Animal exploitation and pottery technology during Pastoral times: the evidence from Uan Telocat, Libyan Sahara

The combination of artefactual with economic evidence of pastoralism in the Central Sahara, based on the recent excavations at Uan Telocat, a Pastoral site in the Tadrart Acacus, Libyan Sahara, where both ceramic and faunal indicators are present throughout the Pastoral period is undertaken. This rock shelter yielded a stratigraphic sequence with the main Pastoral occupations in the Tadrart Acacus. The results of the latest excavations provided interesting information on technological variability and adaptation patterns from the earliest to the Late Pastoral phases. The excavations also brought to light a specific ceramic production in the Early Pastoral period, that was previously unknown in stratigraphic context. This paper also presents some of the features of the Pastoral phases and shows the developments of pottery and animal domesticates in parallel at different sites in the Tadrart Acacus with comparisons with the Haua Fteah, in coastal Libya, which has yielded the longest cultural sequence in northern Africa and therefore represents a valuable term of reference. However, more differences than similarities exist between the two regions, the first located in the Sahara, in south-western Libya, the second located in the eastern part of the country on the Mediterranean coast.