The Earliest Rock Paintings of the Central Sahara: Approaching Interpretation

Abstract

The Central Sahara is one of the richest regions of rock paintings and engravings in the world. The oldest painted images are likely to have originated in the tenth millennium BP, although opinion is still divided. These early paintings, called the Round Heads due to the circular shape of the heads of anthropomorphic figures, were created by groups of dark-skinned hunter-gatherers who produced their paintings in the mountains of the Tassili n'Ajjer and in the adjacent Algerian Tadrart and Libyan Acacus. Since their discovery in the 1950s, these paintings have been described and classified but their interpretation has not been undertaken before because it was considered inappropriate and unachievable. Using archaeological evidence, landscape archaeology, and comparative studies it is nevertheless possible to approach this neglected field of Saharan rock-art studies and reveal a complex reality lying behind individual painted images.