Libyan Studies 40 (2009) 1 he Western Marmarica Coastal Survey 2009: preliminary report Linda Hulin, Jane Timby and Giuseppina Mutri Abstract he 2009 season of the Western Marmarica Coastal Survey continued to document the settlement profile of the coastal area east of Tobruk, focussing upon the area around Marsa Lukk. Rock art was documented in the Wadi el-‘Ayn and a number of early-mid Holocene sites located there and to the west of Marsa Lukk. he survey continued to locate kiln sites of the Mid-Late Roman period. Two fortified sites were documented, spanning the Late Roman to early Islamic period. he Western Coastal Survey worked between the areas of Wadi Rasafa, north of Kambut, and Marsa Lukk from 30 March–15 April 2009. he aims of the survey were (i) to further document the economic exploitation of the area, particularly in the Mid-Late Roman period; (ii) to revisit and document selected sites from the 2008 season that seemed to be characteristic or significant; (iii) to begin to construct a regional ceramic typology; (iv) to continue to search for evidence of a pre-Classical presence in the area. Prehistoric sites Rock art from the Wadi el-‘Ayn (WMCS 54) is known, but has not been previously published (Fig. 1). here is some defacement, anecdotally related to the Italian occupation of the area. he images are carved into a ca. 10 m-wide strip of rock and the images fall into three broad sections, with some images cutting into earlier ones. he northernmost consists of cup marks, some linked by channels. One group was incised into a surface that was either pre-prepared or, most likely, quarried, suggesting a Classical or later date. he central section consists of a complex system of dots – some reminiscent of the game of el-siga, but at a sharply raked angle – lines and so-called sandal marks. he southernmost section also contains a complex series of images, including an elephant, suggesting that at least this section should be placed in the Bubaline period, i.e. pre-7,000 BC (Fig. 2). here is also an Arabic graffito on the rock face. Two km further north, the Wadi el-‘Ayn empties into a salt flat which, in antiquity, would have formed a sheltered lagoon open to the sea from the east. he rock art is to some extent contextualised by the presence of three flint sites around the lagoon. WMCS 58A on a low rise on the southern edge of the lagoon yielded a fragmentary Aterian tanged piece. his is by far the earliest material found in the region, but its co-location with later prehistoric pieces – a phenomenon noted elsewhere – has raised doubts about the chronological extent of such forms (e.g. Hivernel, 1985). Backed blades and lunates of the Libyco-Capsian tradition were found on a wadi top to the west of the lagoon, at WMCS 62. he third site, WMCS 59, on the southern edge of the lagoon (Fig. 3), was one of three sites (the others being WMCS 57 and WMCS 51, both in the region of Marsa Lukk) from which arrowheads were recovered. he arrowheads are small, barbless, and tanged, with bifacial covering retouch (Fig. 4). hey are similar to the Neolithic of the Maghreb (Vaufray, 1955) and the Fezzān (Lahr et al., 2008, fig. 12:g), Siwa oasis (McBurney 1955, fig. 35: 12-14; Cziela 1993, fig. 8: 2), the Fayum (Caton-homson and Gardner 1934, pls XI: 9, XXII: 28 and XLVIII: 12, 12, 20) and Kharga oasis (Caton-hompson 1952, pls 100: 101, 11:10). he type also seems to have lingered, alongside winged barbed forms, into the Early Dynastic period at sites along the edge of the western desert, e.g. at Maadi (Rizkana and Seehir 1988, pl. 68:4) and in Nubia (Reisner 1910, pl. 62: a3), an extension in time which may 1 2 3