digital photograph(colour)
- Museum number
- 2013,2034.8513
- Description
-
Digital photograph (colour); view of desert landscape showing the tracks of a snake on the sand. Kozen Pass, Chad.
Scanned
- Production date
-
November 1996 (original photograph)
-
02 December 2013 (date digitized)
- Dimensions
-
File size: 1.96 megabytes
-
Resolution: 300 dots per inch
- Curator's comments
- The tracks could correspond to sidewinding viper, common in the region.
The photograph was taken to the east of the Tibesti Mountains, located 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
- 2013,2034.8513
- Additional IDs
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: CHANAS0307 (TARA number)
