The Central Sahara is a huge gallery of prehistoric and historic rock art. The earliest paintings, called round heads for the way in which the human face is represented, belong to groups of dark-skinned populations living in the Algerian Tassili and neighbouring mountains. During a humid period starting at 10,000 BP these hunter-gatherers produced several thousand images which are surprisingly similar to some of modern African elements.

AI

D. Huyge, F. Van Noten and D. Swinne (eds.), Proceedings of the International Colloquium “The Signs of Which Times? Chronological and Palaeoenvironmental Issues in the Rock Art of Northern Africa”, Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, Bruxelles, 3-5 June, 2010, 2013

The massifs of the central Libyan Desert, Jebel Uweinat, Arkenu and the Gilf Kebir plateau have emerged as one of the principal rock art bearing regions of the Sahara. New discoveries over the past ten years have vastly increased the corpus of available data, permitting a revision and improved definition of the observed rock art styles and the underlying prehistoric cultures. The analysis of paintings reveal a succession of four hunter-gatherer societies centered on Jebel Uweinat, with the unique Wadi Sora culture occupying a narrow belt along the Western Gilf Kebir. As evidenced by demonstrable superimpositions and relative weathering, all these distinct cultures were replaced throughout the investigated region by a homogenous culture of cattle pastoralists.

2019

1999

I dipinti rapestri del Tassili, oggi famosi, furono scoperti nella seconda meta degli anni cinquanta su un altopiano aspro e segnato da profonde vallate. Qualche anno più tardi, verso la fine degli anni sessanta, awenne una nuova scoperta sensazionale. Si trattava questa volta délia grande composizione del riparo «Dr Khène», nella zona di Iheren. Le riproduzioni degli affreschi del Tassili furono presentate al Musée de l'Homme a Parigi a un pubblico sbalordito di studiosi, artisti e intellettuali. L'insieme délia composizione non è mai stato pubblicato nella sua totalità. A seconda délie circostanze, alcuni pannelli o soggetti specifîci sono stati pubblicati da Lhote, Lajoux, Colombel e, più recentemente, da Muzzolini. Questo articolo, nelle intenzioni il primo di un progetto più vasto, analizza dal punto di vista archeologico uno dei pannelli del riparo «Dr Khène» di Iheren, e pone una particolare attenzione suUe «idée» veicolate-o meno-dalle immagini. L'obiettivo di questo nuovo approccio è la ricerca di un accesso al liuguaggio iconografico dei pastori-nomadi del Tassili. Simimary The now famous Tassili frescoes were discovered in the late fifties in remote confines of a rugged and deeply scarred landscape. A fantastic new discovery was made a few years later, in the late sixties. The giant composition from the «Abri Dr Khène» at Iheren, comprised of several distinct but connected large panels, was found and brought to the bewildered eyes of scholars and artists at the Paris Musée de l'Homme. The composition has never been published as a whole. According to circumstances, selected panels or scènes have been published by Lhote, Lajoux, Colombel, and more recently Muzzolini. This paper, hopefully the first of a more extensive project, focuses on a single panel from Iheren «Dr Khène Shelter», dealt with as an archaeological assemblage with due sensibility to «ideas» encapsulated-or not-in images. What we are interested in here is to open an access to the Tassilian pastoral nomads iconographie language. Résumé Les célèbres fresques du Tassili ont été découvertes dans les années 1950 dans les confins d'un plateau au relief tourmenté et au paysage profondément disséqué par des vallées encaissées. Quelques années plus tard, vers la fin des années 1960, une nouvelle découverte, tout à fEiit sensationnelle est faite. Il s'agit cette foisci de la vaste composition de l'Abri «Dr Khène», au heu dit Iheren. Les reproductions des fresques du Tassili ont été présentées au Musée de l'Homme à Paris à un public ébahi de chercheurs, intellectuels, et artistes. L'ensemble de la composition n'a jamais été pubUé dans sa totalité; selon les drconstances, certains panneaux, ou scènes ont été pubHés par Lhote, Lajoux, Colombel, et plus récemment par Muzzolini. Cet article, le premier d'un projet plus important, porte sur l'analyse d'un seul des panneaiix de l'Abri Dr Khène d'Iheren, considéré comme un assemblage archéologique, avec une profonde sensibihté poiu-les «idées» véhiculées-ou non-par les images. Ce travail, proposant une nouvelle approche, cherche un accès au langage iconographique des pasteurs-nomades Tassiliens.

H-Afrarts (H-Net Listserv for African art and visual culture, 2009

Journal of Arid Environments, 2017

All the main Central Saharan mountainous massifs present rock art from various periods, stretching from prehistory until the recent historical era. The paintings and engravings have been documented, described, and classified into the chronological-stylistic groups. However, a special group of carvings called kettles and cupules have been given little or no attention in the rock art studies. Since these artificial formations are abundantly present in the Central Sahara their systematic study is needed.

2015

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)%%%%There has been limited research on rock art in Libya with a small number of studies conducted in specific parts of the country. This exegesis examines a recently discovered rock art site in Wadi al Baqar in the Sahara brought to the researcher’s attention through collaboration with Indigenous people of Libya, the Tuareg people. The majority of studies in Libya to date were conducted some time ago and the dearth of recent research coupled with the discovery of a new rock art site at Wadi al Baqar have given the researcher the incentive to make a study of Libyan rock art. The Tuareg discovered this site and this research was undertaken with their support and encouragement. As the researcher I will argue that rock art is important to both Libyan and world heritage. This study is an original and timely exploration of this newly discovered ancient art, which also provides insights into the ancient people who created this work thousands o...

2001

In Africa (without including Egypt), first artistic testimonies prehistoric legacies by the old inhabitants, are rock from VIII the millenium BP (Before Present). They are thousand of paintings and engravings of human and animalísticas figures, pertaining to the cultures of the fertile valley, of which today it is the desert of the Sahara, from Mauritania to Sudan, made before their human inhabitants emigrated to the south and he disappeared the rich fauna and flora by the desertización (in century IV BP). In addition diverse neolithic feminine African towns have bequeathed us esculturillas from II the millenium BP.

EXPRESSION N°31, 2021

Despite the variety of motifs documented in the Ennedi rock art tradition, dating from the mid-Ho- locene to the present day, representations of fantastic entities seem extremely rare. The pre-Islamic beliefs in an impersonal creator god and ancestor worship (Fuchs 1961; Tubiana 1964), along with an overt veneration for cattle, explain the rock art’s secular ap- pearance, referred to as the pastoral period (Menardi Noguera 2018). The much older paintings from the pre-pastoral peri- od (the archaic period in the local rock-art terminol- ogy (Bailloud, 1997)), include representations of hu- mans and a selection of African fauna, exceptionally extended to the aquatic realm (Gauthier and Gauthier 2019). At first glance, this ancient art seems primari- ly motivated by interest or fear. The represented ani- mals are the best possible game, like the elephants and giraffes, or the most dangerous, like the big cats, as expected from ecological studies of ancient and con- temporaneous hunter-gatherers’ behavior (Halfon and Barkai 2020, Bugir et al. 2021).

Expression, 2024

In the prehistoric rock art of the Central Sahara the main focus of the research has long been human and animal figures. Non-figurative forms such as carved lines, if considered at all, were overlooked, or regarded as just secondary or incidental to the main art. Recent research conducted in the Algerian mountains of Tassili and Tadrart, which focussed on simple engraved lines called “grooves”, has shown that these were by no means accidental by-products but were consciously created in selected places and had their own meaning. The grooves are very abundant in the Central Sahara and particularly numerous in certain regions, where they often represent the prevalent form of rock art. Since they present a very similar pattern throughout a large territory, they must have functioned as codified signs known to prehistoric people. As for their purpose, their connection to ancient waterfalls has been attested in dozens of sites.

Time and Mind, 2011

The Central Sahara is one of the richest regions of rock paintings and engravings in the world. The oldest painted images are likely to have originated in the tenth millennium bp, although opinion is still divided. These early paintings, called the Round Heads due to the circular shape of the heads of anthropomorphic figures, were created by groups of dark-skinned hunter-gatherers who produced their paintings in the mountains of the Tassili n'Ajjer and in the adjacent Algerian Tadrart and Libyan Acacus. Since their discovery in the 1950s, these paintings have been described and classified but their interpretation has not been undertaken before because it was considered inappropriate and unachievable. Using archaeological evidence, landscape archaeology, and comparative studies it is nevertheless possible to approach this neglected field of Saharan rock-art studies and reveal a complex reality lying behind individual painted images.

Kamel Boulaghraief*, Azzedine Fergui, Yassine Sidi Salah, Redha Benchernine, Djamal Yataghane, Yacine Moussaoui**, 2018

Pelorovii, lions, rams, and elephants are the major figures of animals represented in the Saharan Atlas, while the Central Sahara is usually known for the representations of giraffes, rhinoceroses and cattle (Aumassip, 2002). These wild and domestic animals have been depicted according to the economical role they played in each of these societies, or in connection with the various mythological systems they have induced (Soleilhavoup, 1991). Whatever the explanation, the long tradition of North African rock art studies based mainly on the description of these depictions, as well as the determination and the geographic distribution of their styles, did not allow for other methods of research to be explored and developed (Soukopova, 2011). The symbolic and/or extra-ordinary significance, or as natural scenes of hunting and feeding, are the interpretations given to many artistic depictions, where some scenes include big felines in association with other animals, such as bovids (Aumassip, 1986 ; Vaufrey, 1939 ; Roubet, 2008), an elephant (Aumassip, 1986) and pigs (Roubet, 2005). In general, the approaches to reach these interpretations are unclear and ambiguous. This prompted us to combine the descriptive, stylistic and ethological study, first in order to understand this unusual and heterogeneous animal association discovered in the rock art site of Boukhirane and find out the purpose of depicting vultures and a felid together surrounding a bovid, then in order to know precisely the kind of subject portrayed by the artist.

2020

2018

— All the main central Saharan mountainous massifs present prehistoric rock art. In the Tassili n'Ajjer, Algerian Tadrart and Tadrart Acacus both paintings and engravings are present; however, only in exceptional cases do we find the oldest paintings, called Round Heads, and prehistoric engravings in the same shelter. Only a complex of engravings called Kel Essuf coexists with the Round-Head paintings on the same walls. Except for the same geographical area, these two groups of rock art are similar also for their themes; they are both dominated by male anthropomorphic figures and they present the same characteristic elements.

IBAES 27

This volume presents key findings from the 20th International Rock Art Congress, focusing on the rock art of the Eastern Sahara, particularly Egypt and Sudan. Papers explore regional overviews, rock art's relationship with the landscape, stylistic diversity, and symbolic meanings, with contributions focused on the Western Desert and Nubian rock art, as well as thematic, chronological and stylistic analyses. These papers highlight the dynamic interactions between environmental contexts, artistic expressions, and cultural exchanges, providing new insights into the ancient societies of the Eastern Sahara. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Dirk Huyge (1957–2018).

Introduction; The biological evolution of Homo and the gradual appearance of different cultural forms; The aesthetic function; The emergence of art as a stage of fundamental importance in the cultural evolution of Homo; Prehistoric art as awareness of the environment, the real andthe non-real; Prehistoric art in the Sahara: difficulties of interpretation; Research activity in the Tadrat Acacus; Research activity in the Amsak Settafet; Style and technique; The earliest anthropomorphic engravings; History and prehistory of the Sahara: neolithisation and anthropomorphism: the Round Head Period; The sacred nature of shelters; Kettles; Pairs of holes; Chronology; Notes to the illustrations; Glossary; Bibliography. "L'ERMA" di BRETSCHNEIDER

Hesperis Tamuda, 2023

Aouinet Azguer 1 is one of the most representative painting rock shelters in Morocco due to the quantity and characteristics of the images on display, which were carried out over an extended time lapse. In Aouinet Azguer 1 and 12, we find some zoomorphous figures outlined in red whose composition, size, style and technique bear no relation to the rest of the motifs. These figures correspond to an early chronocultural first phase, they were painted choosing privileged or central positions and in most cases we are not able to identify them since, even if by their volumetric shape the images seem to follow a naturalist tendency, their execution is highly conventional. In this study, the AMS 14 C dating was possible on an anthropomorph of the third phase also painted in red)3770 to 3650 Cal BC, minimum age(, on the basis of a well-known technique)oxalates dating(. These results were completed using a methodology that combines physicochemical and micro-stratigraphic analyses used to interpret this dating, which is difficult to get it. Considering the need to put in first place the preservation of the rock paintings under study we could not get another one. Furthermore, a meaningful number of questions arise related to dating and cultural relationship to the first pictorial phase which has been defined upon traditional archaeological criteria, which we intend to propose as our leading hypothesis, by means of the analysis of archaeological environment from the Atlantic area, proposing a probable date)Later Stone Age-Early Holocene(.

Rock Art Research

This article identifies two sets of Neolithic symbols from the eastern and western ends of the Sahara, which seem so similar, isolated at their loci and unlikely to result from parallel evolution, because of the variety and intimate association of the symbols in the sets, that the similarities may indicate a cultural connection; and perhaps even a displacement between 4000 and 3700 BCE, rather than cultural diffusion during the earlier westward spread of pastoralism. Several observers, including Henri Lhote and Raymond Vaufrey, have already noted individual resemblances between central and western Saharan iconography and Egyptian symbols, such as falcon imagery and rams wearing discs between their horns. But this article argues that the set of similarities is both larger than reported and more concentrated, with several strands of evidence converging on a zone encompassing the Kem-Kem Hamada and Wadi Draa on the Algerian-Moroccan border. While some of these similarities probably der...

During the middle and late Holocene, the prehistoric inhabitants of the Sahara articulated their agency under conditions of aridification 1 in part through aesthetic symbolic behaviour that became petrified, as it were, in ubiquitous rock art. Rock art, predominantly depicting domestic animals, continued to be produced throughout the later Holocene, despite deteriorating environmental conditions that necessitated other adaptive strategies. Artistic production appears to have ignored the environmental changes and evolved an aesthetic that, initially, celebrated animals for the function for which they were domesticated and, subsequently, for their looks, symbolic capital and potential to express status. In the most recent periods, art production evolves into a symbolism that is entirely based on, and communicated through, camel imagery. Tilman Lenssen-Erz is head of rock-art research at the African Archaeology division of the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne. His focus of research lies in a contextual approach to rock art in Namibia and eastern Sahara, where he has guided many expeditions. He has edited six volumes of The Rock Paintings of the Upper Brandberg and has published widely on spatial and ecological issues in rock art.

• Explore
• Papers
• Topics

• Features
• Mentions
• Analytics
• PDF Packages
• Advanced Search
• Search Alerts

• Journals
• Academia.edu Journals
• My submissions
• Reviewer Hub
• Why publish with us
• Testimonials

• Company
• About
• Careers
• Press
• Help Center
• Terms
• Privacy
• Copyright
• Content Policy