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What's new in the Sahara, 2000-2004?

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 4. WHAT’S NEW IN THE SAHARA, 2000–2004?

Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

“The Sahara has contributed virtually nothing to furthering our knowledge of rock art”
Christopher Chippindale, in Keenan 2005.

Introduction The following text summarises and analyses some

The above epigraph shows the extent to which work on 260 publications from 2000 to 2004 inclusive, directly
Saharan rock art remains poorly known, if not scorned, concerning the rock art of the immense Sahara Desert.
by certain archaeologists. There are doubtless several First we will present those reporting new discoveries, still
reasons for this, one of which is no doubt that a number numerous  despite  the  difficulties  inherent  in  the  Sahara’s  
of excessively reckless interpretations have recently led geopolitical situation; then those which seek to specify
to the belief that, in this domain, it does not matter what the   question   of   the   identification   of   styles,   and   their  
gets written. But although, alas, this approach is still to be interrelationships, their relative and absolute chronology. A
found in some authors, the tendency to let the imagination special subsection is devoted to large-scale regional studies,
wander has calmed down a great deal, and every year theses and monographs. Finally, we conclude by reviewing
it gives way a little to increasingly serious research. most of the thematic analyses and general syntheses of
Another reason is that, apart from two non-institutional which we are aware. I hope this will draw attention to
journals (Sahara and Les Cahiers de l’AARS) which are an area of research which, whatever some people say, is
entirely or largely devoted to this subject, the literature developing rapidly.
is very dispersed, and often confined to periodicals
that are privately distributed. The disaffection for work
carried out in this region is doubtless also due to the fact New discoveries
that, apart from a few (highly unfortunate) attempts, the
authors concerned remain outside current fashions, such Morocco
as cognitivism. But the most important cause is certainly In this country where the destruction of sites is in full swing,
the fact that access to sources cannot only be done through publications on rock art, even when not true corpuses,
English. Merely to inform oneself about the studies carried are extremely precious (Rodrigue 2001a). Hence, some
out in the subject from 2000 to 2004, it is imperative to new isolated anthropomorphs were reported by Bouchra
read German, French, Italian, Spanish and Catalan. Barely Kaache in the Moroccan pre-Sahara: one at Aït Ouazzik,
a third of the publications have been in English, more accompanied by a rectangular shield and at least one sword
than half in French, 6% in Italian, 5% in German. Spanish (Kaache  2001,  fig.  1),  another  at  Bourkerkour  (Msissi)  (ibid.,  
and Catalan form around 1%, but just those nevertheless fig.  2),  a  third  at  Anou  n’Ouamersemlal  (Tazzarine)  (ibid.,  fig.  
represent   several   hundred   pages.   Personally,   I   find   this   3).  Only  tracings  have  been  published,  and  the  first  specimen  
situation very interesting, but there is no doubt that it will is  attributed  to  assemblage  Ib  (with  filiform  legs  and  full  
have somewhat discouraged monolingual lovers of hasty body) corresponding to the Early Bronze Age, around 4000
judgements. BP. Some monochrome paintings (red to violet) – discovered
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 53

by nomads in a shelter at Laouinat, 130 km south-east of a homogeneous site with engravings on horizontal slabs in
Tan-Tan – have appeared in a preliminary publication by Tazina  style,  in  which  24  sectors  comprising  471  localities,  
Susan Searight and the late Guy Martinet (Searight and with   more   than   a   thousand   engraved   figures,   have   been  
Martinet 2001). One can see a collective scene implying documented.  There  are  180  zoomorphs  including  84  bovids,  
very elongated, ithyphallic archers, a frieze of 23 small 19  rhinoceroses,  17  birds  (ostriches  and  others),  15  giraffes,  
anthropomorphs, other people perhaps wearing a mid-length a dozen carnivores (felines and canids), six elephants,
skirt, and three schematic chariots that look more recent than four equids. Among the bovids one can distinguish twelve
the rest, and are similar to those engraved everywhere in gazelles, eight oryx, various antelopes which one should
southern  Morrocco  (Searight  and  Martinet  2001,  fig.  3,  5).   doubtless not try to identify too precisely, two big ancient
The bestiary comprises sheep, bovine, antelope, ostriches, buffalos,  three  caprids,  and  22  indeterminate  figures.  Out  
a probable giraffe, and a mounted quadruped (donkey?). of the twenty “signs” observed, there are no less than
The importance of this discovery lies in the fact that these sixteen   “fishing   baskets”   (Soler   Masferrer   et al. 2005:
works are more similar to those of the central Sahara than 82–84).  Blugzeimat  (also  previously  called  Gleb  Terzug,  
all those in the other twelve painted sites in Morocco (as by mistake) has only yielded pecked engravings, especially
much through the style of the people as through the absence zoomorphs  (bovines,  giraffes,  rhinoceroses),  three  definite  
of geometric signs) – but the most direct comparison can anthropomorphs (and other doubtful ones) including an
be made with the paintings of Tifariti in the Saguiet el- archer   (ibid.,   fig.   2)   and   a   person   probably   holding   a  
Hamra, which are a hundred kilometres farther south (cf. round  shield  (ibid.,  fig.  3).  Some  enigmatic  figures  (ovals,  
infra). A few modest contributions to the inventories of sandal prints, lizard-shapes) have also been recorded (ibid.:
already-known sites should be mentioned – such as those 81).  At  Leyuad,  a  long-­known  assemblage  of  sites,  a  few  
of Biouafen, Taouraght and Tamzarar, in the region of Akka paintings have been listed, but especially engravings of
(Desgain and Searight 2004), Wazzouzount in the region of animals (some mounted), anthropomorphs, zigzags and
Taghjijt (Rodrigue et al. 2004) and Jebel Rat in the High other   enigmatic   figures   (big   arches   stretching   1m   and   2  
Atlas (Rodrigue 2001b); or totally new sites, such as the m). In the big shelter of the “Cueva del Diablo”, a group
engraved assemblage of Tazinian style at Jbel Talrazit to the of anthropomorphs in bas-relief, life-size, is particularly
south of Jbel Ouarkiz, the few paintings of Wadi Asleg (Masy remarkable  (ibid.:  82).  The  site  of  Dirt  1  is  characterised  by  
2004), site III at Taouz, comprising about forty engravings patinated  engravings  in  Tazina  style  (five  in  all:  1  carnivore,  
of  gazelles  and  bovines  (Pichler  2002,  fig.  8,  9),  seven  new   1 bovid, 1 elephant and 2 antelopes) as at Sluguilla Lawaj,
sites at Imâoun in which bovines predominate (Salih and but they were made on the vertical edges of sandstone
Heckendorf 2000) or the two locations at Tiouli, which are outcrops   and   blocks.   The   other   figures,   pecked,   consist  
unusual in that the engravings (of bovines) are situated on of “geometric symbols” and inscriptions in Tifinagh
the plateau and not in a valley (Pichler and Rodrigue 2001a). characters, all spread out over horizontal surfaces and with
The engraved site of Guelta Oukas, in Wadi Tamanart on a very light patina. The Tazina school is also represented
the  flank  of  the  Anti-­Atlas,  was  completely  recorded,  with  a   at   Dirt   2,   by   4   figures:   an   ostrich,   an   elephant,   a   pair   of  
distribution  map  of  all  the  figures  (Blanc  et al. 2003). Cattle bovines with a line on the neck that could represent a collar
are  omnipresent  (80  examples  out  of  178  engravings)  but  the   – all with total patina; then come geometric signs with a
originality of the place lies in the presence of about thirty lighter   patina,   and   an   Arabic   inscription   (ibid.:   85–86).  
caprines, which indicates the start of the plant cover growing Gleb Dan Dan is a new site discovered in 2001, and
poorer. Nevertheless, wild fauna is still represented, with a currently the southernmost in the Western Sahara. About
dozen elephants, ostriches, and antelopes, a feline, and a fifty   engravings   are   superficially   pecked   there   (the   rock  
curious snake (Blanc et al.  2003,  fig.  53)  with  a  single,  long   is very hard): zoomorphs, anthropomorphs, and complex
horn: is this perhaps a mythical reptile of which several are geometric signs, but their study has only just begun (ibid.:
known in the central Sahara ? 86).  An  inventory  of  painted  sites  has  been  published:  there  
are  five  in  the  Zemmur,  three  on  the  plateau  of  the  Tiris,  
seven in the massif of Leyuad. These localities contain
Western Sahara images of the large wild fauna (rhinoceroses, giraffes,
An Anglo-Italian expedition in September-October 2002 antilopids, felids, canids), anthropomorphs (including a few
enabled its members to visit the rock engravings of Tazina archers)  and  horsemen,  as  well  as  geometric  figures  and  
style at Slugilla: antelopes, bovine, ostrich (Brooks et al. inscriptions  in  Tifinagh  and  Arabic  characters,  but  it  has  
2003,  fig.  4),  but  also  to  discover  other  engravings  at  the   not been possible to obtain direct dates, nor to place these
same site: elephant, rhinoceros (Brooks et al.   2003,   fig.   images in relation with other archaeological sites (Soler
5) with a darker patina and of a different style, which Subils et al. 2005). Another member of the Girona group,
looked older to the visitors. In fact, this site forms part Joan Escolà Pujol, produced a complete iconographic study
of   those   being   studied   since   1995   by   researchers   from   of the big shelter of Rkeiz, located north-east of Tifariti:
the University of Girona at Slugilla Lawaj, but also at positive  hands  comprise  more  than  53%  of  the  figures,  and  
Blubzeimat, Leyuad, Dirt and Gleb Dan Dan. Sluguilla is numerically are followed by anthropomorphs (22%) and
54 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

zoomorphs (25.4%) – especially giraffes and ostriches, as the 225 footprints, 102 boats, for only 2 zoomorphs
with a few bovids too (Escolà Pujol 2003). A new painted and no complete anthropomorph). This exemplary work
site has been discovered at Bou Dheir by other researchers is accompanied by a visual catalogue of tracings (Pichler
(Brooks et al.  2003,  fig.  8–11).  The  wild  bestiary  is  painted   2004). The publication of an engraved anthropomorph from
in “a  specific  local  style”  (ibid.:  69)  often  at  great  size  (up   Aripe 2 (Tenerife) has been added to the documents of the
to 140 cm), and a remarkable ancient buffalo is included same kind which have already been compared to caballine
(ibid.,  fig.  10). Saharan engravings, and there is no doubt that a Saharan
influence  was  felt  on  the  islands  of  La  Palma  or  Tenerife,  in  
a  protohistoric  period  that  remains  to  be  specified  (Farruja  
Mauritania de la Rosa and García Marín 2005). A new rock engraving
Since sites with rock paintings are quite rare in this country, of a boat has been reported at Guinate (Haria), but it is a
the one that has been reported by Mie Suy and Jacques vessel  datable  to  the  first  half  of  the  19th  century  (Sommer  
Choppy in the el-Aguer chain, south-east of Aïn Safra, 2003,  fig.  2).  It  is  true  that  a  number  of  engravings  resist  
deserves fuller documentation. It comprises elongated all interpretation : for example, those inventoried by
people,   sometimes   stick   figures,   and   a   herd   of   bovines   Hans-Marin Sommer, and which consist most often of
with cloven hooves, two cows with the udders between parallel lines (at Haria, Tahiche, San Bartolome, Llano de
the back legs, as in the eastern Sahara, albeit in a different Zonzamas),  sometimes  intersecting  lines.  “Grids”  are  rarer  
style (Suy and Choppy 2001). Engraving sites have only (San Bartolome) as are other “signs” such as squares, circles
been published occasionally, most often in the form of or crosses (Arrecife, San Bartolome) (Sommer 2000).
tracings, which makes the inventory underway by Pascal
Lluch and Sylvain Philipp particularly promising (Lluch
and  Philip  2003).  In  a  first  overview,  they  have  published   Tunisia
photos from Wadi Ifenouar (engravings of big people and A few complements brought to the inventory of Tunisian
a rhinoceros following its young, paintings of bovines, rock art sites add (to the already-known elements) some
people and horses), and el-Kneibis where there are two anthropomorphs, an undetermined zoomorph, a bovine,
schematic   chariots   (ibid.,   fig.   7).   They   also   illustrate   groups of dots, and starred signs (Ben Nasr 2001). The
engravings from Wadi Enghegdâne (schematic people, decorated shelter of Aïn Khanfûs, 40 m long and 4 m to
bovines sometimes decorated with spirals and/or with a 5  m  deep,  was  discovered  in  1988,  but  Jaâfar  Ben  Nasr  
pendant, lizard, antelope frieze, elephant and its young has  noticed  some  new  figures  in  it:  eight  anthropomorphs,  
near a rhinoceros and bovine) as well as, in the same site, a including  4  archers  (Ben  Nasr  2003,  fig.  3–5,  6,  8),  a  bovine  
schematic chariot painted in red among geometric drawings with  a  single  forward-­projecting  horn  (ibid.,  fig.  10)  drawn  
(ibid.,  fig.  21).  Finally,  they  complete  the  documentation  of   in a brick-coloured ochre outline, and a quadruped with
the engravings of the vicinity of the circus of el-Beyyed: a missing front end, surmounted by a four-branched sign
bovines  with  pendants  (ibid.,  fig.  31,  32),  giraffe  (ibid.,  fig.   (ibid.,  fig.  11).  Since  Tunisia’s  rock  art  is  poorly  known,  and  
33),  schematic  chariot  (ibid.,  fig.  34),  ostrich  with  spread   doubtless still has some surprises in store, it is regrettable that
wings  (ibid.,  fig.  35),  and  engraved  assemblages  around  the   only a photo of one of these paintings has been published,
spring of Tililit: horsemen, antelopes and Libyco-Berber the rest of the article being illustrated with tracings (three of
inscriptions   (ibid.,   fig.   36),   elephant   with   butterfly-­wing   them  with  no  scale)  whose  degree  of  reliability  is  difficult  to  
ears  (ibid.,  fig.  37),  ostrich  and  lancer  with  a  small  round   assess.  Equally  regrettable  is  the  identification,  by  the  author,  
shield   (ibid.,   fig.   37).  All   these   images   are   for   the   most   of the bovine as a Bos ibericus… a species which in reality
part linked to water sources, or are located at ancient does  not  exist  (Gautier  1988).  
points of passage.

Algeria: Atlas, Mzab

Canary Islands François Soleilhavoup has published old photographs
The huge inventory project begun at the initiative of Werner of the rock engravings of the Saharan Atlas, taken by
Pichler is going to make it possible to carry through a him  at  sites  that  are  now  difficult  to  reach,  coupled  with  
number  of  useful  observations.  The  first  section  published   excellent analytical tracings (Soleilhavoup 2003a, 2004).
concerns the engravings of the north of Fuerteventura About  a  hundred  engravings,  distributed  over  80  horizontal  
with  2866  individual  figures.  All  the  precise  locations  are   limestone slabs, were recently discovered on the occasion
given, as well as numerous statistics and typologies, which of a building development on a rocky plateau east of Beni
in particular reveal a preferential orientation of decorated Isguen. They were produced by indirect percussion using
panels towards the South. The author distinguishes cupules a metal implement, and only one of them, depicting a
(6   examples),   lines   (640),   geometric   signs   (98),   scripts   quadruped   with   total   patina,   is   figurative.  All   the   others  
(early  Latin:  1251,  recent  Latin:  80,  Libyco-­Berber:  171),   have a straw- or ochre-coloured yellow patina ; many are
iconic signs (partial anthropomorphic representations such arch-shaped, and a few make one think of images of daggers
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 55

or swords. As a hypothesis, Nadjib Ferhat has proposed at Tissatin comprise a rhinoceros (Masy and Soleilhavoup
an attribution to the Bronze Age, and the managers of 2003,  fig.  6),  six  big  elephants  (ibid.,  fig.  4),  at  least  five  
the building project have suggested that this discovery’s bovines  (ibid.,  fig.  7)  including  one  with  a  plaited  collar  
importance should be recognised by integrating it with their (ibid.,  fig.  8),  three  giraffes;;  an  ancient  buffalo  (ibid.,  fig.  
project. So the site’s study will continue (Ferhat 2003a). 6),  a  big  anthropomorph  seen  from  the  front  (ibid.,  fig.  9),  a  
feline, and a big ithyphallic therianthrope two metres high
and  with  a  raised  tail  (ibid.,  fig.  5).  Another  site  has  animal  
Central Sahara engravings in Tazinoid style (small elephant preceded
In the far north of this vast rock art province, at el- by an anthropomorph, three rhinoceroses, a cow), some
Moor (Libya), some engravings in Tazina style have concentric circles joined together, various lines and dots,
been reported, which add an interesting north-eastern as   well   as   a   “fishing   basket”  (ibid.,   fig.   10).   The   place  
extension to this school (Muzzolini and Pottier 2002). The called Wa-n-Khalia is characterised by big horizontal
publications of Philippe Masy and François Soleilhavoup engravings:  thirteen  giraffes  (ibid.,  fig.  11,  12,  17,  18),  six  
have given an idea of the richness in paintings of the rhinoceroses  including  one  defecating  (ibid.,  fig.  15,  19),  
region of the Aramat, located at the border of Algeria sixteen  bovines  (ibid.,  fig.  13),  three  felines  (ibid.,  fig.  16),  
and Libya around 26° N. In particular, one can note two an ithyphallic anthropomorph (perhaps a therianthrope?)
big ancient buffalos painted in the Wadi Tabarakat, in a armed  with  an  axe  (ibid.,  fig.  14),  two  elephants  including  
style evoking that of Abaniora, and especially two other one  more  than  four  metres  long.  Among  the  smaller  figures,  
buffalos  “at  a  flying  gallop”  painted  in  the  style  of  Iheren-­ there are bovines, an antelope, a probable ancient buffalo,
Tahillâhi at I-n-Lalan (Soleilhavoup et al.   2000,   fig.   4,   and a few engravings of Tazina style. Nearby there are a
fig.  3):  these  images  prove  that  the  idea  that  depictions  of   few atypical engravings, notably a monkey that seems
the big ancient buffalo characterise early periods is to be threatened  by  a  feline  (Maestrucci  and  Giannelli  2004,  fig.  
consigned to the past – as had already been realised Jan 1,  3),  some  concentric  circles  joined  in  a  series  (ibid.,  fig.  
Jelínek  and  other  researchers  (Jelínek  2004:  63,  67).  It  is   18),  and  a  “fishing  basket”  (ibid.,  fig.  15).  The  assemblage  
a pity that the very verbose commentary accompanying is in Bubaline style which reminds one more of the Tassili
these documents provides very little information, and engravings than those of the Messak. This impression is
perpetuates another legend: that of the existence of “short- corroborated by the discovery of a pebble decorated with
horned cattle” among the Saharan herders (Soleilhavoup et a double spiral and concentric circles – themes that are
al.  2000:  57),  not  to  mention  the  evocation  of  “shamanic”   generally more western – in immediate proximity to the
practices, which is practically inevitable with this author site (Soleilhavoup 2001c: 64).
(ibid.: 60), despite being utterly unfounded, here as in Farther south, in the Tadrart Akâkûs (Libya), a miniature
Morocco where it has also been evoked by others (Otte engraving discovered at Ti-n-Taborak has made it possible
2000: 260). Apart from new paintings of Iheren style to reconsider the relationship between rock paintings and
–   including   a   ram   with   a   cephalic   ornament   and   a   flock   engravings in the central Sahara (Le Quellec 2004a). In
of  sheep  (Masy  and  Soleilhavoup  2001,  fig.  13–14)  –  this   the same massif, an assemblage of Round Head humans
zone has also yielded a few more-or-less typical Round is close to an elephant in the so-called “Martian” style,
Head images. So this painting style has some interesting in the Wadi Afar (Meastrucci and Giannelli 2004). This
extensions. Other interesting elements in the Aramat are: animal’s  ears  are  of  “butterfly-­wings”  type,  which  makes  
eight painted chariots, one of them pulled by two oxen one refrain from seeing this stereotype as a late feature,
(Soleilhavoup et al.  2000,  fig.  39),  two  schematic  (ibid.,   as   was   commonly   done   until   now.   Among   the   fifteen  
fig.  40),  one  unhitched  (ibid.,  fig.  41)  and  one  mounted  by  a   anthropomorphs aligned on an eight-metre wall, one notices
“Libyan  warrior”  (ibid.,  fig.  42)  –  the  others  are  two-­horse   four women with hanging breasts, one of them perhaps
chariots  “at  a  flying  gallop”.  Among  the  engravings  in  the   wearing  a  mouflon  mask.  To  the  south  of  the  Awîs,  in  the  
same zone are some interesting ithyphallic anthropomophs central part of the massif, Jacques and Brigitte Choppy have
(Soleilhavoup   2003b,   fig.   4,   5),   some   of   which,   clearly   made  an  inventory  of  about  fifty  new  sites,  thirty  of  them  
mythical   (ibid.,   fig.   7,   15–17,   19),   complete   the   series   in the Wadi Ta-n-Gurgur and a dozen in the Ti-Hedin, that
of those already known in the central Saharan massifs. is,   a   total   of   920   subjects:   340   anthropomorphs   and   580  
Moreover,  a  shelter  in  Wadi  Tabarakat  has  yielded  the  first   animal  figures.  The  latter  are  dominated  by  giraffes  (9%  
known example of a painted homologue – in the Iheren style of the animals), followed by elephants (5%), rhinoceroses
–  for  these  surreal  beings  (ibid.,  fig.  22).  Just  as  interesting   (0,5%), a dozen hippopotamuses, including ten on the
are the new engraving sites discovered in the Wadi Kel same  panel  (Choppy  and  Scarpa  Falce  2004,  fig.  3),  a  big  
Djanet, with mostly bovines, one of them mounted, and bubalus,  an  oryx,  a  lion  (ibid.,  fig.  4).  One  site  in  the  Awîs  
antelopes, but also an elephant, an ostrich, an archer, a few is to be added to the list of those which contain engraved
inscriptions  in  Tifinâgh  characters.  Others  are  located  on   “fishing  baskets”  or  “gourd  motifs”.  These  figures  are  not  
the plateau of I-n-Tabakat: very big bovines (L = 3.2 m), located in a typical Tazinian environment, and display no
a probable rhinoceros, elephant, feline, giraffe. Two sites particular association with it (Masy 2003).
56 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

From the shelter of Wa-n-Telokat, Rosanna Ponti has     The   use   of   infra-­red   film   and   oblique   light   made   it  
reported   a   deteriorated   ochre   painting   that   is   difficult   to   possible for Fabio Maestrucci and Gianna Giannelli to make
read; it is about two metres long, and very unusual. In it a precise recording of the little group of engravings beneath
one sees, from right to left, a group of a dozen signs of paintings at the site of Afozzigiar. The engraved part has
arrows with points upward, a group of Round Head people a   mouflon   surrounded   by   anthropomorphs   (Maestrucci  
including one woman, a kind of big snake on which is and  Giannelli  2005,  fig.  3,  5,  6)  and  the  paintings  are  only  
superimposed a series of 35 crescents and arch signs: two people which the authors consider to be Round Heads
of the people seem to be in a kind of “U”-shaped enclosure (ibid.,  fig.  2,  4,  15–17).  Several  “ichthyomorphic”  or  “Kel  
(Ponti 2003). Essuf”  figures  (Ferhat  et  al.  2000),  painted  or  engraved  in  
Close to the northern part of the same massif, the little the  vicinity,  have  also  been  documented  (ibid.,  fig.  9–14;;  
engraved site of I-n-Leludj, known for a long time, was see also Choppy 2004). Attention has also been drawn to
examined by Jan Jelínek, who recognised essentially some concentric arches next to one of them in Wadi Afar
bovines (a dozen), one of which probably has a tent (ibid.,  fig.  7)  and  to  vertical  red  lines  running  parallel  above  
attached  to  its  horns  (Jelínek  2000,  fig.  7),  but  also  a  few   an  individual  in  the  shelter  of  Wa-­n-­Afuda  (ibid.,  fig.  8).  
people (seven in total), two giraffes threatened by two In the Messak, where some operations of preventive
anthropomorphs  (ibid.,  fig.  5),  and  four  elephants  (ibid.,  fig.   archaeology have been continued within the framework of
12–14). Particularly notable is a bovine, 155 cm in length the search for oil (Ringenbach and Le Quellec 2003), Brigitte
(ibid.,  fig.  2).  The  affinities  of  several  of  these  images  with   and Jacques Choppy have carried out the photographic
the engravings of the Messak are obvious, an important coverage of a big broken block (2.5 m × 1.25 m) bearing
observation in view of the site’s geographical position, two large people, which made it possible for them to
closer to the Tadrart Akâkûs than the Messak. produce a tracing (Choppy 2003), while Gérard and
In a very southern part of the massif, Adriana and Annie Garcin have presented a new engraved “portrait”
the late Sergio Scarpa Falce have discovered a fresco in   the  Tilizaghen   (Garcin   2001:   44,   and   fig.   6a,   6b)   and  
extending for more than ten metres, the main part of which Yves and Christine Gauthier have recorded an astonishing
comprises an enigmatic motif that reminds its discoverers “scorpion”  (Gauthier  2004,  fig.  1).  The  northern  edge  of  
of the processional “dragons” of Europe (strictly in terms the massif has seen prospections by Tertia Barnett and her
of shape, of course). This motif is associated with a series team, who have documented several hundred engravings.
of therianthropes, three of them with a rhinoceros head In the published reports, there is a frequent confusion
and one with a feline head, associated with (or holding) of “style” and “phase”, and the construction of some of
enigmatic bent objects – in an ensemble that is unique in the stylistic categories remains imprecise; hence, phase
the  Sahara,  albeit  displaying  affinities  with  the  “Martian   I is called “semi-naturalistic” whereas phase II is called
style” of the Round Heads (Scarpa Falce and Scarpa Falce “semi-schematic” (Barnett 2001, 2003a, 2003b). The
2001,  pl.  G–K  and  tracing  fig.  3).  The  authors  compare  this   newly reported documents include three schematic chariots
“dragon” with certain motifs (the “formlings”) of southern (Barnett   and   Mattingly   2003,   fig.   8.28)   and   numerous  
Africa,   but   the   resemblance   is   very   superficial,   and   this   inscriptions  in  Tifinâgh  characters  (ibid.,  fig.  8.30–31,  33–
image has more to do with the “digital motifs” which led 40),  and  in  Libyc  (ibid.,  fig.  8/32).  This  work  was  carried  
Amadou Hampâté Bâ to an interpretation of the Tassili out by anglophone researchers who, for clearly linguistic
frescoes that is as famous as it is false. To the left of this reasons,   were   not   sufficiently   familiar   with   the   work   of  
extraordinary frieze there are a few paintings which are their predecessors who published in other languages – an
clearly attributable to the typical Round Heads (an elephant, observation that is made regrettably frequently, as though
two antelopes, a few people that are hard to see) (ibid., the academic adage “publish or perish” had surreptitiously
fig.  5–7,  15).  One  of  them  is  superimposed  by  a  painted   been changed to “publish in English or perish”…
rhinoceros that is clearly more event ; its head displays     At  the  Algerian  side  of  the  Tadrart,  the  first  results  of  
characteristics (the rendering of the ears and muzzle) that the programme of the pre-inventory carried out on the
it shares with those of the nearby therianthropes. Nor far initiative  of  the  Office  of  the  Parc  National  du  Tassili  have  
away  is  a  shelter  decorated  with  juxtaposed  ovals  (ibid.,  fig.   received a preliminary publication. On this occasion, some
8)  which  recall  the  engraved  examples  of  the  Messak,  and   engravings  of  the  “Messak  school”  defined  by  Jean-­Loïc  
whose juxtaposition forms a motif that greatly resembles Le   Quellec   (Le   Quellec   1996)   have   been   recognised   in  
the “dragon”. The same authors have also presented the Wadi I-n-Ezzan: a hippopotamus and some bovines
the   paintings   of   one   of   the   fifteen   new   sites   they   have   with a double outline, therianthropes with canid heads and
discovered in the hydrographic basin of the Wadi Istanen. perhaps crocodile heads… (Striedter and Tauveron 2005).
They are mostly Round Heads which greatly enrich the Other domestic bovines (with very clear collars) in the
corpus  of  images  of  this  style  (Scarpa  Falce  2003,  fig.  2–6   same  style  occur  at  Wa-­n-­Zawaten  and  at  the  confluence  
and pl. A–D), but one also sees a group of varied dynamic of the Wadis Iberdjen and Markawendi. They have horns
people, recalling the style of Iheren-Tahilahi/Wa-n-Amil of various shapes, and some very clearly are wearing a
(ibid.,  fig.  7). collar: they are therefore domestic (Tauveron 2003a). In
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 57

Fig. 4.1. Example of paintings in the “Round Head” style. Jabbaren, Tassili-n-Azjer (Algeria).

the abri Freulon, an assemblage of typical Round Heads should be noted that such depictions of weapons are very
comprises  a  mouflon  framed  by  two  archers,  and  a  figure   rare in the central Sahara, but some have been recorded
which seems to represent a person in a boat, beside some in  the  Fezzân  (Barnett  and  Mattingly  2003:  fig.  8.22c  and  
enigmatic  figures.  There  is  also  another  archer  threatening   8.23).
a bovine, three hand stencils, an outlined hand, as well as a To the east of Aman Smerdnin, a rock-shelter with
mounted quadruped. However, painted engravings are quite neolithic  remains  on  its  floor  (including  “a  few  fragments  
common in this region: for example, at Aman Smerdnin of ochre which could have been used as crayons”), contains
where drawings of a style resembling that of Iheren rock art (bovines, elephant, rhinoceros, antelope, gazelle,
were produced with an ochre crayon (elephant, bovines, people)which at first sight comprises extremely fine
rhinoceros, people) (Tauveron et al. 2005). Others occur at engravings, with unpatinated lines of less than a millimetre.
Wa-n-Seklem and in the abri Freulon. Some paintings in the Analysis has shown that, originally, these were drawings
typical Iheren style (people with a tuft at the front) occur made with a very hard mineral crayon “which, when
in a shelter in the Wadi Iberdjen wa-n-Tabarakat. A bovine strongly applied to the rock, scores it deeply and, at the
with a “V”-shaped pommeled saddle bears two people, same  time,  leaves  a  coloured  deposit  in  this  fine  groove”  
in the Wadi Tidunadj, where one can also see bovines (Tauveron et al.   2005:   37).   Some   subjects   were   painted  
painted   in   flatwash   (doubtless   in   the  Abaniora   style).  At   later,   in   both   outline   and   internal   flatwash,   but   in   the  
Ti-n-Aressu, two people of Iheren style are shown drinking course  of  time  this  painting  may  be  the  first  to  disappear;;  
with straws from the same vessel. There is also a scene of then it is the turn of the dry colouring applied by crayon,
lion-hunting (with a spear) in the same style, and which and   today   all   that   is   left   is   a   fine   line,   lighter   than   the  
greatly resembles another at Ti-n-Hanakaten. Some painted support (since the colour protected it for a long time). This
assemblages in caballine style show that bovines were still observation renews the approach to the question of the
very  present  at  the  start  of  this  period,  which  confirms  the   extremely  fine  engravings  with  a  light  patina  that  are  also  
hypothesis of a gentle transition from one period to the present in the Akâkûs and the Messak. The hypothesis put
other.  A  few  engravings  of  ribbed  spearpoints,  definitely   forward by Michel Tauveron and Karl Heinz Striedter is
metallic, and apparently polished on slabs, are illustrated that these could be preliminary lines, and so what one has
in a photo with no precise location (Tauveron 2003a). It here   are   “sketches   that   remained   unfinished”   (ibid.:   38).  
58 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

This certainly seems probable in the case of the biggest that occupies the whole interior of a niche with a liberty
of these images, close to a metre, but it is less certain of line, a variety of individuals and a general equilibrium
for the miniature works (Le Quellec 2004a), and this worthy   of   the   greatest   masterpieces   (ibid.,   fig.   3,   4,   and  
interesting  idea  remains  very  difficult  to  prove.  Although   pl. R). But the scene represented, albeit familiar in some
it is regrettable that the authors only publish a few photos respects, remains determinedly enigmatic.
of the site they are presenting, and that they do not give a Yves Gauthier and Denis Lionnet have made known
global record of it, their analysis should be kept in mind some paintings on the plateau of Tadjelahin, from little-
in  all  studies  of  “graffiti”-­type  engravings.   visited   sites   which   Lhote   did   not   see   during   his   1969  
As for the Tassili-n-Azjer, while certain “discoveries” mission:  a  fight  scene  (Gauthier  and  Lionnet  2005,  fig.  2,  
have received excessive media coverage (Coulson 2005) pl.  Q-­T)  and  a  line  of  anthropomorphs  with  big  bellies  (fig.  
and in fact amount to very little for anyone with the 4) at Imerda; a coitus scene (ibid., pl. U) and bovines that
slightest acquaintance with Saharan literature, that is are partly superimposed on a group of three big people with
not the case with the results obtained by Ulrich and Round   Head   affinities   (ibid.,   fig.   5   and   pl.  V)   at  Tadrast  
Brigitte Hallier, who have published the big hippopotamus (Tadghast). In the vicinity there are other images in the
painting of Ifedaniouène (three metres long) as well Abaniora  style  (ibid.,  fig.  7,  8,  pl.  W).
as the other Round Head paintings (antelopes, people) In the Immidir, Yves and Christine Gautier have noticed
which accompany it and the herd of bovines, of Bovidian some assemblages that are particularly interesting through
age, which is superimposed on it (Hallier and Hallier their style or their theme. One can note that if the off-white
2000,   fig.   1–5).   Undated   later   renewals   are   visible   both   paintings of the big shelter of Ufsé have indeed been
on certain parts of the hippopotamus and on several of made with plaster, then one could take the opportunity
the surrounding paintings. Other Round Head paintings of obtaining direct dates, since it is now possible to
have also been discovered in the region by these same date this material. The authors also give several cases of
researchers: an elephant in the sector of the Wadi Ti-n- relationships between paintings and engravings, including
Edjedjele   (ibid.,   fig.   6);;   a   group   of   seven   people   in   the   an exceptional open woman brandishing an axe and
high  Tasset  (ibid.,  fig.  7–9)  and  an  anthropomorph  whose   engraved  on  the  white  flatwash  of  a  big  bovine  (Gauthier  
eyes are represented by circular gaps in the dark brown and  Gauthier  2003,  fig.  2).  One  also  notes  an  elephant  in  
flatwash  (ibid.,  fig.  10).  Another  anthropomorph,  at  Djebel   white  flatwash  and  butterfly-­wing  ears  (ibid.,  fig.  3).  The  
Ifedaniouène,  in  flatwash  with  light  spots  (ibid.,  fig.  11),   identification  of  two  of  the  bovines  of  Anaserfa  as  ancient  
perhaps belongs to the same cultural horizon. Among buffalos  (ibid.,  fig.  14)  is  not  very  convincing.  In  a  book  
the paintings photographed by B. and U. Hallier in the devoted to this massif, Jean-Louis Bernezat devotes a
south-eastern zone of the Ifedaniouène mountains are full chapter to prehistory, which gives him the chance to
some   magnificent   bovines   with   horns   of   different   types   publish colour photos of various remarkable paintings,
(long,   short   and   fine,   forward-­pointing,   pendant),   one   of   especially Round Heads, but the regional styles are very
them   being   mounted   (Hallier   and   Hallier   2001,   fig.   1).   varied  (Bernezat  2002:  137–169).
A small crouching man bends his bow, a woman holds a In the Fadnoun, some paintings in Iheren-Tahillâhi style
child  by  the  waist  (ibid.,  pl.  T),  a  very  fine  sheep  and  two   and,  for  the  male  figures,  mostly  of  Abaniora,  have  been  
men are running together, the men holding in their hands recorded at I-n-Selouf where two of the walls were prepared
a throwing weapon of a type often depicted in the region (perhaps by scraping) before being painted (Leeuwen
(ibid.,  fig.  5  and  pl.  V);;  two  rows  of  people,  some  armed   2001). A bichrome cow bears a big “pot” attached to its
(bow, curved weapon) and others accompanied by a child horns  by  very  visible  ropes  (ibid.,  fig.  4b).  The  fine  long  
and bent under what seem to be guerbas (goatskin bottles) horns of the bovines are in white, and often asymmetrical
apparently should be grouped with the images that provide (one turned upwards and one down). Two women, both
evidence for the sexual division of tasks among the herders mounted on oxen, are wearing a pointed hat comparable to
of  Iheren-­Tahillâhi  (Hallier  and  Hallier  2002:  117  and  fig.   those  known  in  the  engravings  of  Djerât  (ibid.,  fig.  8,  11b).  
8).  From  the  Wadi  Tasset,  the  authors  also  publish  a  very   One  panel  shows  a  battle  of  archers  (ibid.,  fig.  12a),  two  of  
fine  fresco  showing  a  herder  accompanying  a  herd  in  which   them with a false bushy tail and a median notch, like those
each animal is represented with peculiar properties, and in also   known   in   the   engravings   of   Djerât   (ibid.,   fig.   12b).  
different attitudes, one of them with a striped coat: this is In  a  scene  that  recalls  the  famous  fresco  of  Iheren,  a  flock  
one of the most accomplished works by the painters of the of about forty sheep face a circle of vegetation in which
Iheren  school  (Hallier  and  Hallier  2001,  fig.  7  and  pl.  W-­Z).   two   women   seem   to   be   sitting   (ibid.,   fig.   10a).   Finally,  
Ulrich and Brigitte Hallier have also had the good fortune Jean-Louis Bernezat has reported the existence of ancient
to  discover  magnificent  paintings  at  Tissebouk  and  Irrekam   or prehistoric tracks adjusted by displacing big blocks,
Aharhar (central Tassili): a herd and its herders (Hallier and probably in order to facilitate access to water-sources for
Hallier  2003a,  fig.  1)  or  “boxers”  in  the  first  location  (ibid.,   the herds of bovines depicted in the paintings. Certainly
fig.  2  and  pl.  R),  whereas  in  the  second,  a  painter  of  the   such tracks would have been too wide – and largely useless
Iheren-Tahillâhi style produced an exceptional composition – for humans or ovicaprines (Bernezat 2004).
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 59

The discovery of two astonishing engravings on a rock and engravings in the Messak) while others are drinking
in the centre of a palaeo-lake, north-west of the well of or  making  music  (ibid.,  fig.  7).  
I-n-Azawa, has made it possible to identify a particular
“school” of engravers who liked to depict antelopes
endowed with numerous fantastic characteristics: the Ennedi
enormous belly of a pregnant female under which there Jacques and Brigitte Choppy have produced the third
hangs a curious appendage, and arched protuberances, and instalment of their catalogue of the rock art sites of Ennedi,
a zigzag line leaving the mouth… Another engraving of this time dealing with the centre and south-east (Choppy
this type exists at Yuf Ehaket in Ahaggar, 140 km north- and Scarpa Falce 2003). On the high plateau of Bodhoué,
west of I-n-Azawa, and the circulation between these two in the central-west part of the Massif, Gérard Jacquet
points is facilitated by Wadi Ti-n-Tarabin, whence the name has visited 25 shelter containing some 300 paintings and
of the school of Ti-n-Tarabin” that has been proposed for engravings.  The  most  interesting  figure  is  the  line-­drawing  
designating this particular style (Scurtu and Le Quellec of a crescent-shaped boat, probably made of tied reeds,
2002). with its pilot seated at the back and holding in this hand a
long oar or scull (Jacquet 2000: 142 and pl. K). The author
claims to see “analogies” between one of the people painted
Aïr in  the  region  and  Egyptian  depictions  of  Bes  (ibid.,  fig.  7)  
The only new work is a systematic inventory of the site –  a  comparison  which  has  no  confirmation.  A  number  of  the  
of Dabbous, formerly studied by Christian Dupuy (Dupuy people  painted  in  red  flatwash  (ibid.,  fig.  8,  9)  could  more  
1987,  1988).  A  team  led  by  Jean  Clottes  (Clottes  2000)   usefully compared with the “Libyan warriors” that are so
has  recorded  828  subjects,  including  704  zoomorphs,  61   abundant in the southern Sahara and which they resemble
anthropomorphs,  and  17  inscriptions  in  Tifinâgh  characters.   as much through their posture, their silhouette and their
Among  the  animals  identified,  bovines  dominate  (46%),   mushroom-shaped head as by the big-pointed spear they
followed by ostriches (16%), antelopes and gazelles (16%), carry in their hand. Two paintings with a broad outline in
giraffes  (16%),  and  finally  12  dromedaries,  11  canids,  6   dark  red  or  violet,  each  comprising  two  people  (ibid.,  fig.  
rhinoceroses, 3 equids (horses or donkeys), 2 monkeys, 2 12, 13), strongly recall the Round Head style and could
elephants, 1 lion. The study’s only conclusion is simply that represent an unknown extension of that style – but this
this work, carried out by three professional researchers and still   needs   confirmation,   because   the   works   in   question  
heavily subsidized, produced results practically identical are very poorly preserved. Some enigmatic striped oval
to those obtained by Christian Dupuy, a simple amateur shapes have been noticed, two of them close to probably
working at his own expense. I confess that I have problems female   figures   (ibid.,   fig.   14–17).   These   figures   differ  
grasping what the authors of this publication are trying to say from the enclosures or dwellings that are also present in
when they conclude that “this is of great importance from the  region  (ibid.,  fig.  18,  19).  Several  engravings  show  a  
the methodological point of view for the study of rock art tapering  object  which  defies  interpretation  (ibid.,  fig.  20a,  
in the Aïr” (ibid.: 13). In any case one can certainly wonder 20b) and in an engraved couple, the man, wearing heeled
about the cost and the interest of an operation that consisted shoes, seems to brandish what bears a close resemblance
of installing, at Agadez airport, an aluminium cast (of 23 m2) to   a   Bren   gun   (ibid.,   fig.   20c)!   In   the   vicinity,   there   are  
of the two biggest giraffes from this site (Clottes 2001). about 150 tombs which can perhaps be related to the art ;
the published photo shows some kind of regular tumuli (?),
and the ensemble suggests a very rich area, which should
Tibesti be carefully documented.
Aldo Boccazzi and Donatella Calati have made known     The  eastern  part  of  the  massif  was  crossed  by  the  1999  
the extraordinary site of Ouri (eastern Tibesti) where the Italian expedition “Cruise of the Sands” (Rossi 2004),
paintings, located on the vertical walls of a big inselberg, which   made   it   possible   to   discover   new   sites,   briefly  
are exposed to the sun and to atmospheric agents (Boccazzi reported by Lucanio Rossi (Rossi 2000). At the start, a
and  Calati  2001,  fig.  1)  and  yet  are  rather  well  preserved,   painted bovine with a striped body, of a type common in
which makes possible numerous observations about the Chad, was photographed to the north-west of Fada (ibid.,
material culture of their creators: the details of clothing are fig.  2),  and  on  the  same  site  there  is  a  schematic  person  with  
often  very  carefully  depicted,  especially  the  hides  or  fibres   falling  tresses  (ibid.,  fig.  3).  Farther  to  the  north-­east,  on  
(ibid., pl. P) and one notices, for example, that during their the Plain of Aloubo (Mourdi depression), a large tumulus
journeys, the men carried their headrest on their shoulder is surrounded by smaller tombs, the whole lot being in a
(ibid., pl. Q). The main assemblage, in the Karnasahi style, place abounding in pastoral engravings. An assemblage
extends over 36 m2, and comprises 146 people, very rich of reticulated engravings has been found a few kilometres
in ethnographic details (ibid., pl. N). In particular one sees from  Azrenga  (ex.:  ibid.,  fig.  4)  and  the  author  interprets  
(ibid.,  fig.  6)  a  group  of  men  busying  themselves  around  an   them as traps. Four decorated shelters occur close to the
antelope on its back (as in certain paintings of the Tassili water source of Halenia. In particular one can see schematic
60 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

feathered   lancers,   painted   in   flatwash   (ibid.,   fig.   7).   The  

shelter visited in the Wadi Tegroba contains headless Alphabetical inscriptions
dromedaries mounted by people with “stick-shaped” heads, Among  the  zoomorphic  and  anthropomorphic  figures  in  the  
close  to  women  in  the  same  style  (ibid.,  fig.  10).  With  regard   five  painted  shelters  of  Ifran-­n-­Taska  to  the  south-­west  of  
to them, the author revives the proposition of seeing them Zagora  (southern  Morocco)  there  is  a  rare  Libyco-­Berber  
as “pre-Tuaregs” who entered into relations with the late inscription of twelve or thirteen signs painted in a lighter
herders of Ennedi and Tibesti. red than the other motifs, and which remains undeciphered
    Paintings  of  bovines  in  dark  ochre  flatwash,  with  a  very   for the moment (Skounti and Nami 2004). Also in southern
massive   body   and   very   fine   legs   and   horns,   were   later   Morocco, Foum Chenna is an engraved site on a small
reported to have been discovered in the centre of Ennedi by tributary of the Draa, about seven kilometres west of
the Acacia mission (“Arid Climate, Adaptation and Cultural Tinzouline. Thirty inscriptions occur here among hundreds
Innovation in Africa”) from Cologne (Uwe 2004a, 2004b). of caballine and cameline engravings and, although the
The herders accompanying them are crudely bitriangular, site  was  discovered  by  M.  Reine  in  1942  and  is  very  easy  
with  a  big  elliptical  head  (Kröpelin  2004:  116–117  and  pl.   to  reach,  Werner  Pichler  is  the  first  to  have  documented  it  
T). Finally, a panel in the region of Ona Guif or Avoa, close correctly. He estimates that they date back to the second
to  Archei,   decorated   with   a   group   of   horsemen   at   flying   half   of   the   first   millennium   BC,   although   they   contain  
gallop  in  red  flatwash,  armed  with  spears,  was  presented   punctiform signs that are reputed to appear later (Pichler
by Giancarlo Iliprandi (Iliprandi 2003). 2000a, 2000b). Since that publication, this site has been
the  subject  of  other  studies  which  confirm  its  exceptional  
nature (Skounti 2004, Skounti et al. 2004). In the four
Sudan inscriptions recorded in the Wadi Meskaou, punctiform
Several engraved sites have been reported by Stefan signs only appear in that with the lighter patina (Pichler and
Kröpelin.   In   the   “Dry   Selima”   depression,   some   figures   Rodrigue 2001b). Certain inscriptions reported formerly
associated with a palaeo-lake show wild animals (antelopes, have been reviewed and their recording has been corrected
ostriches,   mouflons,   and   giraffes   that   are   older   because   (Pichler   2002,   fig.   5–7;;   Skounti   et al.   2004:   193)   while  
more patinated) and domestic ones (probable donkeys, others, completely new, have been recorded at Aït Ouazik,
long-horned bovines), people with long objects (spears Ikhf n’Ouaroun, Tazzarine, Tibasksoutine, Assif Wiggane
or sticks?) and signs (spirals, sandal prints, short parallel (Pichler and Rodrigue 2003b) and Msemrir where the
grooves). A few schematic boats pose the question of diabolo  sign  appears  for  the  first  time  in  Morocco  (Pichler  
whether they were used in the neighbouring lake, which is and Rodrigue 2000).
about a hundred kilometres from the Nile (Kröpelin 2004: In Libya, Mario Liverani (Liverani 2000) has published
111–113). Three other sites were studied along the Wâdi the photo of a panel covered in Libyco-Berber inscriptions
Howar, a former tributary of the Nile. Friederike Jesse and engravings of horses and “ancient” camels, located in
counted 502 engraved subjects on 235 horizontal slabs the pass of Irlarlaren (Akâkûs, Libya).
between 110 and 150 km west of the Nile Valley. The In Egypt, Giancarlo Negro reminds us that two inscriptions
assemblage is made up of schematic signs (66.5% “grids”, of Libyco-Berber aspect are engraved at the entrance of the
then 6.6% and less for “ovals”, “ovals with intersecting Great  Pyramid  (Negro  2001,  fig.  5–9),  and  returns  to  the  
lines”,   “horseshoe-­shaped   forms”,   “floral   motifs”   and   subject of the eastern limit of the diffusion of this writing.
serpentiforms), animals (bovines, elephants, gazelles, Some architectural considerations make it possible for him
giraffes, ostriches, dromedary, perhaps serpents and to date these documents either to after the 14th century, or
scorpions, that is, 1.2% in total) and a few anthropomorphs – as seems more probable to the author – to before 1240
(2.2%).  Other  engravings  occur  at  Zolat  el-­Hammad,  450   BC (between these two dates, the place where they occur
kilometres from the Nile, a site whose western part was was not accessible). One of them is transliterated, extremely
already known through old publications by Newbold hypothetically, as RˆLBV, and supposedly is an allusion to
(Newbold  1924)  and  Rhotert  (Rhotert  1952),  but  some  new   the Rebû (Lebû), a Libyan confederation that appears on
documents have now been reported in its eastern part. These the Egyptian scene under Rameses II. For the author, the
are mostly bovines with long horns and with “a single horn earliest Libyco-Berber inscriptions in the central Sahara,
at  the  front”,  as  well  as  mouflons  and  goats  with  a  lighter   like that of Azib n’Ikkis in Morocco, date back to the 2nd
patina. The ostriches seem to coexist with the bovines, and millennium BC, which would thus make it impossible to
the giraffes are often obliterated by them, and are associated derive the Libyco-Berber characters from the Phoenician
with elongated people with very big rounded heads, in a alphabet, and leads some to favour the hypothesis of a local
static position. These people are of a new type, different development from tribes (wusûm) and potters marks.
from the “Round Heads” of the central Sahara, and belong Two inscriptions discovered by Giancarlo Negro in the
to an early local phase, because some are associated with Libyan desert have been studied by André Lemaire. One
rhinoceroses (Kröpelin 2004: 114–116). of them, evoking a (poor) Aramaic script of the 6th–5th
centuries BC, was recorded at the famous site of Wâdi
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 61

Sûra, and the other is close to Baharia, a region where G. years, and which can be summarized as follows (Hallier
Negro   has   also   found   three   chariot   engravings.  The   first   and  Hallier  2003b:  28):
document could be the westernmost Aramaic inscription 1. The rock art of the central Sahara originated in the
of the Achaemenid period – and the legend of the army Nile Valley;
of Cambyse is cautiously evoked in this regard – but it 2. The technique of the oldest engravings is pecking;
remains very enigmatic. The second is no less enigmatic, 3. The theme of the earliest art is geometric (curvilinear
and makes one think of an inscription that is either Libyco- signs, concentric circles, nested arcs, etc.);
Berber (and thus one of the easternmost), or Thamudean 4.     This   “first”   art   spread   westwards,   evolving   towards  
(and thus the westernmost) (Lemaire and Negro 2000). greater realism: hands, human and animal tracks, then
In the Sudan, among the thousands of engraved signs all simple   quadrupeds   and   anthropomorphs,   and   finally  
round the ruins of Selima, sixteen regular arrangements, narrative scenes;
which could seriously make one think of a script, have been 5. A major part of this development took place in
analysed by Werner Pichler, whose cautious conclusion is Djado (Northern Niger). This is also where painting
the possibility of short, very eccentric Libyco-Berber texts developed;
(Pichler and Negro 2005). 6. This pictorial development went through several
stages:  first  came  the  anthropomorphs  of  “Christmas  
Styles and dating tree” type, then the Round Heads, which in engraving
gave birth to the Kel Essuf;
Totally   unqualified   opinions   continue   to   be   circulated   7.     The  creators  of  the  Round  Heads  of  Djado  were  the  
about these topics, as is proved, alas, by a text by André “ethnic and artistic” ancestors of those of the Tassili,
Laronde which strings together falsehoods, claiming that and so these are the earliest paintings of the Sahara.
“desertification  had  not  yet  begun  in  the  4th  millennium  
BC” and that the purpose of the Messak engravings was A   vast   programme!…   and   to   demonstrate   it,   the   authors  
“to attract success to these hunters of the 4th and 3rd first  report  a  series  of  previously  unknown  engravings  of  
millennia BC” (Laronde 2000: 10). But rather than spend Djado which they attribute to “an early phase of the Round
more time on such howlers, we shall now examine the Heads […] for a very great number of reasons” (ibid.:
theories proposed by more serious authors. 29)   which   they   do   not   give   us,   and   the   nature   of   which  
For Andrew B. Smith, the earliest paintings, those of escapes me totally. As an example of the “typical pecked
the   Round   Heads,   date   back   to   around   7500   BP   “before engravings   of   the   Round   Heads”   they   first   only   present  
the advent of pastoralism in the Sahara”, and the chariots (ibid.:  30)  four  or  five  “long  lines”  and  several  “piles  of  
appeared at the end of the Hyksos period, around 3300 semi-circles” (nested arcs) associated with circles, ovals,
BP   (Smith   2004:   45).   Michel   Tauveron   places   the   first   cupules and a few extremely schematic quadrupeds. If
paintings even farther back, before 10,000 BC for those such an assemblage is “typical of the Round Heads”, as the
of the Tadrart (Tauveron 2003a), but these dates are based authors write, then there must be Round Heads at least in the
on the most fragile reasoning, which cannot be accepted whole of Africa…or we need to be told why this particular
without discussion. assemblage belongs to that style, and not those of Malawi
The same is true, by extension, for the dates proposed or  Zambia.  Next  (ibid.:  31),  U.  and  B.  Hallier  tell  us  that  
for the Kel Essuf of the Tadrart (Striedter and Tauveron “another type of symbol that is very characteristic of the
2002; Ferhat 2003b). A superimposition noticed in the rock Round Heads […] shows the tracks of different animals”…
shelter of Aman Smerdnin north shows a giraffe, 1.6m whereas this type of engraving abounds as far as South
high,   in   red   flatwash,   unquestionably   on   top   of   several   Africa, but is never present among the true Round Heads
others. Since this giraffe has been attributed to the Round of the Tassili-n-Azjer. Concentric circles are also presented
Heads (on the basis of criteria unknown), it has been said (ibid.: 35) as the “most typical form in the rock art of the
that   the   engravings   below   it   cannot   be   later   than   8500   Round Heads” (whereas they are no more abundant than
BC, and a date of 10,000 BC has even been put forward tracks in the paintings of the true Tassili Round Heads). This
(Tauveron 2003a). Although these speculations are not very time, there can be no more doubt: either the Round Heads
convincing, it is true that typical Round Head paintings colonized the entire world….or the authors are somewhat
bear a strong resemblance to the engraved Kel Essuf, which mistaken, and are making unmethodical comparisons. The
suggests a certain form of continuity, at least in culture, “round kettles” formerly reported by Henri Lhote are also
between the two traditions. Nevertheless, one needs to bear considered “very typical of the Round Heads” for the simple
in mind the existence of a few rare mounted quadrupeds reason that this is also the opinion of Fabrizio Mori. But in
among paintings which nobody objects to attributing to the fact, the latter simply wrote that this is very probable, on
Round Heads, like those of the abri Freulon (ibid.), which the  basis  of  a  single  date,  that  of  Wa-­n-­Muhuggiag  (7500  
could indicate a later date for this style. BC)… which is now recognized to be certainly wrong.
Ulrich and Brigitte Hallier have tried to verify a One can certainly accept that, to demonstrate their starting
hypothesis that they have been boldly defending for twenty hypothesis, the authors are keen to draw parallels between
62 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

works of Djado and the Tassili-n-Azjer, but they only base the tradition of “naturalist” rock engravings of the central
themselves on undated and undatable elements made up Sahara must be situated between the 6th and the end of
of signs that are ubiquitous because very simple (lines, the 4th millennia BC (Dupuy 2000; Van Albada and Van
cupules, circles, arcs…). This only wins the conviction Albada 2000; Pigeaud 2003; Barnett and Mattingly 2003:
of supporters who are already convinced and hence, of 285).  One  can  certainly  be  intrigued  by  the  attitude  of  those  
course, they certainly do not have mine. This is not very who ignore these demonstrations. They generally do this
serious, because I feel the essential thing is to establish a at the cost of seriously imprecise vocabulary, for example
reliable documentation, a task that has also been tackled a   tendency   to   treat   as   synonymous   (without   defining  
by the Halliers for some years, by publishing a number of them) expressions like “naturalistic period”, “naturalist
new documents, or “revisiting” already known sites. In one Bubaline style”, and “phase known as naturalist Bubaline”
of their publications, they return to the abri d’I-n-Temeilt (Soleilhavoup 2004), whereas the recognition of a style
discovered  in  the  Tassili-­n-­Azjer  by  Jorgen  Kunz  in  1971,   does not imply ipso facto that of a “phase” or “period”. This
and they publish a more detailed recording of it. Hence type of association is certainly possible, but it requires some
they report some interesting Tassili Round Head paintings, arguments.  And  the  blurred  nature  of  the  definitions,  when  
in particular a probable Hippopotamus depiction (ibid., they are not completely absent, makes possible all claims,
fig.  4–5),  a  curious  horned  quadruped  with  a  long  dorsal   like the one – in reality untenable – by Mustapha Nami,
protuberance  (ibid.,  fig.  7–8),  a  rhinoceros  (ibid.,  fig.  9),  a   who proposes that the “naturalist Bubaline” is present in
magnificent  group  of  seven  Barbary  sheep  depicted  almost   Morocco (Nami 2005: 11).
life-­size  (ibid.  fig.  14–15),  and  an  astonishing  bird  with  legs   Other authors content themselves with presenting the
2.5 m long, which looks like a crane or a secretary bird periodisation that distinguishes a “Bubaline period” saying
(ibid.,  fig.  13).  An  interesting  detail  that  is  rightly  stressed   that this is acquired knowledge that is “accepted today”
by  the  authors  is  that  several  animal  figures  show  that,  in  the   (Vidal et al. 2003), whereas at best it is a hypothesis that
local Round Head paintings, the quadrupeds are depicted remains more questionable than ever.
by  dark  flatwash  edged  in  white  (the  opposite  of  what  has   Yet others repeat their touching profession of faith in the
usually been seen hitherto), and that this white outline chronology conjured up by Théodore Monod in the early
was   applied   at   the   end,   after   the   red   flatwash   silhouette   1930s,  and  even  take  their  devotion  so  far  as  to  write  that  
of the quadrupeds. “nothing permits one to call [it] into question” (Tauveron
For his part, Christian Dupuy has made an inventory of 2003c).
the bovine images left by the Round Head painters (Dupuy Some caricature or distort the theories which they
2006,   fig.   4),   and   raises   a   difficulty:   if   the   artists   had   want to oppose. One woeful example is to be found in the
represented scenes concerning a neighbouring population, discussion by Mustapha Nami of the “long” and “short”
then their works might not testify to the practice of chronologies, in which he gives a completely erroneous
stockrearing among the Round Heads, but among these summary of Alfred Muzzolini’s position, going as far
hypothetical neighbours. However, he recognizes that, in as to claim, for example, that “Muzzolini’s third period,
any case, these images cannot be earlier than the 6th–5th corresponding to the ‘Bovidian’ dates to 1000 BC” (Nami
millennia  (ibid.:  91).  Nothing  enables  one  to  associate  the   2005: 13). He has not even realized that this only applies
traces  of  paint  dated  to  the  8th  millennium  BC  in  the  cave   to  the  “final  Bovidian”,  whereas  the  late  Muzzolini  placed  
of Wa-n-Afûda with rock art, and a possible vestige of the start of the “early Bovidian” in the 5th millennium
Round Head paintings at Wa-n-Telokat was covered by a BC!   Of   course,   making   an   erroneous   presentation   of   an  
layer of the 6th millennium. Basing himself on statistical author’s theories enables one to combat them more easily,
considerations (three paintings made every four years and Mustapha Nami concludes by revealing to us that
in the central Sahara, from the perspective of a “long” “the Bovidian period…is…much older than suggested
chronology), Christian Dupuy proposes in conclusion that by A. Muzzolini”, as if this author had ever claimed the
one should “shorten the chronological bracket and centre opposite!  
the age of full expression of the ‘Round Head’ art on the Finally, others try to reify their past hypotheses. An
6th–5th  millennia  BC”  (ibid.:  95)  –  a  proposition  which,   excellent example of this is given by the arguments linked
at present, is doubtless the most reasonable. to the terraces of Tidunaj in the Algerian Tadart (Ferhat
As for the Bubaline, which some persist in considering et al.   1997).   Whereas   in   the   original   publication   it   was  
as a period when it is merely a style, some highly acrobatic written  (p.  76)  that  “the  second  level  of  the  terrace  may…  
speculations have tried to date it as far back as around constitute the break linked to the arid phase of the mid-
15,000 BC for its earliest forms (Tauveron 2003a) – even Holocene period, and its deposits are perhaps earlier than
between 15,000 and 30,000 BC (Aumassip 2001: 100) – but this  period  which  starts  around  7500  BP”  (my  emphasis),  a  
no new elements have arisen to contradict the refutation new article (Striedter 2003) cites this text and now claims
of   such   an   excessive   attribution   (Le   Quellec   1997).   On   that “the deposits of the upper terrace are attributable to
the contrary, climatic and archaeozoological arguments the humid period preceding the arid mid-Holocene which
allow the most moderate observers to demonstrate that starts   around   7500   BP”   (my   emphasis   again).   However,  
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 63

Fig. 4.2. Example of engraving in “bubaline” style: group of ancient buffaloes of Wadi Telisaghen in the Messak (Libya).

the initial uncertainty remains, especially as, in another engraving at Guébar-Réchim, and because Pomel had seen
publication, the same author had placed the same terrace in it (with a great deal of wishful thinking) a Loxodonta
“beyond   6500,   even   7000   BP”   (Striedter   1996:   130).   atlanticus (Chaid-­Saoudi  2003:  69).  One  hopes  that  these  
Hence, not only is this supposed “limit ante quem for essayists will have a chance to contemplate this warning by
the  Bubaline  art  of  the  central  Sahara”  reified,  but  what’s   Denis  Vialou:  “In  general,  the  great  classifications  which  
more, it is being pushed back in time as the references have a domesticated fauna following a wild fauna on the
multiply, passing, with no further argument, from “6500, walls of sites in Saharo-North-African art, as elsewhere, are
even  7000  BP”  to  a  possible  7500  BP,  then  to  a  definite   based only on the a priori of the researchers who present
7500  BP,  although  no  new  argument  had  been  put  forward.   them, with no archaeological foundation” (Vialou 2003:
This is certainly an interesting phenomenon. For the sake 46–47).  
of completeness, one should also cite those who content Having listed some 500 sites in the Algerian Tadrart
themselves with repeating, like so many mantras, phrases between  1994  and  1997,  Karl  Heinz  Striedter  and  Michel  
that take “Bubaline” art back to the Pleistocene: thus, Tauveron   have   reported   three   of   them   where   one   finds  
Nagette Aïn Seba places “Bubaline art … beyond 20,000 “perceptible  influences”  of  what  they  call  “Fezzan  rock  art”.  
years”  (Aïn  Seba  2003b:  17),  Michel  Tauveron  and  Ginette   This is a most unfortunate name, because in reality “Fezzan
Aumassip do not rule out “that rock engravings or paintings rock art” groups together assemblages which differ greatly
may be some tens of thousands of years old” (Tauveron and from the stylistic, if not the chronological, as had already
Aumassip 2001: 243) and Yasmina Chaid Saoudi beats all been  well  observed  by  Paolo  Graziosi  in  1942.  What  the  
records by writing that the engravings of the Sud-Oranais authors   give   this   name   to,   is   in   reality   what   I   defined  
are situated “on the threshold of the Upper Palaeolithic more than ten years ago as “the classic art of the Messak
(around 30,000 years ago)” – simply on the basis of a single culture”   (Le   Quellec   1996),   or   subsequently,   and   better,  
64 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

as   “the   Messak   school”   (Le   Quellec   1998b:   145–154).   Epipalaeolithic cultures of the Maghreb in the appearance
Moreover,  the  authors  (Striedter  and  Tauveron  2005:  17)   and blossoming of this art” (Rahmani and Lubell 2005: 52).
use the expression of “classic theme […] of the Messak”. Since  Capsian  territory  expanded  southwards  after  8000  bp  
Basing themselves on the theme of the engravings, and the – certain Capsian sites of the northern edge of the Sahara are
single stylistic criterion of the double outline, they present of relatively recent age (Rahmani 2003, 2004) – and since the
a series of documents which display very convincingly a study of pottery reveals a Saharan contribution to that of the
close relationship with the Messak. It is a pity that they Neolithic  of  Capsian  Tradition  (Aumassip  1987),  everything  
use without any discussion – and thus give credence to leads one to evoke the possibility of mutual connections
– the chronology of the Ancient Bubali developed by between  Maghreb  and  Sahara  around  7000  bp.  That  is  
the Lutzes, which, alas, does not hold water in any way also the opinion of Malika Hachid, who envisages such
(see  demonstration  in  Le  Quellec  1998b:  254–258).  They   reciprocal interactions in the heart of a highly permeable
even consider that “the only chronostylistic framework Sahara (Hachid 2000). Hence, even if the question of the
currently proposed for the rock art of the Messak” (ibid.: ultimate origin of this art remains unresolved, and despite
17–18)  is  that  of  the  Lutzes  (Lutz  1995),  which  shows  to   certain  reckless  claims  (Aumassip  2004:  269;;  Tauveron  and  
what extent their wish to avoid quoting certain authors Aumassip 2001) trying to take it back to the Palaeolithic, for
(Muzzolini, Gauthier, Le Quellec: horresco referens!)   –   the moment there are no grounds for associating the Aterian
who have nevertheless proposed different “chronostylistic” “or a mousteroid facies” with the artistic manifestations of
frameworks  –  leads  them  to  write  such  flagrant  falsehoods.   the Bubaline style.
To believe that the theories of certain colleagues are wrong The paintings that overlie the engravings of Afozzigiar
is one thing, but to act as though they did not exist is quite reported by Fabio Maestrucci and Gianna Giannelli are
another,  the  scientific  motives  for  which  escape  me.   considered as Round Heads by these researchers (Maestrucci
The remains of ancient images which can sometimes and Giannelli 2005), who thus add this document to the
be   seen   partly,   and   with   difficulty,   under   other   more   two other superimpositions of this type already known: that
visible ones could perhaps make it possible one day to of  Wadi  Afar  (Jelínek  2004:  42  and  fig.  549),  and  that  of  
identify some “archaic” stages in rock art, especially for Wa-­n-­Tabarakat  in  the  Algerian  Tadrart  (Striedter  1996:  129  
the Messak engravings, but this question of “retouching” and  fig.  2).  But  before  drawing  conclusions  from  the  point  
– very poorly studied until now because it is distorted by of view of chronology, or assuming a continuity between
a desire to make the art older at all costs (Tauveron and engravings and paintings of the Round Heads, it is perhaps
Striedter 2003; Tauveron and Aumassip 2001: 242) – needs necessary to obtain more solid arguments for the stylistic
to be taken up again entirely. Another approach, focused attribution of these images, because neither the recordings
on  the  reconstruction  of  the  “chaîne  opératoire”,  the  modus nor the published black-and-white photographs are really
operandi followed to achieve different kinds of images, has convincing.
not  yet  produced  many  significant  results  (Holl  2002). In the Tassili-n-Azjer, the observation of new paintings
Increasingly numerous discoveries rule out the separate confirms   the   existence   of   a   continuity,   even   a   “gentle  
study of paintings and engravings, but researchers who are evolution” between the Abaniora school and that of
starting to accept that fact (Striedter and Tauveron 2003) Iheren-Tahillâhi (Gauthier and Lionnet 2005:135), and
continue  in  their  desire  to  make  an  artificial  dissociation   it is suggested that the bovines drawn in white (ibid., pl.
of the so-called “Bubaline” engravings from those called V)  belong  to  the  first  of  these  schools  (ibid.:  135).  In  the  
Pastoral. Nevertheless, it has been possible to demonstrate same way, the dog-headed anthropomorph followed by a
that the engravings of Ti-n-Taborak (Akâkûs) were incised decorated sheep that is painted at Iheren, which was only
in a style (called Iheren-Tahillâhi) that hitherto was only known through a tracing by Lhote whose authenticity was
known in paintings, and that they belong to the same cultural challenged (Hachid 2000: 304), has been documented
horizon (Le Quellec 2004a). It depicts caprines, and it is by a photograph and a new recording showing that they
known that they could not have been introduced to the seem to be attacked by another archer, to the right (ibid.,
central Sahara before the start of the 6th millennium BC, fig.  9,  10).  The  important  point  is  that  this  group  clearly  
which gives an acceptable post quem date for this type of belongs  to  the  Iheren  school,  confirming  the  existence  of  
images. But this remark means that one also needs to place therianthropes and of the theme of the “helmeted ram”
all images of sheep after this period, especially those found in this assemblage. Two other therianthropes, engraved
among  the  “naturalist  Bubaline”  figures.  This  notion  thus   this time, have been noticed within the group of works
needs  some  revision,  because  it  no  longer  fits  the  “archaic”   attributable to the “Messak school” of the Tadrart, at I-n-
horizon or the “Hunters” stage which it was long thought Ezzan: this is a remarkable extension to the south-west of
to represent, and the question of the origin of Saharan rock this style (Tauveron 2003a).
arts remains unresolved. For Noura Rahmani and David In the central Sahara, certain images at Immidir suggest
Lubell, however, such a rejuvenation of the “Bubaline” style, some interesting comparisons with Tassili sites (e.g. the
confirmed  by  the  observations  of  Jan  Jelínek  (Jelínek  2003),   bovines with pendant horns or the recumbent giraffe of
“makes  it  possible  to  envisage  some  involvement  of  the  final   Ufsé) (Gauthier and Gauthier 2003). In the same way, some
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 65

curious humans hunched up in an ample garment at I-n-

Eghal evoke a little some of those at Ti-n-Moussa (ibid.,
fig.   10),   which   leads   one   to   extend   towards   Immidir   the  
influence  of  the  painters  of  the  Iheren-­Tahillâhi  style  –  an  
extension  that  is,  moreover,  confirmed  by  the  style  of  the  
recumbent giraffes (ibid., pl. N) and the bovines of the same
site  (ibid.,  fig.  6).  Others  display  some  resemblance  with  the  
Tekembaret  group  (e.g.  ibid.,  fig.  20),  but  nevertheless  they  
are different. So one comes up against a problem of method,
insofar as “similarities or associations of characteristic
points can lead one, through successive analogies, towards
sub-­assemblages  that  one  would  find  disconnected  if  one  
compared them “harshly with strict criteria” (ibid.: 144).
A   superimposition   recorded   at   Tissebouk   confirms   that  
the   Ti-­n-­Abanîher–Abaniora   style   is   earlier   than   that   of  
Iheren-Tahillâhi: all known superimpositions indicate the
same  (Hallier  and  Hallier  2003a,  fig.  1b).
In the course of his useful synthesis on the prehistory
of Morocco, Alain Rodrigue establishes that rock art began
in   this   country   with   the   arrival   of   engravers   fleeing   the  
increasing aridity of the central Sahara and “who would
continue to express themselves on the rocks of southern
Fig. 4.3. Example of engraving in the Tazina style: gazelle at
Morocco, like their ancestors had done in the Hoggar or Aït Wazik (Morocco).
the   Tibesti”   (Rodrigue   2002a:   97).  Although   the   Tibesti  
doubtless has little to do with this process, and since at least
some of the engravings located there must have been made
by people who had “come down” from the central Sahara, horns  and  necks)  may  indicate  a  specific  local  tradition”  
this  type  of  scheme  is  broadly  confirmed  by  painted  humans   (ibid.:  68),  when  this  is  a  widespread  characteristic  of  the  
at Bhou Dheir in the western Sahara, because they have Tazina style, which is found in numerous other parts of the
a kind of raised quiff that has been compared to certain Sahara. In any case, in the zone in question, the variety of
paintings of the Akâkûs (Brooks et al.  2003:  70),  which   rock art styles and monuments indicates the succession of
does indeed indicate relations with the central Sahara. several different traditions through the ages. Among the
And it is true that the “manner” of the great buffalo at this rare painted sites of southern Morocco, that of Wadi Asleg,
site does resemble that of Iheren. Several dozen funerary newly  discovered,  presents  people  in  flatwash  which,  for  
monuments have been found in the surrounding area, the discoverer, “evoke the early Bovidian of the central
especially  simple  tumuli  (ibid.,  fig.  12),  but  also  various   Sahara” (Masy 2004). The published photos even let one
arrangements   of   stelae   in   the   Tifariti   region   (ibid.,   fig.   envisage a more precise comparison, with the Abaniora
13–15),  as  well  as  platforms  (ibid.,  fig.  16)  up  to  ten  metres   style.
in diameter, and crescent-shaped tombs at Bou Dheir and Among the images in Tazina style, “the presence of
Erqueiz  (ibid.,  fig.  17);;  in  the  latter  place,  the  tombs  are   metal weapons that have come from the north and not
just above the rock art site, which again poses the problem the depths of the Sahara” prevents assigning an excessive
of relations between the art and the funerary monuments. age to this artistic expression that is apparently linked to
Moreover, axle-shaped monuments are found at Achach and topography, hydrology “and doubtless also the geological
close  to  Erqueiz  Lahmar  (ibid.,  fig.  18)  and  a  monument   nature of the support” (Rodrigue 2002a: 100). Certainly,
with two “V”-shaped antennae has been recorded between it  is  becoming  clear  that  the  fineness  and  the  hardness  of  
Bhou   Lahmar   and   Bou   Dheir   (ibid.,   fig.   19):   the   latter   the support play a role in the distribution of the Tazina
also point to Saharan traditions, while, for the authors, style. Rather than wondering “why […] did the neolithic
the   bazinas   of   Wadi   Tirnit   (ibid.,   fig.   20)   and   Erqueiz   groups responsible for the engravings of the sub-naturalist
Lahmar   (ibid.,   fig.   21)   rather   indicate   relations   with   the   Tazina style almost systematically choose surfaces on
Mediterranean  region  (ibid.:  75,  77).  Alain  Rodrigue  also   outcrops  of  fine  sandstones  […]  while  their  predecessors  
thinks that north-south relations must have been complex, of the naturalist “Bubaline” school always left their
concerning both the Saharan area and the Mediterranean (often monumental) engravings on big vertical surfaces,
world (Rodrigue 2004). Regarding the engravings in sometimes cliff-faces?” (Soleilhavoup 2003a: 35), it would
Tazina style at Sluguilla, it is curious that certain authors doubtless be better to wonder if, by chance, these are not
think that “the abnormal elongation of some features of two different expressions of the same culture, choosing
the subjects represented at Sluguilla (mostly legs, but also its means in accordance with the size and nature of the
66 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

of  the  “Great  naturalist  style”  (which  they  do  not  define),  

dating back to at least 4000 bc. Subsequently, they “revisit”
the eponymous Algerian site, basing themselves on its
publications, because this site is, alas, not accessible at
present. They draw up a list of the variables observed in
these images, in order to establish a test of correlation
between  the  fifteen  engravings  concerned,  and  thus  reveal  
the great coherence of the assemblage, and then they extend
the same procedure to the whole Tazina region. This enables
them   to   give   a   good   definition   of   the   animal   engravings  
in  the  style  of  this  name:  they  have  to  be  in  profile,  facing  
right, with two vertical legs, without hoofs, drawn with
an open outline (except if there are horns – which are
generally straight and vertical) and with no indication of
sex.  This   definition   is   then   tested   at   five   Moroccan   sites  
selected because they are among the most important, which
enables them to verify (or refute) as they go along the
identifying criteria of the same style proposed previously
by other authors. W. Pichler and A. Rodrigue also study
the variation in outlines on the basis of the number of
lines and the number of interruptions, greatly improving
the  system  I  proposed  in  1987.  The  study  shows  that  there  
is  no  significant  difference  between  the  images  of  all  the  
locations  analysed,  the  farthest  of  which  are  900  km  apart;;  
but it is true that the locations of this style seem to be
Fig. 4.4. Example of “kettle” in the Tazina style, at Aït Wazik linked – at least partly through geographical and geological
(Morocco). constraints  –  to  the  presence  of  very  fine  sandstones  that  
can  be  scratched  with  a  fingernail  (Rodrigue  2002b).  One  
of the somewhat surprising conclusions of this remarkable
available supports. Moreover, even François Soleilhavoup work  is  that  the  “kettles”  are  not  significantly  associated  
admits that it would be “risky to suppose that the works with this style. But while this is certainly the case at certain
of the ‘Tazina school’ were produced by a different ethnic Moroccan   sites   like   Imâoun   (Garcin   2004,   fig.   26,   28),  
group from that which produced the works of a stylized this observation should not be generalized before one is
naturalist style” (ibid.: 60). sure that it does not depend on the choice of sites studied.
Images of weapons have regularly been used to date To verify this, and to obtain more information, it would
Moroccan rock art thanks to their Cantabrian homologues, therefore be very useful to extend the procedure of Werner
and it should be emphasized that “in the site of Rehamna, Pichler and Alain Rodrigue to all zones where engravings
the northernmost of the country, are depictions of long of the “Tazina Style” have been reported.
sabres   which   make   one   think   of  Arabian   curved   sabres!   One particular case linked to the study of this style is that
Which would mean that in Morocco the tradition of writing of the enigmatic “kettles” or “gourd motifs” (conventional
on stone lasted until the Arab conquest” (Rodrigue 2002a: names),  which  were  defined  by  Philippe  Masy  before  he  
109).   In   the   same   spirit,   it   should   also   be   noted   that   the   continued the inventory of claims for this “bottle-shaped
particular morphology, unique in Morocco, of the pots motif” endowed with an “appendage placed transversally
from the site of el-Kiffen (near Casablanca) recalls that of at the narrow end of the body” (Masy 2003: 11). It is
those found in the Almerian of South-East Spain, around not known what these images depict, and they have been
4000–2600 BC, which, unless one “envisages, for the the subject of numerous imaginative hypotheses (these
Middle Neolithic, the possibility of imports to Morocco drawings  supposedly  represent:  leaf,  plant,  fish,  trap,  gourd,  
of  pots  made  in  the  Almerian  region”  (ibid.:  68),  could  at   sandal  or  G-­string!).  At  Sidi  Mulud  in  the  western  Sahara,  
least   testify   to   stylistic   influences.   In   the   same   way,   the   Pellicer i Acosta had seen them as bovids in a zenithal
“Haouzian” (a technical phase with hoes on the plain of view,  a  hypothesis  which  has  not  sufficiently  been  taken  
Haouz), probably around 2500 BC, has homologues in into account, in my view. Their greatest concentration is
Portugal. Returning to the Tazina style, Werner Pichler and found in Morocco and the western Sahara, but similar
Alain  Rodrigue  have  produced  the  first  serious  statistical   engravings are known in the Messak, at Jebel Ben Ghnêma,
approach (Pichler and Rodrigue 2003a). After presenting in the region of Aramât, in Djerât, in the Ahaggar, Aïr,
a history of this style which has already caused a lot of Djado, Adrar of the Ifoghas, the Saharan Atlas, and it
ink  to  flow,  the  two  authors  consider  it  as  a  “sub-­product”   seems premature to want to attach a functional label to
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 67

this motif. However, as Philippe Masy remarks, “the because his “core method” ignored many paintings
variation of shapes makes one think of a class of object – something he never concealed – but when the quantity
rather  than  a  specific  object”  (ibid.:  15).  It  should  be  noted   and  quality  of  the  documentation  are  sufficient,  it  becomes  
that the Catalan authors call them “zeppelins” and, while possible   to   reduce   the   number   of   the   “unclassifiables”.  
also stressing their diversity of form, rightly think that Thanks to the very numerous new documents from the
these  figures  could  provide  a  good  cultural  indicator  at  the   Libyan desert, Jean-Loïc Le Quellec has been able to
Saharan level (Soler Masferrer et al.  2005:  85). identify  or  confirm  the  existence  of  several  regional  styles  
At the eastern side, it currently appears that one can of   anthropomorphs:   the   “long   lines”,   the   “filiforms   with  
confirm  the  existence  of  two  stages  that  are  the  earliest  in   bird-beak head”, the people in “Sora style”, the “little
the region, one comprising people with a triangular chest striped ones”, the “miniature style”. The existence of the
in “Sora style”, the other anthropomorphs with a discoid “swimmers” type and the “Round Heads of Djebel el-
head which could be called “Round Heads of the Libyan ’Uweynât” (which must above all not be confused with
Desert” so as not to force an excessively hasty comparison the Tassili Round Heads) has been reinforced elsewhere
with the “true” Round Heads of the central Saharan (Le Quellec et al.  2005:  276–279).
massifs  (Zboray  2003a,  fig.  8,  9,  15,  28).  Then  come  the   For the most recent period of the southern Sahara,
groups of archers and pastoral scenes with huts, bovines Christian Dupuy and his collaborators (Dupuy et al.
and caprines, the latter sometimes shown tethered (ibid., 2001) have reported a double collection of documents: on
fig.  19,  pl.  K).  The  fact  that  the  little  violet  people  in  Sora   the one hand, several dozen engravings of metal objects
style  are  earlier  than  these  pastoral  scenes  is  confirmed  by   at the Adrar of the Ifoghas (Malian Sahara), and on the
new  superimpositions  observed  at  Wadi  Wahesh  (Zboray   other, a furnace discovered near Koussané (Valley of the
2005a, pl. Cx). Kolimbiné, upper basin of Senegal). The age of the former
Among the newly reported sites in the Wâdi Howar, the is estimated at the 2nd millennium BC, while that of the
engraving of a giraffe at Gala Abu Ahmed 02/2 was partially latter is dated to the 2nd–I3rd centuries AD. The authors
covered by sediments dating back to 1200/1300 BC, which wonder about the reasons for this great chronological
gives an ante quem date for all the engravings of this zone difference, and put forward two hypotheses: either this
(Jesse   2005:   33   and   fig.   11).   Some   comparisons   have   chronological  hiatus  will  soon  be  filled  by  the  results  of  
been made on the one hand with the sites with schematic excavations and research to come, which may prove local
engravings at Abka and Taar Doi in the central-southern manufacture, during the 2nd millennium BC, of the metal
Sahara, and, on the other, with Egypt since one of the signs objects depicted in the rock engravings; or these objects
recalls the Egyptian ankh. It is known that a humid episode were produced in remote workshops, which also functioned
occurred  in  the  Wâdi  Howar  around  2000  BP  (ibid.:  28),   during the IInd millennium BC but which have yet to be
that a complete giraffe skull has been dated there to ca. discovered. For the moment, and according to the terms of
2200 cal BC, that elephant remains are older there (6th their own conclusion, the very detailed investigation by the
and 5th millennia BC) and that the camel is known in authors “brings no decisive element to the problem”. And
north-­east  Africa   by   the   first   millennium   BC   (ibid.:   36).   I will add a third hypothesis to the two already envisaged:
The comparison – certainly very vague – of the reticulated that is, that the estimation of the age of the engravings
signs of this region with those of the Mourdi depression, is very hypothetical and excessively old. Because even
650  km  farther  west  (Simonis  1996)  seems  to  confirm  the   taking into account the proposed stylistic comparisons,
role of an east-west link that the Wadi Howard could have nothing proves that these images are not far more recent,
played (Kröpelin 2004: 113–114). and roughly contemporary with the period during which
Friedrich Berger challenges the date proposed by the furnace of Koussané was functioning. In fact this is the
Jean-­Loïc  Le  Quellec  (Le  Quellec  1998a)  for  the  artistic   most economic hypothesis, and hence the most probable.
flowering  of  the  Libyan  desert  (that  is,  after  4000  BP)  by   It is advisable not to envisage rock art as a simple
using an argument a silentio: supposedly there were never “reflection”,   and   caution   is   needed   in   relation   to   the  
any elephants in this region throughout the Holocene, possibilities of using the works to deduce a general view
because of the climatic conditions, and so one could not of the social organization of the societies within which they
use their absence in the rock art to make it younger. But were produced. An example is the theory, championed by
since then, several images of pachyderms have been found Christian Dupuy (Dupuy 2000), that the early engravings
in this zone – where they remain very rare – which leads were made by men, which would explain the under-
one to think that the animal was indeed present, but that the representation of females. In contrast, another position
huge majority of works are dated to after its disappearance championed by this same author, that of the coming of
(Le Quellec et al. 2005). The author rightly stresses the warrior aristocracies (bearing spears, chariots, horses) in
fact that reasoning of this kind, based on domestic fauna, the most recent periods preceding the arrival of the camel
need to be modulated because man “helped” his stock to drivers is totally convincing. Moreover, the material in
resist drought (Berger 2000). tombs   excavated   in   the   Aïr   displays   Berber   affinities  
The late Alfred Muzzolini has often been reproached testifying  to  “North  African  influences  and  exchanges  with  
68 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

Fig.   4.5.   Example   of   paintings   from   the   horse   period:   chariot   drawn   by   two   horses   in”flying   gallop”,   and   person   running,  
shown with the same convention, in the Akâkus (Libya).

the Berber world, in a period when the Aïr and the Adrar “flying  gallop”  is  culturally  specific,  as  is  clearly  indicated  
of the Iforas were settled by horsemen and camel drivers, in the title the author gave his study… but this idea had
ancestors  of  the  Tuaregs  whose  presence  is  confirmed  by   already   been   brilliantly   –   and   definitively   –   refuted   by  
the  8th  century  AD.” Salomon Reinach in a series of articles published in the
It is regrettable to have to write that certain errors are Revue Archéologique in  1900  and  1901  (Reinach  1901).  
caused  by  insufficient  knowledge  of  the  field  of  art  history.   So  it  needs  stating  and  repeating:  the  “flying  gallop”  was  
The  reading  of  some  old  authors  is  always  profitable,  and   certainly known to the Cretans, but also in Bactria, Sassanid
that of Salomon Reinach would have prevented Jörg Hansen Persia, and China in the 2nd century AD, not to mention
from making the error that he committed by re-opening the that  it  is  found  in  Europe  from  the  end  of  the  18th  century  
dossier  of  depictions  of  “flying  gallop”  chariots.  He  tells   and  especially  in  the  19th  century,  for  example  in  a  painting  
us that this stylistic type appears in the Creto-Mycenean by  Pierre  Vernet  depicting  the  “Chantilly  Races  in  1836”  
group  MM  III  (around  1730  BC),  that  it  arrived  in  North   or in that by Géricault showing “The Epsom Derby” in
Africa in the 16th–14th centuries from Crete or via Crete, 1821.   This   type   was   only   abandoned   by   painters   after  
where  the  “flying  gallop”  is  a  completely  characteristic  part   the   American   Muybridge   had   shown,   for   the   first   time,  
of the culture. Since the four-horse chariots of “classic” through his photographs which broke down the movement,
type appear around 400 BC (cf. that of Ikadnouchère in the that   it   did   not   correspond   to   reality   (Muybridge   1872).  
central Sahara), there is gap of at least 1000 years between For Catherine Rommelaere who reports a few Egyptian
the   “flying   gallop”   and   the   appearance   of   the   four-­horse   examples  from  the  18th  dynasty,  it  is  a  kind  of  depiction  
chariots. In the meantime, schematic chariots supposedly that  one  finds  “more  or  less  everywhere,  in  all  periods  and  
arrived from the west, via the Straits of Gibraltar, and had in all the civilizations that had the horse” (Rommelaere
1000 years to spread as far as the central Sahara (Hansen 1991:  64).  So  to  wish  to  (re)make  it  into  a  cultural  marker  
2001). This pleasant fairy-tale is based on the idea that the was a very bad idea.
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 69

Far better, from the methodological point of view, is that

which consists of comparing not isolated features (like the
flying  gallop)  but  associations  that  are  reckoned  significant,  
for example that of the chariots and spirals and interlaced
designs, as proposed by Christian Dupuy (Dupuy 2005:
71).  This  association,  reported  in  the  Adrar  of  the  Ifoghas  
(Dupuy  2001,  fig.  1)  and  at  Weiresen  in  the  Tassili-­n-­Azjer  
(ibid.,  fig.  2),  reminds  him  of  the  motifs  engraved  on  three  
funerary stelae from the shaft graves of circle A at Mycenae
(XVIth century BC). Certainly – as he recognises – “the
platform of Mycenean chariots […] is centred on the axle,
whereas that of the chariots of Weiresen, farther forward, is
supported  by  the  shaft”,  but  that  seems  insufficient  to  him  
“to discard the hypothesis of cultural interferences between
the Aegean and the Sahara, via the Libyco-Egyptian littoral”
(ibid.: 25). Amongst other arguments, the reasoning is based
on the fact that some Cretan painters supposedly decorated Fig. 4.6. Example of spiralling meander at Aït Wazik in
the palace of Avaris (in the eastern Nile Delta) in the manner Morocco.
of that of Knossos, probably in the reign of Amosis, around
1555–1530 BC. So, in the author’s view, “a transmission
by degrees of a few cultural traditions and elements which
percolated from relations between Libyans and Aegeans on without it being possible to place them chronologically
the littoral of Cyrenaica and Marmarica, can explain the in relation to each other (Dupuy 2003b). In the Ahaggar,
presence in the Sahara of interlaced designs comparable by contrast, spirals and meanders are integrated with
to  those  of  the  Aegean  world”  (ibid.:  28).  This  theory  is   the drawing of certain animals (bovines, elephants), and
not completely convincing, insofar as the comparison of the same author then puts forward the hypothesis of a
the interlaced designs of the Aegean world with those of relatively younger age, around the chariot period (ibid.)
the Sahara shows above all that they are very different. – contrary to the old theory of Paul Huard which saw these
Moreover, in those which are associated with chariots, the as archaic “hunters’ signs”. Let us add that in Morocco,
horse  is  “rearing  at  full  stretch”  in  the  Aegean,  but  in  a  flying   spirals, meanders and interlaced designs of various types
gallop at Weiresen, whereas in the Adrar of the Ifoghas, have been abundantly documented at Imâoun (Salih and
they are schematic chariots with no horse depicted. And Heckendorf  2000:  8;;  Garcin  2004,  fig.  17–25,  30  and  pl.  
it is hard to understand why the association of the chariot C–E),   at  Taouraght   (Desgain   and   Searight   2004,   fig.   15,  
and the spirals/interlaced designs, which is not found in the 17,   18)   and   three   kilometres   east   of   the   site   of   Talrazit  
Aegean frescoes of Avaris, could have spread by this route, (Masy 2004). Michel Tauveron, who has taken up the
and not the themes of the acrobat or of bull-leaping, which inventory of the engraved and painted “meanders” of the
are  well  attested  at  Avaris  (Shaw  1995).  All  the  more  so   Sahara, champions the “economic” hypothesis according
since the religious meaning of the Avaris frescoes has been to   which   these   complex   figures   developed   from   spiral  
demonstrated  (Davies  and  Schoffield  1995).  One  should  also   engravings present in the preceding periods, but whose
take into account the fact that numerous anomalies appear existence is not taken into account in the hypothesis of a
in the Avaris frescoes in relation to Cretan tradition (Rehak Mediterranean contribution. The latter theory comes up
1997:  401),  and  so  the  hypothesis  of  artists  who  were  not   against  an  even  greater  difficulty,  if  one  considers  that  the  
Cretan but were perhaps trained in Crete seems to be more distribution of chariots and that of spirals are separate, the
plausible. In this domain, a good question has been posed two assemblages being close in very few sites (Tauveron
by  Paul  Rehak,  who  wants  to  know  “why  we  ‘need’  to  find   2003b: 223). One is compelled to admit that no really
resident Cretans in Egypt” (ibid.: 402). Moreover Christian convincing argument or comparison has yet come to
Dupuy rightly reminds us that the horse was mounted in support one or the other of the currently competing theories
Egypt in the reign of Thutmosis IV (around 1400 BC), that about the origin and chronology of the horse and chariot,
from the end of the 13th century the Libyan tribe of the and it is not sure that they had the monopoly on certain
Ribou possessed horses, and that after his victory against characteristics of the “Libyan warriors” (crossed belt,
a coalition of Libyans and “Sea Peoples”, in the year 11 of feathers stuck in the hair). Moreover, nothing, in the recent
his reign, the booty of Ramesses III comprised swords of excavations of Garamant sites, has brought the slightest
Mycenean origin and horse-drawn chariots. support to the tradition (owed to Herodotus) of a use of
Christian Dupuy has also stressed that, in the Tassili- chariots by this people (Mattingly 2003; Tauveron 2003b:
n-Azjer, the engravings of spirals belong as a group to a 230).
tradition that is different from those called “naturalist”, Even more fragile than the previous proposition is the
70 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

cited “the reappearance of small pendant horns in races

of hornless cattle, and especially… in young animals”. In
Rwanda,  bulls  afflicted  with  this  anomaly  are  sufficiently  
well known to be cited in popular tales and be given the
special name of rutenderi (Smith  1975:  284–288):  so  is  it  
necessary to talk of migrations?
One question that is regularly debated is that of the
fakes made by Lhote’s team. This time, the painstaking
enquiry by Bernard Fouilleux has established once and for
all that the famous “bird-headed goddesses” were made in
gouache by Claude Guichard, from a few old stains that
were on the same panel as the “Young Fulani girls”. They
were  still  slightly  visible  in  1961  (Fouilleux   et al. 2005,
fig.  2)  but  have  totally  disappeared  since  then.  As  for  the  
so-called “Young Fulani girls”, they are authentic but,
as admitted by their author, their recording was largely
interpreted  with  inspiration  from  Modigliani  (ibid.:  145)!  
The famous “Antinea” is also authentic, contrary to what
has been claimed too hastily (Hachid 2003; Keenan 2004:
207–208,  217,  277).  The  same  applies  to  the  painting  of  
Fig. 4.7. Some of the few fakes produced by Henri Lhote’s the “dancers” of Ti-n-Tazarift, which had been suspected
team of painters had a great deal of success, like for example of  being  inauthentic  by  Alfred  Muzzolini  (Muzzolini  1995:  
this pseudo-Egyptian scene reproduced on a mosaic in Djanet 240). This last work is, on the contrary, very interesting,
airport (Algeria). because it contributes some hitherto unknown technical
elements,   showing   that   the   painter   first   drew   the   outline  
before   doing   the   infill;;   the   hands   and   head   were   drawn  
later  (fig.  15).  Moreover,  it  would  be  pertinent  to  take  more  
one put forward by Susan Searight and Christian Dupuy interest in the artists’ technique, as was done by Christian
of linking the engravings of Imâoun (southern Morocco) Dupuy for an engraving in the Adrar of the Ifoghas (Dupuy
and Issamadanen (Adrar of the Ifoghas, Mali) – sites that 2003a). In any case, the important thing here is that there
are 1500 km apart – with the Iberian traditions of the is no reason systematically to doubt the honesty of the
Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age, on the sole basis of the recordings by the Lhote team, as some people tend to do
presence of “circles, spirals, wavy and cruciform lines” excessively, without the slightest evidence (Keenan 2002,
(Dupuy 2003b: 65; Dupuy and Searight 2005). Certainly, 2004). It is obvious that these recordings vary in their
the links between Morocco and Spain are motivated by degree of accuracy, but to talk of systematic “fakes” is a
generally accepted archaeological reasons – the chronology travesty of the truth. One is astonished at the monomania of
of real metal weapons (Spain) making possible that of their Jeremy Keenan, who only attacks Henri Lhote and French
engraved depictions (Morocco) – but the integration of researchers, whereas similar reproaches could be made,
Adrar of the Ifoghas with this assemblage on the sole basis for example, of Fabrizio Mori and Italian researchers: it is
of the rock art repertoire is not convincing, because it is now known that about thirty years ago (and thus during the
too dependent on ubiquitous images of unknown meaning. work of Fabrizio Mori’s team, and under his responsibility),
Curiously, the authors have not taken into account the sign several experiments were tried out on the paintings of the
known  as  a  “kettle”  and  which  is  highly  specific  (cf.  supra), Akâkûs, with the application of an acrylic resin (“Palaroid
although there are several examples at Imaoun (Garcin B72”),  which  caused  an  alteration  in  colour.  In  the  2000s,  
2004) and it also seems to be present at Issamadanen an Italian team attempted to repair this mistake (Ponti and
(Dupuy  and  Searight  2005,  fig.  3). Persia 2002).
Although they cannot be rejected a priori, such For the moment, the only direct datings of paintings
transcontinental comparisons need better arguments. ever carried out in the central Sahara have been obtained
Hence, one cannot agree with Ulrich and Brigitte Hallier in the Akâkûs (Ponti and Sinibaldi 2005):
when they claim that the presence of “pendant horns” on 1. at Lancusi some traces of red paintings attributed to
bovines depicted in the Tassili-n-Azjer and in the Nile a  vague  pastoral  phase  have  been  dated  to  6145  ±  70  
region is “a consequence of transcontinental migrations” BP;
which took place in the Vth Egyptian dynasty (Hallier and 2. at Ta-Fozzigiart, some “uncertain outlines”, perhaps
Hallier  2004:  7–8).  This  type  of  horn  appears  spontaneously   forming   to   an   animal   figure   attributed   to   the   Round  
in  herds,  unlike  horns  that  are  truly  deformed  artificially.   Heads because of the presence of “spaced circles more
In chapter 14 of The Origin of Species, Darwin already or  less  filled  in  with  white  colour”,  have  been  dated  
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 71

to 5360 ± 50 BP, which certainly corresponds to the erect position, with a vertical (or almost vertical) dorsal
occupation  dates  obtained  during  the  excavation  (7900   line, and a psychologising explanation has been given
to 5260 ± 160 BP), but seems very far from the period (Deregowski  and  Berger  1997)  which  Maarten  van  Hoeck  
in  which  most  authors  place  the  Round  Heads  (9th–8th   has excellently refuted (Hoeck 2005). It seems simplest to
millennia); me to see these images as a result of a particular way of
3. at A-Fozzigiart, a sample taken from a scene comprising transcribing perspective, already described for other periods
red   and   white   bovines   has   been   dated   to   4990   ±   50   and  cultures  (Garlarza  1995;;  Magni  2003).
BP; Seeking to go beyond the usual observations about
4. at Ta-Fozzigiart II, the sample was taken from a panel figures  of  the  recent  periods,  for  example  the  geometrisation  
of small red anthropomorphs with a white outline, of forms (Amara 2003), and returning to the figures
superimposed on small red circles, the whole thing traditionally called “Libyan warrior”, Yves and Christine
considered  as  belonging  to  a  final  phase  of  the  Round   Gauthier complete and correct the positions of Alfred
Heads,  but  the  date  obtained  is  5580  ±  210  BP,  and   Muzzolini and Christian Dupuy, thanks to the contribution
so, here again, it is much more recent than expected of a good number of images, mostly unknown: paintings
by the authors. from the Akâkûs, the Aramât and the plateau of Tadjelahin,
5. at Ti-n-Torha Nord, a sample from a panel of red engravings of the Messak, paintings and engravings of the
anthropomorphs has yielded a date of 4040 ± 200 BP, Algerian Tadrart, Djerât and the Immidir. Among other
and thus more recent than those from the deposit in the activities,  these  people  drive  chariots,  hunt  ostriches,  fight  
shelter  (7070  ±  60  BP  to  5260  ±  130  BP)  –  hence,  once   each other, lead their cattle; their shields are round or
again,  well  after  the  final  phase  of  the  Round  Heads,  as   ogival, more rarely rectangular. The documents cited force
remarked by the authors. The latter end by stating that one to extend to the north-east (Tadrart, Akâkûs, Messak)
five  dates  are  too  few  to  draw  definitive  conclusions,   and north-west (Djerât, Immidir) the area of distribution
but it is at least possible to note also that the two hitherto attributed to this type, and to conclude that the
dates obtained for images assumed to be pastoral are Libyan warriors occupied the same region as the Caballines
no surprise, whereas the three paintings attributed to (Gauthier 2003b).
the Round Heads present a gap of several millennia     The  first  statistical  data  developed  from  those  collected  
from those which some people were expecting. If these by the Italian researchers from Rome’s La Sapienza
dates were correct, this could mean either than at least University have begun to emerge. These accounts have been
certain Round Head paintings are far more recent than produced from photographic archives constituted in the
claimed by supporters of the usual “long chronology” Tadrart  Akâkûs  since  1995  following  a  protocol  comprising  
– and that would be no surprise, since domestic bovines four kinds of forms (per site, per decorated wall, per scene
appear in certain images of this style, especially in and per subject) and the results from the north and south
the Akâkûs (Jelínek 2004: 100) – or the examined parts  of  the  massif.  Research  in  the  first  region  has  made  it  
paintings did not belong to this style. So one regrets possible  to  record  42  sites  with  a  total  of  393  subjects  (235  
that no illustrations of the images concerned are given engraved,  158  painted)  in  the  Wadis  Tihedine,  Ti-­n-­Tamat,  
in the publication, which does not enable readers to Ti-n-Torha, Ajando, Ti-n-Tabarakat and Aghum-n-Udaden,
come to their own conclusions on this matter. whereas only twelve sites were studied in the southern part,
with  a  total  of  134  subjects  (99  painted  and  35  engraved)  
Other dates have been obtained in Egypt by Dirk Huyge in the Wadis A-Fozzigiart and ta-Fozzigiart, which join
(see   p.   93,   this   volume)   from   what   he   considers   to   be   together in the Fozzigiaren. Among the engravings in the
engravings of enclosures and fish traps. He and his north,  animals  outnumber  humans  (66%  versus  19%),  while  
collaborators took forty samples at el-Hosh, but only four the opposite is true in the paintings (22% versus 41%). In
of them contained enough carbon to obtain AMS dates, and the engravings, domestic and wild animals are in roughly
the  results  span  a  period  between  6690  ±  270  BP  and  2280   equal numbers, but the bovines dominate overall (45%,
± 320 BP. For the authors, the earliest date (corresponding versus  19%  giraffes,  9%  elephants,  6%  rhinoceroses,  5%  
to  a  period  that  was  68%  included  between  5900  and  5300   antelopids,  two  donkeys,  a  mouflon,  a  feline  and  a  goat).  
BP) is “striking”, and it indicates that the images of this Where paintings are concerned, domestic animals clearly
date “are certainly beyond the age of all other graphic dominate   (80%),   with   bovines   once   again   dominating  
activity known in the Nile valley” (Huyge 2002b, 2002c, (66%),   followed   by   dogs   (11%)   and   mouflons   (8%),  
2005; Huyge et al. 2001, 2002) – which certainly does not the other recognizable species (horse, antelope, feline,
display an excess of pessimism. elephant) only being represented by a single specimen
Friedrich Berger has investigated the distribution of each. A “catch-all” category called “others” groups together
different ways of representing cows’ udders, and especially the   “ichthyomorphs”,   geometric   figures   and   engraved   or  
that which dominates in the eastern Sahara (Berger 2001). painted hands (negative or positive). In the southern part of
Others have wondered with him about certain peculiarities the massif, there are more engraved humans than animals
in the images of quadrupeds depicted in a “seated” or (46% versus 31%), but this is less perceptible in paintings
72 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

(48%   versus   46%).   Engravings   of   bovines   are   the   most  

frequent (45%), followed by those of giraffes, gazelles Theses and major regional studies
and  mouflons  (18%  each).  In  paintings,  domestic  animals  
(66%) are also more abundant than wild ones (30%), and Morocco
here again, bovines are the most frequent (54%). Then El-Hassan Ezziani presented his thesis on the engravings
come  giraffes  (15%),  dogs,  antelopes  and  mouflons  (6.5%   of anthropomorphs of the High Atlas (Ezziani 2002),
each), and horses (4%). Among the paintings showing and used its elements in various articles (Ezziani 2004a,
humans, one counts 42% of Round Heads. On the basis of 2004b). Making full use of the work of his predecessors
these numbers, the study concludes that the motif called Jean Malhomme and especially Alain Rodrigue, he carried
“ichthyomorph” seems peculiar to the Akâkûs… but this out an interesting statistical analysis of a corpus of 160
claim  is  only  caused  by  insufficient  information,  because   images, which enabled him to distinguish the following
what the Italian authors call “ichthyomorphs” are the six groups of anthropomorphs: 1 – with a violin-shaped
famous “Kel Essuf” which Striedter and Tauveron found body;;  2  –  with  pecked  infill;;  3  –  with  a  cylindrical  body  
in abundance in the Algerian part of the Tadrart – so one and   non-­filiform   legs;;   4   –   with   a   rectangular   body;;   5  
should mistrust “national” views of rock art. The general –   with   a   cylindrical   body   and   filiform   legs;;   6   –   with   a  
concusions (Guidoni and Ponti 2004b: 5) are that the giraffe filiform   body   (“stick   figures”).   The   statistical   analysis  
is the most often depicted wild animal, that bovines are very then shows that the groups that are farthest apart from the
predominant everywhere, and that “in engraving, the animal point of view of shape (1 and 4) are also farthest apart
figure,  very  often  isolated,  dominates  humans,  in  contrast   geographically (1: Oukaimeden, 2 = Yagour), whereas on
to the paintings where man is more present”. Comparison the other hand groups V and VI are quite close to each other.
with the available data for the animal engravings of the On the basis of stylistic considerations, all these groups
Messak   (47%   bovines)   and   the   site   of   Dabbus   in   Niger   are then split into two “super-groups”: A, comprising the
(46%) shows that, in all the regions cited, at least 45% anthropomorphs with a trunk drawn by two lines (1 + 3+
of the depicted animals are bovines, which reinforces the 4 + 5) and B, comprising those whose trunks made with
theory  of  a  florescence  of  rock  art  in  the  pastoral  cultures   a single line (2 + 6). One then discovers an interesting
of the central-southern Sahara. Moreover, I am one of those contrast: group A comprises big anthropomorphs, isolated,
who, with Marcella Guidoni and Rosanna Ponti, believe sexed, surrounded by weapons and domestic animals,
that “the presence of wild animals next to bovines, on the whereas   group   B   comprises   small   figures,   schematic,  
same walls, depicted in the same style, the same patina and asexual, weaponless, grouped, with wild animals. Turning
the same engraving technique, suggests a pastoral society in to the problem of metal weapons and that of the age of the
which man was still interested in wild nature and hunting” oldest Libyco-Berber inscriptions, the author shows that the
(ibid.: 6). Unfortunately, this claim is illustrated with a first  group  dates  back  to  the  “Atlasic”  Bronze  Age  with  a  
bad  recording  of  an  engraving  interpreted  as  a  fight  scene   possible  prolongation  to  the  7th–6th  centuries  BC  (the  date  
between a bovine and a rhinoceros, whereas the photo generally  accepted  for  the  first  Libyan  inscriptions)  –  and  
shows clearly that it is the motif – observed several times that the second group is that of the “Libyco-Berber period”.
in other parts of the central Sahara – of the confrontation The  first  predominates  at  Oukaïmeden,  both  occur  in  the  
between two rhinoceroses (v.a. Choppy et al.  2002:  90).   Yagour, and the second dominates in the peripheral sites.
Nevertheless, it is quite reassuring to see two members All   this   therefore   confirms   Alain   Rodrigue’s   hypothesis  
of the Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca sulle Civiltà that Oukaïmeden was occupied before the Yagour, then
del Sahara Antico e delle Zone Aride at last adopting an gradually abandoned in favour of the latter. The chronology
opposite view to that of their masters or predecessors, by proposed by the author makes that of Alain Rodrigue very
recommending a relatively short chronology, based on one slightly older (starting it around 1600 BC rather than around
of the arguments often put forward by Alfred Muzzolini 1500 BC) and prolongs it to the start of the Christian era.
and myself, but already proposed by Paolo Graziosi in El-Hassan Ezziani stresses that the images in his group 2
the   1960s...   and   still   valid.   Contrary   to   the   unwarranted   are due, as he thinks, to an “intrusive” Libyco-Berber group,
tendency to increase the age of Saharan rock art – which whereas “Group 6 is the last incarnation of the traditional
some people, clinging to old data, still want to date back local culture, when it was confronted by the bearers of
to the Pleistocene, following the current fashion of “the the new culture” (Ezziani 2004a: 562). The whole of this
older it is, the more interesting” – it is important to stress reasoning is carried out so briskly that it almost makes one
that comparison of stylistic, archaeological, palaeoclimatic forget that the argument of a chronological continuity (for
and archaeozoological data now enables one to produce a example between groups 3 and 4) on the basis of a stylistic
fairly precise image of the changes that have taken place in continuity is rather feeble. These are two different types of
the semi-continent since the Holocene: this shows clearly “continuity”, and to pass from to the other would require
that  in  the  central  Sahara,  the  great  flowering  of  rock  art   a recourse to external arguments.
cannot be earlier than the 6th millennium BC, and that it Susan Searight also produced a synthesis of her
most likely took place in the 5th (Le Quellec 2006). numerous years of research on rock art in Morocco in a
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 73

thesis presented in 2001, but published in 2004 (Searight and the recognizable species are, by decreasing numerical
2004) and which therefore could not take the work of El- importance:  Oryx  (17%),  Gazelle  sp. (14%), hippotragus
Hassan  Ezziani  into  account.  She  lists  290  sites  in  Morocco,   (3%), ostrich (3%) giraffe (2%), elephant (2%), but it is the
of which she has personally visited half. The resulting undetermined  quadrupeds  which  dominate  by  far  (59%).  
publication starts by outlining the history of research, and The  huge  majority  of  figures  are  in  red  flatwash,  with  few  in  
assesses our knowledge in the palaeoenvironmental context white or black. Stylistic analysis of the images leads Soler i
of the Holocene and Moroccan prehistory in general, before Subils  to  define  local  styles,  after  an  interesting  discussion  
tackling the rock art proper. She presents an inventory of of the notion of style itself and of its use in archaeology.
the  main  figurative  themes,  and  then  the  author  carries  out  a   He then shows that the spatial distribution of images
survey  of  the  principal  sites,  classified  into  nine  major  areas   defined  as  belonging  to  what  he  calls  the  “non-­figurative  
(north and centre, east, Atlas, south-east, extreme south- style”   differs   from   those   belonging   to   his   “figurative  
east, Anti-Atlas, south-west, eastern Sahara). Four sites are style”, which proves that this stylistic distinction, made
studied in more detail, and then the distribution of the four a  priori,  is  locally  significant.  One  can  deduce  from  this  
main types of engravings is presented: the “Mainly Pecked that the images peculiar to these two styles were made by
Cattle Sites” are located in the south; the “Mainly Tazina different  groups,  which  now  need  to  be  identified.  One  of  
Sites” are in the south-east, the south and the eastern Sahara, the interesting aspects of the decorated shelters of Wâdi
but are absent from the Anti-Atlas; the “Mainly Dagger Kenta is that several of them have yielded archaeological
+ Halberd + Anthropomorphs sites” (DHA) predominate material (lithic objects, ceramics, fragments of decorated
in the High Atlas; the “Libyco-Berber Stick-Figures” ostrich eggs, drystone structures) which, although not
appear as a minority in a number of the preceding sites. directly linked to the paintings, enables one to have an
After   discussion   (Searight   2004:   124–138)   the   proposed   idea of he occupation of the place. Unfortunately, it has
chronology has the DHA group starting around 1500 BC, not been possible to date the paintings studied by a direct
chariots and horsemen around 1000 BC, the Libyco-Berber process (absence of organic material or carbon), which is
inscriptions, dromedaries and saddled horses from 500 BC. highly regrettable because, in my view, one cannot agree
The engravings of other styles (notably Tazina) cannot with Dowson’s claim (cited by the author pp. 303–304) that
be earlier than 4500–4000 BC, and the author places “the way forward in rock-art analysis is not to address issues
their appearance around 2500 BC, the Tazina style being of chronology but to theorize the art.” On the contrary, the
slightly earlier that the engravings of “Pecked Cattle” type. possibility of such a theorisation can only be envisaged
Concerning the meaning of the works, the author rightly within a chronological framework, even a loose one. Here,
rejects theories involving a supposed pan-Saharan”Hunter the absence of horses or dromedaries in the paintings, as
Culture”, extending for millennia from the Nile to the well as the presence of the bow, leads one to believe that
Atlantic, without for all that rejecting the possibility of a the works predate the arrival of the Berbers (who use
Saharan heritage which gradually percolated into the rock spears). Nevertheless the results presented in this thesis
images of Morocco (ibid. 2004: 165). constitute  an  excellent  first  approach  to  the  rock  paintings  
of the region, which the author intends to complete. So this
is a work in progress to be followed attentively, and one
Western Sahara wishes him the success he deserves.
In  order  to  achieve  the  “Suficiència  Investigadora”  Joaquim  
Soler i Subils chose to study the paintings in a collection of
sites  in  the  Wadi  Kenta,  in  the  Zemmur  (Soler  Subils  2002).   Algeria
After a general presentation of this province (geology, In 2001, a thesis on the rock art of the Atlas was presented by
geomorphology,   climate,   fauna   and   flora),   the   author   Iddir Amara (Amara 2001), who subsequently summarized
explains the state of knowledge about the prehistory of its contents in several articles although, it must be said,
the region. A plan of each of the shelters studied is given, it   is   quite   difficult   to   find   one’s   bearings   in   these   texts  
which indicates the location of the paintings, which are then (Amara 2003, 2005). In his last text on this subject, the
recorded by means of digital tracings from digital photos. author  claims  (Amara  2005:  25)  that  “1617  figures  have  
Each time, the author is careful to present a general view been  listed  and  have  benefited  from  a  detailed  study”,  while  
of all the panels, and then details. The inventory mostly announcing   (ibid.:   27)   that   “the   inventory,   completed   in  
comprises linear anthropomorphs seen from the front or in 1995,   led   to   the   development   of   a   corpus   grouping   the
profile,  pectiniform  animals  and  geometric  signs  (crosses,   whole of the engravings known in the Saharan Atlas” (my
radiating circles, quadrangular signs, nested chevrons, emphasis).   But   in   the   course   of   the   text   (ibid.:   27)   one  
serpentiforms,  etc.),  which  the  author  calls  “non-­figurative   learns  that  this  in  fact  corresponds  only  to  the  figures  “of  
graphemes”  and  which  are  in  the  majority  (35.8%,  versus   recent  age”,  although  the  total  of  the  figures  given  on  the  
26%  of  “figurative  graphemes”,  2.5%  of  positive  hands,  and   following page for the whole of the “corpus” is indeed
a little more than 35% of undetermined images). There are 1617.   Moreover,   wondering   about   the   respective   roles  
also  a  few  animal  figures  done  in  simple  outline  or  flatwash,   played   by   Saharan   influences   and   the   Moroccan   Atlas,  
74 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

the author believes that “only a prospection carried out with  the  data  presented  in  the  thesis  (ibid.:  284).  Like  the  
in   well   defined   sectors   of   the  Atlas   region   will   make   it   previous example, this work is not of the quality that one
possible to answer the question” (ibid.: 30), so that leads might expect of a diploma presented at the Sorbonne: one
one to think that, in reality, the corpus and the prospection need only compare these mediocre works with the masterly
still remain to be done. Besides, the presentation of the volume by Joaquim Soler i Subils mentioned above (Soler
caballine  figures  on  plaquettes  from  Djorf  Torba  (ibid.:  29)   Subils 2002). But this negative criticism is not directed
ignores the important synthesis by Gabriel Camps (Camps at the students, because they have been the victims – the
1995),  the  consultation  of  which  would  have  prevented  the   word is not too strong – of a professor who clearly did not
author from writing that “the sandstone plaques were used supervise their work correctly.
as grave stones” – which is certainly not the case – and it Several volumes have appeared on the Tassili-n-Azjer.
would also have enabled him to give a correct inventory of In one of these, published by the “Association of the
the  figures  (since  his  own  is  notably  incomplete).  Finally,   Friends of the Tassili”, it is claimed straightaway, in the
a careful examination of this site’s paintings would have first  chapter  devoted  to  geology  (Aumassip  et al. 2001: 33)
enabled him to notice that two women accompanied by and in relation to rock shelters, that “numerous paintings
bearded men are brandishing a cross, which is evidence for cover their walls, evoking the succession of populations
the Christianisation of the local Berbers. Gabriel Camps spanning  more  than  10,000  years”  (no  less!).  The  following  
had also, very pertinently, compared these images with chapter is devoted to the riches of the park, which led it
those to be seen on 6th-century Byzantine coins, while to  World  Heritage  status  in  1982.  There  is  an  interesting  
noting that the geometric frame of another stela from the overview of ethnobotany and a rapid panorama of the
same site displays “the closest analogies with the motifs fauna.  Another  chapter  next  introduces  the  first  inhabitants,  
bordering Christian epitaphs of the 5th and 6th centuries in known thanks to numerous remains which are examined,
the Mauretanian cities of Altava and Volubilis which are, from worked pebbles to the Neolithic. The site of Tidunadj
with Numerus Syrorum and Pomaria, the nearest Roman is  then  brought  into  the  spotlight,  and  on  p.  81  (fig.  58)  the  
towns   to   Djorf  Torba”   (Camps   1995:   29).   Iddir  Amara’s   author  of  this  part  of  the  text  modestly  specifies  that  this  
chronological proposal, which dates these stelae back to wall “has been of capital importance for the chronology of
the period of Syphax, and thus to the 3rd century BC, is Saharan art”, because, according to a highly questionable
thus particularly unlikely. reading of the site, it makes it possible to date the earliest
The thesis by Nagette Aïn Seba deals with a region of engraved art of the Sahara fully to the Pleistocene. As was
the Ahaggar: the Serkout, named after a mountain of 2306 predictable, this hypothesis (albeit refuted: Le Quellec
m altitude, about 200 km north-east of Tamanrasset. Some 1997)  is  now  reified  by  its  promoters  (ibid.:  82;;  cf.  supra).
400 engraved walls were examined to prepare this work, For the author, “various indications” incline one to think
but it is only illustrated by very elementary tracings (from that “many engravings, the earliest, those which depict big,
slides) or sketches done freehand, which makes the whole generally isolated animals that are drawn with a broad, deep
thing largely unusable. Similarly, the statistics provided line” should be attributed to Aterian peoples (Aumassip et
are hard to evaluate, insofar as they are based on stylistic al.  2001:  82).  The  most  important  of  these  “indications”  
categories (naturalism, subnaturalism, subschematism is in fact located at Tidunadj, where two engravings of
and schematism) or zoological ones (Bos ibericus) that (domestic) bovines have the bottom of their legs partially
are imprecise or wrong. Nevertheless, this work reveals covered by sediments, the very early dating of which
that,  out  of  784  subjects  observed,  zoomorphs  are  strongly   supposedly  justifies  this  chronological  revision  of  the  rock  
predominant  (73%)  and,  within  that  group,  bovines  (54,5%)   engravings. On one page of this book, we are told that “N.
(Aïn   Seba-­Bouchekal   2001:   237,   238).   The   “symbolic   Ferhat has been able to show that these deposits cannot
figures”  [sic]  are  dominated  by  74  spirals  (ibid.:  256)  and   be  later  than  the  6th  millennium”  (ibid.:  82)  whereas  on  
what the author writes about some of them is astonishing: the preceding page it had been claimed that they “were
“one can see the spiral as the representation of a snailshell deposited,  at  the  latest,  between  the  10th  and  7th  millennia”.  
[…]   In   one   figure,   a   spiral   motif   can   also   represent   an   Certainly these two declarations are not contradictory, but
open woman” (ibid.: 254). The author thinks that the one would like a little more rigour in the manipulation of
bovines are generally domestic, judging by their frequent dates,  because  the  first  claim  places  the  engravings  before  
harnasses. She even suggests that four bovines are yoked the  6th  millennium  at  least,  and  the  second  before  the  7th,  
to a ploughshare – which is open to serious doubt (as is the which is quite important, since these are domestic bovines
so-called engraving of an “insect plunging its head into a (especially  as  the  author  of  this  text  clearly  says,  p.  107,  
flower”,  cited  p.  250)  and  unfortunately  cannot  be  verified   that “in the Tassili, no bone attributable to bovines has been
on the illustrations accompanying the text (ibid.: 240). It identified  before  6500”).  In  reality,  the  terrace  in  question  
is staggering that this volume’s last page concludes with a has never been dated absolutely, and this age is only an
claim that Saharan rock art has been “made younger to the estimate   –   respectable,   of   course,   but   still   an   estimate!  
utmost”, and that one should take its early beginnings back To deduce, as Michel Tauveron does, that the engravings
to the Upper Palaeolithic – a claim that has no connection date back 14,000 years is to take wishful thinking a little
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 75

far. Another bit of “do-it-yourself” with dates can be seen which has never been surpassed, is such that even at small
a little later in an ad hoc summary of the work of Mauro size one can make out all the details of the miniatures of
Cremaschi on the patinas of engravings, the formation of Iheren-Tahillâhi style. As for the basic theory put forward
which, we are assured here, “needs a temperature and a in these two books, which is that of a cultural persistence
humidity which have not coincided, except locally, since over a very long time, it is linked to the author’s support
the  end  of  the  7th  millennium”  (ibid.:  86).  But,  as  perfectly   of a long chronology for rock art, for example placing the
demonstrated by Mauro Cremaschi, on the contrary the start of the activity of the Round Head painters around
“black” patina, characteristic of the earliest engravings, 12,000 BP (ibid.: 12)… which is very far from proven (cf.
was   still   being   formed   in   the   Messak   at   4915   ±   79   BP,   supra). In this domain, it seems that only direct dating of
that is (taking the calibration into account), in the 4th paintings will make it possible to escape one day from the
millennium BC. Even with the best intentions, it is hard endless circle of debate.
to see how one can deduce from this an Aterian age for François Soleilhavoup published a book on the rock
the engravings. And yet an even greater age for Saharan engravings of the Atlas, illustrated with photographs
rock art is presented farther on, rather insidiously, since a taken during his visits to the region more than thirty years
chronological  table  (p.  90)  has  the  Bubaline  starting  about   ago, accompanying them with always useful analytical
25,000   years   ago!.   It   is   claimed   (ibid.:   93)   that   fish   are   recordings (Soleilhavoup 2003a). On the other hand, in
depicted “in the Round Head period and only then”, and this his   text,   the   author   cannot   resist   evoking   (once   again!)  
is repeated in another way on p. 101, where it is stipulated a shaman in relation to the people in two scenes (ibid.:
that the art of the bovidian peoples “no longer depicts 17,   58)   and   his   comments   on   styles   and   chronology   are  
them”:  a  fine  example  of  claims  that  are  as  peremptory  as   strangely incoherent. He uses the terms “naturalistic” and
they are easy to contradict – there is at least one Tassili “subnaturalistic” for periods whereas these terms (which
bas-­relief   depicting   a   silurid,   and   fishes   certainly   exist   are best avoided in any case) designate styles.   The   first  
among the works of other schools, engraved in the southern of   these   “periods”   is   sub-­divided   “figurative   naturalistic  
Tadrart, the Djérât and the Messak, or painted at Ti-n- style”, “stylised naturalistic style” [sic] and “Tazina style”
Mûsa in the style of Iheren-Tahilahi… The excavations at (ibid.: 55) – which therefore leads one to suppose that the
Ti-­n-­Hanakaten  are  then  presented,  but  it  is  quite  difficult   latter  is  “naturalistic”!  And  yet  the  same  author  evokes,  on  
to follow this, in the absence of a detailed report on this the next page, images of Gouiret ben Saloul “whose stylistic
extraordinary site (and one wonders, some thirty years after attribution is uncertain, neither naturalistic, nor Tazina”
the start of the excavations, if such a synthesis will ever (ibid.: 56). Regarding the meaning of the engravings, the
appear). It thus seems that “the Round Head period has author – an unwavering follower of an ahistorical Eladian,
not been recognized there” (ibid.: 102), whereas Michel Durandian or Jungian pan-symbolism – goes as far as to
Tauveron and Karl Heinz Striedter, of the same team, claim describe an engraving by evoking “quadrangular signs
the  opposite  (Tauveron  and  Striedter  2003:  85–86).  More   belonging to a general symbolism, from Africa to the
serious  is  the  very  convincing  identification  of  a  basenji dog Andes,  for  example”  (ibid.:  159).  Finally,  he  sets  great  store  
in a painting at Tikediwin (Aumassip et al. 2001: 122). by a “symbolic triad” made up of the ancient buffalo, the
Malika Hachid alone has added two new books to the elephant and the ram (or sheep), which he says is regularly
list of those that have recently appeared about the Tassili- seen, and which he considers characteristic of the Atlas
n-Azjer. One is a big, highly illustrated album, in which the (ibid.:  59,  68,  71,  76–77,  131,  160),  but  contrary  to  what  
author, who used to be the director of the Tassilil National he claims, nothing here permits one to “put forward the
Park, offers a general account of the massif, presenting all hypothesis  of  an  example  of  zoolatry”  (ibid.:  59,  131).  The  
of  its  aspects:  geology,  fauna,  flora,  ethnology,  and  of  course   speculations of which François Soleilhavoup is so fond
prehistory from the Lower Palaeolithic onwards. Rock art now reach great heights, for example when he wonders,
occupies a large part of this book, and it is fortunate that after repeating several times that his “triad” comprised
the publisher was able to present, most often in colour, three different animal species, two wild and one domestic:
numerous little-known or unpublished documents. So “Does the association of two rams…and a big ancient
paintings of certain famous sites like Jabbaren or Sefar, buffalo on the great wall of Hassiane el-Krima form part
which were hitherto only known from the more or less of this symbolic triad, even in the absence of the elephant
faithful tracings by the Lhote missions, are presented for and  the  person  accompanying  the  ram?”  (ibid.:  59).  This  
the  first  time  by  photographs,  as  are  documents  from  newly   very innovative idea of a triad with two elements may
discovered  sites  like  Mankhor  (Hachid  1998).  The  second   explain the many contradictions of an author who accepts
book  by  Malika  Hachid,  which  is  more  specifically  devoted   the domestic status of the ram (ibid.: 144) while making
to an enquiry into the origins of the Berbers, also contains that animal the main feature of a pre-neolithic “naturalistic
a great deal of Saharan rock art, mostly in the form of period”  (ibid.:  66)!
excellent photographs (Hachid 2000). In this regard, one Finally, Augustin Holl devoted a whole book to a single
excellent surprise is the publication of M. Morey’s brown rock  shelter  decorated  with  rock  paintings  which  is  a  first  
photos  (ibid.,  fig.  42,  48,  49,  69,  70,  132,  138):  their  quality,   for the Sahara (Holl 2004a). His excellent idea was to
76 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

carry out an iconological analysis, but the author did not dating and interpretation. One cannot agree with him
take the trouble to go to the site, and only works from a when he claims the presence of true Tassilian Round Head
copy of the tracing by Pierre Colombel. Had he gone to paintings in the Jebel el-’Uweynât (ibid.: 20). Despite the
Iheren, the location of the shelter he wanted to study, he rejection of the terms “naturalistic” (ibid.: 44) and “sub-
would have realized how faulty this copy of a copy is. It is naturalistic” (ibid.: 60), and in spite of a preference for
not only wrong in several details, but also and especially the use of the expression “artistic tradition” instead of the
in the general layout of the images on the wall: in reality, term   “school”,   and   although   style   is   defined   (ibid.:   21)  
the group of giraffes is not at all located where one sees it as   a   category   grouping   “behavioural   traits   specific   to   an  
in  the  assemblage  used  by  Augustin  Holl  (ibid.,  fig.  8.2).   individual, a group of individuals or a population”, the use
Since a crucial part of the author’s reasoning is based on of these different notions throughout the book poses a few
the relative distribution of the different groups of paintings, problems. Hence, arguing for the existence in Djado of an
his  entire  demonstration  collapses!   elephant  that  is  “static,  with  a  simplified  outline,  with  no  
detail on the head”, the author deduces that the “bubaline
tradition… presents surprising stylistic variability” (ibid.:
Libya 20–21), whereas the chosen example simply does not
A  fine  publication  did  justice  to  the  work  carried  out  by  Paolo   belong  to  this  tradition!  Similarly,  his  discussion  (ibid.:  49)  
Graziosi  in  the  Messak  In  the  years  1967–1968,  and  which   of  the  anthropological  type  of  certain  Round  Head  figures  
he was still intending to publish when death interrupted (“negroid” according to him, whereas Alfred Muzzolini
his  plans  in  1988  (Graziosi  2005).  The  excellent  photos,   saw them as “europoids”) arouses serious reservations,
accompanied by the great prehistorian’s notes, plans and as  always  in  this  field,  notably  because  the  images  under  
field  sketches,  concern  the  famous  sites  of  I-­n-­Habeter,  I-­n-­ consideration  here  are  artistic  figures  whose  motivation  is  
Galgîwen,  el-­Warer  and  Tilizzaghen;;  but  a  few  documents   not strictly illustrative, and which one obviously cannot
from the valley of the Ti-n-Iblâl are also presented. The consider   to   be   like   the   plates   in   a   19th-­century   treatise  
chronological analysis attempted at the end of the book by of physical anthropology. The author is certainly right to
the publisher merely returns to the convictions expressed reject the hypothesis that the art of the Messak is the result
by Fabrizio Mori (2000), who grouped together the images of  influences  from  pharaonic  Egypt,  but  one  cannot  agree  
of large wild fauna within an “arte venatoria” (hunters’ art) when he claims that today “we know it is the other way
that is supposed to date back to about 12,000 BP. They were round” (ibid.: 120). These criticisms should not conceal
supposedly followed by the engravings of “pastoral art” the fact that the book has numerous positive elements. Jan
(Graziosi  2005:  169).  This  makes  it  all  the  more  regrettable   Jelínek dispatches the shamanic interpretation in a page and
that Paolo Graziosi did not have enough time to give us a  half  (ibid.:  93–94),  rightly  insists  on  the  contemporaneity  
his  final  thoughts  on  this  subject,  since,  on  his  return  from   of certain lithic monuments and the great artistic tradition
the  1968  mission,  he  had  already  understood  that  it  was   of   the   Messak   (ibid.:   27–28),   reports   the   existence   of  
impossible to separate two such groups of engravings in the engravings earlier than this tradition (ibid.: 43), suggests an
Messak sites he had visited. affinity  of  the  fine  engravings  of  Tripolitania  and  Cyrenaica  
Another posthumous publication collects together the with those of the Niscemi cave at Addaura in Sicily (ibid.:
studies  carried  out  on  the  Messak  since  1976  by  Jan  Jelínek   38–39),  rejects  the  hypothesis  of  “incipient  domestication”  
(Jelínek 2004). The author was one of the few who, in by showing that bovines which are mounted or carrying
the  1970s,  understood  that  this  zone  should  be  infinitely   things   could   only   be   castrated   bulls   (ibid.:   96),   which  
richer than had been suggested by the publications by indicates an advanced stage of domestication. Several
Barth, Frobenius, Graziosi and Pesce. The book is divided claims by this author, who was known for his exemplary
into   two   major   parts:   one   (ibid.:   11–174)   first   presents   caution, will certainly startle supporters of the “long”
the geographical framework, the history of research chronology  for  Saharan  rock  art.  Hence,  p.  47:  “In  general,  
and the author’s analyses (location of sites, chronology, the engravings of the bubaline tradition are associated
archaeological context, archaeozoology, palaeoclimatology, with pastoral activities”, or p. 50: “the populations of the
style, subjects depicted, and an approach to their symbolic, Acacus of the Round Head tradition had some knowledge,
decorative or narrative meaning); while the second, at least rudimentary, of the domestication of livestock” (cf.
which   is   the   most   voluminous   (ibid.:   174–541)   makes   also  p.  100),  and  again  p.  63  and  67,  when  it  is  said,  quite  
available – and easy to consult – all of the documents rightly, that the ancient Bubal cannot serve as a reliable
used (photographs and tracings), accompanying them chronological marker. But these claims are very correctly
with detailed descriptions. The descriptive part, which argued, and will make a useful contribution to the current
gives an annotated inventory of numerous Tripolitanian, which, for a decade now, has been proposing a critical
Cyrenean and Fezzan sites, is strictly documentary and revision   of   the   chronologies   and   stylistic   classifications  
can therefore scarcely be a cause for debate. The situation that have been too rapidly generalized to the whole Sahara.
is  different  in  the  first  part,  in  which  the  author  presents   Thus,  despite  its  imperfections  and  its  unfinished  nature,  
his own view of the art and the problems posed by its this book is doubly useful: on the one hand by providing
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 77

a corpus and a painstaking description of several sites that attention to the massif’s wealth of engravings, which had
are hard to reach today (military areas), if not destroyed, hitherto been greatly underestimated. These new elements
and on the other by contributing to the current debates also change our perception of regional rock-art geography,
about the chronology and interpretation of rock images. in particular because they reveal the presence of a few
Léone Allard-Huard has published the second volume “Messakian”  influences  in  the  Tadrart  (Choppy  et al. 2002:
in her “Nile-Sahara” series, this time dealing with pastoral 69,  175,  176,  196,  261,  281…).
figures  (Allard-­Huard  2000).  In  doing  so,  she  follows  the  
line of research initiated by her late husband, General
Huard, looking for “cultural traits” in the rock paintings Libyan desert
and engravings that extend “from the Nile to the Red Two recent publications give an excellent idea of the rich
Sea”, in order to establish cultural relationships over very rock-­art   patrimony   of   el-­’Uweynât   and   the   Gilf   Kebîr:  
long distances. Unfortunately, too little attention is paid one is the very large volume, illustrated with more than
to styles and the development of a precise and reliable 900   colour   photographs,   by   Jean-­Loïc   Le   Quellec   and  
periodisation, which means that one cannot really follow Pauline and Philippe de Flers, and which takes stock of our
the author in her diffusionist theories. Nevertheless, the knowledge of the region while also providing numerous
numerous photographs that illustrate the book make it unpublished documents (Le Quellec et al. 2005); the other
a very useful thematic catalogue, which notably permits is  the  DVD  in  which  András  Zboray  has  made  available  the  
interregional comparisons. bulk of the very rich photographic documentation that he
The much awaited book by Axel and Anne-Michelle has patiently gathered on this same region, forming a corpus
Van Albada on the Messak was published under the title that is presented in an exemplary way, and completed with
La Montagne des Hommes-Chiens (The Mountain of the permanent  updates  on  the  internet  (Zboray  2005b).
Dog-Men) – a bad choice by the publisher, no doubt, for The exceptional rock-art documentation illustrated in
which one cannot therefore blame the authors, but which these two publications casts fresh light on the complex
caused   great   displeasure   in   Libya.  The   first   chapters   are   subject of relations between the Nile Valley and the eastern
devoted to a general presentation of the plateau, and the Sahara. Although one must doubtless stop seeing in Saharan
history of its exploration, in which the authors have played rock images the traces of a unitary “culture” which was
such an important role. Next, the art’s context is presented, supposedly the source of Egyptian civilization, it is still
with particular attention given to funerary architecture (Van true that the latter probably played a role in its multiple
Albada and Van Albada 2000: 43–44). Chronology is the heritage, part of its world view, rites, and myths that were
subject  of  a  long  analysis  (ibid.:  59–65)  which  concludes   also   the   basis   of   the   iconography   of   the   Gilf   Kebîr   and  
that   there   was   a   flowering   of   the   “Messak   civilisation”   Jebel el-’Uweynât. Here as elsewhere, one now needs to
during the 4th millennium, albeit not denying the existence obtain direct dates from paintings, in order to verify the
of a little corpus of engravings that are clearly earlier, the chronological framework of these images.
study of which has not really been undertaken as yet. The
interpretations proposed by the authors to explain certain
enigmatic engravings have now been refuted, but the main Thematic analyses and general syntheses
thing remains, i.e. their patient cartographic work on valleys
and sites. Since being published, these very precious maps On  hunting  and  animal  figures  
have been used by all visitors to the region… including Rock images constitute a bestiary which, while obviously
people  from  the  oil  industry!  Here  they  are  accompanied   linked to the fauna present in the period of the artists, is not
by an inventory of the principal engraved sites, which a  faithful  reflection  of  it.  So  the  choice  of  species  depicted  
occupies  the  ample  last  part  of  the  book  (ibid.:  99–134).  It   records both nature and culture, which complicates its study
was impossible to be exhaustive because there are hundreds (Rodrigue  2000).  A  first  approach  consists  of  studying  the  
of sites in the massif, and tens of thousands of engravings, works “from the inside”, taking note only of the method
but there is no doubt that this pioneering work will long of production of the painters and engravers, their way of
remain unsurpassed. constructing  figures,  but  this  method  has  rarely  been  adopted  
As for the Akâkûs, where teams of Italian professionals until now (Holl 2002; Dupuy 2003c). The over-representation
have  been  working  regularly  since  the  1950s,  one  might   of  certain  species  is  certainly  significant,  and  one  must  be  
have thought that not much was left to discover. But entire careful  not  to  artificially  dissociate  certain  types  of  images,  
parts of the massif, rich in rock depictions, have never like for example those which connote hunting or game.
been published. Where the middle area is concerned, Moreover, the study of pastoral images makes one realize
the inventory work has been accomplished by a group that the bovine “here goes beyond a simple economic role
of passionate amateurs, who published it with their own and  fills  the  community’s  sacred  space”  (Aïn  Seba  2003a).
–  modest!  –  means,  and  it  would  therefore  be  unwarranted   Bouchra Kaache has produced a synthesis of the
to reproach them for the rough nature of this book (Choppy engraved equids of south-eastern Morocco, that is, just
and Scarpa Falce 2001). It has the great merit of drawing twelve subjects, among which she thinks she can recognize
78 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

six horses and six asses, without being able to say if they head, and the supposed tether is merely the water falling
were domestic or not (Kaache 2004). Moreover, these from their mouth. Because of its long neck and head “in
images belong to the Tazina style, which is not particularly the clouds”, the giraffe could have been seen as a kind of
reputed  for  its  fidelity  to  nature,  which  means  that  some   intermediary between sky and earth, which would have
of these quadrupeds may not be equids at all. Ginette predisposed it to become one of the “rain animals” dear
Aumassip and A. Kadri have also taken an interest in the to the San. On the basis of the possibility that, in southern
equids in rock art, and have made a useful distinction Africa, this animal would thus have constituted a symbol
between Barbary and Arab horses: although the Indo- of rain and fertility, the author wonders if the same was
European origins of the former cannot be doubted, the latter not true in the Sahara, and implies that contact could have
could perhaps prolong the stock of very ancient horses existed between the two areas, without hiding the fact that
that appear in Aterian sites (Aumassip and Kadri 2002). this is an unproved speculation. One should add that this
Some recent work on mitochondrial DNA, indicating the is all the more true since the existence of tamed giraffes
probable existence of several centres of domestication of (not “domesticated”) held on a leash is well attested in
the horse, even make it possible seriously to propose a local recent periods on the southern fringe of the Sahara. And at
domestication of a prehistoric wild horse of the Maghreb Jebel el-’Uweynât, the giraffe that is very clearly held by a
(Equus algericus)  (Aumassip  2003a,  2003b:  79). leash  at  the  Wadi  Wahesh  (Zboray  2005a,  fig.  7)  strongly  
Bouchra Kaache has also drawn attention to two contradicts the interpretation of falling water. Moreover, at
Moroccan axe-bearers, one of them approaching a el-Kab in Upper Egypt, Dirk Huyge has shown that 60%
rhinoceros from behind (at Tiourine, Tazzarine), the other of   the   engraved   giraffes   look   westwards,   whereas   70%  
doing  the  same  to  a  lion  (at  Boukerkour,  Misssi).  The  first   of the other engravings point eastwards. The west is the
of these images is compared with ancient texts (Strabo place where the sun sets, where its adversaries put the star
XVI, 4, 10; Pliny VIII, 26; Diodorus III, 26) that describe in peril, which could be linked with the old hypothesis by
techniques for hunting elephant in which stalking and Egyptologist Wolfhart Westendorf who saw this animal as a
approaching the pachyderms from behind were favoured. solar  being  (Huyge  2002a:  199–200).  One  can  see  in  these  
But these hunting techniques are so widespread that this is two – incompatible – examples of the “rain giraffe” and
scarcely  significant,  especially  if  one  takes  into  account  that   the “solar giraffe”, that it is an illusion to want to elucidate
Bouchra Kaache herself cites, in the same region, another symbols in the absence of their context.
axe-bearer at Aït Ouazik (Tazzarine) who is standing in After reminding us that in south-west Libya of the 11th–
front of a rhinoceros (Kaache 2001: 120). 10th  millennia  BP  the  mouflon  was  the  most  hunted  animal  
The “throwing sticks” or “curved weapons” of the in  the  Akâkûs  (up  to  more  than  80%  of  the  faunal  remains),  
pastoralists of Iheren-Tahillâhi are very different, and these especially at Wa-n-Afuda, Wa-n-Tabuu, and Ti-n-Torha,
names should simply be considered conventions as long as whereas  from  the  7th  to  the  6th  millennia  BP,  the  number  of  
this   object   has   not   been   precisely   identified.   Ullrich   and   this species’ remains decreases with the pastoral era, Felice
Brigitte Hallier wonder about the nature of this weapon, Cesarino notes that in rock art, the precise opposite seems
which they suppose to be carved in wood (Hallier and to  happen:  mouflon  depictions  are  rare  in  the  Round  Head  
Hallier 2001: 122; 2002: 111), but I notice that it has exactly paintings, and more frequent afterwards. In fact, this contrast
the same horn-shape as certain bovines of the same style, is even greater than the author says, because he follows
on the same walls. These weapons could have been made of Mori’s chronology and considers as “Fase Pastorale antica”
horn, which would explain why none has ever been found, some  figures  which  are  in  reality  of  the  Iheren-­Tahillâhi  
but it must be said that work on comparing the material /  Wa-­n-­Amîl  style  –  and  thus  of  the  final  pastoral  phase.  
culture visible in the paintings and engravings with what In particular, hunting scenes become numerous in recent
can be known through traditional archaeology has barely periods, and the author suggests (Cesarino 2000: 116) that
begun (Le Quellec 2003b). when men appear without weapons, it is a scene of adoration
Maarten van Hoeck has compared the “giraffes on a or  prayer  (which  seems  extremely  improbable  as  the  mouflon  
leash” of the central Sahara and Namibia, and concludes is  so  difficult  to  approach,  and  since  in  these  images  the  dogs  
that there is a possible common symbolism (Hoeck 2003). are often shown attacking it, even biting it). It also suggests
The distribution of this motif includes most of the Sahara an attempt at mastery and control of the animal by means
and the south-west of southern Africa. In the Sahara, of  dogs  (and  drystone  enclosures,  cf.  p.  118–119)  –  but  the  
explanations so far have concerned techniques of taming, hypothesis of hunting scenes is far more probable, especially
hunting or magic on the one hand, and, on the other, as a painting in the Akâkûs (of undetermined pastoral age)
psychological motivations (domination, possession) or a shows  a  mouflon  blocked  by  the  same  type  of  trap  (ibid.  fig.  
spiritual or symbolic role. In Namibia (sites of Piet Algerts 4) as is still used today by the Tuaregs of the same region.
Kopjes, Twyfelfontein, and the Brandberg), the comparable Basing himself on medieval Arab authors, Ahmed Achrati
images are never associated with anthropomorphs. It is has suggested that the sheep with a cephalic attribute in
supposed   that   they   are   figures   displaying   the   gesture   of   Saharan rock art could be the equivalents of the ram called
giraffes surprised while drinking: they abruptly raise the al-karrâz in Arabic (from karza: “saddle bag”) attested
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 79

Fig.  4.8.  Detail  of  a  mouflon-­hunting  scene,  painted  at  I-­n-­Fardan  in  the  Akâkus  in  Libya.

among the pastoralists of the Middle Ages – al-Jâhiz even been reviewed by the late Gabriel Camps, who concluded
specifies,  in  the  9th  century  AD,  that  the  ram  carried  not   that, although this animal was present in the Holocene,
only the shepherd’s gear but also the shepherd, mounted the  figures  “are  completely  unconvincing”  (Camps  2002:  
like on a donkey (Achrati 2003). But apart from the major 78).  In  southern  Morocco,  a  dozen  “corniforms”  engraved  
chronological gap between the rock art and these texts, in the Tazina style from the south of Smara to the east of
there is no reliable depiction to support this hypothesis. Foum   Zguid   have   been   seen   by   Richard   Wolff   as   heads  
And although in the Sahara there are certainly numerous of  big  ancient  buffalos  which  were  simplified  to  the  point  
paintings and engravings of cattle carrying things, there of being reduced to a kind of ideogram (Wolff 2001).
is not one of a “ram of burden”. Moreover, certain images
make one hesitate about how much of them is faithful to
reality and how much is artistic licence (Cesarino 2003). On sexuality
Hence,  the  fineness  of  the  muzzle  of  the  cattle  painted  by   François Soleilhavoup has attempted to establish an
the pastoralists of Iheren-Tahillâhi could either correspond “organized   thematic   typology”   of   figures   with   sexual  
to a particular bovine race, or could simply be the result connotations in the Sahara,but this very incomplete work
of artistic licence (Hallier and Hallier 2004). So, returning is burdened by the author’s propensity to see these images
to the theme of the “helmeted ram”, it seems preferable as depictions of genital aberrations or pathologies. He even
for the moment to limit oneself to noting its extent in goes so far as to wonder if a therianthrope – assuredly
the central massifs, already attested in the Aramât region mythical – in the Ahaggar is suffering from Lapeyronie’s
(Le   Quellec   1995)   and   now   also   between   Jabbaren   and   disease, which revives the old theories that insist on
Oazaneare (Masy et al. 2004). As for the rare depictions of seeing, in ancient imagery illustrating certain protagonists
“stags” which people claim to have seen from time to time of mythology, depictions of real monstrosities. Even if it
in the rock art of the Maghreb and the Sahara, they have ends with a futile evocation of shamanism (Soleilhavoup
80 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

2003b:  47),  at  least  this  attempt  has  the  merit  of  showing,   hide is decorated with wavy lines as “a metaphor for the
a contrario, that there is no way of distinguishing in such fire-­djinns”;;  these  animals  “may  have  been  holy  animals,  
rock art assemblages what is realistic (depictions of real or animals imbued with contact between the living and
genital anomalies) from what is “imaginary” (scenes the spiritual world”, and that would permit one to date the
of bestiality with wild animals such as the rhinoceros Berbers’   “fire-­worship”   back   to   the   end   of   the   Neolithic  
or the elephant). The same author also tries to know (Smith   2004:   46–47,   52).   According   to   Smith,   “it   is  
whether certain engraved people display the stigmata of tempting to think of the ‘wavy-line’ motif as representing
circumcision (Soleilhavoup 2001a), whereas these are non- the  flickering  of  fire”  (Smith  2003:  253,  258–259;;  2004:  
naturalistic depeictions, as is proved by the anthropomorph 53), but there is no indication that obliges one to read these
of Tissatine Kibertina which has the ears and tail of an wavy  lines  as  a  symbol  of  fire  rather  than  water  or  wind,  
animal, thus showing that it is indeed a supernatural for example. Extending his interpretation to all the “striped
being. The application of medical diagnoses (Lapeyronie’s cattle” visible in the Chadian massifs (Ennedi) and as far as
disease,  lymphatic  filariosis)  to  manifestly  mythical  beings,   the Nile valley, without taking stylistic types into account,
in order to explain some of their somatic characteristics, he  suggests,  albeit  without  affirming  it  clearly,  something  
recalls the mania of those doctors, amateur mythologists, like a common culture, or like a diffusion over the whole
who regularly try to interpret mythological monsters as of  the  Sahara  (Smith  2004:  47).
representations of real anomalies. Even when pursued with All over the world, rock art regularly evokes extremely
talent, such a procedure can never attain the true “why” of far-fetched speculations, the least of which tries to see the
these images: it remains possible that some of them may earliest art as “the infancy of an original writing” and of
have been inspired by illnesses or anomalies, but this is which the worst examples, in the Sahara, try to explain
rarely provable, and what is important is to know their the palaeolithic signs of Lascaux or of El Castillo by the
function within the cultures that produced them. In short: arrangement of the acacia framework of Tuareg tents
mythology cannot be explained by medicine. (Belkadi   2005)!   Avoiding   these   errors,   authors   such   as  
François Soleilhavoup was more inspired when he Ahmed Achrati and M’Hamed Krimo Boukreta prefer to
stressed that, in the Atlas, certain macrophallic human indulge in long philosophical musings, both erudite and
figures  are  next  to  animals  whose  sexual  organs  are  equally   poetic, on themes of Saharan inspiration, for example
emphatic,  following  the  very  fine  example  of  Safiet  Bou   about   the   “tears”   that   seem   to   flow   from   the   eyes   of  
Renan   (Soleilhavoup   2003a,   fig.   253).   He   is   also   very   certain animals engraved in the central Sahara – but, while
likely to be right when he supposes that “the analogy of perfectly legitimate, such a procedure can scarcely cast
the sexual fertility of animal and man could explain (the) light on the engravers’ intentions (Achrati and Boukreta
graphic similarities” between the ram, a fertilizing animal, 2005). Finally, the most useful analyses are sometimes the
and  ithyphallic  figures  like  those  of  el-­Harhara  or  el-­Richa   least ambitious. Hence, faced with the exceptional painted
(Soleilhavoup 2003a: 141). assemblage at Ouri (eastern Tibesti), its discoverers propose
Ahmed Achrati reviews the publications on the “open to interpret its “story”: it could represent the encounter of
women” or the women giving birth (?) engraved in the two neighbouring populations – one of stockherders (left
central   Sahara,   and   compares   them   with   rock-­art   figures   group) apparently involved in some collective festivity,
in North America or southern Africa, but also with Inanna and the other of hunters (right group) dressed differently
in Sumerian myths, or with the works of modern creators; and running to the festivity. The existence of such a ritual
these comparisons give rise to a poetic musing, cleverly would imply that of a myth to justify it, a myth which
embellished around some very general thoughts on the would be linked to the aspects of this fresco which, to
“Great Goddess”, but the author does not propose a new our eyes, remain impenetrable (Boccazzi and Calati 2001:
reading of Saharan art (Achrati 2004). 109–113).  The  fact  that  this  reading,  presented  cautiously,  
is quite seductive should not conceal the fact that it is an
unverifiable  speculation,  and  that  other  interpretations  are  
On mythology in general possible. For example, why not see it as a single human
Andrew B. Smith (Smith 2004: 45) suggests that certain group, but shown in two different circumstances, hence
“concepts” of the Saharan pastoralists diffused from the the difference in clothing and attitude between the right
Sahara to the Nile valley. Seeking the “deep meaning” and left parts? Nothing obliges one to choose one reading
of the work behind the paintings, he repeats the readings or the other, and it is always possible to imagine others….
proposed by Amadou Hampaté Bâ and Germaine Dieterlen, This type of situation (the presentation of an attractive but
while recognizing that these types of interpretation “are undemonstrable idea) can be found in other readings, like
not without their critics” (ibid: 46), but this caveat is that of the Atlas engravings by François Soleilhavoup: we
utterly   insufficient   since   the   comparisons   proposed   by   saw earlier that he presents the idea of a possible “symbolic
these authors with the traditions of the Fulbe have been triad” that was peculiar to this rock-art province, and which
annihilated (Le Quellec 2002). Even more incautiously, united ram-ancient buffalo-elephant, man-ram-buffalo or
this author proposes an interpretation of the bovines whose man-ram-elephant. In such a framework, the ram could
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 81

Fig. 4.9. Engraving showing a giraffe whose head is touched Fig. 4.10. Camel surmounted by a palanquin, engraved among
by a little human, in the Karkûr Talh (massif of Uweynât, near alphabetic  inscriptions  in  Tifinagh  character,  one  of  which  is  
the Egyptian-Sudanese-Libyan border). obliterated  by  a  recent  Arabic  graffito.  

have been a kind of mediator between man and nature – a ideas, suggesting that the paintings (of Iheren, as it happens)
very  interesting  hypothesis  but,  alas,  particularly  difficult   were territorial markers associated with inter-group
to prove since the notions of “nature” and “culture” relationships reactivated on a calendrical basis. Smith goes
may perhaps have been totally foreign to the engravers farther by suggesting that “the paintings were mnemonics
(Soleilhavoup 2004). for a cognitive system where they were linked by paths,
Sometimes, figures that used to be considered as each panel being connected to another to form a larger
“inexplicable symbols” or that had been given erroneous accumulative whole”. Why not? After summarising the
explanations  (Soleilhavoup  1999:  20–21)  are  in  reality  easy   chronology proposed by Savino di Lernia for the Pastoral
to elucidate; this is the case with the schematic paintings of   the   Akâkûs   (Early   Pastoral:   7400–6410   BP,   Middle  
of palanquins which are not rare among the cameline Pastoral:   6080–5100   BP,   Late   Pastoral:  5100–3500   BP),  
assemblages (Soleilhavoup 2001b). But need one point the author is no less critical of the readings by Augustin
out that the motivation of the immense majority of images Holl who proposed seeing a fresco of Tikadiouine (Tassili-
remains inaccessible to us, even when we recognised the n-Azjer) as the stages in the passage of a young boy to
objects or animals depicted. Is it possible to imagine a adulthood, and another at Iheren (same region) as the
method  capable  of  overcoming  this  difficulty?  According   stages in the annual pastoral cycle. This supposes that these
to Andrew Smith (Smith 2005), Saharan rock art does not images can be immediately decipherable by a present-day
interest specialists in rock art in general, or in that of other observer, and nothing is less certain. So Andrew Smith
regions, because its study lacks the “descriptive paradigm”, wants to propose an “alternative approach” based on the
as  it  was  called  by  Augustin  Holl  in  1989.  Since  that  date,   tracing, by Pierre Colombel, of a scene in Iheren-Tahillâhi
only the work of Holl himself has brought in innovative style, showing four men and a woman accompanied by two
82 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

bovines with coats partly striped with ‘wavy-lines’, which Another example is that of the “circular symbols” of the
are certainly not realistic. The data presented by Savino di Oukaïmeden in Morocco, for which a similar approach
Lernia show that from 4500 BP onwards, it must have been has been proposed, claiming that they “suggest a wheel,
increasingly  difficult  to  raise  cattle  in  the  central  Sahara.   time, the course of the sun, but also their destiny, life
Smith deduces – curiously, in my view – that the scene in and   intelligence”   (Otte   2000:   258)…   whereas   the   most  
question  represents  a  ceremony  associated  with  fire”which   probable hypothesis is that these are shields decorated with
continues to play an important role in the modern pastoral identifying  blazons  (Rodrigue  1988)  whose  representation  
societies of the Sahara”. The problem here is that the three fits  logically  with  the  60%  of  depictions  of  weapons  in  this  
men on the left of the scene are perhaps busy  with  the  fire,   massif.  A  final  example,  again  from  Morocco:  the  cameline  
but this is not certain at all. Personally, I would even confess engravings of Tinzouline have been said to represent an
that I do not have the slightest idea of what they are doing, animal that “evokes sobriety and temperance” (Otte 2000:
and Smith is the victim of the same shortcomings that he 258),  an  interpretation  whose  poverty  and  ethnocentrism  
denounces in Augustin Holl: the blind spot in his theory is contrast with the richness of the Tuareg depictions
that this scene is immediately readable. But the author goes constructed around the camel.
even farther, and concludes, citing Lewis-Williams, that if The comparison of pre- and proto-historic images with oral
the  fire  ritual  he  has  detected  (imagined?)  in  the  scene  “can   traditions  that  were,  by  definition,  collected  recently  is  always  
be extrapolated to include modern ethnographic behaviour delicate. However, it should be recalled that in Morocco, the
of  spirit  possession  among  fire-­specialists  of  the  Tuareg,   Amghar (“chief”) of the Aït Affan designated as Afulul-n-
then we might suggest that there is deep meaning attached uyus (“Rock of the Horse”) a slab engraved with hand- and
to those paintings depiting ‘wavy-line’ cattle. The paintings foot-prints (but no horse). He added that these engravings
could thus have become mnemonics for ritual belief, and had been made by young people who came there to put their
possible metaphors for activities under altered states of hands and feet on the rock to trace the outline, and that they
consciousness during spirit possession”. Personally, I could recognise their own prints long afterwards.… which is
would deduce that desire for the “new paradigm” must be remarkable, because since the prints in question are deeply
very strong for the author to reach concusions that are so patinated and very eroded, they appear very ancient (Topper
remote from his premises and so fragile in relation to the 2003: 41–42). So one needs to be very circumspect about
data that are really observable. attempts like those by Joaquín Caridad Arias who tried to
With regard to the painted assemblage at Wa-n-Telokat elucidate certain rock engravings in the Canaries by lumping
(Akâkûs), Rosanna Ponti supposes – rightly, I believe – that together, like Marija Gimbutas, des palaeolithic and neolithic
it  must  refer  to  some  lost  myth  (Ponti  2003).  It  is  difficult   figures  from  the  whole  of  southern  Europe  and  the  Balkans  
to do farther, because one has no other painting directly (Caridad Arias 2003)…and it is no surprise that he always
comparable to this one, but some of the elements of which finds  depictions  of  the  “Earth-­Mother”  and  her  attributes  
it is comprised (snake, possible boat, group of people) are (birth,  water,  fertility)!  The  engravings  of  the  so-­called  
found elsewhere in the Akakus (at Wa-n-Afuda and Wa- “linear geometric style” at Lanzarote (Canaries), mostly
n-Muhuggiag). The hypothesis that comes to mind is then comprising series of parallel lines, and, to a lesser extent,
that all these images may illustrate variations of a single crisscoss  lines  or  simple  geometric  figures  (circle,  square,  
myth, but for the moment one cannot really see how to compartmentalised rectangle…) have been subjected to an
verify this idea. It should be stressed that, among the new attempt at interpretation of the same kind, by Hans-Joaquim
paintings reported in the Immidir, several serpentiform Ulbrich. Since 62% of them are on panels orientated from
motifs with longitudinal bichrome stripes do not correspond south-west to south-east (26% of the rest being orientated
to   a   real   animal,   and   “pull”   part   of   the   figures   towards   from east to south-east), they have been linked with a
mythology  (Gauthier  and  Gauthier  2003,  fig.  11:  Tassili-­ possible solar cult; the parallel rays would thus represent
n-­Timesidjan,  fig.  12:  I-­n-­Meten).  Similarly,  the  back  legs   the  sun’s  rays  (or  rain!),  the  compartmented  rectangles  
of the “scorpion” of Imatawert are in reality those of a would symbolise agricultural topography, while triangles,
quadruped, and so it is a chimera, not the depiction of a crosses and ovals are considered as female symbols (?), the
real  arthropod  (Gauthier  2004,  fig.  1). whole thing being linked to the cult of the “Great Mother”
An attempt at a “direct” reading of the rock images of (Ulbrich 2000a) – one can see how fragile these readings are,
the Tassili-n-Azjer using present-day traditions, that of the being directly inspired by the theories of Marija Gimbutas.
Fulani, has had a great deal of media attention since it was The same applies to the one proposed by the same author in
proposed  in  the  early  1960s,  but  a  review  of  this  problem   his analysis of a single very schematic engraving (four arcs
has shown its utter futility (Le Quellec 2002, Le Quellec leaving the end of a segment) at Maleza de Los Medianos,
2004c:  18–26).  Finally,  after  several  fruitless  attempts,  it   when he compares it to various “Mother Goddesses”, the
seems somewhat pointless to try and establish a kind of “Venus” of Sireuil, a neolithic statue-menhir from southern
“dictionary of symbols” for Saharan rock art, for example France, small alabasters from the Neolithic of Sardinia,
by trying to determine the possible meaning of bovine Iranian  statuettes,  Anatolian  figures,  etc.  (Ulbrich  2000b).  
horns for the painters and engravers (Aïn Seba 2002). Augustin Holl has attempted a reading of paintings that
 4. What’s new in the Sahara 2000–2004? 83

is based on a “replicable” method (Holl 2004b), and for statistical treatment of images (Guidoni and Ponti 2004a).
this purpose chose a site at Tikadiouine (Tassili-n-Azjer) Similarly, it is also surprising that a site as remarkable and
which he studied thanks to the documents and publications as frequently cited as the cave princeps of Tahillâhi has not
of Alfred Muzzolini and Aldo Boccazi (Muzzolini and yet been completely recorded (Boccazzi and Calati 2003).
Boccazzi   1991).  This   method   consists   of   identifying   the   As for the tracings by Henri Lhote, even if they can be
“elements” which, when combined, produce “motifs”, criticised, they should long ago have been the subject of
which   are   combined   in   “scenes”   to   finally   produce   “a   a publication in an album (Hallier and Hallier 2002). All
localized narrative, a maximal theme” that conveys a direct over the place, sites are threatened by industrial projects
or  coded  social  message  (Holl  2004b:  85).  The  blind  spot   or by pillagers, from the Atlantic to the Red Sea (Huyge
of this procedure occurs at the point where “motifs” are et al. 2002). Vandals are still active, as is shown – among
recorded, because to constitute them the author selects and a thousand other examples – by the disappearance of the
assembles  the  elements  as  he  pleases  (Holl  2004b,  fig.  4.3)   two hares of Djebel Hesbaïa in the Atlas (Soleilhavoup
whereas other combinations would have been possible. 2003a:  173).  When  they  deign  to  be  concerned  about  the  
Despite the initial methodological effort, the readings archaeological environment, the oil companies – some of
proposed are as arbitrary as many of those which are based which have been very destructive (Kröpelin 2002) – often
on less cautious comparisons. To take just one example, content themselves with redemptive actions, or do not keep
one wonders why two people facing a gazelle head, one their promises: most of those made by “LASMO Grand
of them armed with a probable knife, “may suggest that Maghreb” (Coulson 2001) have not been kept.
they are engaged in a peculiar process of passage from So the most urgent task seems to be, on the one hand,
one social level to another or, for short, one aspect of the to heighten the awareness of the public, businessmen and
process  of  initiation”  (Holl  2004b:  94).  The  analysis  piles   administrative and political officials. Attention must be
up gratuitous inferences of this type, and one cannot see called to the patrimonial, documentary and artistic interest
how it all follows a replicable and testable methodology. of rock art (for an example in Morocco: El-Graoui 2002)
The fundamental question is that of how legitimate are and, on the other hand, set in place some major recording
ethnographic comparisons. Amina Amrane answers that campaigns  (Searight  2004:  9).  To  do  this,  it  is  necessary  to  
the relatively recent nature of Saharan art (compared to form specialists in the recording of data on site, as well as
the Franco-Cantabrian parietal complex) and its unity of analysts whose training will protect them with the theoretical
place make it possible to have recourse to ethnology to try traps into which commentators are still falling too often.
and interpret certain works. Hence, as a kind of test, a link It is also desirable that a communal archive should be
has been made between rock images of jackals, of man- established for copies of the tens of thousands of documents
jackal hybrids, and Berber traditions in which this animal already accumulated in various collections. It is obviously
plays a very prominent role. The basic argument is that, in in Algeria that the protection of rock art is best taken into
their complexity present-day and recent mythologies must account  (Bernezat  2002:  138),  but  a  few  tremors  –  still  
have developed over a long period (Amrane 2000). But the very  insufficient  –  are  starting  to  be  felt  elsewhere,  and  it  
interpretation  encounters  its  first  limits  in  the  identification   is to be hoped that they will continue (Liverani et al. 2000;
of the species concerned: all therianthropes are not hybrids Coulson 2000; Ponti and Persia 2002). It is also true that,
with jackals, even if most of them are beings with a canid when documents are published, it is important to combine
head.  Taking  into  account  the  specific  identification  thus   original photographs with the tracings, in order to avoid
makes it possible to enrich the analysis by bringing to misadventures and misinterpretations which sometimes
light  a  series  of  significant  oppositions  (Le  Quellec  2003a,   last a long time (Le Quellec 2004b). Work of this kind is
2004c:  29–32). underway for the Libyco-Berber inscriptions of Morocco
So it is necessary to bear in mind that mythologists have (Lemjidi et al. 2002; Skounti et al. 2004). With current
abandoned any type of procedure that employs random techniques (DVD, internet) the cost of such publications is
comparisons of separate elements or a univocal “translation” no longer really a problem, as has been shown with brio by
of symbols. Comparing differences is sometimes more András  Zboray,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  his  example  will  
useful, and, like contemporary mythologists, it is preferable be followed by numerous others. Finally, one must underline
to work on assemblages, and if possible on structures (Le the fact that most of our information on Saharan rock art
Quellec 2003a). comes from simple travellers, and passionate amateurs.
They do not always have the theoretical training required for
correctly analysing their discoveries, but the professionals
Conclusion are  not  always  able  to  go  into  the  field.  Opposing  these  
It  is  pretty  astonishing  that  after  half  a  century  of  official   two catagories, as is sometimes still done, makes no sense,
research in the Akâkûs (Di Lernia 2004) no Libyan team because it is in everyone’s interest to collaborate in the
worthy of the name has yet been formed, that we still have immense work of inventory that still remains to be done.
no corpus available of the massif or even of a single one of
its valleys, and that we have only just started hearing of a
84 Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

ed.), The Archaeology of Fezzân. Volume 1, Synthesis. Tripoli

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