Saharan Rock Art: Local Dynamics and Wider Perspectives

Abstract

Rock art is the best known evidence of the Saharan fragile heritage. Thousands of engraved and painted artworks dot boulders and cliffs in open-air sites, as well as the rock walls of rockshelters and caves located in the main massifs. Since its pioneering discovery in the late 19th century, rock art captured the imagination of travellers and scholars, representing for a long time the main aim of research in the area. Chronology, meaning and connections between the different recognized artistic provinces are still to be fully understood. The central massifs, and in particular the "cultural province" encompassing Tadrart Acacus and Tassili n'Ajer, played and still play a key role in this scenario. Recent analytical and contextual analyses of rock art contexts seem to open new perspectives. Tadrart Acacus, for the richness and variability of artworks, for the huge archaeological data known, and for its proximity to other important areas with rock art (Tassili n'Ajjer, Algerian Tadrart and Messak massifs) is an ideal context to analyze the artworks in their environmental and social-cultural context, and to define connections between cultural local dynamics and wider regional perspectives.

Reconstructing the climatic niche breadth of land use for animal production during the African Holocene

“…Hanotte et al, ; Pérez‐Pardal et al, ), especially for highly mobile species with few faunal remains (Almathen et al, ); evidence of aquatic resource exploitation; rock art (e.g. Gallinaro, ; Guagnin, ); and geomorphic and ethnoarchaeological evidence of herding (e.g. Biagetti, ; Zerboni & Nicoll, ).…”

High and Medium Resolution Satellite Imagery to Evaluate Late Holocene Human–Environment Interactions in Arid Lands: A Case Study from the Central Sahara

“…However, different types of vegetation, drainage or different ages of anthropogenic features were not disaggregated for this study, nor different types of local and inherent spatial dependence (e.g., clustering or repulsion) were not considered in the point process model [72][73][74]. Furthermore, the model so far does not include the limited number of rock art sites published (e.g., [11]) covering the last 5000 years.…”

“…3000-1000 years BP [10]. On the other hand, recent studies of rock art [11] and carved texts [12,13] from SW Libya have demonstrated how a landscape approach to this evidence can shed new light on late prehistoric, historical, and modern human-landscape interactions. Most archaeological data, however, come from open-air sites that have higher visibility in the landscape.…”

The Archaeology of Rock Art in Northern Africa

“…Combined with the diffusion of Tifinagh writings (a Libyco-Berber script) across the Sahara, Cameline rock art contributes to understanding the exploitation of water sources and landforms in a dramatically altered Saharan environment (e.g., Biagetti, Ait Kaci, Mori, & di Lernia 2012;di Lernia 2012). In her recent review of Tadrart Acacus rock art, Gallinaro (2013) has introduced the term 'Modern Camel', which includes the artworks produced today along with subjects of recent items of material culture such cars, guns, and the like.…”