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If the rock art of the Tassili
n-Ajjer is indissolubly linked to Henri Lhote, that of the
Tadrart Acacus, on the other hand, is linked to Fabrizio Mori.
But while Lhote's activity was mainly directed towards
exploration and documentation, Mori's had all the
characteristics of archaeological research. |
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The Teshuinat visitors' book, with the recording of the " VIII Missione Mori " of December 1965 |
The excavation at Uan Muhuggiag in the Wadi Teshuinat by the " Joint Italo-Libyan Mission for Prehistoric Research in the Sahara " (Mori 2000) |
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"However, the first research goes back to 1955 and was carried out in the Tadrart Acacus. Before then, this massif was absolutely ignored by scientific research. With a few exceptions, such as the engravings discovered by Paolo Graziosi in the Arrikin, the Selfufet and the Takisset (south-western border of the Tadrart), the enormous quantity of rock art and anthropic deposits hidden in the wadis which plunge to the east was totally unknown… |
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Rock-shelter with "Round Head " paintings at Afa,
in the southern Acacus
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"Round Head" painting at Uan Afaris.
The five people (top right) probably belong to the "Early Pastoral". Southern Acacus
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It is a mystery for no one that the Tadrart Acacus, with its eastern ramifications, should be, in all truth, one of the richest zones in the world for the concentration of rock art, anthropozoic deposits, surface items and the particularly important lake deposits.
The first researches were carried out with caravans of camels and small mobile camps, because the massif provided no access possibility for vehicles from the western side. At the level of the Idinen, there are the two passages of Awis and Aghellashem.
It is only by these that our caravans could reach, with great difficulty, the steep western platform. The Tacharchori pass, the most southern, at the frontier between Libya and southern Algeria, was not accessible during these years.
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"Round Head" at Afa II (Mori). Locality of
Ti-n- Bersaula, w. Afa
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"Round Head" painting. Grub I (Mori), Teshuinat
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Pastoral painting at Uan Amil (Teshuinat)
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Pastoral painting at Uan Amil (Teshuinat)
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Pastoral painting at Uan Amil (Teshuinat). The person on the right seems to be wearing a transparent tunic |
....During the 1960s, a track for vehicles was discovered - and today, after the arrival of countless tourists, I much regret it - which ran along the eastern side with an easy entry into the massif level with Teshuinat (...)
A base camp was thus established in the Teshuinat, next to the shelters with the paintings and the deposits of Uan Muhuggiag and Uan Amil... |
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Pastoral painting at Uan Amil (Teshuinat).
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Pastoral painting. Wadi In-Djeran, southern Acacus
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Because of the considerable distance from here to the nearest oasis (Serdélès, 150 km), we took our water supply from the gueltas of the massif, as long as there was enough of it. The complete absence of rain after 1961, with 1992 being the only exception, forced us, during the last missions, to get our supplies each week from the well at Serdélès/el-Auenat …
In the 1980s, research activity which had, until then, been carried out solely by the Department of historical, archaeological and anthropological sciences of Antiquity, of the Arts Faculty of the University of Rome "La Sapienza", became the
"Joint Italo-Libyan Mission for Prehistoric Research in the Sahara".
The quotations in italics are extracts from the work of F. Mori
(Mori 2000) .
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Flying gallop chariot at Afa
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The geographic proximity of the Tadrart Acacus and the Tassili-n-Ajjer has certainly contributed to a homogeneity of the cultures which followed one another in these regions of trhe central Sahara. This comes out clearly in the rock art of these two zones throughout all the periods, from the "Round Heads" up to the "Camel period". |
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Barbary sheep hunting scene in Horse style.
Teshuinat VI (Mori).
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Coit scene between an ithyphallic anthropomorph and a woman decked out with a necklace. Ti-n-Lalan
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Kel Essouf of the w. Aharar Mellen |
Large figure chasing a bull.
Ti-n- Adda,
w. Senaddar
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n Mori's relative chronology, the ichtyomorph engravings go back to the oldest periods of rock art. More recently, K.H.Striedter and M.Tauveron
(2003) and B. Choppy
(2004) have defined the engravings called "Kel Essuf", a term which refers to the "people of the emptyness" in tamashek (the language of the Twareg).This is the same as the djenoun ("spirits") in Arabic. In the Tadrart Acacus, these engravings are relatively frequent. |
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