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Ancient Libya

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Map of the world according toHerodotus

During theIron AgeandClassical antiquity,Libya(from GreekΛιβύη:Libyē,which came fromBerber:Libu) referred to modern-dayAfricawest of theNile river.Greek and Roman geographers placed the dividing line between Libya/Africa and Asia at the Nile.[1][2][3][4]In contrast, the areas ofSub-Saharan Africawere known asAethiopia.

More narrowly,Libyacould also refer to the country immediately west of Egypt, vizMarmarica(Libya Inferior) andCyrenaica(Libya Superior). TheLibyan SeaorMare Libycumwas the part of theMediterranean Seasouth ofCrete,betweenCyreneandAlexandria.

In theHellenistic period,the nativeBerbers were known collectively asLibyansto the Greco-Roman world,[5]a Greek term for the inhabitants of the Maghreb.Berbershave occupied North Africa for thousands of years alongside theEgyptians.The nation ofEgyptcontains theSiwa Oasis,which is bordering Libya at theWestern Desert.TheSiwi language,aBerber language,is still spoken in the area by around 21,000 people. Their Ancient Egyptian neighbors referred to the various Libyan tribes as the Temehu, Tehenu, andMeshwesh.

Name

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Further information:Libu

The name is based on the ethnonymLibu(Ancient Greek:ΛίβυεςLíbyes,Latin:Libyes). The nameLibya(in use since 1934 for themodern countryformerly known asTripolitania and Barca) was the Latin designation for the region of the Maghreb, from theAncient Greek(Attic Greek:ΛιβύηLibúē,Doric Greek:ΛιβύᾱLibúā). InClassical Greece,the term had a broader meaning, encompassing the continent that later (second century BC) became known asAfrica,which, in antiquity, was assumed to constitute one third of the world's land mass, Europe and Asia combined making up the other two thirds.

Ancient Egyptian ceramic tile of a Libyan, 20th Dynasty

TheLibuare attested since theLate Bronze Ageas inhabiting the region (EgyptianR'bw,Punic:𐤋𐤁𐤉‎lby). The oldest known documented references to theLibudate toRamesses IIand his successorMerneptah,pharaohsof theNineteenth Dynasty of Egypt,during the 13th century BC.LBWappears as an ethnic name on theMerneptah Steleto designate Libyans.[6]

Menelaushad travelled there on hisway home from Troy;it was a land of wonderful richness, where the lambs have horns as soon as they are born, where ewes lamb three times a year and no shepherd ever goes short of milk, meat or cheese.

Homernames Libya, in theOdyssey(IX.95; XXIII.311). Homer used the name in a geographic sense, while he called its inhabitants "Lotus-eaters".After Homer,Aeschylus,Pindar,and other ancient Greek writers used the name.Herodotus(1.46) used ΛιβύηLibúēto indicate the African continent; theLíbuesproper were the light-skinned North Africans, while those south of Egypt (andElephantineon the Nile) were known to him as "Aethiopians";[7]this was also the understanding of later Greek geographers such asDiodorus Siculus,Strabo...etc, amongst other writers.

When theAncient Greeksactually settled in Libya, the old name taken from the Egyptians was applied by the Greeks ofCyrenaica,who may have coexisted with the Libu.[8]Later, the name appeared in theHebrew language,written in theBibleasLehabimandLubim,indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well. In the neo-Punic inscriptions, it was written asLbyfor the masculine noun, andLbtfor the feminine noun ofLibyan.[citation needed]

Latinabsorbed the name from Greek and the Punic languages. TheRomanswould have known them before their colonization of North Africa because of the Libyan role in thePunic Warsagainst the Romans. The Romans used the nameLíbues,but only when referring to Barca and theLibyan Desertof Egypt. The other Libyan territories were called "Africa",which were Roman provinces.

Classical Arabicliterature called LibyaLubya,indicating a speculative territory west of Egypt[clarification needed].Modern ArabicusesLibya.The Lwatae, the tribe ofIbn Battuta,[9]as theArabscalled it, was a Berber tribe that mainly was situated in Cyrenaica. This tribe may have ranged from theAtlantic Oceanto modernLibya,however, and was referred to by Corippius asLaguatan;he linked them with theMaures.Ibn Khaldun'sMuqaddimahstates Luwa was an ancestor of this tribe. He writes that the Berbers add an "a" and "t" to the name for the plural forms. Subsequently, it became rendered asLwat.

Conversely, the Arabs adopted the name as a singular form, adding an "h" for thepluralform in Arabic. Ibn Khaldun disagrees withIbn Hazam,who claimed, mostly on the basis of Berber sources, that the Lwatah, in addition to the Sadrata and the Mzata, were from theQibts(Egyptians). According to Ibn Khaldun, this claim is incorrect because Ibn Hazam had not read the books of the Berber scholars.[10]

Oric Bates,a historian, considers that the nameLibuorLBWwould be derived from the nameLuwatah[11]whilst the name Luwatah is a derivation of the name Libu.[clarification needed]Furthermore, Bates considered all the Libyan tribes to be a single civilization united under centralLibuandMeshweshcontrol.[12]

History

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Archaeological Site of Sabratha, Libya

Compared with thehistory of Egypt,historians know little about the history of Libya, as there are few surviving written records. Information on ancient Libya comes fromarchaeologicalevidence and historic sources written by Egyptian scribes, as well as the ancient Greeks, Romans, andByzantines,and later from Arabs of Medieval times.

Since the Neolithic, the climate of North Africa has become drier overtime. A reminder of thedesertificationof the area is provided by megalithic remains, which occur in great variety of form and in vast numbers in presently arid and uninhabitable wastelands[citation needed]:dolmens and circles akin toStonehenge,cairns, underground cells excavated in rock, barrows topped with huge slabs, and step-pyramid-like mounds.[citation needed]Most remarkable are thetrilithons,some still standing, some fallen, which occur isolated or in rows, and consist of two squared uprights standing on a common pedestal that supports a huge transverse beam.[citation needed]In the Terrgurt valley, Cowper says: "There had been originally no less than eighteen or twenty megalithic trilithons, in a line, each with its massive altar placed before it".[13][citation needed]

In ancient times, thePhoenicians/Carthaginians,theNeo-Assyrian Empire,the PersianAchaemenid Empire(seeLibya (satrapy)), theMacedonian EmpireofAlexander the Greatand hisPtolemaicsuccessors from Egypt ruled variously parts of Libya. With theRomanconquest, the entire region of present-day Libya became part of theRoman Empire.Following the fall of the Empire,Vandals,and local representatives of theByzantine Empirealso ruled all or parts of Libya. The territory of modern Libya had separate histories until Roman times, asTripoliandCyrenaica.

Cyrenaica,by contrast, was Greek before it was Roman. It was also known asPentapolis,the "five cities" beingCyrene(near the village of Shahat) with its port ofApollonia(Marsa Susa),Arsinoe(Tocra),Berenice(Benghazi) andBarca(Merj). From the oldest and most famous of theGreek colonies,the fertile coastal plain took the name of Cyrenaica.

These five cities were also known as theWestern Pentapolis;not to be confused with thePentapolisof the Roman era on the current west Italian coast.

Geography

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The exact boundaries of the whole of ancient Libya are unknown, but it likely constituted[when?]the western regions ofAncient Egypt,and was known as "Tjehenu" to the Egyptians.[14]

Later sources

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After the Egyptians, the Greeks; Romans; and Byzantines mentioned various other tribes in Libya. Later tribal names differ from the Egyptian ones, but probably, some tribes were named in the Egyptian sources and the later ones as well. TheMeshwesh-tribe documented by the Ancient Egyptians represents this assumption. Moreover, scholars believe it would be the same tribe calledMazyesby Hektaios andMaxyesby Herodotus, while it was called"Mazaces" and "Mazax"in Latin sources. All those names are similar to the name used by the Berbers for themselves, such asImazighen.[15]

Late period sources give more detailed descriptions of Libya and its inhabitants. The ancient historian Herodotus describes Libya and the Libyans in his fourth book, known asThe Libyan Book.Writers such asPliny the Elder,Diodorus Siculus,andProcopiusalso contributed to what is now primary source material on ancient Libya and the Libyans.

Ibn Khaldun, who dedicated the main part of his bookKitab el'ibar,which is known as "The history of the Berbers", did not use the namesLibyaandLibyans,but instead used Arabic names:The OldMaghreb,(El-Maghrib el-Qadim), and theBerbers(El-Barbar or El-Barabera(h)).

Ancient Libyan (Berber) tribes

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Detail of a Libyan Group from the Tomb ofKhnumhotep I,12th Dynasty

There were many tribes in ancient Libya, including the now extinctPsylli,with theLibubeing the most prominent. The ancient Libyans were mainly pastoral nomads, living off their goats, sheep and other livestock. For subsistence, milk, meat, hides and wool were gathered from their livestock for food, pitching tents and as clothing.

Libyans from the Tomb of Seti I

Ancient Egyptian sources describe Libyan men with long hair, braided and bearded, neatly parted from different sides and decorated with feathers attached to leather bands around the crown of the head while wearing thin robes of antelopehide,dyed and printed, crossing the shoulder and coming down until mid calf length to make a robe. Older men kept long braided beards, while women wore the same robes as men, plaited, decorated hair and both sexes wore heavy jewelry. Depictions of Libyans in Egyptian reliefs show prominent and numerous tattoos, very similar to traditional Berber tattoos still seen today. Their weapons included bows and arrows, hatchets, spears and daggers.[citation needed]

The Libyan script that was used in Libya was mostly afuneraryscript.[16]It is difficult to understand, and there are a number of variations.[17]

Ibn Khaldundivided the Berbers into theBatrand theBaranis.[18][clarification needed]

Herodotusdivided them intoEastern LibyansandWestern Libyans.Eastern Libyans werenomadicshepherds east ofLake Tritonis.Western Libyans were sedentary farmers who lived west of Lake Tritonis.[19]At one point[when?],a catastrophic change reduced the vast body of fresh water to a seasonal lake or marsh.[clarification needed]

Ibn Khaldun and Herodotus distinguish the Libyans on the basis of their lifestyles rather than ethnic background, those practicing agriculture, and the others nomadic pastoralism. Modern historians tend to follow Herodotus's classical distinctions. Examples include Oric Bates in his bookThe Eastern Libyans.Some other historians have used the modern name of theBerbersin their works, such as the French historianGabriel Camps.[20]

The Libyan tribes mentioned in these sources[clarification needed]were: "Adyrmachidae","Giligamae","Asbystae","Marmaridae","Auschisae","Nasamones","Macae","Lotus-eaters(or Lotophagi) ","Garamantes","Gaetulians","Mauri",and"Luwatae",as well as many others.

See also

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References and notes

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  1. ^"Africa - whats in a name?".sahistory.org.Archivedfrom the original on 6 September 2023.Retrieved6 September2023.For the ancient Greeks, almost everything south of the Mediterranean Sea and west of the Nile was referred to as 'Libya'. This was also the name given by the ancient Greeks to the Berber people who occupied most of that land. The ancient Greeks believed their world was divided into three greater 'regions', Europa, Asia and Libya, all centred around the Aegean Sea. They also believed that the dividing line between Libya and Asia was the Nile River, placing half of Egypt in Asia and the other half in Libya. For many centuries, even into the late medieval period, cartographers followed the Greek example, placing the Nile as the dividing line between the landmasses.
  2. ^Strabo. "Book II, Chapter 5:26".Geography.Now as you sail into the strait at the Pillars, Libya lies on your right hand as far as the stream of the Nile, and on your left hand across the strait lies Europe as far as the Tanaïs. And both Europe and Libya end at Asia.
  3. ^Pliny the Elder. "Book III, Chapter 1".Natural History.Archivedfrom the original on 31 August 2023.Retrieved31 August2023.The whole globe is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Our description commences where the sun sets and at the Straits of Gades, where the Atlantic ocean, bursting in, is poured forth into the inland seas. As it makes its entrance from that side, Africa is on the right hand and Europe on the left; Asia lies between them; the boundaries being the rivers Tanais and Nile.
  4. ^Herodotus. "Book II, chapter 16".Histories.If then our judgment of this be right, the Ionians are in error concerning Egypt; but if their opinion be right, then it is plain that they and the rest of the Greeks cannot reckon truly, when they divide the whole earth into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya; they must add to these yet a fourth part, the Delta of Egypt, if it belong neither to Asia nor to Libya; for by their showing the Nile is not the river that separates Asia and Libya; the Nile divides at the extreme angle of this Delta, so that this land must be between Asia and Libya.
  5. ^Oliver, Roland & Fagan, Brian M. (1975)Africa in the Iron Age: c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; p. 47
  6. ^Gardiner, Alan Henderson (1964)Egypt of the Pharaohs: an introductionOxford University Press, London, p. 273,ISBN0-19-500267-9
  7. ^The Cambridge History of North Africaand the people between them as the Egyptians, p. 141.
  8. ^Fage, J. D. (ed.) (1978) "The Libyans"The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 500 BC to AD 1050volume II, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, p. 141,ISBN0-521-21592-7
  9. ^The full name of Ibn Battuta was Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allahal-Lawatiat-Tanji ibn Battuta
  10. ^The History of Ibn Khaldun,third chapter p. 184-258Archived28 September 2007 at theWayback Machine(in Arabic)
  11. ^Bates, Oric (1914)The Eastern Libyans.London: Macmillan & Co. p. 57
  12. ^Bates, Oric (5 November 2013).The Eastern Libyan(1914):An Essay.Routledge. p. 142.ISBN9781136248771.Archivedfrom the original on 2 December 2023.Retrieved29 October2023.
  13. ^The Geographical Journal.Royal Geographical Society. 1897.
  14. ^A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian,Raymond O Faulkner, Page 306
  15. ^Mohammed Chafik, Highlights of thirty-three centuries of Imazighen p. 9.
  16. ^Chaker, Salem."L'écriture libyco-berbère (The Libyco-Berber script)"(in French). Archived fromthe originalon 13 January 2010.Retrieved5 December2010.
  17. ^ChakerScript
  18. ^Ibn Khaldun,The History of Ibn Khaldun:The thirth chapter p. 181-152.
  19. ^[1]Archived9 April 2013 at theWayback MachineHerodotus,On Libya, from The Histories, c. 430 BC
  20. ^"Gabriel Camps is considered as the father of the North African prehistory, by foundingd'Etude Berbère[clarification needed]at theUniversity of Aix-en-Provenceand theEncyclopédie berbère."(From the introduction of the English bookThe Berbersby Elizabeth Fentres and Michael Brett, p. 7).
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Wikisourcehas the text of the1911Encyclopædia Britannicaarticle "Libya".
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