Prehistory & Archaeology In The Sahara

Rock Art Research In The Sahara

Rock Art Research in the Sahara has been carried out notably by French and Italian researchers. Rock art research in Algeria and Libya has occurred since the 19th century, amongst the most popular (for anyone who possesses a good Saharan Rock Art biography in their possession) were LEO FROBENIUS and HEINRICH BARTH.  Others have come and gone since, and research continues.  Notable modern-times researchers were HENRI LHOTE and JEAN-DOMINIC LAJOUX in Algeria. Both FROBENIUS and BARTH contributed immensely to our study of African rock art, in north and south Africa. RARI ROCK ART RESEARCH INSTITUTE There are now many groups that are involved with African rock art.

For further information on three groups, please follow the concise links below;

TARA TRUST FOR AFRICAN ROCK ART Linking with TARA is the the BRADSHAW FOUNDATION that is worth a look. They have lots of information on rock art related themes.  The following links relate directly to Saharan Rock Art:  L’AARS, ACACUS ITALY.  Indirectly: CESMAP, INSTITUTUM CANARIUM, INORA, AURA AUSTRALIA.  More website links will appear on this page in due course...

Definitions

The definitions of various ‘eras’ of prehistoric traditions in the Sahara can lead to all manner of confusions in regards to the kinds of descriptions researchers use to define their studied areas.

On the one hand most archaeologists are aware of the three definitions in Europe, and the British Isles, ‘ages’ such as the ‘Neolithic’, ‘Mesolithic’, and ‘Palaeolithic’, and the more ‘historical’ terminology of ‘Roman’, ‘Iron Age’, ‘Bronze Age’, but in relation to Saharan Prehistory these ‘ages’ and descriptive terms become vague and confusing.  Which is not helped by successive name changes of separate ‘eras’ or ‘ages’, polarised and made even more confusing by the work of Alfred Muzzolini and Henri Lhote, both French rock art researchers.

Muzzolini (a secret admirer of LHOTE who has written extensively on Algerian rock art) together with LHOTE (d.1991), in spite comments to the contrary, by at least two observers, exclaimed that Lhote did NOT actually ‘discover’ the rock art in the Tassili (that privilege rightfully belongs to Lhote’s guide Jebrine Ag Mohamed), and between them were the single most defining individuals (aside of the ABBE BREUIL and ANDRE LEROI-GOURHAN in earlier decades) in the fields of Saharan Rock Art Research, from the 1950s through to the 1990’s and beyond.

Muzzolini died in 2003 but his work continues, perpetuated by other members of the l’AARS (Association des Amis de l’Art Rupestre Saharien) fraternity in France. The English page of l’aars is not updated as frequently as the French pages, naturally.  Muzzolini In his latter years was honorary president of l’AARS and presented himself to the world as a monolith to Saharan Rock Art Research.

Even great monoliths sometimes break and crash to earth, and hence, as is true to form, like many who have gone before and after him, their ‘rules’ and ‘labels’ developed by researchers are always being broken or overturned.  FABRIZIO MORI is such an individual. He is Italian by birth and has spent over 40 years in Libya researching Saharan Archaeology, based in the Tadrart-Akakus.

Equally, Jean-Luic LeQuellec’s WEBSITE is informative but sometimes takes a long time to load - by the way do NOT click on the ‘Tomato’ image on the opening page in French....I’ve warned you....

LeQuellec has published extensively and some of his papers are downloadable (usually in .pdf format)

Without going into considerable detail here (lack of space) it is suffice to say that the Sahara has a long prehistory stretching back thousands of years.

Please see the ENNEDI website for some fine examples of Saharan (Algerian) rock art.

As this site continues to be updated, website links will appear regularly also, on diverse subjects as prehistory and archaeology.

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