UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The Sahara in classical antiquity
SAHARAN ART OF ANTIQUITY
The finest monuments of Jerma, funerary for the most part, show a Roman
influence which partly deprives them of originality. To appreciate the
Saharan personality, we must research elsewhere.
A good number of funerary monuments known as 'pre-Islamic' date
from our era. In the great edifice of Abalessa which is preserved in the
Ahaggar, we finddisposed around the tomb of Tin Hinan an ambulatory
which is peculiarly African in architecture. 24 At Tin Alkoum, at the southeastern
opening of the Tassili n'Ajjer, a series of circular tombs of
traditional Saharan workmanship can be dated through Roman funerary
equipment of the fourth century, as can similar monuments at the nearby
necropolis of Ghat. 25
Though they cannot be dated precisely, the funerary or cult monuments
of dry stone found in Tassili and the Ahaggar - pavings, circular walled
enclosures, ornamental basins, 'key-holes' - date from the whole of the
period until Islam came to replace them by flat tombs and simple stelae.
As to the most original of them, those at Fadroun, their stylistic origins
must be sought in the Fezzan and the area along the borders of Egypt.
In the north-west Sahara, in the necropolis of Djorf Torba near Bechar
- unfortunately ravaged by tourists - there were even to be found inside
the edifices, curious figurative ex-votos; flatslabs, either carved or painted,
some with Libyan inscriptions or drawings of horses or human figures,
in a style similar to that of late antiquity in the Maghrib, and as yet
devoid of Islamic elements.
It is more difficult to put a date to the large circles of standing monoliths
found in the Ahaggar (were they perhaps already Muslim?) and more
particularly those at Gona Orka and Enneri-Mokto, to the west of the
Tibesti. It is in my opinion unnecessary to seek for foreign influences,
since the erection of menhirs, both funerary and cult objects, is common
to all early civilizations. In this respect there is nothing in the Sahara to
equal the site of Tondidarou, near Niafunké, 150 kilometres south-west
of Timbuktu. 26
But for the most impressive Saharan art we must above all look at the
rock drawings. According to the traditional classification of the prehistorians,
antiquity corresponds to the penultimate stage of rock art, the
Libyco-Berber period which follows the caballine era and precedes the
Arabo-Berber. 27 While this sequence is correct in itself, it lacks precise
24. G. Camps, 1961, passim, 1965.
25. L. Leschi, 1965, pp. 183-6; Pace-Caputo and Sergi, pp. 120-440.
26. J. P. Savary. About the figurativestelae of Djorf Torba virtually nothing has been
written; M . Reygasse, pp. 104 and 107-8; supplementary information kindly provided by
L. Balout. With regard to the standing megaliths in Tibesti: P. Huard and J. M. Massip,
pp. 1-27; for Tondidarou: R. Mauny, 1970, pp. 133-7.
27. The generally adopted classification (Breuil, Graziosi, Huard, Lhote, etc.); cf.
R. Mauny, 1954. Contra: J. P. Maître, 1976, pp. 759-83.
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