About this episode

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the ancient civilization of the Garamantes in the Sahara Desert.

Misha Glenny and guests discuss an ancient civilisation who lived over 2000 years ago in the southwest of modern-day Libya. During prehistoric times, the Sahara Desert was greener and even had large lakes, but for the last 5000 years it has been a hyperarid environment. Extreme swings of temperature and limited surface water might make the Sahara seem like an inhospitable place to live, but an ancient people in North Africa known to us as the Garamantes thrived there. Following descriptions of the Garamantes in Roman and Greek texts, the Garamantes have often been seen as pastoral nomads, or as tribal barbarians on the periphery of the Mediterranean world. But the work of archaeologists in recent decades has revealed something different. Evidence suggests a society with flourishing towns and cities, complex underground irrigation systems, a key role in trade routes across the Sahara – and may give us a broader view of ancient history. With David Mattingly Emeritus Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Leicester Farès Moussa Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton and Cultural Heritage Consultant And Josephine Quinn Professor of Ancient History and Fellow of…

People in this episode

Host: Melvyn Bragg

Guests: Misha Glenny, David Mattingly, Farès Moussa, Josephine Quinn

Topics covered

• ancient civilization
• Garamantes
• Sahara Desert
• archaeology
• trade routes
• North Africa

Keywords

• Garamantes
• Sahara
• archaeology
• ancient history
• North Africa
• irrigation systems
• trade routes

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Leicester, University of Southampton, University of Cambridge

Books & works: The Garamantes of Southern Libya, Mobile Technologies in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

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