Ancient sites in rural Cyrenaica: a partial update

Abstract Two brief reconnaissance visits to archaeological sites in Cyrenaica in November 2010 and April 2012, for the purpose of a new archaeological guidebook, led to a variety of observations concerning rural sites which have been little discussed since the 1950s. The predominant theme was a need for a wide-ranging and detailed reassessment of the chronology and nature of rural settlement. This was carried out in Tripolitania in the 1980s by the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey, but nothing comparable has been done in Cyrenaica. Sites previously regarded as Byzantine or early Arab have yielded early Roman pottery, and many once taken to be military, with strengthened defences, now seem more likely to be civil and to have been shored up following earthquake damage.