The arched cliff marking the edge of the pre-desert plateau between southern Tunisia and Tripolitania—known respectively as Dahar and Jebel Nafusa—has, for centuries, formed a unified cultural landscape where the material traditions of diverse ethnic groups took shape. In the past fifty years, a combination of political and environmental upheavals—many of them seemingly irreversible—has led to the depopulation of these regions. As a result, dozens of once-inhabited sites now stand abandoned and a remarkable built heritage, often dating back to the earliest caliphates, faces relentless deterioration.
The Partnership for Heritage Project, funded by the Cultural Protection Fund, brought together the expertise and resources of three European universities (Durham, Bristol, and Dublin), one Libyan institution (Azzaytuna University in Tarhuna), and the Tunisian National Institute of Heritage. Their shared goal is to develop multi-scale documentation strategies for historic architecture and long-term sustainable conservation interventions, alongside ethnographic research focused on traditional weaving techniques and the intangible cultural heritage embedded in local social life.
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Anna Leone is professor at the Department of Archaeology, Durham University. She specialises in the study of the late Antique, Early Byzantine and early Islamic periods (4th to 9th/10th c) in the Mediterranean with a focus on the transformation of urban areas, and the impact of religious transitions from Paganism to Christianity, to Islam. She has published two monographs (Changing Townscapes in north Africa from Late Antiquity to the Arab Conquest, Bari 2007 and The End of the Pagan City, Oxford 2013), three edited volumes and over 80 articles in peer review journals. Professor Leone is an experienced field-archaeologist. She is involved in the protection of heritage in the MENA region, capacity buildings and the fight against illicit traffic. She is also the current Director of BILNAS.
