Going to Tripolitania

[Graham Sumner]

Hi Matt

Being sent to Libya soon

How does one get "sent to Libya"?

I take people over to Leptis every couple of months

I would dearly like you to take me over to Leptis but I presume there is more to it than that! Care to illuminate?

Thanks

Graham.

[Cheyenne]

Can you give me and my bloke some guided tours of Libyan ruins?

I'm really up for a trip to North Africa

C

[Medicus matt]

How does one get "sent to Libya"?.

By having a job which involves doing things I can't really discuss in too much detail on a public forum.

I would dearly like you to take me over to Leptis but I presume there is more to it than that! Care to illuminate?

See above. :wink:
I'm there for about 75% of my working time at the moment so I organise trips to sites for the lads I've got working with me. As we've got 12 month business visas rather than tourist visas, we're free to travel wherever we want withouth having the tourist police tagging along.

The easiest way to get a tourist visa (in fact it might be the only way, not sure) is to make a reservation at a hotel, just like you have to do if you're going to Russia.
They then sort out all the paperwork for the visa application and all you have to do is go to London with a wodge of cash.

[Medicus matt]

Latest excursion was to Gargaresh, now a suburb of Tripoli, to see what had been described to us as 'some old stuff, catacmobs I think' by one of the local engineers.

It turned out to be the site of a roman ceramics making centre. There were a couple of stone cut tombs it's true as well as an extensive network of man made underground caverns with light wells carved into them from the surface but what was really impressive was the two firing kilns, each about 8 feet in diameter, intact to a height of about 5 feet at least and still fully brick lined. There were also a series of cisterns lined with opus signinum which I'd guess were part of the clay puddling process, and four small chambers with circular holes in the floor....I wondered if these might be where the potters wheels were set. These chambers were each next to a small cistern...is there any evidence that the romans were using water to power potters wheels because the set up at this site would certainly make it possible.

There was a lot of junk ceramic as you'd expect (especially as all the sites here are covered in the stuff (there's a pottery hill in the domestic quarter at Sabratha...I found the remains of a mortarium there which must have been 2 feet in diameter) one very nice piece was a square floor tile whiich had never been fired because someone had poked their fingers into it whilst it was air drying, causing it to sag and crack. You can clearly see the fingerprints in it.

There was at least one mosiac floor on the site, because I found a chunk of it sticking out of a sand dune covered in rubbish. Nothing fancy, a bit of simple geometric black and white, but still a nice piece.

This site was apparently excavated in 1998 and then left open, which means that all the mud brick and rather crappy libyan sandstone is now rapidly eroding away (just like all the other sites here). It's a remarkable site, I've never seen anything like these kilns in terms of preservation, and it's covered in garbage and kids playing football.....oh and it's got the rusting remains of a burned out Sherman tank on it.

Photos are now up on my photobucket site.

[Graham Sumner]

all you have to do is go to London with a wodge of cash.

Ahhh....I knew there was a catch!

In the meantime I will just have to enjoy your wonderful photos. Thanks for posting Matt. However if you do see anything remotely military looking, or details of clothing cloaks and tunics etc... please feel free to photograph!

Best wishes.

Graham.

[Cheyenne]

Clothes etc etc...

Ditto, but the pottery mountain was..... well, mountainous

[Medicus matt]

What, this one?

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They started the conservation work late last year and the mosaics are due to go on show in a purpose built museum in the next month or so. I take people over to Leptis every couple of months so I'll keep an eye on the situation.

That's the one! Many of us would love to see some closeup, detailed pics of it, along with the other Games-themed mosaics found with it.

Went last weekend. The new museum building is finished and looks ready to open. Some mosaics have been mounted on the exterior walls (geometric patterns with finely detailed portraits in the centre, a scene of homonculi fighting) and the large, fine mosaics are mounted in side. Going again first week of december so hopfully it'll be open and I can get some pictures.
Went to the amphitheatre at Sabratha yesterday for a picnic. 8)