The Archaeological Mission in the Sahara will carry out field activities in Tunisia in the Chott el Jerid and the Grand Erg Oriental (provinces of Kebili and Tataouine). Laboratory activities, dissemination and publications are integral part of the research.
The project continues the study on environmental and cultural trajectories at late Quaternary contexts in the Northern Sahara to understand key evolutive and population dynamics: the appearance of the earliest H. sapiens and material correlates (c. 300 ka, kilo annum); the introduction of food production economies and the interactions with the last hunter-gatherers in the early Holocene (c. 11,000 ka); the network of contacts revealed by late prehistoric funerary traditions (6-3 ka); the genetic composition and ethnohistory of sedentary and mobile communities.
To achieve these objectives, we shall excavate: i) the middle/late Pleistocene sequence of Wadi Lazalim; ii) the early Holocene contexts of Tembaine and Kambout; iii) the funerary monuments in the Grand Erg Oriental.
Fieldwork is carefully scheduled in the framework of an organically conceived territorial project but could shift from area to area after the security advice of the Italian Embassy in Tunis.
The COVID-19 pandemic had serious impact on 2020 fieldwork activities. The mission aim at getting back in line with the program by putting together a large team of around 30 Tunisian and Italian scientists and students: archaeologists, anthropologists, geologists, botanists, and biologists. The fieldwork will also focus on the training of Tunisian and Italian students. We shall also continue the analyses on archaeological materials from the previous and ongoing missions. Other laboratory analyses will be conducted on biological and skeletal material from SW Libya currently curated at the Museum of Anthropology of Sapienza University of Rome (DNA, stable isotopes, C14). Analyses on the Saharan rock art evidence will focus on Libyan and Tunisian contexts.
The northern Sahara is an extraordinary region to study the cultural dynamics rooted in the early/middle Pleistocene and the connections between these regions and the complex landscapes that surround them. The interactions between humans and the changing environments during the Late Quaternary will be studied in a wide-ranging perspective, relying on surveys at a different scale, soundings and extensive excavations and laboratory analyses.
The project strongly relies on inter- and multi-disciplinary approach and on a long-lasting and effective research team that achieved relevant results in similar projects characterized by a territorial approach in other African contexts (Libya and Kenya). The Archaeological Mission in the Sahara has in fact a long-lasting tradition and it is one of the oldest missions of Sapienza University of Rome.
The continuously updated theoretical and methodological assets and the implementation of cutting edge-methods of analyses retain a decisive role on the research design and strategies. This cutting-edge methodological perspective requiring a multi-disciplinary team work is warranted by a strong Sapienza team and by a national and international network allowing to set up a multiregional research modelled on the specificity of this landscape from the mountainous areas to the Saharan ergs with intensive and long-term research.
Although rooted in a landscape archaeology approach, the multiplicity of the contexts being studied also responds to the need for a flexible remodulation of the fieldwork on the basis of security and sanitary conditions, still as fragile as to prevent from sticking to single archaeological contexts (see e.g. Cancellieri & Ben Nasr 2019).
Different approaches in the fields of archaeological, paleoenvironmental and geomorphological research will be adopted (e.g., remote sensing, geomorphological survey, spatial analysis of geomorphic markers in GIS environment, landscape evolution numerical modelling, digital recording, absolute dating). The digital documentation of archaeological evidence in particular is a critical tool for the study, preservation and management of archaeological sites in remote regions and in marginal areas, where archaeological heritage can quickly disappear especially when plans to protect the heritage are erratic or absent (see e.g. Mekki 2021). Archaeological fieldwork is increasingly using photogrammetric techniques as tools for recording field evidence. These techniques generate highly detailed 3D models providing the data for further in-lab research and digital dissemination, especially useful in the case of fast archaeological surveys in hardly accessible remote areas (see e.g. Brandolini et al. 2021; Lucci et al. 2019).
In-depth analyses of the different contexts analysed will allow the reconstruction of the economic and socio-cultural dynamics of hunter-gatherers from the middle Pleistocene to the early Holocene, as well as of the first herders. A landscape approach and the study of mobility (geochemical and archaeological analysis of lithic and pottery artefacts; isotope analyses of osteological remains;) as well as in anthropological and faunal studies (skeletal and dental biology, genetic investigation, analysis of faunal and botanical remains, ZooMS, aDNA etc) will open new perspectives on the patterns of occupation of the region and the interactions between human communities.
After the Arab Spring, we are asked to work for the construction of an academic network able to contribute to advancing the knowledge in countries torn by social and economic tensions. The project thus also has the cultural mission to support the capacity building and the knowledge transfer between the African and European shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The project strongly aims to engage the local communities to preserve and enhance their cultural and natural heritage, in particular promoting and helping to raise the awareness in very remote areas of the country.
Outreach regarding the progress of the research and the results, in Italy, Tunisia and internationally, constitutes an integral part of the project. It is foreseen to continue the training program (field research methodologies; main aspects of North African prehistory) for Tunisian students and young researchers to be carried out locally and in Italy. Dissemination activities will be intensified in the communities¿ territories where the Mission operates, and public activities will be organized in Tunisian and Italian institutional sieges.