426 ray a. kea
long duration it was a system of transformations. Its defining elements include dis-
tinctive lithic technologies and ceramic traditions, social hierarchy as a form of organ-
ization, megalithic funerary architecture with associated formalities, ceremonial
complexes tied to astronomical rituals, rock art imagery, local and trans-local exchanges
of luxury and utilitarian goods and exotica, and Libyco–Berber scripts, in use from the
Canary Islands to the Selima oases on the edge of the middle Nile valley. Thus, in the
early history of the greater Mediterranean, architecture, belief, writing, art, exchange,
mortuary culture, hierarchical social order, and crafts were central features of elite
lifestyles.
Across the Pastoral Technocomplex landscape, ceremonial centers, megalithic
structures, and monumental tombs functioned as elite focal points of power and as
points of destination and departure for journeys within and beyond the desert. Over
time these nodal points gave rise to different historical trajectories in the central
Sahara, the middle Niger basin, and the middle Nile valley. Through interactive net-
works, elite communities in these areas “talked” to and negotiated with each other
across distant landscapes for luxury goods (copper and semi-precious stones), neces-
sities (salt), and labor (slaves and craft specialists).
The oasis caravan–system and middle Niger citiesFrom its heartland in the Wadi al-Ajal of the Fazzan (Libya), Garamantian state-society
(c. 1000 bce–666/67 ce) dominated much of the Sahara through conquests and alli-
ances for more than 500 years. Biological affinities of the Garamantes (“people of the
city”), a mixed population of Afrasan- and Nilo-Saharan-speakers, seem to focus most
closely on sub-Saharan Africans and Roman Egyptians and secondarily to Algerian
and Tunisian peoples. This anthropological structure points to regular and close lines
of communication with the Egyptian and Nubian Nile valleys, the middle Niger basin,
and North Africa from the first millennium bce to the early first millennium ce. As a
heterogeneous and coherent site, the Fazzan served as a point of departure and
a destination for local and trans-regional relationships across discrete and continuous
political, sociocultural, and economic spaces within the greater Mediterranean zone.
The Garamantian Kingdom entered an expansionist phase during its early and classical
periods (c. 500 bce–c. 300/400 ce), thereby creating an imperial system based on an
extensive trading network.
During a period of severe desiccation (c. 300 bce–c. 300 ce), Garamantian state-
society also developed a rich and specialized agricultural regime based on a complex
irrigation system; it established a major salt-producing center, built cities with planned
layouts and fortifications, maintained a standing military force of cavalry and chariot-
eers, controlled central Saharan caravan routes, created a distinctive rock art tradition,
and developed a written language based on the Libyco–Berber script. The ruling
dynasty administered a wide territory that consisted of different pastoral and agro-
pastoral communities, politically and/or culturally affiliated with that dynasty as allies,
clients, or tributary subjects. The heartland was a site of walled towns, specialized craft
and horticultural oasis villages, pastures, salt pans, quarries, extensive necropolises, and
monumental religious, palatial, and funerary architecture. In the second century ce,
the walled capital Garama had an estimated population of 4000 with a further 6000 in
craft villages within a radius of four to five kilometers. Demographic levels in the