Archaeoastronomy in the Sahara: The Tombs of the Garamantes at Wadi El Agial,Fezzan,Libya

For information about Garama and the Garamantes see Trosset P. , “Garama”, Encyclopédie Berbère, ed. by Camps G. , xix (1997), 2964–9, and Ruprechtsberger E. M. , Die Garamanten (Mainz, 1997), 20–23.

Concerning the Fezzan in general, see Trosset P. Gauthier Y. Gauthier Ch. , “Fezzan”, Encyclopédie Berbère, xx (1998), 2777–817.

On the Garamantes, additional information can be obtained from Brett M. Fentress E. , The Berbers (Oxford, 1996), and Camps G. , Les Berbères: Mémoire et identité, 3rd edn (Paris, 1992).

Concerning the rock art of the Messak see Le Quellec J. L. , Art rupestre et préhistoire du Sahara (Paris, 1998). On the monuments, see Gauthier Y. Gauthier Ch. , “Orientation et distribution de divers types de monuments lithiques du Messak et des régions voisines (Fezzan, Libya)”, Sahara, xi (1999), 87–108, and references therein.

For a good summary on the history of the region, see Haynes D. E. L. , The antiquities of Tripolitania, 3rd edn (London, 1965), 13–67, and Camps, op. cit. (ref. 3).

Ruprechtsberger. op. cit. (ref. 1), 35–40.

See Belmonte J. A. Esteban C. Betancort Perera M. A. Marrero R. , “The sun in the north of Africa before Islam”, Procedings SEAC2000 Meeting on “Astronomy of ancient civilisations”, ed. by Potemkina T. Obridko K. (Moscow, 2002, in press).

A summary of our work in the region can be found in Belmonte J. A. Esteban C. Betancort Perera M. A. , “Los adoradores del sol y de la luna: Astronomía y cultura en las Islas Canarias y el Norte de Africa”, 3° Convegno Internazionale de Archeologia e Astronomia: L'uomo antico e il cosmos (Rome, in press). Specific works on the Canary islands are Belmonte J. A. Esteban C. Aparicio A. Tejera A. Gónzalez O. , “Canarian astronomy before the conquest: The pre-Hispanic calendar”, Revista de la Academia Canaria de Ciencias, vi (1995), 133–56; Esteban C. Belmonte J. A. Aparicio A. , “Canarias: Del legado escrito a la evidencia arqueológica”, Arqueoastronomía Hispana (Madrid, 1994), chap. 6; and Betancort Perera M. A. Belmonte J. A. Esteban C. Gaspar Tejera A. , “Tindaya: Un estudio arqueoastronómico de la sociedad prehispánica de Fuerteventura”, Revista de prehistoria Tabona, ix (1996), 165–96.

For the burial monuments in Tunisia, see: Belmonte J. A. Esteban C. Jiménez J. J. , “Mediterranean archaeoastronomy and archaeotopography: Pre-Roman tombs of Africa Proconsularis”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 23 (1998), S7–24. On the temples of the region see Esteban C. Belmonte J. A. Betancort Perera M. A. Marrero R. González Jiménez J. J. , “Orientations of pre-Islamic temples of northwest Africa”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 26 (2001), S65–84.

For the megalithic monuments and Saharan tumuli of Morocco, see Belmonte J. A. Esteban C. Cuesta L. Betancort Perera M. A. González Jiménez J. J. , “Pre-Islamic burial monuments in Northern and Saharan Morocco”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 24 (1999), S21–34. On the temples, see Esteban , op. cit. (ref. 9).

For other results of our fieldwork in Libya see Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 7), and Esteban , op. cit. (ref. 9).

During the campaign we visited the Tripolitania, where we carried out fieldwork in the “Roman” cities and fortresses of Sabratha, Lepcis Magna, Golaia and Gightis (this one in Tunisia), the oasis of Gadamesh, the Djebel Nefussa and the Wadi el Agial in the Fezzan. Other important cultural areas of the country, such as the Cyrenaica, were left for future campaigns.

This has been also identified with an ancient Middle East symbol (used in Jewish liturgy) which represents an open hand with the four fingers separated in pairs to form a V-shaped aperture ( Lebeuf A. , personal communication). For those readers familiar with Star Trek films, it would be identical to the Vulcans' salutation.

Ruprechtsberger , op. cit. (ref. 1), 47. Tomb 33 (unmeasurable) might be at a third level, below Tomb 17.

The data for these two tombs are taken from the plans. They are obviously below Tomb 20 but both are apparently of the bazina type, typical of the upper level.

See Belmonte J. A. , Las leyes del cielo (Madrid, 1999), 137–71.

Gauthier Gauthier , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Milburn M. , “Some recent burial dates for central and southern Sahara, including monuments”, Sahara, viii (1996), 99–102.

Gauthier Gauthier , op. cit. (ref. 4), Table 1.

Gauthier Gauthier , op. cit. (ref. 4), Fig. 7.

See Esteban C. Schlueter R. Belmonte J. A. González O. , “Pre-hispanic equinoctial markers in Gran Canaria, (I) and (II)”, Archaeoastronomy, no. 21 (1996), S73–80, and no. 22 (1997), S52–56, and Esteban C. Belmonte J. A. Betancort Perera M. A. , “The equinox in pre-Hispanic Canary Islands”, Proceedings of the Oxford V Conference on Cultural Aspects of Astronomy, ed. by White R. Sinclair R. (Santa Fe, in press).

Esteban , op. cit. (ref. 9).

Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 16), Table 4.2.

To our knowledge, the only available orientation data for the pyramids of Nuri (near Merowe) are those of Lepsius of the nineteenth century reported in Lockyer J. N. , The dawn of astronomy (reprinted New York, 1993). Obviously, new modern measurements would be desirable.

Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 16), Table 4.2. See also Wells R. A. , “Sothis and the Satet temple on Elephantine: A direct connection”, SAK, xii (1985), 255–302.

Sirius's heliacal rising marked the beginning of the agricultural year in pre-Hispanic Gran Canaria and in ancient Egypt. This tradition was followed by the peasants of the Canaries until the twentieth century. Sirius's achronichal rising marked, and probably still marks, the arrival of the “white nights” and the rains for the Ahaggar Touaregs of the central Sahara. Information reviewed in Belmonte J. A. de Lara Sanz M. , El cielo de los Magos (La Laguna, 2001).

Savary in the 1960s measured with aerial plaques the orientation of the idebnis (pre-Islamic monumental tombs) in the region of Fadnoun, in the Tassili, and found clear evidence of a luni-solar custom. Savary J. P. , “Monuments en pierres seches de Fadnoun”, Mémoires C. R. A. H. E. Algerie, vi (1967), 43–48, p. 46. These measurements should be repeated on the ground measuring also the angular height.

Mausolea of this kind are found from Siga, in western Algeria, to the inner lands of Tripolitania (site of Ghirza), on the frontiers of the Saharan desert. See, for example, Camps G. , Aux origenes de la Berberie: Monuments et rites funéraires protohistoriques (Paris, 1961), and Rakob F. , “Numidische Königsarchitektur in Nordafrika”, Die Numider, ed. by Hoern H. G. Rüger C. B. (Bonn, 1979), 119–56.