Germa ( ar, جرمة), known in ancient times as Garama, is an archaeological site in
Libya. It was the capital of the
Garamantian Kingdom
The Garamantes ( grc, Γαράμαντες, translit=Garámantes; la, Garamantes) were an ancient civilisation based primarily in present-day Libya. They most likely descended from Iron Age Berber tribes from the Sahara, although the earliest k ...
.
The Garamantes were a
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
people living in the
Fezzan in the northeastern
Sahara Desert. Garamantian power climaxed during the second and the third centuries
AD, often in conflict with the
Roman Empire to the north. Garama had a population of some four thousand and another six thousand living in villages within a 5 km radius.
The Garamantes often conducted raids across Rome's African frontier, the ''
Limes Tripolitanus'', and retreated to the safety of the desert. In 203 the
Roman Emperor Septimius Severus launched a campaign deep into the Sahara, capturing Garama, but he abandoned it soon after.
The city was conquered by
Uqba ibn Nafi in 669 AD.
Archaeological work at Germa has most recently been conducted by Prof.
David Mattingly's Fazzan Project, which has continued the work of
Charles Daniels and
Mohammed Ayoub
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monothe ...
. The Fazzan Project has published four volumes based on its work, titled ''
The Archaeology of Fazzān''. Digital versions of these books have been made freely available under a policy of
open access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
by the
Society for Libian Studies.
See also
*
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
*
Tuareg
*
Green Sahara
The African humid period (AHP) (also known by other names) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, ...
*
Toubou
References
External links
Germa - LexiorientToby Savage, photographer
Archaeological sites in Libya
History of Fezzan
Former populated places in Libya
History of the Sahara
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