The archaeological survey of the island of Jerba has studied the relationship of the island’s material culture and its history. The project, which considered all periods of habitation, revealed significant shifts in the patterns, location and density of settlement. The particular geographic position of Jerba, and its agricultural economy and the exploitation of marine resources existed in the context of the relationship between the ports and the agricultural hinterlands, between the island and the mainland, and of the interplay between local and inter-regional conditions. Our evidence for the island’s history derives from three principal techniques: field walking, excavation and the study of the sources and archives. The island’s continuous dense occupation and the rarity of local stone has meant that old buildings are generally cannibalized to construct new ones. Mosque sites tend to be better preserved, while farms survive as mounds, with clear evidence for water collection. The only possible method for recovering ancient and medieval sites was close fieldwalking, and the systematic collection and recording of pottery scatters. This paper will be focus on settlement patterns datable to the medieval periods, and on changes brought about by the incorporation of the island into Ottoman orbit. Among the topics to be considered will be the control of accesses to the island, the rise and change in zones of commercial exchange, and the functioning and longevity of mosque communities and shrines. The group most characteristically identified with Jerba is that of the Berber (and Arabic) speaking Ib???, a heterodox group. Their attempt, starting in the 8th c., to establish a state/imamate in Tahart (present-day Algeria) was short-lived, and ended with their political occlusion and displacement by more successful rival sectarian groups and dynasties such as the Fatimids. After their bid for power in the larger Islamic space failed, they retreated to their oases and areas of refuge. Jerban population had apparently not been part of the initial polity; its territory comes into Ib??? purview and becomes their long- standing haven only by the tenth century. Jerban space vouchsafed their survival as a sectarian and cultural group up to the 18th c.