Late Holocene environmental change in the Libyan pre-desert

Abstract A sequence of sediments from a cave near Beni Ulid in Tripolitania in the Libyan pre-desert is shown on the basis of its pollen, plant macrofossil and phytoclast content to extend from no earlier than Romano-Libyan times to at least the early twentieth century. Geochemical, mineral magnetic and palaeontological analyses show that the climate became systematically more humid and land surfaces more stable during the period of deposition. This pattern of environmental amelioration is similar to that which has been identified throughout southern Europe during the same period, suggesting that the picture of increasing humidity obtained from the northern Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea may now be extended into north Africa.