digital photograph(colour)
- Museum number
- 2013,2034.12141
- Description
-
Digital photograph (colour); view of engraved rock art on a rock face including landscape and showing two unidentified shapes. Foreground: series of four pecked, parallel semi-circular lines. Under semi-circular shape: infilled (pecked) unidentified shape. Background: desert plain and rocky outcrops. Loumet Asli, Morocco.
Born digital
- Production date
- May 2010 (original photograph)
- Dimensions
-
File size: 45.70 megabytes
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Resolution: 300 dots per inch
- Curator's comments
- See 2013,2034.12143 for details.
The engravings are located in the Draa valley, Morocco’s longest river (1100 km). The Draa river flows from the High Atlas south-east into the Atlantic Ocean, although the lower part of the course falls dry most of the year. Along the river course an in the nearby areas at least 120 rock art sites have been documented, being by far the biggest concentration of rock art in Morocco. Engravings (only a score of painted rock art sites have been documented in Morocco insofar) consist mostly in wild animals –including ostriches, lions or rhinoceros- and cattle, along with depictions of warriors on horses and camels. The classification of Moroccan rock art is slightly different from that of the Sahara, consisting on three main periods: Tazina, Cattle (Saharan Pastoral period) and Libyan-Berber (Saharan Horse and Camel periods).
The first mentions of the Draa valley rock art date from the late 19th century, but it was after the treaty of Fes in 1912 when a true interest for the subject arise, especially among the authorities of the new created French Protectorate. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s onwards when a systematic research started thanks to the efforts of A. Simoneau, who in 1977 published a catalogue of the rock art sites of this area that still remains as the most comprehensive approach to the subject.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2013
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- 2013,2034.12141
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: MORLOU0010028 (TARA number)
