digital photograph(colour)
- Museum number
- 2013,2034.5753
- Description
-
Digital photograph (colour); view of engraved rock art on three rock faces, including landscape. The engravings show a bull and several circular and unidentified shapes. Foreground: three outlined (pecked?) circular shapes infilled with concentric circles and cupules in the middle. Lower left: unidentified shape made of series of semicircular parallel lines. Vertical rock face: infilled (polished) upright facing left, curved horns forward. Superimposes to an outlined (pecked?) unidentified vertical shape made of series of semicircular wavy lines. Right to the bull: series of pecked, vertical and parallel lines. Over bull head and neck: two outlined (pecked) spiral-like shapes. Background: desert landscape and Anti-Atlas Mountains. Tata, Morocco.
Scanned
- Production date
-
06 December 2003 (date digitized)
-
March 1998 (original photograph)
- Dimensions
-
File size: 119 megabytes
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Resolution: 300 dots per inch
- Curator's comments
- Detail of 2013,2034.5747, 2013,2034.5749 to 2013,2034.5752, 2013,2034.5764.
The engravings are so eroded that it is impossible to tell if they were originally pecked or polished (most probably the first case).
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
- 2013,2034.5753
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: MORATM0080025 (TARA number)