Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:26:44.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2010

Savino di Lernia  and
Marina Gallinaro
Savino di Lernia
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Archeologiche e Antropologiche dell'Antichità, Sapienza, Università di Roma, Via Palestro 63, 00185 Roma, Italy; School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa (Author for correspondence, email: [email protected]; www.acacus.it)
Marina Gallinaro
Affiliation:
The Italian-Libyan Archaeological Mission in the Acacus and Messak (central Sahara, Libya), Sapienza, Università di Roma, Via Palestro 63, 00185 Roma, Italy (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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

Keywords

Sahara desertNeolithicrock artradiocarbonPastoral stylecattle sacrificeritual landscape
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 326 , December 2010 , pp. 954 - 975
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anag, G., Cosentino, L. & Lernia, S.Di. 2007. Edeyen of Murzuq: archaeological survey in the Libyan Sahara. Firenze: All'Insegna del Giglio.Google Scholar
Anag, G., Cremaschi, M., Di Lernia, S. & Liverani, M.. 2002. Environment, archaeology and oil: the Messak Settafet rescue operation (Libyan Sahara). African Archaeological Review 19: 67–73.Google Scholar
Applegate, A., Gautier, A. & Duncan, S.. 2001. The north tumuli of the Nabta Late Neolithic ceremonial complex, in Wendorf, F., Schild, R. & Associates (ed.) Holocene settlement of the Egyptian Sahara 1: the archaeology of Nabta Playa: 468–88. New York: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Barich, B.E. 1987. Archaeology and environment in the Libyan Sahara: the excavations in the Tadrart Acacus, 1978-83 (British Archaeological Reports International series 368; Cambridge Monographs in Archaeology 23). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Barnett, T.F. 2006. Patterns on the rocks: spatial distribution of rock art in the Wadi al-Ajal. Journal of Libyan Studies 36: 121–34.Google Scholar
Barth, H. 1857-58. Reisen und Entdeckungen in Nord und Central Africa in den Jahren 1849 bis 1855. Gotha: Justus Perthes.Google Scholar
Bednarik, R.G. 2001. The dating of rock art: a critique. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 1213–33.Google Scholar
Biagetti, S. & Di Lernia, S.. 2003. Vers un modéle ethnographique-écologique d'une société pastorale préhistorique. Sahara 14: 7–30.Google Scholar
Breuil, H. 1952. Quatre cent siécles d'art pariétal. Montignac: Centre d'Etudes et de Documentation Préhistoriques.Google Scholar
Cherkinsky, A. 2009. Can we get a good radiocarbon age from ‘bad bone’? Determining the reliability of radiocarbon age from bioapatite. Radiocarbon 51: 647–55.Google Scholar
Chippindale, C. & Nash, G.. 2003. The figured landscape of rock art: looking at pictures in place. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chippindale, C. & Tac¸on, P.S.C.. 1998. The archaeology of rock-art. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cremaschi, M. 1994. Le Paleo-environment du Tertiaire tardifàl'Holocéne. Les Dossiers d'Archéologie 197: 4–14.Google Scholar
Cremaschi, M. 1996. The rock varnish in the Messak Settafet (Fezzan, Libyan Sahara), age, archaeological context and palaeoenvironmental implication. Geoarchaeology 11: 393–421.Google Scholar
Cremaschi, M. 2002. Late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic changes in the central Sahara: the case study of the southwestern Fezzan, Libya, in Hassan, F.A. (ed.) Droughts, food and culture: ecological change and food security in Africa's later prehistory: 65-81. New York: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Cremaschi, M. & Di Lernia, S. (ed.). 1998. Wadi Teshuinat, palaeoenvironment and prehistory in south-western Fezzan (Libyan Sahara): survey and excavations in the Tadrart Acacus, Erg Uan Kasa, Messak Settafet and Edeyen of Murzuq, 1990-1995. Firenze: All'Insegna del Giglio.Google Scholar
Cremaschi, M. 1999. Holocene climatic changes and cultural dynamics in the Libyan Sahara. African Archaeological Review 16: 211–38.Google Scholar
Cremaschi, M. 2000. Lasmo N-FC 174 concession area: the Messak Settafet rescue operation (Libyan Sahara): preliminary report. Tripoli & Rome: Department of Antiquities/Cirsa.Google Scholar
Di Lernia, S. 1999. Discussing pastoralism: the case of the Acacus and surroundings (Libyan Sahara). Sahara 11: 7–20.Google Scholar
Di Lernia, S. 2002. Dry climatic events and cultural trajectories: adjusting Middle Holocene pastoral economy of the Libyan Sahara, in Hassan, F.A. (ed.) Droughts, food and culture: ecological change and food security in Africa's later prehistory: 225–50. New York: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Di Lernia, S. 2006. Building monuments, creating identity: cattle cult as a social response to rapid environmental changes in the Holocene Sahara. Quaternary International 151: 50–62.Google Scholar
Di Lernia, S. & Cremaschi, M.. 1997. Processing quartzite in central Sahara: a case-study from In Habeter IIIA – Wadi Mathendusc (Messak Settafet, Libya), in Schild, R. & Sulgostowska, Z. (ed.) Man and flint: proceedings of the seventh international flint symposium, Warszawa – Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, September 1995: 225–32. Warsaw: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Gallin, A. & Le Quellec, J.L.. 2008. Les ensembles céramiques du Bassin de Murzuq— une contribution de l'archéologie préventiveà la connaissance du Messak. Cahiers de l'Amis de l'Art Rupestre Saharien 12: 70–87.Google Scholar
Gauthier, Y. & Gauthier, C.. 2004a. Réflexions autour des monuments en ‘U’ du Sud-Ouest du Fezzan (Libye). Sahara 15: 137–50.Google Scholar
Gauthier, Y. 2004b. Un exemple de relation monuments-art rupestre: ‘Corbeilles’ et grand cercles de pierres du Messak (Libye). Les cahiers de l'AARS, 9: 45–62.Google Scholar
Graziosi, P. 1942. L'arte rupestre della Libia. Napoli: Edizioni della Mostra d'Oltremare.Google Scholar
Graziosi, P. 2005. Arte rupestre del Fezzan. Missioni Graziosi 1967 e 1968. Firenze: Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria.Google Scholar
Hassan, F.A. 2002. Palaeoclimate, food and cultural change in Africa: an overview, in Hassan, F.A. (ed.) Droughts, food and culture: ecological change and food security in Africa's later prehistory: 11–26. New York: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Keyser, J.D. 2001. Relative dating methods, in Whitley, D.S. (ed.) Handbook of rock art research: 116–38. Walnut Creek (CA): Altamira.Google Scholar
Lane, P.J. In press. Archaeologies of East African pastoralist landscape: places and paths of memory, in Broch-Due, V. (ed.) Path versus place: reconfiguring Nomads to fit the State.Google Scholar
Le Quellec, J-L. 1990. Pierres de Ben Barur et ‘Radnetzen’ au Fezzan (Libye). L'Anthropologie 94: 115–26.Google Scholar
Le Quellec, J-L 1998. Art rupestre et prehistoire du Sahara. Le Messak Libyen. Paris: Editions Payot et Rivages.Google Scholar
Lhote, H. 1958. A la découverte des fresques du Tassili. Paris: Arthaud.Google Scholar
Liverani, M. 2005. Aghram Nadharif: the Barkat Oasis (Sha'abiya of Gath, Lybian Sahara) in Garamantian times (Arid Zone Archaeology Monographs 5). Firenze: All'Insegna del Giglio.Google Scholar
Lutz, R. & Lutz, G.. 1993. From picture to hieroglyphic inscription: the trapping stone and its function in the Messak Sattafet (Fezzan, Libya). Sahara 5: 71–8.Google Scholar
Lutz, R. 1995. The secret of the desert: the rock art of the Messak Settafet and Messak Mellet, Libya. Innsbruck: Golf.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D. 2003. The archaeology of the Fazzan. Volume 1: synthesis. London & Tripoli: Society for Libyan Studies.Google Scholar
Mattingly, D. 2007. The archaeology of the Fazzan. Volume 2: site gazetteer, pottery and other survey finds. London & Tripoli: Society for Libyan Studies.Google Scholar
Mercuri, A.M. 2008. Human influence, plant landscape evolution and climate inferences from the archaeobotanical records of theWadi Teshuinat area (Libyan Sahara). Journal of Arid Environments 72: 1950–67.Google Scholar
Milburn, M. 1993. Saharan stone monuments, rock picture and artefact contemporaneity: some suggestions, in Calegari, G. (ed.) L'arte e l'ambiente del Sahara peristorico: dati e interpretazioni (Memorie della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali 26): 363–74. Milano: Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali.Google Scholar
Mori, F. 1965. Tadrart Acacus. Arte rupestre e culture del Sahara preistorico. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Mori, F., Ponti, R., Messina, A., Flieger, M., Havlicek, V. & Sinibaldi, M.. 2006. Chemical characterization and AMS radiocarbon dating of the binder of a prehistoric rock pictograph at Tadrart Acacus, southern west Libya. Journal of Cultural Heritage 7: 344–9.Google Scholar
Muzzolini, A. 1991. Proposals for updating the rock-drawing sequence of the Acacus. Libyan Studies 22: 7–30.Google Scholar
Muzzolini, A. 1992. Dating the earliest central Saharan rock art: archaeological and linguistic data, in Adams, B. & Friedman, R. (ed.) The followers of Horus: studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman (Oxbow Monograph 20): 147–54. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Pachur, H.-J. 1991. Tethering stones as palaeoenvironmental indicators. Sahara 4: 13–32.Google Scholar
Paris, F. 2000. African livestock remains from Saharan mortuary contexts, in Blench, R. & Macdonald, K. (ed.) The origins of African livestock: 111–26. London: University College London.Google Scholar
Ponti, R. & Sinibaldi, M.. 2005. Direct dating of painted rock art in the Libyan Sahara. Sahara 16: 162–5.Google Scholar
Rowe, M.W. 2009. Radiocarbon dating of ancient rock paintings. Analytical Chemistry 81: 1728–35.Google Scholar
Steelman, K.L., Carrera, F. RAM´IREZ, F´abregas valcarce, R., Guilderson, T. & Rowe, M.W.. 2005. Direct radiocarbon dating of megalithic paints from north-west Iberia. Antiquity 79: 379–89.Google Scholar
Trevisan Grandi, G., Mercuri, A. & Cremaschi, M.. 1995. Quaternary studies in Libyan Sahara massifs: first palynological data on Messak Settafet MTS (VII–V millennia BP). Atti della Società dei Naturalisti e Matematici di Modena 126: 29–39.Google Scholar
Van Albada, A. & Van Albada, A.M.. 2000. La Montagne des Hommes-Chiens. Art rupestre du Messak Libyen. Paris: Edition du Seuil.Google Scholar
Van Der Merwe, N.J., Sealy, J.C. & Yates, R.. 1987. First accelerator carbon-14 date for pigment from a rock painting. South African Journal of Science 83: 56–7.Google Scholar
Zerboni, A. 2008. Holocene rock varnish on the Messak plateau (Libyan Sahara): chronology of weathering processes. Geomorphology 102: 640–51.Google Scholar