Tag Archives: Sahara

2012 # 4

2012-07–BARBAZA

Libyco-Berber Rock Engravings:

From One Shore of the Sahara to the Other

Michel BARBAZA

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Abstract

Based on recent observations of Libyco-Berber rock representations (mainly engravings), I propose new elements concerning their nature, chronology and meaning. Current studies, while part of a general inventory, are also involved in the implementation of an analytical approach without which the final corpus is likely to be lacking in eloquence, as are the many representations already identified and published. A number of sites with Libyco-Berber engravings distributed between the great bend of the river Niger and the Maghreb, when considered in the light of the work carried out by the research community, will facilitate solid commitment to this analysis.

To cite this article

Barbaza M., 2012 – Libyco-Berber Rock Engravings: From One Shore of the Sahara to the Other, in F.-X. Fauvelle-Aymar, Palethnology of Africa, P@lethnology, 4, 167-191.
Varia

2009-VARIA–LE-QUELLEC

“Hunters” and “Herders” in the Central Sahara:

the “archaic Hunters” expelled from the paradigm

Jean-Loïc LE QUELLEC

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Abstract

With regard to the chronology of the rock art of the whole Saharan sub-continent, a very common opinion is that, starting from the VIIth millennium BP or even earlier, an older “Culture of the Hunters” had been replaced by groups of “Herders”, and that this change appeared in rock art as a modification of styles, techniques and, above all, of the set of themes associated with the imaginative world of these two populations. A series of recent publications renews this proposal for the Fezzan province, by presenting “archaic Hunters” as existing before 8000 BP, or even as dating from the very Late Pleistocene. After analysing the methodology and the arguments adopted by its authors, this thesis will finally be confronted with, and largely contradicted by, new observations carried out on the two plateaux of the Libyan Messak, i.e. in one of the supposed ‘homes’ of the aforesaid “Hunters Culture”.

To cite this article

Le Quellec J.-L., 2009 – “Hunters” and “Herders” in the Central Sahara: the “Archaic Hunters” Expelled from the Paradigm, P@lethnology, Varia, 388-397.