LIBYAN HERITAGE IN THE DIGITAL AGE THE FIRST STEP LEPTIS

LIBYAN
HERITAGE
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
THE FIRST STEP
LEPTIS MAGNA
The Tombs Project
Project of video-archiving and computerized menagement of the
funerary contexts in the territory of Leptis Magna
A project aimed at the study and publication
of the grave goods in the Leptis Magna
territory has been carried out during the
2006 campaign, in close collaboration with
the Department of Antiquities of Leptis
Magna.
There are about 70 graves,
which came to light
between the 20s and the
90s of last century. They
included a large number of
items currently stored in
the storages of the
Department and largely
unpublished.
The primary goal of the project is the creation of a database in Italian and Arabic, which will be an
important tool for developing the information collected and will provide, on the other hand, the
officials and the scholars with a manageable documentation.
The preliminary phase of the
investigation involved the
identification of their
topographical distribution in
the area and the location of the
findings on both historic and
modern maps, as on recent
satellite images.
In order to obtain an accurate
reconstruction of the relationship between
the urban or rural landscape and the
funerary space, data got from ground
survey have been integrated with the ones
collected at the time of the excavations,
which are in many cases the only valuable
source of information.
Subsequently single objects found
in the tombs have been analyzed,
in order to create a typology
diachronically ordered.
On the base of the recorded
inscriptions, most of which
found on the cinerary urns, it
is possible to document the
process of Romanization of
the local population through
the gradual adaptation of the
naming forms from native
language to Latin.
The anthropological research carried out on
the buried or cremated remains, also
contributes to the definition of the human
group under investigation and the statistical
reconstruction of the population of the
ancient city and its territory through the
application of paleodemographic models.
The comparison of the data collected in the different
investigated complexes provides an extremely varied
framework of the manifestations related to the funerary cult.
It highlights, on one hand, the persistence of strong local
components, depending on cultural traditions and
established ideologies; on the other hand, the full
integration into the legal, economic and cultural sphere of
Rome.
The project has been restarted in 2012
and not yet completed. More than 50
tombs have been so far
recontextualizated and 2,765 forms of
single finds have been filled, attaching
the information regarding their origin
and their graphic and photographic
documentation.
LIBYAN
HERITAGE
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
THE FIRST STEP
EASTERN TRIPOLITANIA
MUSEUMS
SURVEY 2011
In December 2011,
after the invitation of
the Department of
Archaeology of Libya
and within the
UNESCO program for
Libya, we carried out
a survey of the
museums of eastern
Tripolitania
depending on the
Department of Leptis
Magna.
SURVEY 2011
The aim of the mission
was an assessment of the
archaeological museums
of eastern Tripolitania, in
the administration of the
Department of Leptis
Magna, that includes Beni
Ualid, Zliten, Misurata,
Madinat as Sultan and
Leptis, checking the
overall conditions of the
collections, of the
museum buildings, of the
artefacts and possible
recent war damages.
SURVEY 2011
The museums
checked during the
campaign of 2011…
Leptis Magna
Misurata
Madinat as Sultan
Zliten
Beni Ualid
SURVEY 2011
All objects were
photographed and
briefly catalogued.
All data have been
loaded in a
specifically developed
database, following
the photographs
register of the objects.
SURVEY 2011
LEPTIS
2,509 archaeological object
items
ZLITEN
92 archaeological object
items
1 museum item
BENI UALID
443 archaeological object
items
1 museum item
MADINAT AS SULTAN
0 archaeological object items
1 museum item
MISURATA
187 archaeological object
items
1 museum item
TOTAL
Archaeological object items 3,231
Museum items
5
SURVEY 2011
Leptis Magna
SURVEY 2011
Zliten
SURVEY 2011
Misurata
SURVEY 2011
Beni Ualid
SURVEY 2011
Beni Ualid
SURVEY 2011
Madinat as Sultan