Despite their long-term occupation, the Nafusa mountains have been subject to limited investigations over the years. The only survey documenting a limited portion Nafusa Mountains and its archaeology was conducted by a British team in 1972, with a major focus on some of the mosques. Warfalli in 1981 completed his PhD thesis at UCL in London working on a selected number of Ibadi mosques. The same monuments have been considered in a book published 2016 by Prevost, based on her doctoral thesis, offering an overview. This limited attention has had impact on the maintenance of the heritage of the region. In 2014 the Department of Antiquities of Libya (led by Mftah Al Hddad) in collaboration with Durham University (Anna Leone) conducted for the first time a preliminary systematic survey in the region, focusing in the area of Kabaw and Sherwes. The analysis of the data has provided us with the identification of the major threats for the built heritage in the Nafusa (published in Nebbia, Leone at al. 2016 – link below). The survey identified 183 new sites and various threats, including water erosion, vandalism, expansion of the modern urban centres, illegal quarrying, looting; the destruction of some historic funerary monuments has also been recorded. In recent times, it has been possible to conduct work in the region. In 2019 with the support of the EAMENA project, Hela Mekki conducted another small survey in Gabès (Tunisia), but the complete recording and documentation of the region is still missing. This new project aims to support the full recording of the archaeological sites and monuments of the region, to develop a long-term strategy for the preservation of this beautiful and important historical and cultural landscape
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