Rupestral engravings of the area of Djelfa

The rupestral engravings of the area of Djelfa (Algeria) are prehistoric engravings of Neolithic age which were announced since 1914. With the length of the Saharian Atlas they make following those, in the west, of the South Oranian (areas of Figuig, of Ain Sefra, El-Bayadh, Aflou and Tiaret), to which they are connected. Comparable engravings were described, more in the east, in the Constantinois.

Localizations and descriptions

Certain engravings of the area of Djelfa seem to have been known since 1850 (El Idrissia). Among most famous those of Zaccar are discovered in 1907 and Fleming describes in 1914 the station of Daïet are Stel. In the middle of the years 1960 the credit Tourist office of Djelfa undertakes to count engravings and paintings and the Father F. of Villaret, which accompanies the visitors, thus makes know works of a score of new stations, in particular those of Wadi el Hesbaïa and Ain Naga. On the whole more than 1162 engravings were discovered in the area.

Henri Lhote evokes these engravings in the work rupestral Engravings of the South-Oranian which it publishes in 1970 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). For him they cannot “be separate archaeologically among those of the South-Oranian, because they present to some alternatives close the same style, the same formulas of technique, the same patinas, same fauna” (p. 194). It would be thus possible to analyze them starting from the assumptions and of the classification which it develops. Engravings of the area of Djelfa thus seem to him “emigrated works, which are a démarquage, of always lower quality, those of the South-Oranian” (p. 193), area constituting for the author “the principal center of the rupestral art of the areas présahariennes”. Some belong on the old floor of the school large-sized bubaline, like “the Apollo of Ouled Naïl”, others are more recent or more declining.

Regretting “the ignorance of the importance of rupestral of the Of Algiers South” in the work of Lhote, P. Huard and L. Allard publish in 1976 in Lybica (CRAPE, Algiers) an important study on the rupestral figurations of the area of Djelfa, Of Algiers South . The authors count there by numbering them forty-three stations which are with some exceptions close located inside or on the edges of a triangle formed in north by the town of Djelfa, in south-west by the village of Sidi Makhlouf and in south-east by the town of Messaad.

Around the road of Djelfa with Laghouat (until the south of Sidi Makhlouf) twenty-three stations are indicated: N O 28 ( Zaccar ), 38 ( Ishak ), 39 ( Wadi el Youhi ), 40 ( Guelt el Bidha ), 30 ( Hadjra Sidi Boubakeur ), 31 ( Sreissir ), 32 ( Ben Hallouane ), 27 ( El Gour ), 26 ( Ben Hadid ), 25 ( Kheneg Hilal ), 24 ( Theniet bou Mediouna II ), 23 ( Theniet bou Mediouna I ), 22 ( Theniet el Mzab ), 21 ( Daïet Geklil ), 16 ( Wadi Mergueb ), 20 ( Djebel Doum ), 19 ( Safiet el Baroud ), 18 ( Morhoma ), 33 ( Wadi Remeila ), 34 ( Rock of the Pigeons ), 41 ( Wadi Cheguieg ), 17 ( Wadi el Hesbaïa ), 42 ( Ntsila ). Three stations are moreover mentioned in the east of Djelfa: N O 1 ( Feidjet Elleben ), 2 ( Sidi Abdallah Ben Ahmed ), 3 ( Argoub Ezzemla ). Three other sites are in the west: n° 37 ( Chouchet Esnober ), 36 ( Koreiker ), 35 ( El Idrissia ).

Around the road of Djelfa with Messaad (by Moudjbara) twelve stations follow one another roughly of north the south: N O 29 ( Saouiet ), 4 ( Ain Mouilha ), 5 ( Daïet be Stel ), 6 ( northern Hadjra Mokhotma ), 7 ( Hadjara Mokhotma southern ), 10 ( Safiet Bou Khenan )), 9 ( Station of the Ostrich ), 8 ( Daïet el Hamra ), 11 ( Bou Sekkin ), 12 ( Ain Naga ), 13 ( Atef el Ghorab ), 14 ( Oued Tamdit ). In the east of Messad two last stations are mentioned: N O 43 ( Wadi el Bouir ) and 15 ( Amoura ).

Engravings are near habitats, revealed by the presence of cut flints and glares, “spread out on various levels or the foot of reddish sandstone cliffs whose patina can reach the black, which skirts Djebel S or borders of the wadis. ” They “are divided very generally into spaced small groups”, the monumental planks or the walls very charged, like those of Wadi el Hesbaïa or Ain Naga, appearing “exceptions” (p. 70).

Recognizing that engravings of the area of Djelfa are “similar to those of the South-Oranian by the subjects and the techniques”, P. Huard and L. Allard judge however that “they have into clean a rich person contained cultural whom reveal in particular of the ancient buffaloes carrying cephalic attributes and the fact that almost all the sheep are equipped with traditional spheroids or the cornages closed out of ring which are a posterior stylization” (p. 67). According to them “the admission in the oldest stage of the South-Oranian of the rams with spheroid can hardly be appropriate in the South-Inhabitant of Algiers, where their the most completed figurations are often associated with men with evolved/moved clothing, while others, bound to oxen, are of clearly pastoral time” (p. 71). Moreover “the stage “bovidien”, which would come only in fourth position in the South-Oranian, where it presents “a declining” character, is developed much more in the South-Inhabitant of Algiers”. Raising that indices “show that in the two sectors, its origin would be definitely older”, Huard and Allard prefer speech “of a pastoral stage of long life with sheep and oxen” (p. 71).

“The stage of the hunters”

In the stage of the hunters the authors gather the figurations of the large wildlife: ancient buffaloes (or bubales), human elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, ostriches and characters.

On the seventeen buffaloes listed in the area, twelve belong to the great art naturalist and are similar to those of the South-Oranian. They are localized in Oued el Hesbaïa (plank of three buffaloes, including one of more than two meters), Ain Naga (two buffaloes in file), the Station of the Ostrich (buffalo of 1,50 m overcome of a hollow disc), Djebel Doum (buffalo of 2,35 m whose left horn supports a “lengthened semicircular attribute”), Safiet el Baroud, northern Hadjra Mokhotma (buffalo of 2,63 m whose man seems to touch the cornage), Kheneg Hilal (buffalo of 1,20 m) and Ben Hallouane.

Large, average or small, twenty-two elephants seem to belong to several times. Largest (1 with 2 m), of style naturalist, meet with Ain Naga, Theniet bou Mediouna I, Oued Remeilia, Ain Mouilha, Oued el Hesbaïa (where the “panel of the elephants”, accumulation of figurations superimposed on the length of the centuries, into present six,), Safiet Bou Khenan, Zaccar, Feidjet Elleben and Bou Sekkin.

Seven rhinoceroses, of less quality and often of declining style, are divided into five stations, in Oued Remeila (oldest), Feidjet Elleben, Bou Sekkin, Ain Naga, Oued el Hesbaïa.

Last nine representations of antelopes bubales ( Bubalis alcelaphus boselaphus ) are of style naturalist. Most famous is that of Zaccar, devoured by a lion (1,50 m length). A similar scene meets in Daïet el Hamra. In Hadjra Mokhotma northern the animal is retained by a circular trap. Other antelopes were engraved in Safiet el Baroud, Theniet el Mzab, Feidjet Elleben. Many are in addition the figurations of antilopidés, often low-size and stylized, like those of Sidi Abdallah Ben Ahmed and Safiet bou Khenan, connected with the style known as of Tazina, spread in the South-Oranian.

Eighteen the lions represented can be classified in three units: “lions naturalists of profile, three times in action of hunting” (Wadi el Hesbaïa, Zaccar, Daïet el Hamra, northern Hadjara Mokhotma, Remeilia Wadi), “lions of rather great dimensions, with head of stylized face and body of profile”, “style and invoice poor”, “late compared to the prototypes of the South-Oranians” (Djebel Doum, Kheneg Hilal, Hadjra Mokhotma southern), “cat-like smaller, with the light feature and generally late”, “of poor style and invoice” (pp. 81-85).

The ostriches, rather many, are, except for the representations of Safiet bou Khenan, and Wadi el Hesbaïa “of a generally poor quality”. The wild boars, in group of three, on the contrary rare, are limited to the stations of El Idrissia (disappeared together) and of Sreissir,

The human figurations are with the number of forty, in particular in Oued el Hesbaïa, El Gour, Theniet bou Mediouna II, Ain Naga, Daïet are Stel, Oued Remeilia, Safiet bou Khenan, Hadjra Mokhotma southern, Ben Hadid. The authors apply to it the grid of the “twenty-five material features or psychic value of the culture of the hunters” which they released “on the Nile and in various Saharan sectors” (p. 85). They concern thus the representations of men under skins of animal, the wearing of false tails and protections phallic, masks, the presence of ithyphallic figurations and men touching of the animals (buffalo, antelopes and elephant with Hadjra Mokhotma northern, Theniet bou Mediouna II and Bou Sekkin). Among the weapons they count arcs, weapons long and curved, bludgeons, an axe and a shield. Several traps are also illustrated as well as hands. Thus, “all the cultural features of the Hunters are attested in the area of Djelfa, except the lasso and the spiral, which on the other hand are strongly represented in Tassili in the sector of Djerat Wadi” (p. 93).

Preliminaries with domestication

Several antelopes and oxen carry traces of human appropriation, in particular of the collars. But it is especially about thirty figurations of rams which are attached to Pastors rather than with Hunters, being spread out “over one long period going until a advanced phase of domestication” (p. 97). Eights of them are rams with spheroid, including five associated with human figurations (Ain Naga, Daïet are Stel, Oued el Hesbaïa, Saouiet). It is in this unit that some of the most famous chiefs of the works of the area are placed, the such ram of Ain Naga , of approximately twice the life size, discovered by the Father F. of Villaret and published by the Tourist office of Djelfa. The animal, which carries a spheroid framed of feathers, during cheek and a collar with rafters, is preceded by a man vêtu of a mask-sex with buttons, decorated bracelets, whose hairstyle falls down on the nape of the neck in three wicks.

Other sheep, sometimes provided with collars, present cornages closed out of ring or discs (only four representations present only one collar or appear without attribute). In Hadjra Sidi Boubakeur a group made up of a ram, a ewe and a large ox indicates “a well established domestication” (p. 106). Other rams are visible in Khenneg Hilal, Oued el Hesbaïa, Safiet bou Khenan, Theniet el Mzab, Hadjra Mokhotma and Ain Naga.

Rupestral engravings of the area of Djelfa introduce large oxen naturalists (Zaccar) or subnaturalists (Bou Sekkin), the others being of pastoral time. Their cornages is also closed out of ring and they carry sometimes devices in segments of a circle or carpets which are perhaps means of bearing (Hadjra Sidi Boubakeur, Teniet el Mzab, Hadjra Mohkotma, Ben Hadid, Bou Sekkin, Safiet bou Khenan and Oued Mergueb).

“Pastoral scenes”, often associating men and animals, meet in Hadjra Sidi Boubakeur, Hadjra Mohkotma southern, Ain Mouilha (men with “puttees”), Morhoma, Daïet be Stel and Zaccar. Other significant, ithyphallic human figurations and opened women, are at Safiet bou Khenan, Theniet bou Mediouna II and Daïet el Hamra. In Theniet el Mzab is still celebrates it engraving of a man with trefoil hairstyle and rectangular drill plate and Ain Naga that of the “in love shy persons”, in whom the man carries an object in the shape of bean, shield or surmounted quiver of arrows (as in the South-Oranian with Khreloua), a hairstyle or a helmet with an ahead thrown tuft and three wicks falling on the nape of the neck (detail which one finds in Ain Naga as in the South-Oranian) while the woman presents a hair carefully capped, maintained behind by a bar.

One also finds among engravings of the area of Djelfa of canidés and of équidés of different times.

In addition three sites of cave paintings were localized in Djebel Doum, southern Zaccar (several archers, perhaps female character and tortoises) and Hadjra Mokhotma southern.

In 1968 of the elements of lithic industry belonging to the Capsien were found places by D. Grébénart from there at Ain Naga and gone back to 5500 ± 220 av. J. - C.

Sources

Huard P. and Allard L., rupestral Figurations of the area of Djelfa, Of Algiers South , in Lybica , Research center anthropological, prehistoric and ethnographic, Algiers, volume XXIV, 1976 (pp. 67-124) a chart and, in appendix, a “analytical repertory of the rupestral stations of the area of Djelfa” summarizing for each station the main part of the figures.

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