Several years ago, the world was stirred up by a sensational event: in the heart of the sultry Sahara, rock paintings were discovered, made many thousands of years ago. The hot dry climate has preserved the priceless works of our distant ancestors. This find upset the usual ideas about the eternal lifelessness of the Great Desert. Maybe this is where the legendary Atlantis was located? What other treasures are hidden under the free-flowing dunes? The famous French scientist, Professor Henri Lot tells about the work of the expedition of archaeologists, about the days filled with the obsessive dream of a sip of water, about the exhausting, often fruitless labor of 'hunters for antiquities', about the incomparable joy of the discoverer.
Central Sahara was one of the most populated centers of primitive society during the Neolithic period; moreover, we discovered that numerous and by no means legendary cultures existed in this once-covered wilderness.
The rock carvings and stone carvings found in the Sahara appear to date from four major periods:
The favorite subject of this period is bulls. By the number and skill of their images, one can judge the enormous importance of cattle in the life of people of that era. These are beautiful, dexterous animals, who have not yet had time to grow heavy from life in closed pens and on grass-rich pastures, the transitions through the savannah helped them to remain flexible and agile. Their heads are crowned with long lyre and sickle horns. Drawings are made either entirely with superimposed paints or strokes. Usually large herds are depicted, led or driven by shepherds. On my first visit to Tassili, I found a fresco in Tamrit with at least sixty-five bulls, the largest ensemble known in our time. In another fresco found in Jabbaren, there are fewer animals, but the drawings are incomparably more artistic both in composition and in beauty and harmony of tones;yellow, green, purple and even blue ocher are used here, which is completely unusual for prehistoric art. Apparently, some artists knew new dyes or special compositions.
Wild animals have been recreated with the same skill. The herders-pastoralists were at the same time hunters, and they depicted a real menagerie, giving an accurate idea of the tropical fauna of the Sahara at that time. There are elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, horse antelopes, gazelles, aardvarks, lions, wild donkeys, ostriches, fish. This entire animal world could exist only in the presence of rich pastures and a very humid climate, which, however, is confirmed by one of the frescoes in Auanrhet, which depicts three hippos being hunted by people in pies.
People and animals are depicted in very lively scenes. For example, several human figures are placed in the center of an oval that reproduces the outline of an elongated hut made of straw or esparto. Exactly the same wicker huts on a clay base are common throughout Sudan. The frescoes also depict women at the hearth, men with axes in their hands, chopping wood, children lying under one blanket, people gathered in a circle and talking, married couples and many other scenes that reveal to us the life of shepherds who are already starting to engage in agriculture. … This is evidenced by a fresco with women working in the field.
From this small survey, it is clear that with the discovery of the Tassili frescoes, a lot of new data was obtained for studying the past of the Sahara. However, it should be borne in mind that the decoding of the frescoes has just begun.
Promotional video:
Tassili frescoes
When Europe was covered with ice, Africa - where the Sahara desert is now - had a wonderful warm and humid climate: a gentle breeze rustled in the crowns of mighty oaks, oranges and lemons ripened on the trees, rhinos and hippos splashed in water bodies, herds of elephants and antelopes grazed. And here in the 10-5 thousand BC. e. people lived and. aliens. Africans with bows, javelins and boomerangs hunted wild animals.
They left behind fragments of pots, stone tools, spearheads, arrows and burials. Aliens watched life on Earth and behaved very carefully. We would not have known about them if not for the drawings! People looked closely at the huge, round-headed creatures and painted them on the walls of caves next to hunters and animals. And they did it masterfully. First, they polished the surface of the rock, then they drew a pattern that reached five meters in height!
After 5 thousand BC. e. aliens flew away from Earth. In any case, people stopped painting them on the walls of the caves. At the same time, the Africans themselves improved their skills as painters, paying more attention to details - faces, clothes, tools. They began to draw not only hunting, but also worship of gods, dancing, children's games, grazing livestock. This was the second stage of development, captured in the frescoes of Tassili. Then, apparently, the wildness of the local tribes began: the drawings became primitive, like children's scribbles.
The climate has changed - the former paradise has turned into a lifeless desert, and only in the cool caves of the Sahara are ancient works of art preserved. They were not interested in the passing caravan men, and only the French scientist Henri Lot drew attention to them and told the whole world about his sensational discovery!
Then they began to make paints of the basic colors: yellow, brown, red, blue, black, white. For greater viscosity, egg yolk was added to the mixture. The paint was applied to the existing drawing, as it should be, with feather brushes; sometimes corrected by hand.
Cave Murals
The very first images of UFOs, dating back about 10-15 thousand years, apparently include drawings on the walls of caves in France and Spain. Herds of bison are depicted on the walls of the cave in Altair, and on its ceiling are rows of disc-shaped objects similar to UFOs, which allows us to assume that they were observed in the sky. Drawings on the walls of the Kohistan caves show the viewer the starry sky. Archaeologists were surprised by the very precise arrangement of the stars - this is how it was 13,000 years ago. Amazingly reminiscent of modern representations of UFOs and the Death Valley petroglyphs in the United States.
However, the most famous in the world are Tassili wall paintings, which are believed to have been created about 6-10 thousand years ago. There are many walls, painted with thousands of images of animals and people, among which there are figures in suits resembling a spacesuit.
However, such ancient images created 6-14 thousand years ago are found not only in Africa, but also in Italy, Peru, Australia.
However, the greatest attention is attracted by the ancient Japanese figurines, from 8 to 30 centimeters high - dogu.