ABSTRACT
In this chapter we shall discuss a range of evidence pertaining to late antique landscapes and land-use in North Africa. The focus will be on the transformation of the rural landscape from the late Roman to the Vandal, Byzantine and, when possible, Arab periods, and on the provinces of Zeugitana, Byzacena and Tripolitania (modern Tunisia and northern Libya). (For a general description of the landscape organisation in Roman times see Leveau et al., 1993: 155-200.) Our analysis is based on published data from field surveys, historical and epigraphical sources, and data related to ceramic production, botanical and faunal evidence. Yet these data are far from perfect. In addition to a general dearth of excavated rural sites, two main limits must be stressed: the lack of homogeneity of the data, deriving from different projects with diverse methodologies; and a similar unevenness of knowledge of the material culture used to date the phases of activity.
