UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

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The Sahara
in classical antiquity
P. SALAMA
The traditional notion of 'classical antiquity' may appear a priori incompatible
with the study of Saharan problems. These have a very particular
classification. To take only one example: in Mediterranean archaeology,
classical antiquity covers a period of roughly a thousand years, from the
fifth century before our era to the fifth century of our era, but in the
protohistory of the Sahara it would cover the end of the 'caballine' period
and part of the 'Libyco-Berber', neither of these periods, moreover, being
exactly datable. Any absolute chronology would therefore seem to be ruled
out in this case.
Nevertheless, during that same millennium, the Saharan universe
was the scene of highly important events which were connected in large
part with the history of the Graeco-Roman world. So I have no hesitation
in using classical chronological criteria, which are valid for the whole of
the known world.
How is the question of the Sahara of antiquity approached by the
historian? First, Graeco-Latin textual sources must be examined: while
the information collected is not always reliable, and may induce error, it
is in principle of value. The next step is to bring modern methods of
scholarship to bear so as to correct the raw data little by little and shed
light on the problem as a whole. That done, the Sahara of 'antiquity'
will no longer be judged only from the outside. It will reveal its own
personality.
Contemporary textual sources and their overinterpretation
We know the analytical methods of the ancient geographers and historians.
Unable to visit inaccessible regions themselves, they gathered second-hand
information which had a goodly share of error and fable. Terra incognita,
the great desert, was not even given a name. Not until the Arabs came
was the term 'Sahara' applied to that vast region which was like an
enormous basin. The Greeks, and later on the Romans, spoke only of Inner
Libya, a very vague geographical expression signifying what lay beyond
the North African territories, or Inner Ethiopia, a zone still farther south
which derived its name from the dark skins of its inhabitants. Descriptions