Draft:Original research/Libyan history



Archaeological evidence indicates that the coastal plain of ancient Libya was inhabited by Neolithic peoples from as early as 8000 BC, 10,000 b2k.

The Ancient Libyans were skilled in the domestication of cattle and the cultivation of crops.

History
History starts with events, particularly in human affairs.

These events are in the past.

As these events are no longer here in the present, they cannot be studied directly.

Sometimes there is a whole series of events connected with someone or something.

A continuous, typically chronological, record of important or public events or of a particular trend or institution is studied as a history of these events.

Libya
The vector, geographical map that approximately locates the political nation of Libya relative to other political nations such as Egypt, Sudan, Niger, Algeria, and Tunisia, and to physical geography features like the Mediterranean Sea is shown at the right.

At the left is a satellite image of the Earth's surface that corresponds currently with the political nation of Libya.

Theoretical Libyan history
Here's a theoretical definition:

Def. a country or province in north-central Africa, usually bordered to the North by the Mediterranean Sea with Egypt to the East is called Libya.

Def. a history of the country or province of Libya is called Libyan history.

Geography
The Tibesti Mountains, specifically Emi Koussi, is at 18°33'6"N 19°47'36"E.

Geology
The onset of the 5.9 kiloyear event's intense aridification resulted in the "green Sahara" rapidly transforming into the Sahara Desert as it is today.

Recent history
The recent history period dates from around 1,000 b2k to present.

On the right, the map shows Tripoli, Fezzan, and the Libyan Desert in 1885.

On the left, the map shows Egypt and Barbarie, with Tripoli included, in 1733.

Imperial Antiquity
In Felix Romuliana, "the construction [...] is [...] Imperial Antique (1st-3rd c.), and sometimes even late Hellenistic, [in] appearance."

In the late imperial antiquity map on the right, provincial boundaries (dashed red lines) are approximate and, in many places, very uncertain.

Early history
The early history period dates from around 3,000 to 2,000 b2k.

In its early history, Libya may have been considered to be all of Africa west of Egypt.

"Sataspes went down to Egypt, and there got a ship and crew, with which he set sail for the Pillars of Hercules. Having passed the Straits, he doubled the Libyan headland, known as Cape Soloeis, and proceeded southward. Following this course for many months over a vast stretch of sea, and finding that more water than he had crossed still lay ever before him, he put about, and came back to Egypt. Thence proceeding to the court, he made report to Xerxes, that at the farthest point to which he had reached, the coast was occupied by a dwarfish race, who wore a dress made from the palm tree. These people, whenever he landed, left their towns and fled away to the mountains; his men, however, did them no wrong, only entering into their cities and taking some of their cattle. The reason why he had not sailed quite round Libya was, he said, because the ship stopped, and would no go any further."

"These be the Libyan tribes whereof I am able to give the names; and most of these cared little then, and indeed care little now, for the king of the Medes. One thing more also I can add concerning this region, namely, that, so far as our knowledge reaches, four nations, and no more, inhabit it; and two of these nations are indigenous, while two are not. The two indigenous are the Libyans and Ethiopians, who dwell respectively in the north and the south of Libya. The Phoenicians and the Greek are in-comers."

Garamantian
The Garamantes were probably present as tribal people in the Fezzan by 1000 BC (3000 b2k). They appear in the written record for the first time in the 5th century BC: according to Herodotus, they were "a very great nation" who herded cattle, farmed dates, and hunted the Troglodytae (Ethiopian cave-dwellers) who lived in the desert, from four-horse chariots.

"Ten days' journey from Augila there is again a salt-hill and a spring; palms of the fruitful kind grow here abundantly, as they do also at the other salt-hills. This region is inhabited by a nation called the Garamantians, a very powerful people, who cover the salt with mould, and then sow their crops. From thence is the shortest road to the Lutophagi, a journey of thirty days. In the Garamantian country are found the oxen which, as they graze, walk backwards. This they do because their horns curve outwards in front of their heads, so that it is not possible for them when grazing to move forwards, since in that case their horns would become fixed in the ground. Only herein do they differ from other oxen, and further in the thickness and hardness of their hides. The Garamantians have four-horse chariots, in which they chase the Troglodyte Ethiopians, who of all the nations whereof any account has reached our ears are by far the swiftest of foot. The Troglodytes feed on serpents, lizards, and other similar reptiles. Their language is unlike that of any other people; it sounds like the screeching of bats."

Cyrenaica
In 525 BCE (2525 b2k) the Persian army of Cambyses II overran Cyrenaica, which for the next two centuries remained under Persian or Egyptian rule.

Alexander the Great was greeted by the Greeks when he entered Cyrenaica in 331 BCE (2331 b2k), and Eastern Libya again fell under the control of the Greeks, this time as part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Later, a federation of the Pentapolis was formed that was customarily ruled by a king drawn from the Ptolemaic royal house.

In the Hellenistic period from 323 BCE to 31 BCE (2323 to 2031 b2k), the Berbers were known as Libyans.

Cyrenaica is located at 31°00'N 22°30'E.

Cyrene
Cyrene is located at 32°49'30"N 21°51'29"E.

The ruins of Cyrene in the image on the right were built 631 BC (2631 b2k) by colonists from Santorini, Thera led by Battus I.

They found a dealer in purple dyes named Corobius. He had once traveled to an island across from Libya called Platea [or Plataea, modern Jazirat Barda`ah]. Grinus and Corobius sailed to Platea, when they reached their destination they left Corobius with months of supplies and Grinus went back to Thera to collect men to settle the newly made colony. After two years of settling the colony, they had little success and went back to the Pythia to get advice. The Pythia had repeated her advice to move directly to the country of Libya instead of across from Libya. So they moved to a place called Aziris. They settled there for six years, and were very successful until the Libyans visited the settlement of Aziris to convince the people to move further inland. They were swayed by the Libyans to move and settled into what is now Cyrene. The current king of that time Battus reigned for 40 years, until he passed on and his son, Arcesilaus, took over and reigned for 16 years, with no more or less population change until the Oracle had told the third king, another Battus, to bring Greek citizens to the settlement and with that expansion the Libyans had lost a lot of land surrounding Cyrene.

Although Cyrene was later incorporated into the Roman Empire, it was originally founded in 630 BC as a colony of the Greeks from the Greek island of Thera. 16 kilometers from Cyrene is the port of Apollonia (Marsa Sousa). The city promptly became the chief town of ancient Libya and established commercial relations with all the Greek cities, reaching the height of its prosperity under its own kings in the 5th century BC. Soon after 460 BC, it became a republic, and after the death of Alexander III of Macedon (323 BC) it was passed to the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Sabratha
Sabratha's port was established, perhaps about 500BCE (c. 2500 b2k), as the Phoenician trading-post of Tsabratan ṣbrtn, or ṣbrtʿn. This seems to have been a Berber name, suggesting a preëxisting native settlement.

Sabratha is located at 32°47'32"N 12°29'3"E.

Ancient history
The ancient history period dates from around 8,000 to 3,000 b2k.

"There are in Greek literature some very similar versions according to which Cronus [Saturn], of course during his universal reign, ruled over the western world or especially over Libya, Sicily and Italy."

At about 3,000 b2k, as shown in the map image second down on the right, Libya was the Cyrene peninsula.

Late Bronze Ages
The Late Bronze Ages begin about 3550 b2k and end about 2900 b2k.

The Libu are attested since the Late Bronze Age as inhabiting the region (Egyptian R'bw, Punic: lby), where the oldest known references to the Libu date to Ramesses II (ca. 3300 b2k) and his successor Merneptah, pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, during the 13th century BC; LBW appears as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele.

In 630 BC, the ancient Greeks colonized the area around Barca in Eastern Libya and founded the city of Cyrene. Within 200 years, four more important Greek cities were established in the area that became known as Cyrenaica.

When the Greeks actually settled in the real Libya in the 630s (2630 b2k), the old name taken from the Egyptians was applied by the Greeks of Cyrenaica, who may have coexisted with the Libu.

The Phoenicians were the first to establish trading posts in Libya.

The merchants of Tyre (in present-day Lebanon) developed commercial relations with the Berber tribes and made treaties with them to ensure their cooperation in the exploitation of raw materials.

Neolithic
The Neolithic Subpluvial began during the 7th millennium BC and was strong for about 2,000 years; it waned over time and ended after the 5.9 kiloyear event (3900 BCE, 5900 b2k).

At the right is an image of an engraving of an elephant at Wadi Mathendous in southwest Libya. This engraving may date from the Neolithic Subpluvial.

Giraffes are shown in the engraving on the left.

The spear point or arrow point at the lower right from Algeria needs more descriptive information.

The image at the lower left shows petroglyphs of animals, including a crocodile, on rocks from Wadi Mathendous near Germa, Fezzan, southwestern Libya.

The lowest image on the left shows cave art exhibited at the Germa Museum, possibly from Wadi Mathendous.

Acacus mountains
Rock paintings and carvings at Wadi Mathendous and the mountainous region of Jebel Acacus are the best sources of information about prehistoric Libya, and the pastoralist culture that settled there. The paintings reveal that the Libyan Sahara contained rivers, grassy plateaus and an abundance of wildlife such as giraffes, elephants and crocodiles.

"Fossilized bones show that by the sixth millennium B.C. (or about 7,000 years ago), cattle, sheep and goats roamed over green savanna, and rock art [at left] depicts cows with full udders. The occasional image even shows milking".

Holocene
The Holocene starts at ~11,700 b2k and extends to the present.

The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene (around 12,000 14C years ago) and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. The period follows the last glacial period (regionally known as the Wisconsinan Glacial Period, the Baltic-Scandinavian Ice Age, or the Weichsel glacial).

Various populations of pastoralists have left paintings of abundant wildlife, domesticated animals, chariots, and a complex culture that dates back to at least 10,000 BCE [12,000 b2k] in Northern Niger and neighboring parts of Algeria and Libya.

Paleolithic
The paleolithic period dates from around 2.6 x 106 b2k to the end of the Pleistocene around 12,000 b2k.

Because of fossil and tool discoveries, there is proof that some representatives of Homo erectus for the first time about 2 million years ago over Northwest Africa south of Spain.

Around 600,000 years ago, there was probably a second wave [of Homo erectus].

About 200,000 years ago, early or archaic anatomically modern humans [evolved] from Homo erectus.

It was the Sahara, in contrast to the coastal strip and oases, was only habitable when sufficient rainfall would allow sufficient flora and fauna.

In the image at the right are apparent stone tools from the current sandy deserts of North Africa. On the left is a worked stone of 440 mm in length that comes from Libyan Erg Tamiset (latitude N25.25, longitude E10.52). On the right is a worked stone of 345 mm in length from Erg Murzuq in the Libyan southwest (N24.29/E11.59). The middle worked stone of 360 mm is a hand ax native to south Algeria, from the Erg Tiffemine (N26.29)/E06.49).

Prehistory
The prehistory period dates from around 7 x 106 b2k to about 7,000 b2k.

Miocene
The Miocene dates from 23.03 x 106 to 5.332 x 106 b2k.

Fossil cercopithecoids have been found in the Early Miocene of eastern Libya. Cercopithecoids are primates and from the parvordo Catarrhini as are humans, differing in superfamily: Cercopithecoidea versus Hominoidea.

Zaltanpithecus occurred in eastern Libya.

Prohylobates is from the Early Miocene of Libya.

"Before the late Miocene, the published cercopithecoid record has largely been limited to rare and incomplete materials of Prohylobates and Zaltanpithecus collected from the early–middle Miocene of northern Africa".

Oligocene
The Oligocene dates from 33.9 ± 0.1 x 106 to 23.03 x 106 b2k.

"The presence of taxa as distinctive as Prohylobates, Proconsul and Rangwapithecus in the African early Miocene indicates that the cercopithecoid–hominoid diversification initiated during the Oligocene".

Hypotheses

 * 1) Libyan history with respect to hominins should go back to at least 106 b2k.