The Tadrart Acacus as a cultural landscape

In this chapter, the history of research in the Tadrart Acacus is set in the national historical context. The inclusion of the rock art sites in the UNESCO World Heritage list (1985) is closely connected with the scientific activity of the Libyan- Italian archaeological mission and with the name of Fabrizio Mori, who started his research in the area in 1955. Fieldwork continued almost uninterruptedly for the following six decades, except for the international crisis between Libya and the US (1986), the Arab Spring, and the Libyan Revolution (2011-present). The fieldwork and studies facilitated the collection of a unique set of environmental, archaeological, artistic, historical, and ethnographic data on the region. Over the years, the exponential increase of research on climate, the environment, archaeology, the traditional knowledge of the Tuaregs living in the region, as well as the analyses of the impact of tourism and the threats related to infrastructures and resource exploitation, have contributed to a new awareness of the cultural value of the Tadrart Acacus massif. In this chapter, we suggest that the Tadrart Acacus – which was included in the UNESCO endangered list in 2016 – should be reassessed for its extraordinary value as a cultural landscape once it is removed from the red list.