"Lost" Fortresses of Sahara Revealed by Satellites

Well-preserved settlements of mysterious civilization

discovered in Libya.

A mud-brick compound built by the mysterious Garamantes people.
UM COMPOSTO DE TIJOLOS DE BARRO CONSTRUDO PELO POVO GARAMANTES MISTERIOSAS.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TOBY SAVAGE
James Owen
for National Geographic News
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 11, 2011
Real-life "castles in the sand" made by an ancient culture have
been revealed in the Sahara, archaeologists say.
New satellite photographs show more than a hundred fortress settlements from
a "lost" civilization in southwestern Libya.


A SATELLITE PICTURE OF THE ''LOST'' FORTRESSES. IMAGE COURTESY U.
LEICESTER/DIGITALGLOBE/GOOGLE

The communities, which date to between about A.D. 1 and 500, belonged to an
advanced but mysterious people called the Garamantes, who ruled from
roughly the second century B.C. to the seventh century A.D.
Researchers uncovered the Garamantes' walled towns, villages, and farms after
poring over modern satellite imagesincluding high-resolution pictures used by
the oil industryas well as aerial photos taken during the 1950s and 1960s.
(Seepictures of Libya's remote Sahara.)
Located about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tripoli, the fortresses were
confirmed based on Garamantes pottery samples collected during an early-
2011 expedition. That field trip was cut short by the civil war that would end the
42-year regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
"We were astonished to see the level of preservation" of the ancient mud-brick
compounds, said project leader David Mattingly, of the U.K.'s University of
Leicester.
"Although the walls of these sites have slumped a little bit, mainly due to wind
erosion, they are still standing 3 to 4 meters [10 to 13 feet] high in places," he
said.
(Read "Unseen Sahara" in National Geographic magazine.)
"Extraordinary" Construction
Archaeologists could have easily mistaken the well-planned, straight-line
construction for Roman frontier forts of similar design, Mattingly observed.
"But, actually, this is beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empirethese sites are
markers of a powerful native African kingdom," he said.
What's more, the scientists were surprised that the siteswhich include
cemeteries and agricultural fieldsare so tightly clustered.
(See "Ancient Cemetery Found; Brings 'Green Sahara' to Life.")
For instance, an area of 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers) contained at
least ten village-size settlements"that's an extraordinary density," Mattingly
said.
Previous knowledge of the Garamantes is based mainly on excavations at their
capital, Jarma, some 125 miles (200 kilometers) to the northwest, as well as on
ancient Roman and Greek texts.
"We've built up a picture of them as being a very sophisticated, high-level
civilization," Mattingly said. (Read about the "lost lords of the Sahara"
in National Geographic magazine.)
"They've got metallurgy, very high-quality textiles, a writing system ... those
sorts of markers that would say this is an organized, state-level society," he
said.
Cash-strapped heritage authorities in Libya have been unable to conduct field
research, leaving a gap in knowledge of the ancient civilization, according
to University of Oxford archaeologist Philip Kenrick, who was not involved in the
new research.
That's why Mattingly and his teamaided by a $3.4-million grant from the
E.U.'s European Research Councilhave "been breaking new ground on an
unprecedented scale," Kenrick said.
Ancient Culture Created Green Sahara
The newfound remains are also a testament to the Garamantes' advanced
irrigation technology, which enabled them to create green oases in the desert.
(See "High-Tech Energy 'Oasis' to Bloom in the Desert?")
"It's a deep Saharan, hyper-arid environment, and it's only people's ability to
exploit groundwater that can change that," project leader Mattingly said.
The Garamantes mined reservoirs of prehistoric water using underground
canals to cultivate Mediterranean cropssuch as wheat, barley, figs, and
grapesand sub-Saharan African sorghum, pearl millet, and cotton.
Mattingly and colleagues have calculated that 77,000 man-years of labor went
into constructing the underground water channelsa figure that doesn't include
digging the wells or maintenance. A man-year is a unit of the work done by a
person in a year.
Ancient Africans Ran Out of Water?
What happened to the Garamantes remains a riddle, but Mattingly's team
suspects that the desert communities declined once groundwatersupplies
diminished.
Paul Bennett, head of mission of the U.K.-based Society of Libyan Studies,
agreed that's a likely scenario.
"Groundwater is a nonrenewable sourceas soon as you've tapped the
reservoir and emptied it, it's not going to fill again," said Bennett, who was not
involved in the new research.
The collapse of the Roman Empire, and increasing conflict in the Mediterranean
region, would've also seriously affected the trans-Saharan trade upon which the
desert civilization depended, added Oxford's Kenrick.

TRADUO

Da vida real "castelos na areia" feita por uma cultura antiga ter sido revelado no Saara, dizem
os arquelogos.
Novas imagens de satlite mostram que mais de uma centena de assentamentos da fortaleza
de um "perdido" a civilizao no sudoeste da Lbia.
As comunidades, que data de entre cerca de 1 dC e 500, pertenciam a um povo avanado, mas
misteriosa chamada garamantes, que governou aproximadamente do sculo II aC ao stimo
sculo dC
Pesquisadores descobriram cidades as garamantes 'murados, vilas e fazendas aps debruado
sobre modernas imagens-incluindo imagens de alta resoluo utilizados pela indstria, como o
leo bem como fotos areas tiradas durante os anos 1950 e 1960 de satlite. (Seepictures de
Sahara remoto da Lbia.)
Localizado a cerca de 620 milhas (1000 km) ao sul de Trpoli, as fortalezas foram confirmados
com base em amostras de cermica garamantes coletadas durante uma expedio incio de
2011. Essa viagem de campo foi interrompida pela guerra civil que iria acabar com o regime do
lder lbio Muamar Kadafi 42 anos.
"Ficamos surpresos ao ver o nvel de preservao" dos compostos antigos de tijolos de barro,
disse o lder do projeto, David Mattingly, da Universidade de Leicester, no Reino Unido.
"Embora as paredes destes locais caram um pouco, principalmente devido eroso do vento,
eles ainda esto de p 3-4 metros de [10] 13 ps altos em lugares", disse ele.
(Leia "Unseen Sahara" na revista National Geographic.)
Construo "Extraordinrio"
Arquelogos poderia facilmente ter confundido o bem planejada, linear de construo de
fortalezas fronteirias romanas de projeto similar, Mattingly observados.
"Mas, na verdade, isso est alm das fronteiras do Imprio Romano-esses sites so
marcadores de um poderoso reino nativo Africano", disse ele.
Alm do mais, os cientistas ficaram surpresos que os sites-que incluem cemitrios e campos
agrcolas, so to bem agrupado.
(Veja "Ancient Cemitrio Encontrado; traz 'Green Sahara' to Life".)
Por exemplo, uma rea de 1,5 quilmetros quadrados (quatro quilmetros quadrados)
continha pelo menos dez vila-size settlements- "que uma densidade extraordinria", disse
Mattingly.
O conhecimento prvio do garamantes baseado principalmente em escavaes em seu
capital, Jarma, Cerca de 125 milhas (200 quilmetros) a noroeste, bem como em textos gregos
e romanos antigos.
"Ns construmos uma imagem deles como sendo um muito sofisticado, de alto nvel da
civilizao", disse Mattingly. (Leia sobre os "senhores perdidas do Sahara" na revista National
Geographic.)
"Eles tm metalurgia, txteis prprias de alta qualidade, um sistema de escrita ... esses tipos
de marcadores que diria que esta uma forma organizada, a sociedade em nvel estadual",
disse ele.
Autoridades patrimoniais sem dinheiro na Lbia tm sido incapazes de realizar pesquisa de
campo, deixando uma lacuna no conhecimento da antiga civilizao, de acordo com a
Universidade de Oxford arquelogo Philip Kenrick, que no estava envolvido na nova pesquisa.
por isso que Mattingly e por uma doao de US $ 3,4 milhes do Conselho Europeu de
Investigao-have da UE ajudou sua equipe "foi desbravando novos caminhos em uma escala
sem precedentes", disse Kenrick.
Cultura Antiga Criado Verde Sahara
Os restos recm tambm so um testemunho de tecnologia de irrigao avanado garamantes
', o que lhes permitiu criar osis verdes no deserto. (Veja "High-Tech Energia 'Oasis' para
florescer no deserto?")
" um ambiente de profunda Subsaariana, hiper-rido, e apenas a capacidade das pessoas
para explorar guas subterrneas que podem mudar isso", disse o lder do projeto Mattingly.
Os garamantes extrado reservatrios de gua pr-histrico, utilizando canais subterrneos
para cultivar culturas mediterrnicas, tais como trigo, cevada, figos, e as uvas-e sorgo Africano
sub-saariana, milheto e algodo.
Mattingly e colegas calcularam que 77.000 homens-ano de trabalho foi para a construo dos
canais de gua subterrneos nmero que no inclui a cavar os poos ou manuteno. Um
homem-ano uma unidade do trabalho feito por uma pessoa em um ano.
Africanos antigos acabaram de gua?
O que aconteceu com os garamantes permanece um enigma, mas a equipe de Mattingly
suspeita que as comunidades do deserto se recusou uma vez groundwatersupplies diminuda.
Paul Bennett, chefe da misso da Sociedade baseada no Reino Unido de Estudos da Lbia,
concordou que um cenrio provvel.
"A gua subterrnea uma fonte no renovvel, como assim que voc bateu no reservatrio e
esvaziou-a, ela no vai encher de novo", disse Bennett, que no estava envolvido na nova
pesquisa.
O colapso do Imprio Romano, e do aumento de conflitos na regio do Mediterrneo, teria
tambm afetou seriamente o comrcio trans-saariano em que a civilizao deserto dependia,
acrescentou Kenrick de Oxford.