Saharan Rock Paintings:

Animals in Prehistoric Art

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When we think of ancient cultures, we tend to believe that they were

primitive. This is especially true when we are talking about ancient

Africa. The European colonial powers tried to justify their subjugation of

the African peoples by stating that they were primitive and their culture

had not value. Thus, the white European men were bringing culture,

education and technology to backward peoples who received great benefits

from being conquered and exploited. This was a big lie, since the African

peoples already had highly developed cultures. The Europeans ended their

way of life, even though it was working for them. Many Westerners still

regard the Africans as primitive today. However, the art of the ancient

peoples of northern Africa shows that they already had an advanced culture

thousands of years ago.

The ancient peoples did not have automobiles, airplanes or computers,

but they did have a technology that sustained their environment and their

way of life. In addition, they produced great works of art that show skill

in using the materials, as well as artistic talent in designing and

executing the paintings and sculptures that we can still find on rocks

today in the caves and on the cliff faces of northern Africa. In fact,

these great works of art are not limited to northern Africa. They actually

also found all over the continent of Africa. Even the Bushmen of South

Africa, who are considered to be some of the most primitive people in the

world today, have produced wonderful rock art.

The ancient people painted and carved the things that they knew from

everyday life. They depicted people, animals, and objects that were

important to them. Their work is of great beauty, and it should tell

anyone who looks at it that this art was produced by people with an

advanced culture and civilization.

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Rock art can tell us a lot about the ancient cultures that did not

leave any written records. We can learn about the things that were

important to them, since these ancient people considered certain things

important enough to paint pictures of them on rocks. There are also a

number of carvings on the rock faces of cliffs. Researchers are still

learning about Saharan rock art today. Thirty thousand rock paintings and

engravings in all mountainous areas are known, half from Tassili in Algeria

(Brown, 1998). These paintings and carvings on rocks are found in many

different parts of Africa. They date from prehistoric times, yet they

display a highly developed culture and artistic skill. Some of the rock

art is found inside caves, and some of it is found on the walls of cliffs.

Some of the most spectacular examples of Saharan rock art are the

depictions of animals.

For example, at a location in the deserts of Niger, a rock carving of

two giraffes was found. The bigger giraffe figure is slightly larger than

life, and it has a smaller companion also carved into the rock. African

Rock Art experts disclosed this find at the beginning of October 1998, but

it was actually found in November 1997 by David Coulson (chairman of the

Trust for African Rock Art), Alec Campbell (founder of the National Museum

of Botswana), and Jean Clottes (the heritage curator of the French Ministry

of Culture and president of the International Committee on Rock Art), and

their Tuareg guide. Jean Clottes said that he was amazed by the size of

the giraffe because it was so big. Although some rock art was found before

that was several meters long, this was unusual. Clottes said, “These are

very big, perfectly proportioned, and the technique is expert” (Webb,

1998). The depictions of giraffes were found carved into the rock on top

of a fifty foot high outcrop of rock, and the art covers a rock face that
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is about three hundred yards long.

Coulson dated the giraffe as being engraved between 6,000 and 9,000

years ago. Smaller giraffe paintings have been found throughout Africa,

and Coulson said that the giraffe appears to dominate the art in most areas

all over the continent of Africa. It appears that the giraffe was very

important to many apparently unrelated cultures. The Niger Sahara giraffe

and its smaller companion both have a line coming out from the nose and

ending at the form of a tiny man. A painting was found in South Africa

that depicts a giraffe with its head above the clouds and rain falling down

on it. A painting was found in Namibia that shows a giraffe's head and

neck sticking out from a cloud. A painting was found in Algeria that

depicts a tiny giraffe with a long neck, and it looks like a tornado going

into a cloud. An engraving was found in Libya that shows a man feeding a

giraffe. “'Whatever it was, the giraffe was thought to be possessed of

special powers,' Coulson says” (Webb, 1998). The giraffe engravings were

actually known before this team found them. At least two members of the

153 Club saw them in the mid-1980s. In addition, photograph of the two

giraffes appeared in the Saharan Exhibition Guide of the Abbey at Senanque

in the mid 1980s (Webb, 1998). However, the researchers do not want to

reveal the exact location before the carvings have been preserved by cast

work. It would be a shame if crowds of people went to see the carvings,

and then they got destroyed.

Researchers often divide the Saharan rock art into four main eras:

1) the Era of Hunters from 6000 to 4000 BCE; 2) the Era of Stockbreeders

from 4000 to 1500 BCE; 3) the Era of the Horse from 1500 BCE to the 1st

century CE; and 4) the Era of the Camel from the 1st century forward. The

paintings from the Era of Hunters show motion, and the animals never seem
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to stand still. They seem to tell a story that is filled with life. The

paintings from the Era of Stockbreeders provide evidence of a complex

social life (“Mysterious Past”, 1998-99). The paintings of cattle from the

Era of Stockbreeders have coats with many colors, which provides evidence

that cattle had been a domesticated species for a very long time (“Peaceful

life of Stockbreeders”, 1998-99).

The Era of Hunters came after the Bubalus Period (also called the

Buffalo Period), which was from the end of the 6th millennium to the mid-

4th millennium BCE. The Sahara Desert includes significant mountain

ranges, such as the Tassili N'Ajjer, where many rock paintings were found

in caves. Before the desertification of North Africa, this was the home of

great numbers of fishermen, hunters and herdsmen. They became scattered as

the desert became inhospitable, and this had a significant effect upon the

emergence of Ancient Kemet (Egypt), the states to the West where savanna

met forest, and the Mediterranean coast to the North. The rock paintings

show that in the ancient past, the Sahara was fairly moist, and it was

populated by humans and many animals. The division of the Tassili rock art

into periods was initially based on the animals represented in the

engravings. The painting and engraving may need to be considered entirely

separately if the engravings were done by Libyo-Berber Afro-asiatic peoples

and the paintings were done by darker peoples from the south (Brown, 1998).

In the earliest phase, which is called the Bubalus Period, the art

shows animals that became extinct in the area, including the buffalo

(Bubalus Antiquus), elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. The animals

are depicted in a naturalistic style and often on a large scale. The art

shows men armed with clubs, throwing sticks, axes and bows, but never

spears. Later, in the Cattle Period (also called the Era of Stockbreeders),
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the depiction of rams and cattle suggests the beginning of a herding

economy. Most of the Tassili paintings seem to be intermediate between the

Bubalus and Cattle Periods. There are some faceless (aniconic) figures

found at Tassili. They are located in shelters without the pottery or

grindstones associated with the Cattle Period, so may be contemporary with

the Bubalus work. Some round headed figure painting from the Uan Telocat

in the Acacus has been reported to be older than c. 4800 BCE (Brown, 1998).

The archaeological data is difficult to correlate with the art work,

but human occupation at Tassili started at least around 5500 BCE, and it is

assumed that the Bubalus Period soon after and lasted to about 3500 BCE.

During the Cattle Period, from the mid-4th to mid-2nd millennium BCE,

people hunted game. At first they used crude stone axes and throwing

sticks, and later they used bows and javelins. The Cattle or Pastoralist

Period followed the Bubalus Period, and there are no more depictions of the

buffalo. There are other wild animals and, for the first time, cattle.

The style sketchier and less naturalistic. The figures are in stiffer

poses. Sometimes the horns are shown in a frontal perspective. The size

is smaller. Some paintings from the Cattle Period show herdsmen and cattle

together, and sometimes the cows are shown with collars. Radiocarbon dates

suggest that the Cattle Period was from the mid-4th to perhaps the mid-2nd

millennium BCE, but this dating is very uncertain. The Cattle Period

reflects a fully pastoral economy. It is associated with pottery, polished

stone axes, grindstones and arrowheads, and the bones of domesticated

cattle, sheep and goats (Brown, 1998).

Pastoralism, in the form of domesticated sheep and goats,

spread from the Sahara to Cyrinaica and Khartoum in the early
fifth millennium. The domestication of the local wild Bos
africanus cattle probably also originated in the Sahara, in the
fourth millennium. The economic shift to cattle herding was
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accompanied by a change in settlement patterns, with

settlements extending far out into the plain, such as this site
at Adrar Bouis in the Tenere desert. . . . Evidence suggests
that villages covered a considerable large area and supported a
large population, but building materials were insubstantial and
left little trace (Brown, 1998).

Rock art sometimes confirms the historical records and theories. For

example, historians believe that the early trans-Saharan contacts were

established by the Libyan tribe of Garamantes. The Greek historian

Herodotus said that they hunted with their chariots the Ethiopian

Troglodytes, or "cave-dwellers", who lived in the desert. This description

fits in with the rock paintings that depict horse-drawn chariots. The

first rock paintings of horse-drawn chariots were found in Fezzan in the

early 1930s. Since then, more paintings have been discovered in Tassili

and southern Morocco. They seem to form two tracks leading in the

direction of the Niger Bend. After these rock paintings were studied, a

theory was created which says that the Garamantes (or alternatively some

other Saharan people) carried West African gold and ivory to the markets of

Carthage and Rome (Masonen, 1995).

The Horse Period extends from about 1200 BCE, after the Cattle

Period. Evidence suggests that the horse was introduced by the Sea Peoples

from Crete around 1200 BCE, and that Cretan influence came with the horse.

The Sea Peoples came as allies of the Lybians of Cyrenaica against Egypt.

The Horse period is subdivided into three sub-periods: Chariot, Horseman,

and Horse-and-Camel. The rock art suggests that the desert pastoralists

never had any chariots. The desertification of the Sahara ended the use of

chariots, but people continued to use the horse as a mount. The camel may

have been introduced in about 700 BCE, but it took a long time to come into

general use. The succeeding Camel Period extends from Roman times to the

present, and the rock art from this period represents existing animals of
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the Sahara, including antelopes, oryx, gazelles, moufflons, ostrich, humped

cattle (zebu) and goats, and the camel. “The art of the period is small

and highly schematic; the human is represented by a double triangle; the

weapon is the spear, although later there is also the sword and firearm”

(Brown, 1998) In addition, figures of masked dancers have been found.

The rock art of Tassili has a distinct style, which is different from

the rock art found in other places. For example, there is the Tazina Style

of Algeria-Morocco, such as the rock art from the Tazzarine Oasis, in South

Morocco. The art of this place was made by a hunting society. It

typically shows graceful animal figures carved into the rock. The figures

are about a foot tall, and they are carved with polished (not pecked or

dotted) lines. Researchers believe that this art was made by hunters and

herders who were fleeing the desertified areas of the Sahara. Many sites

between Algeria and the Atlantic show the Tazina style, while other sites

show a style that consists of pecked (dotted) designs of the domesticated

ox and wild animals, at a time when the economy was shifting from hunting

to herding (Brown, 1998).

Elephant figures are often found in Saharan rock art in many places

and different time periods. For example, an engraving of an elephant from

Bardai, in the eastern Sahara, has been dated as belonging to either the

Bubalus or the Cattle Period. Its height seven or eight inches (Brown,

1998). “There were probably two reasons for the popularity of the elephant

as a rock art theme. The first was that it provided a lot of meat and the

second that it was associated with water and rain, which the Bushmen

artists were anxious to influence” (Woodhouse, 1992).

While the art sometimes has the purpose of invoking spirits, we

should not automatically classify it as primitive. Even if we do not

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believe in spirits, this does not prove that the people are primitive just

because they do believe in spirits. Everybody has some kind of belief that

others would find ridiculous. For example, every year in December,

Americans take dead trees into their homes and worship them. If you ask

them why they are doing this, they say that a little fat man in a red suit

is going to come down the chimney at night and leave presents in their

stockings. When you point out that their house does not have a fireplace,

they might explain that Santa Claus is magical, so he can come in through

the door or the window. He is a god who knows if you have been bad or

good. If you are bad, then he does not leave you any presents. Also,

every year in March or April, Americans leave baskets out at night so the

rabbit can leave candy for them. This rabbit lays eggs, and the eggs are

made out of chocolate. Maybe you do not believe in the Easter Bunny, but

you still tell your children all about him, and you still leave a basket

out one night a year so he can leave you candy. The rabbit gets into your

house by magic, too. These yearly rituals are obviously the signs of a

primitive religion, yet Americans are certain that they have the most

advanced culture in the world.

If you ask Americans to prove that they have an advanced culture,

they talk about automobiles and airplanes and computers. If you ask them

about art, however, they usually talk about European men who lived about

four hundred years ago: Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and so forth. Most

Americans cannot think of the name of an American artist. Therefore,

Americans should not regard the great African artists as primitive, just

because we do not know their names. We have their pictures, and they prove

that the culture is advanced.

The rock art thus tells us that African peoples developed a culture
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that could support great artists. They produced enough food for the

artist, so that he or she did not have to hunt wild animals, or herd

cattle, or gather plants, or do farming. They also placed a high value on

the art, since they were willing to work to support that artist. This is

evidence of a highly advanced culture, even if they did not have the modern

technology of Europe and the US today.

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References

Brown, Haines. (1998, Dec. 10). “Images from World History: Archaic

northern Africa” www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ta/tad.html.

Burkitt, M.C. (1928). South Africa's Past in Stone and Paint.

Cambridge University Press.

Dowson, J.A. (1989). “Dots and Dashes: Cracking the Entopic Code in

Bushmen Rock Paintings.” South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin

Series, 6: 84-94.

Masonen, Pekka. (1995, June 22). “Trans-Saharan Trade and the West

African Discovery of the Mediterranean World.” The third Nordic conference

on Middle Eastern Studies: Ethnic encounter and culture change. Joensuu,

Finland. www.nsm.com.

“Mysterious Past.” (1998-99). Sahara, Tassili frescoes. Mysterious

Past - Paleologos. Odile Prigent-Paleologos. www.opaleo.com.

“Peaceful life of Stockbreeders.” (1998-99). Sahara, Tassili

frescoes. Mysterious Past - Paleologos. Odile Prigent-Paleologos.

www.opaleo.com.

Skead, C.J. (1987). Historic Mammal Incidence in the Cape Province.

vol. 2, Eastern Half. Cape Town: Directorate of Nature and Environmental

Conservation.

Webb, Martin. (1998). “’New’ Giraffe Engravings Found.” 153 Club;

Jim Mann Taylor's Home Page. www.j.mann.taylor.clara.net/rockart.html.

Woodhouse, H.C. (2000, June 19). “Elephants in Rock Art.” WildNet

Africa (Pty.) Ltd. - Africa's Wildest Web, www.wildnetafrica.com; Coyote

Press Online Catalogue: Publications on Rock Art / Rock Paintings,

www.coyotepress.com/rockart.html.
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Woodhouse, H.C. (1992). The Rain and Its Creatures. Rivonia:

William Waterman.