The Sahara is Libya's outstanding landscape feature and is the source of most of its significant natural resources. This desert region is also extraordinarily rich in historical and cultural heritage that is in itself another valuable resource, through exploitation by Libya's tourism industry. This volume draws attention to the link between the benefits that Libya draws from its Saharan resources (oil, gas, water, minerals and tourism) and the need to safeguard and record aspects of its cultural heritage. The book also provides a summary of important developments in Saharan studies and shows how these can contribute to modern planning and development of the desert regions.

This richly illustrated publication reproduces and describes effectively every early modern German colour print held at the British Museum. It is one of the world's most significant collections of these rare milestones of cultural heritage and technology. New photography reveals 150 impressions in jaw-dropping detail, most life-size. Some have never been seen in public or reproduced. It is the first major study of the first wave of German colour printing. It spans medieval printing in the late 1400s through the Renaissance and Reformation of the 1500s. Early Colour Printing features masterpieces by leading figures like Erhard Ratdolt, Lucas Cranach, Hans Baldung Grien, and Hans Burgkmair, as well as unfairly overlooked entrepreneurs and innovators like Erasmus Loy (and his daughter Anna). Their breakthroughs reproduced artworks and simplified astronomical calculations. They created trends in interior design and signalled 'red-letter days'. They helped musicians sight-read and they colour-coded metals for goldsmiths. These diverse new functions and markets might seem unrelated. But they are connected, and they cannot be understood in isolation. From artworks to missals, icons to wallpapers, this book breaks new ground by revealing the fascinating underlying technologies that enabled the production of these colour-printed objects. The many inventions of colour printing in the German-speaking lands began with medieval novel solutions. They were devised long before colour printing inks could be formulated. Then, colour printing techniques transformed how printed material could be used during the technological and cultural revolutions of the sixteenth century. Later designers and artists around Europe celebrated these techniques' heritage for centuries, from the 'Durer Renaissance' until chromolithography revolutionised the print market in the nineteenth century. Early Colour Printing captures this story in rich detail. It sets the stage for second wave of German colour woodcut, which was triggered by the Expressionist revival at the turn of the twentieth century. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, this collection guide will be a standard reference on German graphic art, early modern visual culture, and the history of printing itself. Early Colour Printing: German Renaissance Woodcuts at the British Museum offers significant new research, including previously unidentified examples of early modern colour-printing. Some are believed to be unique in the world; others were made decades before the landmark invention of colourful chiaroscuro woodcut in Italy in 1516. By modelling a printer- and technology-based approach to the history of printing, it contributes to scholarship by pinpointing attributions to printers-not just to artists or designers. In doing so, it lays the groundwork for a new understanding of the history of print, one that encompasses all forms of printed material. This publication derives from an exhibition at the British Museum curated by Elizabeth Savage.

The Islamic city of Surt was, even at its peak during the middle and second half of the tenth century AD, a modest settlement. It was, however, a prosperous city, a commercial centre. In addition, it was a military staging place for the Fatimid invasion of Egypt. Volume includes an Arabic summary and a foldout plan of the site. Excavations were carried out between 1977 and 1981 which uncovered the heart of the town with its mosque and workshops. In archaeological terms, North Africa in the early medieval period is almost entirely unknown. This excavation report goes some way to shedding light on the subject and so is most welcome. The Islamic city of Surt was, even at its peak during the middle and second half of the tenth century AD, a modest settlement. It was, however, a prosperous city, a commercial centre with several workshops. All these were possible because the town had its own harbour in the nearby lagoon. Life was possible here since the town had water, partly collected in cisterns, partly because it had a few wells. Fruit and vegetable gardens surrounded the town. As a military staging place, it played an eminent role in the Fatimid invasion of Egypt. The excavations at Surt have greatly enhanced our knowledge of the life, material culture and history of North Africa, particularly during the early Fatimid period. A survey of the site was carried out by Prof. R.C. Goodchild shortly after the Second World War. Excavations were begun by the Department of Antiquities in 1965/66 which traced the city walls and its three gates. Further excavations were carried out under the direction of Geza Fehervari between 1977 and 1981. It is these excavations which this volume reports. They found the heart of the town, the madina. Large numbers of cisterns, a well, cess-pits and numerous bread ovens. Thousands of glazed and unglazed sherds and several complete unglazed vessels came to light, together with iron, bronze and glass fragments. A large number of iron and glass slag fragments were found, which indicated local manufacture of glass and iron. The plan of the mosque is typical of Fatimid mosques in Ifriqiya and the closest parallels are those of Mahdiya, Zwila and Ajdabiya. Volume includes and Arabic summary and a foldout plan of the site.