Guarantors

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Map of the Roman Empire under Hadrian (ruled AD 117–138). The empire of the Garamanten lies in the desert region south of the Roman province Africa proconsularis (Tunisia, Libya).

The Garamantes were an in Fezzan -based antique people of Berber . They settled no later than the 5th century BC. BC , possibly even since the 9th century BC Chr. The interior of Libya in today's Fezzan around the main places Zinchecra and Garama (Djerma north of Murzuq ). They were horse breeders. By using chariots , they were able to subdue the surrounding peoples. There are also rock carvings of the Garamanten in the Sahara .

Trans-Saharan Trade

The Garamanten dominated the early trans-Saharan trade between the Mediterranean coast of Libya and Lake Chad . Above all, ivory , hides, precious stones , salts and wild animals were traded for the needs of the Roman circuses in exchange for luxury goods. The extent to which the Garamanten also traded with slaves is controversial in ancient scholarship. What is certain, however, is that prisoners from their people in the Roman cities, such as Leptis Magna , ended up as prey for lions etc. in the arena , as mosaic depictions from North Africa show. The trade initially ran through the Greek colony of Cyrene , after the conquest of the area by the Romans through the city of Leptis Magna. Herodotus reports on the journey of some Berbers from the Nasamonen tribe from Cyrenaica through the Sahara to the land of the blacks (probably to the areas of Niger ). But there is nothing to suggest that this is evidence of regular caravan trade with Sudan . The theory that the Garamanten used to trade with the help of their chariots , which was often held in the past , is now largely rejected because the chariots were not suitable for long distances and also not for the transport of merchandise.

Today Ghat is the southernmost city of the Garamanten area . About 10 km south of the city was the fortress of Aghram Nadharif , which may have been built to secure the border.

Agriculture

In order to survive in the Sahara, the Garamanten developed a sophisticated irrigation system: More than 600 canals led to underground water reservoirs and supplied agriculture. These channels were checked over 100,000 maintenance shafts up to 40 meters deep and repaired if necessary. The Foggara canal system constructed in this way extended over several thousand kilometers. Plants such as barley, figs, grapes, millet and even cotton were grown with the water, the latter despite their very high water consumption.

Rock carvings and writing

Garamantic stone engravings southeast of Ubari, Libya

In the former settlement area of ​​the Garamanten, rock drawings and characters in the Tifinagh script have been preserved on sheltered rock walls and in caves . This script is still used today by the Berbers and Tuareg and most likely originated from the Libyan or Phoenician alphabet.

history

In the 1st century BC There were battles with the Romans , who advanced into the Sahara under Proconsul Lucius Cornelius Balbus Minor and possibly destroyed the capital Garama (20-19 BC). Although there were still isolated battles in the following years, the military superiority of the Romans was recognized at the end of the 1st century. The by the British orientalist Edward W. Bovill (1892-1966) and the French ethnologist Henri Lhote (1903-1991) put forward hypothesis , the Romans had at their big push against the Garamantes in 69 n. Chr. The first time the camels as Serving mounts is seductive, but historically unproven. This also applies to Lhote's theory that the Romans, under the command of the proconsul Gaius Valerius Festus, advanced to the Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara thanks to the camels . While the news subsides with the fall of the Roman Empire, the Garamanten Empire appears to have existed well into the 7th century. Towards the end of the 1960s of the 6th century AD, the Garamanten adopted the Christian faith. The Garamanten fell victim to the Islamic expansion through the North African conquests of the Muslim Arabs in the Fessan and during the first half of the 7th century AD the last ruler of Garama was deposed in the course of this Arab invasion .

The destruction of Garama by the Romans is now viewed as questionable. It is believed that agreements were made between the rivals. The decline of the empire was heralded by the decline of the Roman Empire, by the loss of the most important trading partner.

Descendants

The Tuareg of the central Sahara are said to be descendants of the Garamanten. The German African explorer Heinrich Barth (1821–1865) and his French colleague Henri Duveyrier (1840–1892) were the first Europeans to discover and describe the archaeological remains of the Garamanten Empire.

literature

  • Robin CC Law: The Garamantes and trans-Saharan trade in classical times. In: The Journal of African History. Volume 8, No. 2, 1967, ISSN  0021-8537 , pp. 181-200 (English; preview at JSTOR ).
  • Henri Lhote: A la découverte des fresques du Tassili. In: Collection signes des temps. Volume 3, Arthaud, Paris 1958 (French).
  • Henri Lhote: Chameau et dromadaire en Afrique du Nord et au Sahara. Research on leurs origines. Office National des Approvisionnements et des Services Agricoles, Algiers 1987, ISBN 2-85809-140-4 (French).
  • Théodore Monod : L'émeraude des Garamantes. Souvenirs d'un Saharan (= Aventure ). Actes Sud, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-86869-825-5 (French).
  • Erwin M. Ruprechtsberger : The Garamanten. History and culture of a Libyan people in the Sahara (= Zabern's illustrated books on archeology = special issues from the ancient world ). Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-1544-9 .
  • John T. Swanson: The Myth of Trans-Saharan Trade during the Roman Era. In: The International Journal of African Historical Studies. Volume 8, No. 4, 1975, ISSN  0361-7882 , pp. 582-600 ( preview at JSTOR ).
  • Joachim Willeitner : Libya, Syrtebogen, Fezzan and the Cyrenaica (= DuMont art travel guide ). Dumont, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4876-2 .
  • Rudolf Fischer: Gold, Salt and Slaves. The history of the great Sudan empires of Gana, Mali and Son Ghau. Stuttgart, Edition Erdmann, 1986. ISBN 3522650107

Documentaries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Angelika Franz: Ancient Garamanten Culture: Enigmatic rulers of the desert. In: Spiegel Online . November 28, 2011, accessed November 15, 2013.
  2. ↑ Rudolf Fischer, p. 18 (see lit.)
  3. ↑ Herodotus: The Garamanten hunt the cave-dwelling Ethiopians in four-horse racing cars (which the Greeks meant all people with dark skin).
  4. ↑ John Biclarensis annotated III Iustini Imp I. (to 569 n. Chr.). In: Monumenta Germaniae historiae auctores antiqui. Volume 11.
  5. ^ Franz Altheim: Christian Garamanten and Blemyer. In: Derselbe, Ruth Stiehl (Ed.): Christianity on the Red Sea. Volume 2, Berlin / New York a. a. 1973, pp. 322-332, here p. 329.