There is not much information about the Garamantes, not even the name they used to call themselves; Garamantes was a Greek name which the Romans later adopted. Most of what we know comes from Greek and Roman sources, and recent archaeological excavations in the area, though large areas in ruins are still unexcavated. Another important source of information are the abundant rock paintings, many of which depict life prior to the rise of the realm.
Garamantian life
In the 1960's, archaeologists excavated part of the Garamantes' capital (modern Germa, about 150 km west of modern-day Sebha) and named it Garama (An earlier capital, Zinchecra, was located not far from the later Garama.). Current research indicates that the Garamantes had about eight major towns, three of which have been examined as of 2004. In addition they had a large number of other settlements. Garama had population of some four thousand and another six thousand living in villages within a 5 km radius.The Garamantes were farmers, engineers and merchants. Their religion was based on Egyptian models, and some of their dead were buried in small pyramids. They used the Libyco-Berber script for writing. The discovery of the "Black Mummy" by Professor Fabrizio Mori at the Uan Muhuggiag suggests that there may even have been a long tradition of mummification in the region.
The Garamantes' diet consisted of grapes, figs, barley and wheat. They traded wheat, salt and slaves in exchange for imported wine and olive oil, oil lamps and Roman tableware. According to Strabo and Pliny, the Garamantes quarried amazonite in the Tibesti Mountains.
Archeological remains
The ruins include numerous tombs, forts, and cemeteries. The Garamantes constructed a network of underground tunnels and shafts to mine the fossil water from under the limestone layer under the desert sand. It was built around 200 BC to 200 AD. The network of tunnels is known to berbers as foggaras. The network allowed agriculture to flourish, but it required the use of slaves to maintain.
History
The Garamantes were probably present as tribal people in the Fezzan by 1000 BC. They appear in the written record for the first time in the 5th century BC. According to Professor Frank Snowden, they were described in the various classical texts of the period as "Ethiopians", but distinguished from "Ethiopians" by others; reflective of the ethnic diversity of the region. According to Herodotus, they were "a very great nation" who herded cattle, farmed dates, and hunted the "Ethiopian Troglodytes", or "cave-dwellers" who lived in the desert, from four-horse chariots. Roman depictions describe them as bearing ritual scars and tattoos. Tacitus wrote that they assisted the rebel Tacfarinas and raided Roman coastal settlements.The Romans kept close trade contacts with Garamantes; archaeologists have even found a Roman bathhouse in Garama. The Roman chronicler Maternus accompanied a Garamantian ruler on a four-month military expedition to what is now the border area of Nigeria. Still, in spite of the trade relations, Romans did not really consider them civilized.
The Garamantians represented a challenge to Rome, never giving in to Roman power, while the coastal zones of today's Libya did. Despite this, Herodotus reported that they had no weapons of war, and did not know how to defend themselves.
In the 1st century BC, the Garamantes raided North Africa and clashed with Roman forces. According to Pliny the Elder, Romans eventually grew tired of Garamantian raiding and Lucius Cornelius Balbus captured 15 of their settlements in 19 BC. After a Roman punitive expedition in 70, the Garamantes were forced into an official relationship with Rome and might have become one of the Roman client states.
By around 150 the Garamantian kingdom (in today's central Libya (Fezzan), principally along the still existing Wadi al-Ajal), covered 180,000 square kilometres in modern-day southern Libya. It lasted from about 400 BC to 600.
The decline of the Garamantian civilization is said to be connected to worsening climatic conditions. What is desert today was once fairly good agricultural land and was enhanced through the Garmantian irrigation system 1,500 years ago. As fossil water is not a renewable resource, over the six centuries of the Garamantian kingdom, the ground water level fell. The kingdom declined and fragmented.
Byzantine records claim that the king of Garamantes made a peace treaty with Byzantium in 569 and accepted Christianity. Later Muslim records say that in 668 the king of Garamantes was imprisoned and dragged off in chains. The area was eventually absorbed into the Muslim sphere of influence.
References
- N. Barley (Review). Reviewed work(s): Les chars rupestres sahariens: des syrtes au Niger, par le pays des Garamantes et des Atlantes by Henri Lhote Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 48, No. 1 (1985), pp. 210-210
- Timothy F. Garrard. Myth and Metrology: The Early Trans-Saharan Gold Trade The Journal of African History, Vol. 23, No. 4 (1982), pp. 443-461
- Ulrich Haarmann. The Dead Ostrich Life and Trade in Ghadames (Libya) in the Nineteenth Century. Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Vol. 38, Issue 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 9-94
- R. C. C. Law . The Garamantes and Trans-Saharan Enterprise in Classical Times The Journal of African History, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1967), pp. 181-200
- Daniel F. McCall. Herodotus on the Garamantes: A Problem in Protohistory History in Africa, Vol. 26, (1999), pp. 197-217
- Count Byron Khun de Prorok. Ancient Trade Routes from Carthage into the Sahara Geographical Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Apr., 1925), pp. 190-205
- Brent D. Shaw. Climate, Environment and Prehistory in the Sahara. World Archaeology, Vol. 8, No. 2, Climatic Change (Oct., 1976), pp. 133-149
- Richard Smith. What Happened to the Ancient Libyans? Chasing Sources across the Sahara from Herodotus to Ibn Khaldun Journal of World History - Volume 14, Number 4, December 2003, pp. 459-500
- John T. Swanson. The Myth of Trans-Saharan Trade during the Roman Era The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 8, No. 4 (1975), pp. 582-600
- Belmonte, Juan Antonio; Esteban, César; Perera Betancort, Maria Antonia; Marrero, Rita. Archaeoastronomy in the Sahara: The Tombs of the Garamantes at Wadi el Agial, Fezzan, Libya. Journal for the History of Astronomy Supplement, Vol. 33, 2002
- Louis Werner. Libya's Forgotten Desert Kingdom Saudi Aramco World May/June 2004 , pp.8-13
- Raymond A. Dart . The Garamantes of central Sahara. African Studies, Volume 11, Issue 1 March 1952 , pages 29 - 34
- Karim Sadr (Reviewer): WHO WERE THE GARAMANTES AND WHAT BECAME OF THEM? The Archaeology of Fazzan. Volume I: Synthesis. Edited by DAVID J. MATTINGLY. London: Society for Libyan Studies, and Tripoli: Department of Antiquities, 2003. (ISBN 1-90097-102-X) Review in The Journal of African History (2004), 45: 492-493
- Victor Paul Borg. The Garamantes masters of the Sahara. Geographical, Vol. 79, August 2007.
- Gabriel Camps. Les Garamantes, conducteurs de chars et bâtisseurs dans le Fezzan antique Clio.fr (2002).
- Kevin White, David Mattingly. Ancient lakes of the Sahara American Scientist. January-February 2006.
- Théodore Monod, L’émeraude des Garamantes, Souvenirs d’un Saharien. Paris: L’Harmattan. (1984).
- Avienus
- Silius Italicus Punic History Book 14
External links
- "Kingdom of the Sands"
- Encyclopaedia of the Orient - article about Garamantian empire
- romansonline.com: Classical Latin texts citing the Garamantes.
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