digital photograph(colour)
- Museum number
- 2013,2034.5585
- Description
-
Digital photograph (colour); view of engraved rock art on a rock face, including landscape and showing Abdellah Salih and Alec Campbell. Foreground, right: outlined (polished) unidentified quadruped turned to the side facing up with its back to the left. Back and head cut off by stone breaking. Centre: outlined (polished) unidentified shape with oval, elongated body, sides of different size. The narrower end has a curved appendix perpendicular to the body. Polished, parallel lines throughout the body. Lower end and one of the sides of the appendix cut off by stone breaking, Alec Campbell holding one of them in their place, Abdellah Salih to his left holding a second piece in his right hand. Under broken engraving: outlined (polished) antelope turned to the side facing up with its back to the left side. Foreground, left: outlined (polished) unidentified shapes. Background: Draa valley and Anti-Atlas Mountains. Tiouririne, Morocco.
Scanned
- Production date
-
30 September 2003 (date digitized)
-
March 1998 (original photograph)
- Dimensions
-
File size: 122 megabytes
-
Resolution: 300 dots per inch
- Curator's comments
- For details see 2013,2034.5603 to 2013,2034.5607.
The photograph shows Abdellah Salih and Allec Campbell holding a piece of a recently damaged engraving. Abdellah Salih is one of the members of TARA’s advisory trust and Director of Culture at the Moroccan Ministry of Culture.
The elongated shapes with perpendicular, curved appendixes have been described as “traps”, “gourds” or “hoop nets” due to their shape, but their true meaning remains unknown. They are a common depiction in Southern Morocco rock art.
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
- 2013,2034.5585
- Additional IDs
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: MORATM0040012 (TARA number)