- Museum number
- 2013,2034.3093
- Description
-
Digital photograph (colour); view of engraved rock art on a rock face, showing two human figures, two lions, six giraffes, an ostrich, a rhino, an unidentified quadruped and five graffiti in Libyan-Berber alphabet. Centre: hunting scene with two lions, three giraffes, a rhino and an ostrich upright facing right, all infilled (polished). Lions have triangular ears, legs splayed as if jumping, claws outstretched, tails up. Two cupules within heads (eyes). Ostrich has legs splayed as if running. Libyan-Berber graffiti over the polished bodies of lions, ostrich and rhino. Left to the lower lion: outlined (pecked) schematic cow upright facing right. Left: three infilled (polished) giraffes upright facing right. Giraffe to the right confronted to stick human figure upright facing left, arms outstretched, hand to the right side holding bow. Superimposed to central giraffe: Libyan–Berber graffiti and human figure upright facing right, legs splayed, arm to the right side outstretched holding (stick? spear?). Lower left: infilled (polished) outline of unidentified quadruped upright facing right. Right: Libyan-Berber graffiti. Wadi Mathendous, Libya.
Scanned
- Production date
-
02 March 2008 (date digitized)
-
March 1998 (original photograph)
- Dimensions
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File size: 57.40 megabytes
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Resolution: 300 dots per inch
- Curator's comments
- The engravings depicted in this rock face correspond to different chronologies. The animals in the hunting, central scene have some stylistic features that can relate them with the Tazina style, while the graffiti and the human figure to the left probably have a Prohistoric (Iron Age) chronology. Libyan-Berber is the name given to the ancient script used in North Africa and the Canary Islands by speakers of Berber languages. Probably descending from the Punic alphabet, it is attested since the 3rd century BC onwards, although some evidences could point to an earlier date, as old as the 9th century BC.
The engravings are located in Wadi Mathendous, one of the main dry riverbeds on the southern edge of the Messak Plateau in southwest Libya, near the borders between Algeria and Niger. That plateau, which runs southwest-northeast through the Libyan province of Fezzan, is divided in two by the Tilemsin pass, which defines two smaller plateaus (Settafet to the north and Mellet to the south). Throughout these plateaus, numerous dry riverbeds run to the east into Murzuq erg. Rather than a single dry riverbed, Wadi Mathendous can define a wide area which includes the In Habeter (the middle course of Wadi Mathendous) and tributaries as the Wadi Tilizaghen. The valley and its tributaries are full with tens of thousands of rock art engravings –only a few paintings have been located insofar-, mostly depicted in vertical rocks. As a whole, Wadi Mathendous and its surrounding area constitutes the core of the Messak rock art. In this case, the engravings are placed in the Wadi Mathendous itself.
The Messak rock art has been known since Heinrich Barth’s expedition in 1850, although it wasn’t until 1932 when the engravings were systematically studied by Leo Frobenius. In more recent times the area has been extensively studied by Pesce (1969), Graziosi (1970) and Jelinek (1984, 1985). Figures appear both isolated and within complex scenes which include engraved life-size elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, buffaloes and figures which mix human and animal features (therianthropes) along with numerous figures of more modern periods as horses and camels. Most of the engravings belong to the so called Bubalus style, but Tazina, Pastoral, Horse and Camel styles are also well represented. The area is home to some of the oldest engravings in the Sahara desert (around 10,000 years old) and some of the most popular depictions in Saharan rock art, as the “Sparring Cats” or the so-called “Apollo of the Garamantes”.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2013
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- 2013,2034.3093
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: LIBMES0170019 (TARA number)