digital photograph(colour)
- Museum number
- 2013,2034.431
- Description
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Digital photograph (colour); view of painted rock art showing three Barbary sheep. Left: red infilled Barbary sheep facing right depicting shaggy hair under throat. Centre: two red outlines of sheep with infilled horns confronting each other. The left sheep shows a shaggy coat and both show shaggy hair under the throat. Pastoral Period. Infarden, Libya.
Scanned
- Production date
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28 March 1998 (original photograph)
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03 February 2006 (date digitized)
- Dimensions
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File size: 120 megabytes
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Resolution: 300 dots per inch
- Curator's comments
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Close-up of 2013,2034.432.
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The Barbary sheep is a species of caprid (goat-antelope) native to rocky mountains in North Africa. This image depicts the shaggy hair on the throat (which extends down to the chest in males). The horns curve outwards, backwards, then inwards, and reach up to 50 cm (20 in).
The massif of Tadrart Acacus, a vast mountainous region (more than 250 square km) which is today a desert, is situated in the Fezzan, to the east of the city of Ghat, bordering Algeria. The area is renowned for its diverse topography and landscape formations, from differently coloured sand dunes to arches, gorges, isolated rocks and deep ravines or wadis (dry river beds). Paintings and engravings of various styles are scattered throughout almost all the valleys. The landscape is particularly rich in rock art and was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 because of the significance of the rock paintings and engravings. Sporadically visited since the end of 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the region became the subject of systematic investigation by Fabrizio Mori, who also published the first scientific papers on its rock art (1961), including a monograph (1965). In the late 1930s Paolo Graziosi formulated some initial interpretative hypotheses. Since then, the research has expanded to include a systematic survey of the area and stratigraphic excavations of archaeological deposits.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2013
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- 2013,2034.431
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: LIBAKA0080010 (TARA number)