Saharan Prehistory & Rock Art

  Prehistory

  The Sahara desert has formed several millions of years ago, as the northern part of the African continent drifted into the 'desert belt' around the tropic of Capricorn. While desert conditions have existed for millions of years, periodic climatic fluctuations did occur, with wetter periods supporting a flora and fauna very much like the east African savanas of today. The climatic fluctuations were linked to the ice ages in the north, and also to wetter and drier cycles in the tropics. Our ancestors have roamed the plains and highlands in the wet periods, as attested by the millions of flaked stone tools littering the desert floor at almost any place in the Sahara.

   

The earliest evidence of ancestral humans in the Sahara comes from the Bahr el-Ghazal area of northern Chad, where a 3.5 million year old Australopithecus skull was found recently by a French team. It is evident, that in lower paleolithic times (150,000 - 100,000 years b.p.) the whole of North Africa was populated, as the characteristic pear shaped Acheulean hand axes may be found in the whole region. There were several dryer and wetter cycles during the middle and upper paleolithic, with wet peaks during Mousterian (cca. 70,000-50,000 b.p.) and Aterian (35,000-25,000 b.p) times. This was followed by a fairly long hyperarid phase, when conditions were very similar to those at present.

The great neolithic wet period lasted from about 9,000 to 2,500 b.c., when much of the Sahara was habitable for humans, . The plains and dunes in places must have been covered with grassland, with herds of ostrich, giraffe, elephants and various antelopes. In the highlands and in shallow basins on the plains several lakes formed, which supported fish, crocodile and hippopotamus. These places were ideal campsites for the early hunters, and later the water sources were essential to support the large herds of cattle of the nomadic herders, who have left their finely worked stone and bone tools and decorated pottery, as well as heaps of their 'domestic refuse' at many sites along the lakeshores and highland valleys.

   

Even in the wetter periods there were regional variations, and true desert conditions have returned several times for decades, sometimes centuries. The highlands have became refuges in these times for both animals and humans, capturing more precipitation than the lower lying plains. Even today, most of the great Saharan massifs enable very meagre subsistence for small groups of nomads.


  Rock Art Periods

  The ancient humans living in the Sahara left behind more than their discarded tools and campsite rubbish heaps. The whole Sahara is dotted with artistic engravings and paintings on rock faces and on the roofs of rock shelters, mainly concentrating on the highlands. Whether this was due to better living conditions supporting larger population, or more due to lack of suitable rock faces in the ergs and serirs is still debated.

The main concentrations of rock art display broad cultural similarities, but distinct regional styles. Dating is a matter of intense and sometimes heated debates, but the various periods and styles are reasonably well defined:

  Bubalus (hunter or wild fauna) period


In Habeter - Messak Settafet

The earliest examples of Saharan rock art are invariably engravings, sometimes on a very large scale, representing the ancient and partially extinct wildlife, the main objective of the hunters. That they were hunters is inferred from a lack of domestic animal representations. One of the most prominent and common representations is the Bubalus Antiqus (along with other large African animals, elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, etc.), the ancestor of modern domesticated cattle, resembling the modern east African buffalo, but with much larger horns. It became extinct around 5,000 B.C., thus this period is assumed to predate this, however some recent suggestions raise the possibility that the pictures in fact show some breed of domesticated cattle, which would imply that the earliest Saharan rock art sites are no older than 5,000 B.C.

The best examples of this period are the engravings in Wadi Djerat near Illizi in the Tassili-n-Ajjer, the wonderful recently re-discovered giraffes in the Air in Niger, and the older of the thousands of engravings in the Messaks in Libya (Wadi Mathendous being the best known and most accessible locality).


  Roundhead period


Tin Tazarift - Tassili-n-Ajjer

This period was named by Henri Lhote after the characteristic round headed 'Martian' - like' figures of the earliest rock paintings in the Tassili, and the term stuck (Erich von Daniken has made heaps of money with his proposition that the paintings depict aliens). This peculiar style is limited to paintings in the Tassili, but there are some similarities with some of the paintings in the Ennedi, and also possibly the large cave at Wadi Sora in the Gilf Kebir. There is some overlap in time with the later 'Bubalus' engravings, the animals depicted are still mainly the wild fauna, and the human and human-like figures express a very high degree of symbolism (e.g. the 'Great God' at Sefar), which seems to infer a more developed society, with well established religious beliefs and rituals. The exact dating of this period is also a matter of heated debate, with as much as 5,000 year discrepancies between different experts. Assuming the average of estimates lies closest to the truth, this period lasted roughly 6,000 to 4,000 B.C.


  Bovidian (cattle herder) period


Karkur Talh - Jebel Uweinat

This period produced the most numerous prehistoric rock art sites, both engravings and paintings. Wild animal representations become scarce, their place is taken over by innumerable representations of cattle, both solo and in herds, sometimes of over a hundred. Other scenes show people doing their daily activities, all in a very artistic and refined manner. Clearly this society was one of nomadic herders, much like the present day Nuba and Fulani tribes in Sudan and Niger, with their whole life revolving around their animals. Much of the most beautiful paintings in the Tassili and Acacus, as well as the lesser known ones at Jebel Uweinat date from this period. It lasted from about 4,500 to 2,500 b.c., when the drying of the climate forced the herders to move south.

Probably the characteristic Saharan pottery, remarkably similar in form and style across the whole region, can be associated with this period. The vessels were typically round, with wavy line, combed or dotted decorations, and their shards can be picked up in many places.


  Horse period


In Itinen - Tassili-n-Ajjer

The horse was introduced to the Sahara about 1,200 B.C., enabling horse drawn chariots to be used along the Saharan trade routes up till classical times, helped by a small wetter period (which also enabled cultivation in many oases on a much larger scale than today). This period is characterised by small hour glass shaped human figures (described as Garamentean by some, for it is they who are thought to be the charioteers) accompanying horses and carriages, drawn in a style much inferior to the artistic achievements of the preceding periods.


  Camel period


In Itinen - Tassili-n-Ajjer

With the final onset of aridity at about the beginning of our calendar, the camel replaced the horse as the beast of burden, appearing in many places drawn in a very crude style, sometimes accompanied by the tifnar script of the Tuaregs.


  Chronology

  The age of the Saharan rock engravings and paintings is still a matter of heated debate. Relative ages in one locality can be inferred from differing degree of patina (in case of engravings) and superposition of different styles of paintings. Extending the relative chronology between widely dispersed geographical regions is very speculative, based on similarities in style and subject matter.

The absolute dating is even more difficult, as there is very little datable archaeological material directly associable with a rock art site. A stone tool, or hearth with charcoal inside a rock shelter containing a painting could be contemporary with it, or could have been there for thousands of years before the painting was made. There does seem to be a reasonable consensus though among experts, that the earliest examples of Saharan rock art cannot be older, than the beginning of the Holocene wet period (9000 B.C.).

  The Lhote Hoax




Lohote published in his book two paintings which had an unmistakable ancient egyptian influence, yet were strangely different. This caused quite a stir in scholarly circles, as it seemed like unrefutable proof of contact between the Tassili and Ancient Egypt. Eventually it emerged, that the paintings were done by one of the playful artists of the Lhote team, who was familiar with the ancient egyptian style. The hoax misled Lhote himself, who argued very authentically about this cultural link in his book, and probably only became aware that he was set up much later (The pictures were reproduced up to the early seventies editions of his book). By now the paintings have been discretely erased from Jabbaren and Aurenghet, and the Touareg guides shake their head if the photos are shown, having never seen them.