2 - Tassili n' Ajjer, Algeria

Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria (Periods/Cultures/Kingdoms)

Prehistoric Cave Art (12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE)

• Archaic Style

• Large Wild Fauna Period

Prehistoric Cave Art (12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE) notes

• encapsulates almost all of North Africa, in and around the Sahara Desert

  • very rocky and largely uninhabitable

  • teople passed through before the Great Desecration, but very few people actually lived there

    • there is archaeological evidence of human presence, but no architectural remains or burial sites 

• 3 theories as to why people made paintings and carvings

  • Ritual Use

    • people may have interpreted the dramatic change of landscape as the spirit world (?)

  • Trade Routes

    • the sites could’ve been safe campsites and the paintings could be a means of communication for future travelers to warn them of dangerous animals and such

  • Sympathetic Magic:

    • when you do something like creating artwork in the hopes of affecting the real world around you

      • painting an elephant being killed, for example, to manifest a successful hunt

Prehistoric Cave Art (dates)

12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Prehistoric Cave Art (location)

Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Artwork ID: “Man: Bodies in Motion”

Period: Prehistoric Cave Art (Archaic Style)

Location: Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Dates: 12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Medium: pigment (ochre?) on sandstone

“Man: Bodies in Motion” notes

• very simplified, abstracted bodies, very repetitive, doing simple motions 

• infrared imaging revealed multiple layers 

  • unsure why they kept painting over one spot when other spots in the caves were available

    • could be a familial thing, each generation paints over the last 

    • could be just updating information, like an animal in the area going extinct

Artwork ID: “Masked Figures”

Period: Prehistoric Cave Art

Location: Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Dates: 12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Medium: pigment (ochre?) on sandstone

“Masked Figures” notes

• we have no idea what these are quite frankly

• shamanism? maybe?

Artwork ID: “Decorated Elephant Engraving”

Period: Prehistoric Cave Art (Large Wild Fauna Period)

Location: Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Dates: 12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Medium: engraved sandstone

“Decorated Elephant Engraving” notes

• large rock engravings of wild fauna

  • more expression, movement, and texture

  • fairly naturalistic, strict profiles - observational

• not on cliffsides, they’re usually underneath and inside sefars

Artwork ID: “Camels and Armed People”

Period: Prehistoric Cave Art

Location: Tassili n’ Ajjer, Algeria

Dates: 12,000_BCE - 1,000_BCE

Medium: pigment (ochre?) on sandstone

abstract

art that does not represent an accurate depiction of visual reality, communicating instead through lines, shapes, colors, forms, and gestural marks

animism

the general belief that there's a relationship between the natural world and the supernatural

composite view/pose

combining different viewpoints within a single representation

engraving

carving into something

idea vs. obeservation

cave paintings can be conceptual/descriptive (twisted perspective & exaggerated features to show the idea of reality)

• they can also be strictly profile/observation (show exactly what you see)

profile view

a drawing that shows an object as though you were looking at it from the side

sefar

a rock shelter

• inside sefars of the Ajjer Plateau are paintings; outside are carvings

superimposition

images were re-painted over old cave paintings

• might be informational or interactive

sympathetic magic

magic based on the assumption that a person or thing can be supernaturally affected through its name or an object representing it

• perhaps prehistoric people painted hunts/ bovids as a way to ensure a successful hunt