Saharan rock art

Saharan rock art is a significant area of archaeological study focusing on the precious treasures carved or painted on the natural rocks found in the central Sahara desert. There are over three thousand sites discovered that have information about Saharan rock art. From the Tibesti massif to the Ahaggar Mountains, the Sahara is an impressive open-air museum containing numerous archaeological sites.

Important regions include:
*Tibesti, Chad
*Mesak Settafet, Libya
*Tadrart Acacus, Libya
*Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria
*South Oran, Algeria
*Djelfa, Algeria
*Ahaggar, Algeria
*Draa River, Morocco
*Rock art of Figuig, Morocco
*Aïr Mountains, Niger

The cave paintings found at Tassili-n-Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset, Algeria, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid scenes of everyday life in the central North Africa between about 8000 B.C. and 4000 B.C. They were executed by a hunting people in the Capsian period of the Neolithic age who lived in a savanna region teeming with giant buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, animals that no longer exist in the now-desert area. The pictures provide the most complete record of a prehistoric African culture.

See also

*Rock art

Prehistoric Sahara

*Sahara pump theory
*Neolithic Subpluvial
*Prehistoric Central North Africa

References