Colonel Adel Al-Tofa, Head of the Tourism Police and Antiquities Protection Authority in Tripoli, stated that they discovered an archaeological family cemetery dating back to the second century AD, about 2000 years ago.
He added that the tourist police were present at the archaeological site in the Libyan capital, accompanied by forces from Tripoli Security Directorate in Dahra neighborhood. This occurred shortly after receiving a report from a local resident regarding the discovery of the ancient tomb during drilling operations at a construction site near Al-Dahra Club.
Al-Tofa explained that the archaeological survey work is underway by the team assigned by the Antiquities Department, denying the news circulated on some social media pages that they have found gold coins. He stressed that they discovered only funeral monuments inside the cemetery.
Rabia Arafa, the Director of Tripoli Antiquities Monitoring, stated that the excavation and exploration works continued for three days.
Photos published on social media platforms showed a number of archaeological pots dating back to the Roman era.
She added that the cemetery belongs to a middle-class family or families, and this appears from the type of funerary furniture represented in the remains of glass, mirrors, dishes, and earthenware jars, which were intended to carry the remains of the dead.
Notably, Libya played an important role in ancient empires, like Carthage, Achaemenid Persia, and Rome. For example, the ancient settlement of Leptis Magna, located within located within present-day Khoms, in North-Western Libya, grew into a strategic Roman stronghold in North Africa by the late Republic time.
Much of the growth had to do with the fertile farmlands surrounding the settlement along with the profusion of olive groves in the area – so much so that the city was levied by Emperor Caesar with a tax of three million pounds of oil annually.