Rupestral engravings of the South-Oranian

The rupestral engravings of the South-Oranian are prehistoric engravings of Neolithic age located at the South of Oran (Algérie), with the length of the Saharian Atlas, in the areas, of west in is, Figuig, Ain Sefra, El-Bayadh of Aflou and Tiaret. Comparable engravings were described, more in the east still, around Djelfa and in the constantinois. Whereas in the past certain authors could affirm that these engravings had their origin in art Paléolithique of Europe, this theory today is definitively condemned.

History

Less famous than the figurations of the Tassili engravings of the South-Oranian are however the subject of studies since 1863. The most important work is in particular due to A. Pomel (of 1893 to 1898), Stephan Gsell (of 1901 to 1927), G.B. Flemish Mr. (of 1892 to 1921), L. Frobenius and Hugo Obermaier (in 1925), the Abbot Henri Breuil (of 1931 to 1957), L. Joleaud (of 1918 to 1938), R. Vaufrey (of 1935 to 1955).

In 1955 and 1964 Henri Lhote accomplishes stays of several months in the area which enable him to supplement preceding research, to add hundreds of new descriptions and to publish in 1970 rupestral engravings of the South-Oranian in the series of the “Memories of the Research center anthropological prehistoric and ethnographic” (CRAPE) directed to Algiers by Mouloud Mammeri (graphic Arts and Trades, Paris, 210 photographic pages and reproductions), a notable share of the work being more particularly devoted to engravings of the area of El-Bayadh. For Henri Lhote the area of the South-Oranian constitutes one of the “three great centers of art of time bubaline” (p. 194) with Tassili (“Djèrat Wadi”) and the Fezzan.

Dating

In this work Lhote reports that a hearth being at the “Station of the Meander”, close to Brézina, was gone back to 3900 av. J.C., without this figure being able “to be paid to a given category of engravings which decorate the walls of the station” (p. 193, note 1). Oldest of these engravings, in addition, many affinities with those of Tassili present for which he proposes the minimum figure of worms - 5000. It thus is necessary, according to him, “to also adopt it for the South-Oranian until better information” (p. 163).

The area of El-Bayadh on Wikimapia

Localizations and descriptions

Other comparable whole of engravings

Chronology

The first classifications

A. Pomel, being based on identifications of animals criticized later on, is at the origin of the position of certain authors who estimate initially that engravings belong at the time Paléolithique.

Stephan Gsell, on the contrary, judge Neolithic eras oldest engravings appearing bubales and elephants and detaches the images of rams from them, according to him reflection of an Egyptian ancient rite, which it brings back, as well as the figurations of caballins, at the historical period.

The classification suggested per G.B. Flemish Mr. starting from the study of the techniques and the patinas distinguishes a first group from engravings naturalists (bubales, elephants, rhinoceros, rams, asses, horses, antelopes), a second libyco-Berber group (engravings of declining style, small horses, camels, characters alphabetical) and two late groups (Arab inscriptions and modern graffiti).

For H. Obermaier there exists in Neolithic engravings two sub-groups, oldest of style the naturalist (bubales), most recent of style sub-naturalist (less elaborate and low-size subjects). The worship of the ram with spheroid was according to him specific to the populations of North Africa before being adopted by the Egyptians.

Henri Breuil distinguishes as for him three stages. In stage I, contemporary of the end of the Capsien, it places large the bubales at ringed horns, of the elephants and lions of style very completed as well as the large characters (Ksar El Amar). Stage II, that it connects to the old Neolithic era, joins together the large ram of Bou Alem, of the bubales, rhinoceros, elephants and other animals of style less completed. The ram, for him, is not domesticated yet but only tamed and its worship is rather the origin that the reflection of the Egyptian belief. Stage III gathers the declining stylistic devices.

R. Vaufrey, studying the flint tools collected with the foot of the engraved rocks, brings back the figurations naturalists to the drifting “Neolithic era of tradition capsienne” of the Neolithic era of Egypt and locates them between 4200 and 2000 av. J.C. The ram, which he considers domesticated, is only one transposition of the Egyptian worship of Am and its representations cannot be former to 2200 av. J.C. For Henri Lhote there does not exist however any archaeological argument which inclines to detach the rams, supposed more late, of large the bubales, elephants or rhinoceros. Being like they of Neolithic age, they cannot rise from the Egyptian ram, but do not have therefore being regarded as the ancestors of a worship whose Am ram would constitute a late after-effect.

Classification of Henri Lhote

Henri Lhote distinguishes seven whole in parietal art from the Oranian South.

1. Great engravings of style monumental naturalist or stage bubalin large-sized . At the sides of large the bubales, elephants and rhinoceroses, Lhote places many ostriches and antelopes, wild boars, lions and panthers. The animals are represented in absolute profile except for the bubales, in relative profile (the formula dioculaire being frequent). Lhote locates in this unit the human figurations which accompany them (the feet and hands almost always comprise six features). No character with head zoomorphe meeting there, it observes that “the bubalin unit of the Saharian Atlas is opposed to those of Tassili-n-Ajjer and Fezzan where these figures are current” (p. 197). The author thinks in addition that the domestication of the dog was acquired in this period and that the South-Oranian into present the rupestral testimonys oldest. This first stage also gathers the “mythical animals”. All these engravings proceed of a staking of small more or less jointed cups then, generally, of a polishing probably using a wood tool with wet sand addition. Certain engravings present a beginning of polishing of the endoperigraphic part (head), others a total polishing.

2. Small engravings of style naturalist or stage bubalin low-size . The stage would be consisted the whole of engravings of more reduced size whose style was indicated like “the school of Tazina”, according to the name of the one of the sites. These figures naturalists appear same fauna (bubale, elephant and rhinoceros) that of the preceding whole but in very conventional forms, legs and tails of the animals being very frayed, lines of the horns and the muzzle prolonged in a “fantastic” way (Flemish), the lengthening of the bodies, the necks and the heads having caused faulty interpretations. The style is however not uniform and on certain walls these characteristic deformations coexist with more realistic forms. From a technical point of view the completion of engravings is regular, no trace not remaining of a preliminary staking and the patina is similar to that of the preceding stage. The human figurations present the same characters but the final parts of the members, feet and hands, are generally round.

From a chronological point of view, only one station (Koudiat Abd El Hak) proclamation an indisputable superposition, small an antelope with the frayed legs being overloaded by a large elephant, whereas another would seem to be to him posterior. The fact obliges Lhote “to wonder whether the low-size school is former to that of great engravings or if the two schools were contemporary”. This last assumption would imply the existence “of two different human groupings living artistic side by side or, at least, two schools operating in parallel”. In its analysis Lhote shows that beyond the broad similarity of faunas represented and the presence of association “orant-ram” in the two stages, association “orant-bubale” was not announced in the second, while the antelopes are more numerous there and the rarer lions. It notes that “the low-size style extends towards the Moroccan South into Rio de Oro, whereas that large-sized remained confined in the sector south-Oranian, with some migrations towards the North-East”. The point of view of the author thus leans “in the direction of the existence of two groups”. In addition the style of low-size engravings, compared to the static forms of the large-sized figures, rather reflects “an art having already reached conventional formulas”, “more advanced in the spirit of creative research thus more advanced”, and by there posterior. But on this assumption one should find vestiges of this so particular style in the later group of declining engravings, whereas those seem on the contrary to rise from the large-sized school. In his conclusions the author thinks that the low-size engravings, often considered as later declining reminiscences, could be as old as those of large the bubales and elephants. “Whatever the solution which will prevail”, concludes Lhote, “one must think that the unit of fauna noted in the two groups implies that there cannot be a great chronological shift and that, in spite of the alternative of the styles, one can wonder it is not a question oneself of two expressions of the same art” (p. 173).

3. Engravings of style sub-naturalist or declining stage bubalin . They are characterized by the mediocrity of their style and their technique, reduced to a rather coarse staking and a possible irregular polishing. Their patina is clearer than for the two preceding stages, irrecusable observation because they are often on the same walls. Their dimensions are more reduced than those of the first group but larger than those of the second with which they do not present anything commun run. The most common topic is that of the sexués characters, in semi-squatted position, seen of face, often in connection with many lions and ostriches. The fauna, less varied than in the first two groups, still gathers the ultimate representations of bubales whose horns are never ringed, and of the figurations of elephants, oxen and panthers. Association man-ram disappears, which seems “to mark a cut of the environment of the preceding stages and indicates an evolution in the religious beliefs”, replaced by association man-lion, bubales and elephants not holding the place more that they occupied. It is according to Lhote “the end, very degraded, of this remarkable artistic time which knew the Oranian South” (p. 14).

4. Engravings of style sub-naturalist of the pastors or stage bovidien . The domesticated ox, with long or short horns, carrying small spheroids sometimes, dominates this stage, fauna being made up moreover elephants, antelopes and ostriches, while the human figurations are rare. Engravings are several different styles, the diagrammatic and massive formula, qualified the “quadrangular one” per H. Breuil, in front of being oldest. The principal group of these engravings not being in the South-Oranian but in the valley of Saoura (the Sahara), Lhote supposes “an origin different from that of the preceding groups”, expressing “secondary infiltrations come from the South”. For the author, “this civilization bovidienne is incontestably resulting from the Saharan medium, but it made only one very surface appearance in the Oranian South”, borrowing the corridors of the Mounts of Ksour, having perhaps “another direct contact with the Sahara in the zone of Brésina” (p. 175).

5. Engravings of the diagrammatic tanks , which must occupy a chronological position comparable with that of the tanks of the Sahara.

6. Berber engravings libyco- .

7. arabo-Berber modern engravings .

Complement

For F. Cominardi, more recently analyzing the superposition of engravings of " Koudiat Abd el Hak" ( Chebka Dirhem I new rupestral station of the Mounts of Ksour , in " Lybica" , volume XXIV, CRAPE, Algiers, 1976, pp. 167-168), it seems acquired that at least one time the stage large-sized naturalist and the stage low-size naturalist (the oldest level making up of engravings of very small dimensions, most recent of works of slightly higher size) were contemporary, " the first not being extinct when the second" began;. The author inclines, " because of the argument of the more advanced diagrammatic style, to place the stage large-sized naturalist initially, and to make begin the stage low-size naturalist before disappearance from the précédent". According to Cominardi, " it would be during the amount of time where they coexisted, which were carried out engravings of the panel of Koudiat. Were these two artistic worlds if differentiated conveyed by different tribes? It is possible. That would explain why they seldom cohabit on the same rocks, and that the school of Tazina either geographically if individualisée". " If the stage low-size naturalist is, compared to the stage oldest, if not contemporary, at least hardly shifted in time, one can, provisoirement" , adds the author, " to place between the Life and IVè millénaire".

Interpretation

Henri Lhote counts in engravings of the assimilated South-Oranians 41 figurations of rams or sheep, which is little compared to the whole of the representations, “more especially as this figure includes/understands the low-size figures and those, dubious, of the declining school” (p. 178). Their attributes symbolic systems (spheroids, caps, collars) remaining very variable, contrary to those of the Egyptian Ram of Am, equipped with start of the symbols which it will always keep, one can advance, according to the author, whom they “had not been fixed yet in a final way and whom we are then opposite a worship which was at its beginnings”. The difference “shows, if it of it were still need, that the South-oraniens had not borrowed the worship from Egypt” (p. 180). In 13 case the engraved rams are associated with characters. Analyzing their possible relations, the conclusion of the author is “that the Ram played a religious part of foreground in the South-Oranian, that its association with the man, either who it was in position of orant, or armed with an axe, shows that it had certainly the character of a divinity whom one beseeched and whom one could, if necessary, immoler” (p. 180). This role, adds it, “is well attested in the two stages bubalins large and low-size one, but disappears in the stage from declining style or remains there only with the state of vestige”.

The representations of bubales, more (73 for the area) and in 13 case related to the presence of a character, express in spite of the absence of spheroid, “which it could be the object of rites attaching it to the man” (p. 181), that it “held an eminent place in the beliefs of the old populations of the South-Oranian” (p. 183). As for the Lion, represented the head of face in the old stage bubalin where it is only once associated with the man, of profile in the declining group where associations are on the contrary frequent, it seems to have replaced rams and bubales. One must be able, according to Lhote, “to interpret this phenomenon like a radical modification in the behavior of the populations south-oraniennes, a true change, unless it does not correspond on arrival of new human groupings” (p. 183).

For Henri Lhote, “engravings of the South-Oranian are certainly among the oldest events artistic and pertaining to worship of Africa which we know and the beliefs of which they were the reflection perhaps contributed to influence the later populations of the valley of the the Nile and the Black Africa where the animism was to take a so great development” (pp. 182-183).

The conjectures about the authors of these engravings were numerous. They were supposed, bring back Lhote, to belong to black populations ancestors of the Mandingues and Haoussas. The Touaregs, the Egyptians, the ancestors of the Berbères were also evoked. They were still regarded as Cro-Magnon S, pastors and farmers of Asian origin, of Harratines, Proto-Libyans, Bushmen. In the absence of discovered in the area of Neolithic human vestiges and taking into account the ambiguity of the figurations, “it is necessary to be kept of any absolute identification” or “final option” (pp. 196-198).

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