عنوان

Roman fortified farms (qsur) and military sites in the region of the Wadi Al-Kuf, Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya)

Number

TLets647104

Title Proper

Roman fortified farms (qsur) and military sites in the region of the Wadi Al-Kuf, Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya)

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Emrage, Ahmad S. M.

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Mattingly, David; Allison, Penelope

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Leicester

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2015

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Thesis (Ph.D.)

Text preceding or following the note

2015

Text of Note

Fortified buildings (in Arabic known as qsur, singular qasr) that stand isolated or formed part of wider settlements are a common phenomenon that existed in many regions of Roman Africa, especially in the late Roman and late antique periods. Different interpretations of the defensive appearance of the qsur in Africa (and parallels in different parts of the Roman Empire) have been advanced. In terms of Cyrenaica, this remarkable class of sites, though the most obvious archaeological monuments of the countryside, has not received a great deal of attention in the past. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis was to make a systematic study of the typology, chronology and function of these fortified structures, drawing on archaeological and literary sources and my own fieldwork. I carried out a combination of extensive and intensive archaeological, topographical and landscape survey in the region of Wadi al-Kuf in Cyrenaica. In three different topographical blocks covering a total area of about 1,350 km2, a total of 55 sites was documented (42 sites were recorded for the first time by my survey). An attempt is made to distinguish between potential military and civilian sites on the basis of locational and architectural factors. A broad framework is provided by interpreting the limited dating evidence and supported by comparison with similar sites from other regions of the Roman Empire, particularly in Tripolitania. This research has made original contributions to determining the architecture, typology and chronology of qsur in the survey region and overall it has increased our knowledge of rural settlement in the Wadi al-Kuf region.

Emrage, Ahmad S. M.

Mattingly, David; Allison, Penelope

University of Leicester

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y