UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Introduction to the later prehistory of sub-Saharan Africa
referred to by Polybius, a late second-century Greek writer in the employ
of Rome, and even that ascription is not without reservation. Most
contemporary sources about the Carthaginians indicate that they were
highly secretive, and it is probable that if they had made successful
voyages of exploration or trade they would not have announced them to the
world for the benefit of their trading competitors. There is no evidence
that they ventured overland any farther south than the Romans whose limit
of active contact, except for the expeditions of Septimus Flaccus and
Julius Maternus in +70, appears to have been the Hoggar. There are
various classical references to the Garamantean movements but they do not
appear to have affected the area south of the Fezzan.
Much more evidence of contact in pre-Islamic times comes from the
rock art and archaeological evidence. Rock art indicates that regular
lines of communications were open to the Sudanic belt as early as —500.
Herodotus' tale of the Nasamonians' journey to what appears to be the
Niger may be a literary reference to an actual journey. Of particular
interest in this tale is the mention of a negro city which Ferguson 47
identifies as being in the region of Timbuktu. The drawings are mainly
of chariots or carts, some horse-drawn and some bullock-drawn. 48 Lhote
(1953) has noted that there are no chariots in Air or the Tibesti except
near the Fezzan. Most of the pictures of bullocks are found near the
western route. We should perhaps not draw too many conclusions from the
chariots. Daniels 49 has suggested that they 'indicate the widely spread
usage of a common type of vehicle rather than any complex system of
Saharan roadways'. Where datable, as in the case of those associated with
late Neolithic villages, 50 they belong to the period —1100 to —400. We
have to assume from the rock art that the routes across the Sahara were
negotiable by horse, bullock and almost certainly by the versatile donkey.
The eastern route has a strong concentration in the Tassili, and Lhote has
indicated possible termini on the Tripolitanian coast in such centres as
Leptis, Oea and Sabratha. Bovill 51 argues that the three towns of Carthaginian
origin were situated closer to one another than the natural resources
of the coast or the immediate hinterland would warrant, and suggests that
they commanded the Garamantean road to the Fezzan. 'Carbuncles',
perhaps a form of chalcedony for beads, as well as emeralds and other semiprecious
stones 52 are assumed to have been one of the objectives of this
trade. Slaves, though not very important at this period, may have been
another element in the trade; negro skeletons have come from Punic
cemeteries and there were certainly negro soldiers in the Carthaginian
47. p. 10.
48. P. J. Munson, J. Ferguson, 1969.
49. 1970, p. 13.
50. P. J. Munson, 1969, p. 62.
Si- P- 2i-
52. B. H. Warmington, 1969, p. 66.
549