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The date and context of Neolithic rock art in the Sahara: engravings and ceremonial monuments from Messak Settafet (south-west Libya)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2010

Savino di Lernia  and
Marina Gallinaro
Savino di Lernia
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Archeologiche e Antropologiche dell'Antichità, Sapienza, Università di Roma, Via Palestro 63, 00185 Roma, Italy; School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa (Author for correspondence, email: dilernia@uniroma1.it; www.acacus.it)
Marina Gallinaro
Affiliation:
The Italian-Libyan Archaeological Mission in the Acacus and Messak (central Sahara, Libya), Sapienza, Università di Roma, Via Palestro 63, 00185 Roma, Italy (Email: marina.gallinaro@uniroma1.it)
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Abstract

The authors find a context for the rock art of the central Sahara by excavating and recording examples of engraved stones from circular platforms used to sacrifice animals. The type of rock art known as the Pastoral style, featuring evocative outline drawings of cattle, appears on upright stones incorporated into the platforms in the period 5430–5150 BP, and probably earlier. Furthermore, they show that these places were part of a dense and extensive monumental landscape, occupying a harsh environment, supplying quartzite, but with little settlement, appearing to serve the spiritual needs of hundreds of Neolithic people.

Keywords

Sahara desertNeolithicrock artradiocarbonPastoral stylecattle sacrificeritual landscape
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 326 , December 2010 , pp. 954 - 975
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

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