Saharan Archaeology

Aires culturelles et art rupestre: théranthropes et femmes ouvertes au Messak (Libye)

by Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

L'Anthropologie 99 (1995) 2/3: 405-443.

Résumé: Parmi les gravures rupestres de théranthropes du Sahara central, les cynocéphales des plateaux du Messak... more Résumé: Parmi les gravures rupestres de théranthropes du Sahara central, les cynocéphales des plateaux du Messak (Libye) sont toujours en relation d'agressivité avec les rhinocéros, mais connotent parfois aussi la fécondité lorsqu'ils assaillent des éléphants. D'autres compositions intègrent des "femmes ouvertes", et notamment l'une d'elles qui est gravée juste au·dessus de l'entrée d'une petite grotte, près d'une brebis reliée à une forme placentaire située dans un "ovaloïde", à côté d'un Boviné relié à une autre forme placentaire contenant un petit personnage. Ainsi s'établissent des relations entre fécondité humaine, fertilité animale et signe de l'ovaloïde, le tout s'appuyant très probablement sur le symbolisme tellurique féminin fréquemment attesté par l'ethnologie à propos des grottes et cavités souterraines. L'aire de répartition de ces motifs contribue à définir l'originalité de la "Civilisation du Messak", qui se développa dans le Sahara Libyen,
vraisemblablement à partir de 4500 BCE environ.

Abstract.  Cultural Areas and Rock Art: Theriomorphs and "Open" Women from the Messak Plateau (Lybia).
Among the Theriomorphs engraved in the Central Sahara, the Canine·headed fïgures of the Messak plateau (Libya) are always in aggressive relation with the Rhinoceroces, but sometimes they are assaulting Elephants, in some compositions calling to mind the concept of fecundity. Other conventional arrangements show women "in gynaecological position", one of them being engraved exactly above the entrance of a small cave, close to an ewe connected to a placentary form situated in an "ovaloïd" and to a Bovid also connected to another placentary form with a little human figure inside. Such compositions are most probably based on conceptual connections between human fecundity, animal fertility and the "ovaloid" sign, calling to mind the frequent telluric female symbolism of the cave. The areal approach of these motifs conduces to emphasize the originality of the "Messak Civilization" which spread out in the Libyan Sahara, probably from approximately 4500 BCE.

Mesāk : notes de toponymie

by Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

Les Cahiers de l'AARS 15 (2001): 221-240.

Résumé : L’ensemble des données actuellement connues sur la toponymie de ce plateau est présentée sous la forme d’un... more Résumé : L’ensemble des données actuellement connues sur la toponymie de ce plateau est présentée sous la forme d’un index critique des noms de lieux. Leur signification et leur graphie en caractères tifinagh sont également livrées, de même que les synonymies éventuelles.

Abstract : The body of data known at the moment on the toponymy of this plateau is presented in the form of a critical index of the place-names. Their meaning and their written form in tifinagh characters is also given, as well as possible synonymies.

Structure en croissant et pierres de Ben-Bârûr dans le wâdi Alamasse (Fezzân, Libye)

by Bertrand Poissonnier

Co-authored with R. Bernard, published in 'Sahara' 7: 105-107.

DMP X: Survey and Landscape Conservation Issues around the Taqallit headland

by Katia Schorle

Mattingly, D., al-Aghab, S., Ahmed, M., Moussa, F., Sterry, M. and Wilson, A. (with contributions by F. Cole, V. Leitch, A. Radini, T. Savage, K. Schörle and D. Veldhuis), (2010) “DMP X: Survey and Landscape Conservation Issues around the Taqallit headland”, Libyan Studies 41 (2010): 105-132.

Survey by the DMP Burials and Identity team around the Taqallit headland in 2009–2010 has revealed in exceptional detail a well-preserved Garamantian landscape, comprising extensive cemeteries, foggara irrigation systems and numerous oasis settlements. However, this remarkable survival of the Garamantian landscape was found in 2010 to be under direct and imminent threat of destruction.
This report describes the landscape features recorded and the steps taken to try to preserve the evidence from obliteration in the face of modern agricultural development. Important new information was recorded about the date and furnishing of some key types of Proto-Urban tombs, linking with a refined view of the relationship of these cemeteries to contemporary foggara construction and the creation of pioneer farming settlement in the Taqallit region. Significant additional details of the foggara systems were recorded through a combination of satellite image interpretation, surface observation and selective descent into rock-cut shafts. The discovery of an unexpected number of ancient settlements and structures of Garamantian date represents another major achievement of the work. The composite picture of the Garamantian landscape encompassing cemeteries, foggaras and settlements is arguably the most complete yet recorded in the FP/DMP work. .

Stefano Biagetti and Jasper Morgan Chalcraft (in press - Aug. 2012)Imagining Aridity: Human–Environment Interactions in the Acacus Mountains, South-West Libya. In M. Janowki and T. Ingold (eds) Imagining Landscapes: Past, Present and Future. Ashgate

by Stefano Biagetti

Stefano Biagetti, Ali Kaci, Lucia Mori & Savino di Lernia (in press) Writing the desert: the ‘Tifinagh’ rock inscriptions of the Tadrart Acacus (southwestern Libya). Azania

by Stefano Biagetti

En suivant monsieur Akha (ou Agha) de la Tadrart au Messak

by Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

Les Cahiers de l'AARS 12 (2008): 191-195.

The association between a Libyco-Berber inscription and a horseman armed with a lance and a round shield, reported in... more The association between a Libyco-Berber inscription and a horseman armed with a lance and a round shield, reported in the Algerian Tadrart, has also been found in the Libyan Messak. It is thus scarcely possible to have doubts as to its intentional character. This may not be without consequences concerning the oldness of the incipit NK, and so on the approach to the Saharan inscriptions.

L’association  entre une inscription libyco-berbère et un cavalier armé d’une lance et d’un bouclier rond, signalée dans la Tadrart algérienne, se retrouve également dans le Messak libyen, ce qui ne permet plus guère de douter de son caractère intentionnel. Cela pourrait n’être pas sans conséquences sur l’ancienneté de l’incipit NK, et donc sur l’approche des inscriptions sahariennes.

A propos d'un site à gravures de la Tadrart algérienne: récurrence d'une association image-inscription

by Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

Les Cahiers de l'AARS 11 (2007): 125-136.

About a rock art site in the Algerian Tadrart : a repeated association of a picture and an inscription.First... more About a rock art site in the Algerian Tadrart : a repeated association of a picture and an inscription.First attestation of an “image + inscription” pair. At a distance of about 12 km, the same animal is associated with the same libyco-berber inscription.

Première attestation d’un doublet image-inscription. Un même type de gravure animalière se retrouve associé à une même inscription libyco-berbère à une douzaine de kilomètres de distance.

Le mythe ovidien de Pygmalion trouverait l’une de ses origines dans la Berbérie préhistorique. - Les Cahiers de l'AARS, 15, 2011: 19-25.

by Julien d'Huy

http://aars.fr/

Résumé : Deux récits, l’un grec, l’autre kabyle, racontent le trouble érotique suscité par une statue, l’animation de... more Résumé : Deux récits, l’un grec, l’autre kabyle, racontent le trouble érotique suscité par une statue, l’animation de cette dernière, et posent la question d’un mariage entre l’image et son créateur. Nous montrerons que ces deux récits forment un groupe de transformation, et que l’un ne peut être pensé sans l’autre, puis nous chercherons à déterminer lequel des deux fut premier. Le récit kabyle est probablement antérieur à l’expansion musulmane et à son iconoclasme. Or, à cette époque, le mythe ovidien, qui ne se développe réellement qu’à partir du Moyen Âge européen, n’était pas suffisamment célèbre pour être adopté en Afrique du Nord via l’influence romaine. Ajoutons que le judaïsme, religion iconoclaste, était alors très répandu parmi les Berbères. Les seules périodes ayant permis un transfert de mythe grâce à un contact régulier, direct ou non, entre la culture grecque et les Berbères sont la Cyrénaïque et la civilisation carthaginoise ; cette époque, entre le VIIe et le Ier siècle BCE, précède l’écriture des Métamorphoses. Le récit berbère serait donc premier, et aurait essaimé par la suite en Grèce. Nous serions ici face à un mythe préhistorique, susceptible d’éclairer certains aspects de l’art rupestre saharien.

Arcs et bracelets d'archers au Sahara et en Egypte, avec une nouvelle proposition de lecture des "nasses" sahariennes

by Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

Les Cahiers de l'AARS 15 (2011): 201-220.

The question of the composite bow in the Sahara is examined, without it being possible to be sure of its presence. The... more The question of the composite bow in the Sahara is examined, without it being possible to be sure of its presence. The existence of laminated bows is nevertheless possible, and some paintings show the use of archers’ wrist-guards. The examination of the Egyptian archers’ wrist-guards makes it possible to think that it is perhaps these objects that are represented by the famous Tazina style “traps”.

Un chemin dans l'Uweynât

by Jean-Loïc Le Quellec

Sahara 22 (2011): 149-152

A Saharan prehistoric route in the Jebel el-Uweynat, Libyan Desert (Sur un itinéraire saharien préhistorique dans le... more A Saharan prehistoric route in the Jebel el-Uweynat, Libyan Desert (Sur un itinéraire saharien préhistorique dans le Jebel el-'Uweynât, au désert Libyque).

DMP II: 2008 Fieldwork on Burials and Identity in the Wadi al-Ajal

by Matthew Hobson

Mattingly, D. J., Dore, J. and Lahr, M. 2008. With contributions from Muftah Ahmed, Franca Cole, Jon Crisp, Mireya Gonzalez Rodriguez, Matthew Hobson, Misbah Ismayer, Victoria Leitch, Farès Moussa, Efthymia Nikita,3 Ian Reeds, Toby Savage, Martin Sterry. Libyan Studies 39.

The second season of the Desert Migrations Project took place in January 2008, with work following several... more The second season of the Desert Migrations Project took place in January 2008, with work following several sub-strands. The Burials and Identity component of the project is the subject of this report. Excavation and survey work were concentrated in the Watwat embayment, expanding on and completing the work begun in 2007. A total of 40 burials have now been excavated from a total of c.2,500 surveyed by the project team in a series of different cemeteries and burial zones within the closed valley that cuts back into the escarpment of the Massak c.3km south-west of Jarma. The most exciting discovery this year was the recovery of two mummified bodies from the UAT008 cemetery, along with further well-reserved textiles, including some exquisitely woven multi-coloured fragments. Another major discovery was a richly furnished Garamantian burial (UAT050.T5) containing numerous imported vessels (fineware, glass and amphorae) from the Roman world. Additional excavations included two child burials from GSC048 in the modern quarry due south of Jarma and a preliminary investigation of one o the Taqallit cemeteries c.30 km to the west (to be the subject of the main excavation effort in 2009).

DMP V: Investigations in 2009 of Cemeteries and Related Sites on the West Side of the Taqallit Promontory

by Matthew Hobson

Mattingly, D. J., Lahr, M. and Wilson, A. I. 2009. With contributions by Hafed Abduli, Muftah Ahmed, Steve Baker, Franca Cole, Mireya Gonzalez Rodriguez, Matthew Hobson, Victoria Leitch, Fares Moussa, Efthymia Nikita, Anita Radini, Ian Reeds, Toby Savage and Martin Sterry. Libyan Studies 40: 95-131.

DMP IX: Summary Report on the Fourth Season of Excavations of the Burials and Identity team

by Matthew Hobson

Mattingly, D. J., Abduli, H. Aburgheba, H., Ahmed, M., Ali Ahmed Esmaia. M. , Baker, S., Cole, F. Fenwick, C., Gonzalez Rodriguez, M. Hobson, M., Khalaf, N., Lahr, M., Leitch, V., Moussa, F., Nikita, E., Parker, D. Radini, A. Sterry, M. and Schörle, K., (2010) “DMP IX: Summary Report on the Fourth Season of Excavations of the Burials and Identity team”, Libyan Studies 41 (2010): 89-104.

DMP XII: Excavations and Survey of the so-called Garamantian Royal Cemetery (GSC030−031)

by Matthew Hobson

By David Mattingly, Hafed Abduli, Muftah Ahmed, Franca Cole,
Corisande Fenwick, Brooklynne Tyr Fothergill, Mireya González Rodriguez,
Matthew Hobson, Nadia Khalaf, Marta Lahr, Farès Moussa, Efthymia Nikita,
Julia Nikolaus, Anita Radini, Nick Ray, Toby Savage, Martin Sterry
and Andrew Wilson. Libyan Studies 42: 89-102.

Deciphering: A few thoughts about the Libyco-Berber script

by Dominique Casajus

Published in Afriques, débats, méthodes et terrains d'histoire 2, 2011

The Tuareg use alphabets with characters called tafineq (plural: tifinagh). Some writers have, rightly or wrongly,... more The Tuareg use alphabets with characters called tafineq (plural: tifinagh). Some writers have, rightly or wrongly, related this word’s root (FNQ) to the word used by the Greeks to refer to the Phoenicians. These alphabets derived from much older ones, which are usually said to be “Libyan” or “Libyco-Berber”. Libyco-Berber inscriptions are found throughout a region stretching from Libya to Morocco and even the Canary Islands — sometimes along with Punic or Latin engravings. Owing to the discovery in Dougga (Tunisia) of two bilingual Libyco-Punic inscriptions dating from the 2nd century BC, one of the variants of the Libyco-Berber alphabet has been partly deciphered. Moroccan inscriptions are probably older, but the dates proposed for them are to be used with caution. Two recent studies, the one devoted to contemporary rock inscriptions and the other to the evolution of Libyco-Berber scripts from Ancient Times up till the present, are reviewed; and a few hypotheses related to the dating of engravings are discussed as well as the circumstances of the initial discovery made in Dougga.

L. Olmi, A.M. Mercuri, M.T.P. Gilbert, S. Biagetti, S. Fordyce, E. Cappellini, I. Massamba N’siala & S. di Lernia (2011): Morphological and Genetic Analyses of Early and Mid Holocene Wild Cereals from the Takarkori Rockshelter (Central Sahara, Libya): First Results and Prospects. Windows on the African Past. Current Approaches to African Archaeobotany Ahmed G. Fahmy, S. Kahlheber & A.C. D'Andrea (eds.).

by Stefano Biagetti

http://www.africamagna.de/lang/en-us/katalog-raacatalogue-raa

BIAGETTI, S.: (2008) Etnoarcheologia: pensieri e prospettive dal Sahara. Origini XXX: 285-294.

by Stefano Biagetti

Il nomadismo pastorale nel Deserto Occidentale Egiziano durante l’Olocene: il ruolo rivestito dagli Steinplatz nei modelli di occupazione del territorio [Nomadic pastoralism in the Egyptian Western Desert during the Holocene: the role of the Steinplätze in regional settlement patterns].

by Marina Gallinaro

Phd Abstract. Published in Azania 44 (1), 2009, pp. 159-160

Dating Saharan rock art. Pastoral Neolithic ceremonial sites and associated engravings from Messak Settafet (SW Libya).

by Marina Gallinaro

Co-authored with Savino di Lernia. Published in Antiquity Volume 084 (326), 2010, pp. 954-975.