The ancient Egyptians considered Libya as the lands of the spirits, as they categorized all unknown areas west of the Nile River Valley and in their religion. Ancient Libya was visited by Egyptians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans, Byzantines and Muslims, all who contributed to the Libyan culture. In fact, cross-culturally, ancient Egypt of the 22nd and 23rd dynasties was ruled by Libyan migrants.
The ancient Libyans were nomad hunters and gatherers, living off their own goats, camels and other livestock while also hunting and gathering.
Origins of the Libyans
Greeks actually settled on the eastern coasts of Libya in the 630s, and co-existed with the Libu.(Fage) The Greeks considered the Berber inhabitants of Northwest Africa from Morocco to west of Egypt to be the Libyans. (Fage)
The Name Libya
The name “Libya” probably derived from the “Libu,” one of the Berber tribes found there by the Egyptians and Greeks.
The oldest known references to Libya date to Rameses II and his successor Merneptah who were Egyptian rulers of the 19th dynasty (13th century BCE). Libya appears as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele. (Gardiner, p. 273)
Origins of the Berbers
It is still not clear where the Berbers came from, but their languages are also shared in modern Libya, Algeria and Morocco. It has been proposed that the origin of the Berbers was from Southwest Asia prior to migrating to North Africa. (Oliver, Roland and Fagan, p.47)
There is an oasis in Egypt known as the Siwa, where a language is spoken which is related to the Berber Siwi languages.
The language family of the Berbers is Afro-Asiatic. The main Berber script of the ancient Libyans, Tifinagh, was mostly a funerary script with many variations, being difficult to read even today. Most Berbers speak Arabic today instead of Berber.
Ancient Libyan Tribes
The ancient Egyptians listed the main Libyan tribes, often enemies of Egypt, as the Temehu, Tjehenu, Libu (or Ribu), Tahu, and Meshwesh. There were, of course, many other tribes in the area of Libya.
Herodotus, and the Greeks after him, referred to the light-skinned North-Africans as Libyes, and the sub-Saharan Africans as Aethiopians.
Egyptians described the ancient Libyan males and females as wearing heavy jewelry, wearing the same types of printed and dyed robes made from antelope hides, with their hair beaded and braided, and feathers attached to e leather worn around the crown. Men also braided their beards.
St. Augustine of Hippo was a Berber. The Berber people called themselves Amazigh, according to Leo Africanus, which apparently meant “free men,” though this meaning is disputed. It has a cognate in Tuareg of amajegh meaning “noble.”
Sources
- Oliver, Roland & Fagan, Brian M. (1975). Africa in the Iron Age: c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press.
- Gardiner, Alan Henderson (1964). Egypt of the Pharaohs: an introduction. London: Oxford University Press
- Fage, J. D. (ed.) (1978). "The Libyans" The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 500 BC to AD 1050 volume II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Paula I. Nielson - Paula I. Nielson, Ph.D., holds credentials and interests in anthropology, archaeology, religion, the Middle East and Asia.
