Environment, Archaeology, and Oil: The Messak Settafet Rescue Operation (Libyan Sahara)

The Messak has been for millennia an inexhaustible source of raw material required for human activities. Large outcrops of quartzite are found here, which were extensively exploited from the Late Acheulian to the Pastoral Neolithic. Quarries, vast knapping areas, and workshops comprise the major evidence of the special importance that the Messak had in the past. Tools made from this precious quartzite, of its different varieties, had a large circulation radius. It was specially used to produce finely made tools. Nowadays, the Messak Settafet holds once more great importance for the development of the region. An immense oil field (Elephant Field) has recently been discovered by the LASMO Grand Maghreb Limited. In fact, after years of seismic surveys, which inflicted dramatic damage on the landscape, the environment, and the archaeological heritage, drilling and exploitation are really upon us. Furthermore, Libyan authorities are going to license newareas in the Messak Mellet and in the Edeyen of Murzuq, which are currently environmentally and archaeologically intact. Thus, from being an unlimited prehistoric mine up to becoming a modern oil field, the Messak Settafet appears to be destined to suffer from industrial exploitation, environmental disturbance, and damage. Nonetheless, these may be mitigated, and the need for economic development could be combined with an adequate safeguard and tutelage of the local environmental and cultural heritage.