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Between 2003–2011, a research programme in southwest Fazzan (Libya) aimed at understanding the resilience of the Kel Tadrart Tuareg, currently inhabiting the Acacus Mts. Using a multi-pronged approach featuring oral interviews, participant observation, mapping of settlements and localisation of natural resources, the Kel Tadrarts’ interaction with the landscape was investigated, and traditional (local) ecological knowledge turned out to be a key factor in the successful adaptation of the Kel Tadrart to erratic rainfall and meagre pastures. The study of Kel Tadrart resilience has fostered new interpretation of the recent past of the region, developed under the framework of the Theory of Resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present an accurate microstratigraphic characterization of sheep/goat dung deposits from an ethnographic pastoral campsite located in SW Fazzan, at the border between Libya and Algeria. Research for referential data on current livestock contexts is essential for correctly interpreting archaeological records documented in ancient livestock spaces. Studies on herbivore faecal remains have played a key role in identifying socio-economic activities (e.g. domestic use of fuel, manuring, stabling or foddering strategies). Soil micromorphology, stable isotopes analysis (δ 13 C and δ 15 N, bulk and compound specific), and lipid analysis ( n -alkane fraction) have been applied on soil samples and dung pellets in order to obtain reference biosignatures for Caprinae stabling deposits in arid and hyperarid environments, where the biological material as dung preserves very well. Information about pastoral habitat adaptations in this area, taphonomic processes of dung deposits, significant micro-features related to penning (trampling, bedding and presence of dung spherulites, druses, phytoliths, and/or microfragments of coprolites), diet, and seasonality of herd animals is herein shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]