Decoding the Desert : Goodchild: 'Limes Tripolitanus', Roman forts and settlements

Decoding the Desert

<p style='text-align: justify;'>'Ditta Vasari' Lantern slides which are labelled with numbers on white stickers on the bottom corners. These once again pertain to articles, published between 1950-1, with a focus on photographs of Roman fortifications and settlement in and around the 'Limes Tripolitanus'. Many of the site photographs are aerial ones, collected with the help of the RAF during the summer of 1949. The group as a whole can therefore be dated between 1946-1949, during Goodchild's tenure as Antiquities Officer with the British Military Administrations in Libya and his concurrent expeditions into inland Tripolitania. This series also features photographs contextual to Goodchild's explorations in the region, such as a number of photographs of a contemporary Libyan town, as well as several plans of Roman forts. These slides, since they seem supplementary to his publication on Desert Reconnaissance, may have been used to present his paper in the December of 1949 to the Royal Geographical Society.</p>