Microlithism and Landscape Exploitation along the Cyrenaican Coast between the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene: A Matter of Continuity. In Living in the Landscape. Essays in honour of Graeme Barker

North African territories at the end of the Pleistocene is mirrored in significant changes in lithic production. From a technological point of view all the Final Pleistocene lithic complexes in North Africa are characterized by an increase frequency in the production of geometric microliths and by the presence of particular tool types, such as backed blades and bladelets, which are often present in high percentages (Barich & Conati Barbaro 2003; Bouzouggar et al. 2008; Close 2002; Jackes & Lubell 2008; Lubell 1984; Lubell et al. 1984; Rahmani 2003; 2004). As for the North Libyan regions, during the twentieth century, the study of microlithic complexes was mainly focussed in two areas: the Cyrenaican and Tripolitanian littoral and the corresponding coastal ranges, the Jebel Akhdar, east of the Gulf of Sirte, and the Jebel Gharbi, west of it. These studies have helped clarify the role played by the Libyan coast as a cultural link between the Mediterranean shores and the central and eastern Sahara during the Late Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene.