Round Head Period
Round Head rock art is the earliest painted, monumental form of Central Saharan rock art, which was largely created from 9500 BP to 7500 BP and ceased being created by 3000 BP. The Round Head Period is preceded by the Kel Essuf Period and followed by the Pastoral Period. Round Head rock art number up to several thousand depictions in the Central Sahara. Human and undomesticated animal artforms are usually portrayed, with a variety of details, in painted Round Head rock art. Painted Round Head rock art and engraved Kel Essuf rock art usually share the same region and occasionally the same rockshelters. The Round Head rock art of Tassili and the surrounding mountainous areas bear considerable similarity with traditional Sub-Saharan African cultures.
At the start of 10th millennium BP, amid the Epipaleolithic, the walls of rockshelters were used as a foundation for proto-village huts that families resided in, that were built against the rockshelters, as well as hearths, which may have been suitable for the mobile lifestyle of semi-sedentary Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers. Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers built a simple stone wall, dated to 10,508 ± 429 cal BP/9260 ± 290 BP, which may have been used for the purpose of serving as a windbreak. In 10,000 BP, Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers, to some extent, engaged in processing of flora, and were specialists in the use of Barbary sheep. Though uncommon, ceramics and lithic complexes were also utilized. Hunters of the Epipaleolithic especially hunted Barbary sheep, among other animals, as well as utilized ceramics and basic lithic constructs between 10,000 BP to 8800 BP. Hunters of the Epipaleolithic, who possessed a sophisticated social organization, as well as exceptional stone tools and ceramics, created the Round Head rock art. Amid an early period of the Holocene, semi-settled Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic hunters, who created a refined material culture as early as 10,000 BP, also created the engraved Kel Essuf and painted Round Head rock art styles located in the region of Libya, in the region of Algeria, in the region of Nigeria, and the region of Niger.
Amid the early Sahara, Round Head rock artists, who had a sophisticated culture and engaged in the activity of hunting and gathering, also developed pottery, used vegetation, and managed animals. The cultural importance of shepherded Barbary sheep is shown via their presence in Round Head rock art throughout the Central Sahara. Barbary sheep were corralled in stone enclosures near Uan Afuda cave. From up to 9500 BP, this continued until the beginning of the Pastoral Neolithic in the Sahara. Between 7500 BCE and 3500 BCE, amid the Green Sahara, undomesticated central Saharan flora were farmed, stored, and cooked, and domesticated animals were milked and managed, by hunter-gatherers near the Takarkori rockshelter, which is representative of the broader Sahara; this continued until the beginning of the Pastoral Neolithic in the Sahara.
Between 8800 BP and 7400 BP, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers hunted different kinds of animals and used numerous grinding and flaking stone technologies and ceramics for the purpose of improving the overall number of undomesticated vegetation gathered. Among hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic, there was use of ceramics, due to the increased settling and acquiring of undomesticated vegetation, and considerable use of lithic grinding tools, between 8800 BP and 7400 BP. At Uan Afuda, Mesolithic hunter-gatherer settlements had remnants of baskets with undomesticated vegetation within them and cords, which date between 8700 BP and 8300 BP.
Classifications
is categorized into different groups, based on a variety of factors.In 5000 BP, buffalo in Africa underwent mass extinction; consequently, the engraved stone portrayals of these macroscopic, undomesticated buffalos in unenclosed rock art zones resulted in them being identified as Bubaline. In contrast, located in enclosed rock art zones, there are engraved Kel Essuf art, which portray short-armed, little human artforms with legs and penile appendages.
Human and undomesticated animal artforms are usually portrayed, with a variety of details, in painted Round Head rock art. Painted Round Head rock art and engraved Kel Essuf rock art usually share the same region and occasionally the same rockshelters in contrast to engraved Bubaline rock art, which rarely appear in rock art zones where painted Round Head rock art is portrayed predominantly.
Compared to painted Round Head rock art, in addition to its art production method, depictions of domesticated cattle are what makes engraved/painted Pastoral rock art distinct; these distinct depictions in the Central Sahara serve as evidence for different populations entering the region. The decreased appearance of large undomesticated organisms and increased appearance of one-humped camels and horses depicted in latter rock art throughout the Sahara serves as evidence for the Green Sahara undergoing increased desiccation.
Chronology
For the rock art of the Sahara, the most contentious among academic debates has remained the topic of chronology. Round Head, Kel Essuf, and Bubaline rock art, as the oldest chronological types, have been regarded as less certain compared to the younger chronological types. Consequently, two types of chronologies were developed.The date for Bubaline rock art was approximated to the late period of the Pleistocene or early period of the Holocene using remnants of clay, manganese, and iron oxide in the dark hued patina. Rock walls were estimated to have developed between 9200 BP and 5500 BP using substances of organic origin found within the depths of the rock walls. The Qurta petroglyphs of prehistoric Egypt, which portray undomesticated animals, has been estimated to a minimum of 15,000 BP; this has been used as an additional consideration for Bubaline rock art dating well before 10,000 BP.
While the Kel Essuf rock art and Bubaline rock art have not been found layered above one another, in addition to the Kel Essuf rock art being found within a dark hued patina, it has been found layered beneath Round Head rock art. Due to the layering and the artistic commonalities between the Kel Essuf rock art and Round Head rock art of the Central Sahara, the engraved Kel Essuf rock art is regarded to be the artistic precursor to the painted Round Head rock art.
Credence to the high chronology is given via decoratively detailed Saharan ceramics dated to 10,726 BP. A spatula and lithic grinding tools with ocher remnants on them, which serves as evidence of painting, were found in an Acacus rockshelter with Round Head rock art. Paint from Round Head rock art in the region of Libya was also tested and dated to 6379 BP. Altogether, these show continuation of the Round Head rock art tradition well into the Pastoral Period.
Based on 13 sediment samples from the floor directly at or near the walls of Round Head rock art in Sefar and Ti-n-Tazarift, and determined via the optically stimulated luminescence dating method, the Round Head rock art may have been created amid the Holocene and may have a terminus ante quem date of 9000 BP to 10,000 BP. Most scholars are of the view that, from 9500 BP to 7500 BP, Round Head rock artists created Round Head rock art.
Climate
From 60,000 BP or 40,000 BP to 20,000 BP, the Aterian culture existed. Between 16th to 15th millennium BP, the environment was humid. From 20,000 BP to 13,000 BP, there was a varied climate system. The high elevated regions with mountains were considerably more wet than low elevated regions without mountains, which led to the variation in climate. Regions of high elevation had occurrences of considerable rainfall, to the extent that lakes developed, whereas, regions of low elevation had occurrences of considerable dryness. Amid the late period of the Pleistocene, with its varied climate system, the mountainous environment remained sufficiently humid, which allowed for animal, plant, and human life to be sustained.Origins of the Round Head Rock Art
Mori first hypothesized that Round Head rock art evolved from Kel Essuf rock art in the Acacus region; this hypothesized evolution of one rock art type into another receives support due to Round Head rock art having been superimposed upon Kel Essuf rock art in the Tadrart of Algeria. The superimposed state of Round Head rock art upon Kel Essuf rock art is viewed as showing that Kel Essuf rock art chronologically precedes Round Head rock art and is also perceived as a pattern of development, from simpler detailed Kel Essuf engravings to more complexly detailed Round Head paintings. Mori has found continued support by Hallier & Hallier and Streidter et al..The striking likenesses between the Kel Essuf and Round Head rock artforms, along with likeness in shape, include the following notable traits: forms shaped like a “half-moon” connected to the shoulder, engraved forms shaped like a “half-moon” near “figures”, forms bearing bows and sticks, and horns atop the heads of the Kel Essuf forms that are like the Round Head forms in configuration. Due to the absence of these likenesses in Pastoral rock artforms, these likenesses may be concluded as cultural particularities unique to the hunter-gatherers who created the Kel Essuf and Round Head rock artforms.
A cultural particularity unique to the Kel Essuf rock art, in contrast to the Round Head rock art, are penile forms; these penile forms, or additional appendages, may be indicative of maleness, and may be absent from the Round Head rock art due to taboo. Aside this absence, both the Kel Essuf and Round Head rock art are largely composed of male artforms.
Comparative analysis of the rock art from Tassili n’Ajjer and Djado resulted in the conclusion that the Round Head rock art of Djado was the precursor to the Round Head rock art of Tassili n’Ajjer. With the enneris of the mountainous area of Djado as its origin, the creators of the Round Head rock art of Djado migrated, from Djado to Tassili, and, as continuation of the Djado artistic tradition, produced the Round Head rock art of Tassili n’Ajjer.
The "pecked Djado-Roundheads", or Kel Essuf rock art, in the Djado mountains of northern Niger are viewed as having great likeness with the Round Head rock art in the region of Algeria and to some rock art in the region of Libya; hence, this is viewed as showing that the hunting societies who created these rock art were of the same cultural unit and cultural ideology, though having cultural varieties unique to each area.
While the Round Head rock art is found in less abundance in the mountainous regions of Algeria and Libya, it is found in greatest abundance in the plateau area of Tassili. The precursors for Round Head rock art may have originated in the mountainous northern area of Niger. These areas are viewed as archaeologically similar. Undomesticated flora and animals were used in Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherer cultures between 10,000 BP and 8000 BP as well as 8800 BP and 7400 BP. Based on the dates acquired for the ceramics in the northern Sahara, Tibesti, Libya, and Tin Hanakaten, the core area for the most ancient ceramics of the Sahara may have likely been in the shared region of Niger and Algeria. The Round Head rock artists may have originated in this core area, and may have had a cultural practice of association, via long distance, among other Round Head rock artists. The emergence and expansion of ceramics in the Sahara may be linked with the origin of both the Round Head and Kel Essuf rock art, which occupy rockshelters in the same regions as well as have common resemblances with one another.