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TRACCE no.
Sub-Saharan
Rock Art
In this short notice, we will consider
rock art of the most characteristic sites of the western African area,
located south of the Sahara, between Senegal and Nigeria.
Unlike the Saharan rock art which has been well studied
by lots of researchers, the sub-Saharan one is much less known. The first
mention of it has been published in 1907 by Louis Desplagnes, after his
survey of the central plateau of Niger. Afterwards, Raymond Mauny, in 1954,
reali zed a important catalogue of the rock art sites in western Africa.
In spite of some recent works conducted in different regions and particularly
in Mali (Huysecom 1990), the researches are again scarce.
Anthropomorhic
and geometric figures, Modjodjé, Mali (Pays Dogon) (Photo MAESAO)
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We will divide the main subjects of this sub-Saharan
rock art in three principal groups:
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the representations which seems to be related to neolithic
facies
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the figures which can be compared to Saharan themes
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the schematic paintings in relation with traditional
rites.
Rock art connected
with neolithic rock shelters
In the National park of the Baoule', situated in
south-eastern Mali, some rock shelters, like Fanfannyégènné
I and II, present a phase of dotted engravings. These eroded figures representing
bovine's heads, radiating circles or snakes are overlaid by schematic paintings.
In the relative chronology established for the area, they constitute one
of the most ancient period and are probably connected to a neolithic facies
dated, in Fanfannyégènné I, to the end of the second
or the beginning of the first millennium B. C.
In Nigeria, the rock shelters around Birnin Kudu
offer some naturalistic paintings. They represent animals, like cows, antelopes
or goats and could be also related to a neolithic occupation.
Actually, these types of figures, differing in style,
seem to illustrate the oldest phases of rock art in the sub-Saharan region.
Figures of
Saharan style
In West Africa, Saharan rock art and its chronology
are relatively well known. It is very interesting to note that some sites
located to the south are characterised by representations very similar.
The figures can he painted as well as engraved. They illustrate dromedaries,
carts, hunting scenes with horses and inscriptions (Tifinagh and Arab).
Chronologically, it is possible to compare them to
the figures of the two last subdivisions of Saharan art, the periods of
Horse and Camel.
The theme of hunting, current in the "Adrar des Iforas",
appears at Aìré Soroba, a site recently discovered in the
Inland Delta of the Niger, in Mali (Marchi 1997). In this rock-shelter,
hunting scenes are characterised by horses with geometrical or linear body.
Animals are mounted by personages wearing a head-dress of ostrich feathers.
They are armed and chase away ostriches, giraffes or antelopes. These figures
corresponding to the oldest groups recognised in the site can be situated
approximately in the first millennium A. D. Otherwise, the same theme is
represented in two other sites in Niger (Kourki) and in Burkina Faso (Aribinda).
Horses
mounted by weaponed personages. Airé Soroba, Mali (photo MAESAO)
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We can also attribute to the first millennium A.
D. the three paintings of dromedaries discovered in Airé Soroba.
They are actually the most southern representations known in western Africa,
even when this pattern is current in Sahara.
The cart's representations are also very scarce in
the sub-Saharan Africa and we just know actually two engraved examples
in Tondia (Mali). This site marks also the southern limit for the extension
of this kind of figure. In the same way, the inscriptions in Arab or tifinagh
characters (transcription of the Tuareg language) are not very numerous
in the region and they are generally situated along the river Niger.
The site of Airé Soroba provides interesting
data about the Arab inscriptions which constitute one of the last phases
in the relative sequence of paintings. A short sentence, in which a date
is mentioned, record a pilgrimage to Mecca in the 11th century A. D. It
confirms the presence of Islamic populations in the Inland delta of the
Niger during this period.
Schematic
representations related to traditional rites
These representations are essentially paintings executed
on the occasion of ritual ceremonies like circumcision, initiation or wedding.
Abstract signs, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures in red, white or
black, are principally illustrated in the rock shelters of the Dogon area,
in the "Point G" cave in Bamako (Mali) and also in the Marghi region (Nigeria).
Schematic
representation of ships. Airé Soroba, Mali (photo MAESAO)
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Their chronology is not really established, but they
could be relatively recent and we know, by the oral tradition, that some
of them have been revived during the last decades. Subjects like humans
mounting horses are sometimes illustrated and it could be possible to see
a persistence of ancient themes.
We can add to these groups some particular figures
which seem to be unique in the region: an engraving of fish discovered
in Bamako-Sotuba, near the river Niger and the group of painting ships
from Airé Soroba. At present, such representations of boats are
only known in Upper Egypt (Winkler 1938).
If we consider the whole sites known actually in
western Africa, we note that they are concentrated in the Sahelian and
Sudanese savannahs. That can be the result of insufficient researches in
the others climatic zones, more difficult to prospect because of the forested
environment.
The sites with Saharan style figures are, as for
them, located in the Sahelian savannah and they could mark a limit of the
extension of northern populations to the south. This rock
art offers a large corpus of figures, sometimes unique in the area. Its
complete study could maybe provide some others data concerning the origin
and the movements of populations in the sub-Saharan Africa.
Ostrich hunting
scene, red painting. Airé Soroba, Mali (tracing MAESAO) |
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Séverine
Marchi
6, rue Racine
F- 69100 Villeurbanne
MAESAO:
Mission Archéologique
et Ethno-arquéologique Suisse
en Afrique de l'Ouest
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Bibliography
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DESPLAGNES (A. M. L). 1907. Le platean
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au Soudan français. Paris: E. Larose.
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HUYSECOM (E.). 1990. Fanfannyégèné
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MAUNY (R.). 1954. Gravures, peintures
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SHAW (Th.). 1978. Nigeria. Its archaeology
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