The date and context of Neolithic rock art in the Sahara: engravings and ceremonial monuments from Messak Settafet (south-west Libya)

Abstract

The authors find a context for the rock art of the central Sahara by excavating and recording examples of engraved stones from circular platforms used to sacrifice animals. The type of rock art known as the Pastoral style, featuring evocative outline drawings of cattle, appears on upright stones incorporated into the platforms in the period 5430–5150 BP, and probably earlier. Furthermore, they show that these places were part of a dense and extensive monumental landscape, occupying a harsh environment, supplying quartzite, but with little settlement, appearing to serve the spiritual needs of hundreds of Neolithic people.

Saharan Rock Art: Local Dynamics and Wider Perspectives

“…In the 2000s, it is possible to identify three main lines of research: i) in the Acacus area, we assist to a methodological change addressed towards a landscape approach and the contextualization and systematic recording of the rock art, in order to isolate and define the relationships between physical environment, archaeological contexts and rock art features [10,22,53,54]. In the same context ii) huge efforts were devoted to preservation and management issues, to tackle the changes taking place in Libya (e.g., [55]).…”

“…The confidence in the methodological progress of radiocarbon dating led to a new season of field research in Tassili, where a French-Algerian project started in 2004 with the main aim of obtaining precise radiocarbon datings for the rock art of Ahaggar, Tassili n'Ajjer and Saharan Atlas [32,56]. Unfortunately, the project was interrupted after two field campaigns, limited to few renowned sites of Tassili, and the direct dating of paintings failed, as it did in Tadrart Acacus contexts (see discussion in [10,57]). However, it fostered a change of perspective.…”

“…In the area of Acacus, during extensive surveys, several painting samples were collected and recently published [57]; as already quoted, all the radiocarbon datings (including those proposed by Mori and associates in 1996 and 2006 [58,59]) were considered unreliable, due to the poor state of conservation, and to a generalized problem of contamination [10]. The positive results of the contextual analysis of rock art evidence in the close-by Messak and in Acacus [3,4,10,60] set the base for the future perspectives of rock art studies in the region.…”

“…indirect datings of materials (e.g., pigments or decorated panel fragments) included in archaeological deposits, dated with radiocarbon, like the buried stone with painted cattle at Uan Muhuggiag, in the Wadi Teshuinat [6] and iii. the contextualization of rock art sites, both as single entities and by correlating rock art distribution with the main phases of human occupation archaeologically recognized, as synthesized in the previous paragraph (e.g., [10]). Nonetheless, the debate on these 'traditional' definitions is still lively.…”

“…After important early studies, corresponding to the first scientific investigations (e.g., [6,7]), the research focused on chronological and stylistic issues, often carried out without a robust archaeological and anthropological perspective. Recent developments in the Saharan rock art study, based on new developments of indirect dating methods [8,9] and wide integrated contextual approaches [10,11] seems to establish the basis for a renewed season and future positive perspective. This paper intends to summarize methods and aims of rock art research in the core of the central Saharan massifs, and to propose some suggestions stemming from a renewed territorial approach to the rock art sites of the Tadrart Acacus massif.…”