digital photograph(colour)
- Museum number
- 2013,2034.7273
- Description
-
Digital photograph (colour); view of painted and engraved rock art on a rock face, showing two riders on camels, a rider on a horse, three human figures and two cows. To the centre there are two riders on white or red camels, depicted upright facing left, with the hands to the left holding spears and daggers hanging from arms to the right. Camels have reins and harnesses, with red and white shields hanging from the camels’ hindquarters. The heads of the camels superimpose to two dark red human figures. To the left there are two red cows depicted upright facing left and an red rider on a horse upright facing left, with the hands holding reins and spear? A 10 cm photo scale has been fitted at the bottom of the tableau. Pastoral Period. Kozen Pass, Chad.
Scanned
- Production date
-
November 1996 (original photograph)
-
02 February 2010 (date digitized)
- Dimensions
-
File size: 120 megabytes
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Resolution: 300 dots per inch
- Curator's comments
- Part of a larger panel (see 2013,2034.7277 and 2013,2034.7293 for other parts of the tableau). Close-up of 2013,2034.7295.
Some of the figures are very faded and eroded. The warriors fighting wear daggers hanging from their arms, a weapon described by Roman authors in the 6th century AD and still in use today.
The Tibesti Mountains are placed at the north-western corner of Chad, with a small part of them running into Libya. The central area of the Tibesti Mountains has a volcanic origin, with one third of the range covered by five volcanoes. That origin has formed vast plateaus as well as fumaroles, sulphur and natron deposits and other geologic formations. The erosion has shaped big canyons were seasonal rivers (wadis) flow irregularly. Rock art was discovered at the Tibesti Mountains as soon as 1869, although it was between the 1910’s and 1930’s when the first preliminary studies started to be carried on by François D’Alverny. However, the main boost in the research came in the 50’s and 60’s thanks to the work of Paul Huard. During the last 50 years, researchers have found thousands of depictions throughout the region, most of them engravings although paintings are well represented, too.
As in the Ennedi plateau, the Tibesti Mountains engravings are more modern than those placed to the north, dating of about 5000 years BC, with the oldest images being related to the Round Heads style in the Central Sahara. Later depictions are very numerous, especially engravings and paintings of the Pastoral, Camel and Horse Periods. As happens in the Ennedi Plateau, the Tibesti Mountains are characterized by the existence of different local styles, with differences between the northern and southern ranges.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2013
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- 2013,2034.7273
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: CHATDK0010038 (TARA number)