order’s attacks on Egypt in 1915–16. The talk explored British perceptions of the connections between the Sanussiyya and the Ottomans, comparing these with the motivations of the Sanussiyya leadership in allying with the Ottomans, and Ottoman objectives in Libya.
**20 |** Events
## **14 December 2021 (SLS Annual Lecture)**
## **Prof. James McDougall (University of Oxford)** _**Always on the edge? The spaces of North African history**_
For much of its past, especially as outsiders have seen it, North Africa’s place in the world and in world history has been marginal by definition. Alternatively presented as an ‘edge’, a ‘junction’, a ‘crossroads’ or a ‘hinge’ – between the Arab world and Africa, Africa and Europe, ‘Europe’ and ‘Islam’ – the Maghrib has been seen as a central articulating point, geopolitically and intellectually situated on the fault-lines of civilizations from the Habsburgs and the Ottomans through to Frontex and Daesh. Thinking through and beyond these tropes, in this SLS Annual Lecture Prof. James McDougall reflected on how a spatial history of North Africa might look, and how it might help us see the region as the centre-point of its own past.
Left: _View from the road between Todra and Ouarzazate, southern Morocco, 2007 (photo J. McDougall)._
Below: _A typical Garamantian cooking pot from the oasis of Fewet (Ghat region, Fazzan), second half of the first millennium bc (photo R. Ceccacci)._
## **25 January 2022**
## **Dr Maria Gatto (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)** _**Garamantian pottery: change and exchange in an inter-regional perspective**_
This talk focused on a lesser-known aspect of Garamantian material culture: handmade pottery of local manufacture across the first millennia bc and ad. It considered the ceramic evidence from both the Wadi al-Ajal, the heartland of the Garamantes, investigated extensively by the University of Leicester, and the Wadi Tanzzuft, where the Sapienza University of Rome worked in the same years as Leicester. Chronological and spatial variations within Garamantian pottery, as well as comparisons with previous and contemporary ceramic productions from the same region and elsewhere across the Greater Sahara, were discussed in the attempt of tracking the timing and directionality of technological change and exchange and its social meaning.
Events | **21**
## **22 February 2022**
## **Dr Péter Tamas Nagy (National Museum of Qatar)**
## _**Shālla as a site of royal presence: constructing the sultanic image in fourteenth-century Morocco**_
The funerary complex located at the picturesque site of Shālla, Rabat, is generally known as the main burial ground of the Marīnid dynasty between 1284 and 1354. This lecture traced the buildings’ development, presenting the results of an archaeological investigation, while also examining the patrons’ political motives. It emerged that, by modifying and expanding the complex, the sultans were equally conscious of elevating their own image, on which the site’s operation and perception, as recorded by contemporary authors, shed ample light. The overarching argument highlighted how the Marīnid sultans’ presence, whether physical or metaphorical, at Shālla contributed to its popularity at the time.
_General view of the Marinid funerary complex, Shālla, Rabat (photo P.T. Nagy)._
## **29 March 2022**
**Rupert Wieloch (Independent Author)** _**Anglo-Libyan relations in the 20th century**_
This talk discussed how Britain’s policy of non-interference in Libya was tested by the Italo-Ottoman war that began in 1911 and the Sanussi invasion of Egypt in 1915. Tracing the key moments in the Anglo-Libyan relationship – from the peace dialogue between Idris as-Sanussi and Milo Talbot that paved the way for the future Defence and Security treaty, to the July 1999 rapprochement when diplomatic relations were reopened after a 15-year gap – it argued that Britain still has an important role to play in Libya’s future peace and stability.
**22 |** Events
**PUBLICATIONS 2021–22**
## **LIBYAN STUDIES JOURNAL**
The 2021 publication of _Libyan Studies 52_ with Cambridge University Press was edited by Dr Victoria Leitch. The articles stretched from the stone age to migrant journeys in contemporary Libya, and covered Tunisia, Libya, Sudan and Malta, demonstrating the journal’s pathway exploring the history and culture in Northern Africa and links with Mediterranean territories. There was an administrative mix-up with the printing and members received two copies this year – the erroneously printed digital version, followed shortly after by the much better quality litho-printed edition. As a journal whose papers often require images and maps, the quality of the printing is very important, and CUP responded quickly to the error and reassured members of their commitment to high-quality printing. We continue to look at ways to improve the look, quality and efficiency of production. Readers may have also noticed the smart new template with the Society’s logo, and a new online correction tool that gives authors and editor more flexibility at proof stage, and a shorter turn-around period from text to First View publication online. These new online tools help us to reach out to a wider field of researchers and to economise on their time.
**----- Start of picture text -----**
ISSN 0263-7189
Libyan
studies
A JOURNAL OF NORTH AFRICAN AND MEDITERRANEAN CULTURES
volume 52 [.] 2021
**----- End of picture text -----**
As we are now part of the Plan S Transformative Journals Programme, which will enable authors to submit articles in a Plan-S compliant manner, authors are able to satisfy Open Access requirements for certain types of funding. We have agreed to use CC-BY creative commons licences, keeping up with the fast-changing world of academic journal publishing.
## **BOOKS**
As part of the Society’s Open Access Monograph series, N. Sheldrick’s _Building the Countryside_ was published in October 2021, and was publicised thorough social media and an online talk by the author. In November 2021 A. Goudie’s excellent history of camels in _Camel Tracks_ , part of our Silphium Press imprint was published. Unfortunately, distribution of both titles was severely hampered by issues with our distributor’s warehouse, on top of staff difficulties linked with the Covid pandemic. In order to simplify and modernise the printing process, reduce stock and thus related issues, as well as reduce storage costs, all our books are systemically being printed (or reprinted) as Print-On-Demand titles now.
Next year promises to be busy with some high-quality monographs, already in production. We are moving away from publishing theses now and concentrating on edited volumes, excavation reports and significant analytical research projects.
Publications 2021–22 | **23**
## **ONLINE PUBLICATIONS**
In 1952, the British School at Rome published the Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania, by Joyce Reynolds and John Ward-Perkins; an online re-edition of that collection was published in 2009. The Libyan Society has been working with the BSR on an enhanced edition, which aims to include all inscriptions published since the 1952 edition, including the ostraca from Bu Njem, and to add fuller bibliography, indices and illustrations. IRT2021 was officially launched in January 2022.
https://irt2021.inslib.kcl.ac.uk/en/
## **OPEN ACCESS**
As previously reported, the Society is firmly committed to making its books available to the research (and wider) community via the Open Access model. Most of the Society’s older publications are now available online and we have partnered with Knowledge Unlatched, who are helping us to make our books available on better-know sites such as JSTOR, OAPEN, BiblioLabs, MUSEOpen, Unglue.it. This is a significant move for the Society’s publications, and will greatly increase our visibility. The books will be added in batches to spread out the costs, and their releases reported on the Society’s social media platforms.
## **ARABIC PUBLICATIONS**
We continue in our commitment to reaching our Arabic readers. Our latest venture in 2021 was a deal with a Libyan publisher who will translate Richard Synge’s _Operation Idris_ so that it can be printed and sold in Libya, in Arabic.
##
**24 |** Publications 2021–22
**LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE**
This has been a year of consolidation.
## **LIBRARY**
Our **library** is held by the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. During last year they were confronted with two challenges – not only Covid, but also a problem with leakage in the lower ground floor of the building, where the Society’s books are normally housed. The books were sent to offsite storage for safety, and Covid delayed the completion of the necessary building works: but the work has now been completed, and they are back on their shelves.
## **ARCHIVE**
Our **physical Archives** are held at the University of Leicester, and catalogued in the University’s **Archive catalogue** (http://archives.le.ac.uk/CalmView/Advanced. = aspx?src CalmView.Catalog). They are curated by the Society’s John Dore scholar; this post was again held by Ahmed Buzaian. While for some of the period Covid continued to limit his access to the archives, he was able to make up for lost time. He has identified and scanned most of the photographs, handwritten notes and notebooks in the main collections for Sabratha, Ghirza, Lepcis, Cyrene, Tocra, Ptolemais and Fazzan, a total of 11,892 items (5,958 photographs, 2,395 negatives, 739 slides and 2,800 documents). He has also worked on identifying and listing the oversize plans, maps and drawings, some 3,335 items. We are extremely fortunate to be able to benefit from his excellent knowledge of the archaeology of Libya.
_This image, from D. Smith’s collection, shows a Doric peristyle house north of Tower 16 at Tocra – this building was bulldozed in the 1970s, demonstrating the importance of these archives as the only record of some of Libya’s cultural heritage._
Library and Archive | **25**
_Photographed by M. A. Webb (Oxford University Exploration Club Cyrenaica Expedition programme, 1960), this shows Miss Brittan (known as the beekeeper of King Idris, second from left), her driver and friends at Ras al-Hilal._
An important development is that members are continuing to deposit valuable materials with the Archive, which of course requires cataloguing; we have now appointed a professional archivist, who will start work soon, cataloguing the new materials, and also building on Ahmed’s work in adding the plans, maps and drawings to the Library Catalogue.
The entries in the Library Catalogue are exported to the **Online Archive** , where they can be enhanced by the addition of more information. The Online Archive is searchable from the Society’s **Gazetteer** : both are at https://slsgazetteer.org/. The data in the Gazetteer are being steadily enhanced by users, and the Unique Identifiers for locations are being increasingly used – for example in the Society’s most recent online publication, _Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania, 2021_ (see https://irt2021. inslib.kcl.ac.uk/en/indices/epidoc/fndspot.html)
The **Gazetteer** is also starting to be valued by other scholars as a reference system. It is now being used by the British School at Rome for images of Libya in their digital collections: see https://www.bsrdigitalcollections.it/wp-libya and https://ipervisions.bsrdigitalcollections.it/irt/. We are working increasingly closely with other British Institutes abroad: all of these bodies have archives which they wish to make available, and they have been showing great interest in the structures which we have developed for an online Archive linked to, and indexed by, an online Gazetteer. An initial project, to share understanding and assess the issues, is currently underway, funded by the British Academy.
Our **photographic library** in Flickr https://www.fickr.com/groups/slsphoto library/ is intended to be used by members who wish to deposit their photographs illustrating Libyan history and archaeology. It has received a major boost from the contribution of some 2,000 photographs by Philip Kenrick: we hope that this will encourage more members to contribute, and/or to enhance the information provided.
**26 |** Library and Archive
## **THE YEAR IN FIGURES**
## **MEMBERS 198, OF WHICH 50 ARE FROM OVERSEAS:**
Australia Greece Sweden Austria Israel Switzerland Canada Italy Turkey Cyprus Libya USA France Malta Germany Poland
## **OPEN ACCESS BOOK DOWNLOADS FROM 26 COUNTRIES:**
Australia Italy Russia Austria Jamaica South Africa Belgium Libya Spain Brazil Malaysia Sweden Canada Malta Switzerland China Netherlands Tunisia Denmark Poland Turkey France Portugal United Kingdom Germany Romania USA
## **TOTAL ATTENDEES AT LIVE LECTURES: 496**
**32** presentations on the YouTube channel
**1,600+** streamed views during the past 12 months ( **60%** increase compared to the previous year)
## **TWITTER**
**1,552** followers **22%** increase year on year
## **FACEBOOK**
**2,330** followers **48%** increase year on year
## **WEBSITE**
**9,200** unique visitors ( **16%** increase compared to previous year) **25,700** page views ( **20%** increase on previous year).
The Year in Figures | **27**
## **FINANCIAL REPORT**
|**THE SOCIETY FOR LIBYAN STUDIES**|||
|---|---|---|
|**STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES YEAR**|**ENDED 31 MARCH**|**2022**|
||**2021–22**|**2020–21**|
||**£**|**£**|
|**INCOME**|||
|British Academy Grant|76,937|74,429|
|Business Development Fund Grant|15,500|15,251|
|Subscriptions|5,561|5,914|
|Journal sales|3,142|2,200|
|Book sales and postage|4,261|5,958|
|Bank interest|113|466|
|Donations/gift aid|1,500|0|
|Miscellaneous|0|1,765|
|**TOTAL INCOME**|**107,014**|**105,983**|
|**EXPENDITURE**|||
|**Research grants**|**46,119**|**30,347**|
|**Library/Research collections**|**17,726**|**14,260**|
|Archive: cataloguing and conservation|11,226|14,260|
|Archive digitisation|6,500|0|
|**Communications and outreach**|**8,350**|**11,752**|
|Events inc 50th Anniversary|1,143|2,100|
|Publicity and outreach|4,318|4,320|
|Website maintenance/development|2,413|5,242|
|Lecture/meeting expenses|476|90|
|**Publications**|**27,986**|**44,815**|
|Digitisation old books|0|1,107|
|Storage/despatch of books|221|279|
|Print-on-demand costs|2,462|1,133|
|Royalties on book sales|196|675|
|Publications Manager|17,015|15,970|
|Journal production|4,150|3,015|
|Production of monographs/silphium books|800|4,596|
|Special projects|0|15,992|
|Other costs|3,142|2,048|
**28 |** Financial Report
|**Establishment**|**18,474**|**18,884**|
|---|---|---|
|Bank charges|153|194|
|General Secretary’s remuneration|11,567|11,566|
|Insurance|0|0|
|Ofce expenses|754|1,124|
|Accountancy|6,000|6,000|
|**Travel**|**0**|**0**|
|UK|0|0|
|**TOTAL EXPENDITURE**|**118,655**|**120,058**|
|**DEFICIT FOR THE YEAR**|**-11,641**|**-14,075**|
|**THE SOCIETY FOR LIBYAN STUDIES**|||
|**BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2022**|||
||**31/03/2022**|**31/03/2021**|
|---|---|---|
||**£**|**£**|
|**ASSETS**|||
|Virgin Money Account|69,926|79,813|
|NatWest Current Account|8,166|7,705|
|PayPal Account|605|605|
|**Total Cash**|**78,697**|**88,123**|
|Debtors|0|2,200|
|Stock of publications, valued at cost|8,065|11,112|
|**Total Assets**|86,762|**101,435**|
|**LIABILITIES**|||
|Creditors due within one year|1,232|3,850|
|Accrued income|903|273|
|Grants allocated but not yet paid out|5,000|2,997|
|**Total Current Liabilities**|**7,135**|**7,120**|
|**NET ASSETS**|79,627|**94,315**|
|**_Represented by:_**|||
|General Fund|29,246|35,066|
|Stock Fund|8,065|11,112|
|Publications Fund|42,316|48,137|
|**TOTAL FUNDS**|79,627|**94,315**|
Financial Report | **29**
## **NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022**
|**NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS YEAR ENDED 31**|**MARCH 2022**||
|---|---|---|
||**2021–22**|**2020–21**|
||**£**|**£**|
|General Fund brought forward|35,066|32,814|
|Stock Fund brought forward|11,112|12,366|
|Publications Fund brought forward|48,137|63,764|
|**Total funds at start of year**|**94,315**|**108,944**|
|Defcit/surplus for the year|-11,641|-14,075|
|Movement in stock|-3,047|-1,254|
|Write of old research creditor to reserves|0|700|
|**TOTAL FUNDS AT END OF YEAR**|79,627|**94,315**|
## **Reserves policy**
The Society has few financial commitments which cannot be terminated at short notice, since it has no direct employees and does not own or rent premises; it has not therefore been considered necessary to retain a reserve for potential winding-up costs.
At any one time the Society may be holding grants which have been awarded but not yet taken up by their recipients, and for practical reasons some of these (typically awarded in February for projects to be undertaken in the summer) are usually held over the end of the financial year (31 March). Such sums are shown above as a restricted reserve.
The Society has historically set aside funds for publications arising (usually several years later) from fieldwork that it has supported. These are shown as a Publications Reserve, with the intention that they may be used to support (any) publication costs, but not new fieldwork.
## **Book collection**
The Society held 947 items in its books collection, which is housed in the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies (‘SOAS’) University of London. Some more recent items have not yet been formally lodged with SOAS.
The Society did not have an active acquisition policy for its book collection during the year under review; it received volumes by gift and by exchange and works sent for review were generally also added to the collection.
_Oliver Kimberley_ Chartered Accountant, Honorary Treasurer
**30 |** Financial Report
## **INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL OF THE SOCIETY FOR LIBYAN STUDIES**
Charity number 259262 registered in England & Wales
I report to the Council on my examination of the accounts of the Society for Libyan Studies (‘the Society’) for the year ended 31 March 2021.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the charity trustees of the Society you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).
I report in respect of my examination of the Society’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145 (5) (b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner’s statement**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Society as required by section 130 of the Act; or
2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or
3. the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
**Colm Walls** _Chartered Management Accountant, Honorary Independent Examiner_ 36 Lancet Lane, Maidstone, Kent ME15 9SA
##
Financial Report | **31**
## **MEMBERSHIP**
To join the Society for Libyan Studies, please contact the General Secretary. Membership is open to all and runs from April to April. Key benefits include being part of a long-standing academic community, plus:
- Free copy of _Libyan Studies_ the Society’s annual journal
- The opportunity to purchase Society publications at significantly discounted prices
- Attendance at Society events, meetings, lectures and the Annual General Meeting
- Access to the Society Library (SOAS)
- Access to the Society Archive (University of Leicester)
## **CONTACT**
General Secretary: Pauline Graham The Society for Libyan Studies c/o British Academy 10–11 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AH gensec@societyforlibyanstudies.org
## **Social Media**
https://www.facebook.com/societyforlibyanstudies
> [https://twitter.com/LibyanStudies]
www.societyforlibyanstudies.org
**32 |** running foot