Saharan Rock Art Caught Between Fields
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Augustin F. C. Holl. Saharan Rock Art: Archaeology of Tassilian Pastoralist Iconography. Lanham: Altamira Press, 2004. Illustrations. 240 pp. $33.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-7591-0605-5. Reviewed by Mark D. DeLancey Published on H-AfrArts (September, 2009) Commissioned by Jean M. Borgatti (Clark Univeristy) In the frst chapter, “A New Approach to Saha‐ intent, and openness to a variety of possible inter‐ ran Rock Art,” Augustin F. C. Holl sets out his in‐ pretations. Holl emphasizes the need to decipher tention of introducing a new method of studying the iconographic language of the images through Saharan rock art and applying it to the specific in‐ relating formal aspects to ethnographic research. stance of the Dr. Khen Shelter at Iheren, Algeria, He perceives rock art as a combination of cultural in the Central Tassili. These paintings are dated to knowledge with the individual artist’s particular the third millennium BCE by association with a contribution, though Holl rightly points out that it nearby work. The paintings in this shelter, discov‐ is nigh impossible to determine the degree to ered by Henri Lhote in the late 1960s, have only which each holds sway. He considers rock art as been published piecemeal and have never been dependent on general cognition for its imagery. interpreted as a whole. The method presented On this point, he stands in opposition to such au‐ here was, in fact, developed by Holl for interpret‐ thors as Smith who have imported models from ing images at Dhar Tichitt and Tikadiouine.[1] In southern Africa that emphasize trance or vision‐ particular, this text represents the completion of a ary states as sources of Saharan rock art imagery. project frst presented in a 1999 article in which Holl very briefly defines “iconographic lan‐ the method was used to interpret the frst compo‐ guage” as “sets of elements and relationships cre‐ sition at Dr. Khen Shelter.[2] ating images with meaning” (p. 10). He points out As opposed to longer standing taxonomic or the numerous felds that treat the subject and ref‐ aesthetic approaches, Holl makes use of an inter‐ erences a number of relevant texts. Surprisingly pretative approach, typified by the work of rock little is defined theoretically, but then the inten‐ art specialists Karl Heinz Striedter, Jean-Loïc Le tion of this book is to demonstrate the application Quellec, and Andrew B. Smith. He sees his method of a new research method rather than theorizing as distinct in its focus on a single work, clarity of iconography. More troubling is the relatively poor H-Net Reviews presentation of the method itself in the introduc‐ findings in the fnal chapter, seeing the disparate tion. The essential idea is that the corpus of paint‐ compositions as a unified narrative of seasonal ings at a site may be broken down into ever small‐ transhumance and social transactions presented er units that must be understood individually be‐ in a single mural. fore being integrated into a coherent whole, with In the fnal pages, Holl makes a plea for the meaning apparent at each level of analysis. His importance of ethnographic work and urges un‐ terminology is, however, confusing and ill de‐ derstanding Saharan rock art within a cultural- fined. Units include elements, motifs (subdivided historical context derived from ethnographic into minimal and maximal themes, the latter itself data. This forms a vital element of his approach. subdivided into lower-level and higher-level con‐ Embedding his interpretation in an adamantly texts--none of which is referred to again once de‐ pastoral culture, he stresses the centrality of cattle fined), action sets (later termed performance to the creation of culture in terms of sustenance, units), compositions (later reinterpreted as acts), status, and wealth, and as a means of accomplish‐ components, and subcomponents. Even the basis ing social transactions. The images also empha‐ for defining specific compositions is not well de‐ size the importance of gender-based activities, fined, leaving the reader to understand them with men primarily responsible for herding and broadly as groups of images that are composition‐ women primarily responsible for domestic af‐ ally and thematically related. fairs. Each of the next six chapters focuses on de‐ Holl asserts that the painting sites are ritually scribing and interpreting a single composition significant as they are usually found in elevated from the shelter. The frst fve compositions highland locations, distinct from the lowlands stretch across the east wall, while the sixth adorns where most cemeteries and habitation sites have the south wall. This said, the reader is not provid‐ been discovered. He designates these highland lo‐ ed with a solid understanding of the layout of the cations as dry-season camps where extended shelter, that is, of the context in which the paint‐ groups could gather to carry out social rituals, ings would have been viewed originally. The such as courtship, marriage, and male initiation. themes laid out in these chapters are as follows: The rock art was focused in these places and con‐ Composition 1 and 2 both portray nomadic pas‐ versely served to legitimate the social rituals car‐ toralists in transhumance to a dry-season camp‐ ried out there. site in the highlands. Compositions 3 and 4 focus Although the importance of ethnographic re‐ on marriage and reproduction as social transac‐ search for understanding the paintings of a pas‐ tions occurring at the dry-season camp. Composi‐ toralist society is clear, referencing specific ethno‐ tion 4 also includes clearly sexual imagery, incor‐ graphic research and discussing its applicability porating the private sphere. Composition 5 is a would have made it more useful. For example, small scene developed visually in a different man‐ Holl pays little attention to residences represented ner, understood by Holl as conveying rapid move‐ in the Dr. Khen Shelter paintings. If these are no‐ ment. Holl suggests that the scene portrays a ritu‐ madic pastoralists, analogous to the Fulbe or oth‐ al performance that might be interpreted as a ers of today, could the so-called huts represented male initiatory process. Composition 6 on the in the shelter be identified as the mat-frame tents south wall is composed entirely of pairs of ani‐ discussed by Labelle Prussin?[3] Indeed, Prussin mals, including some young. This constitutes an suggests the images of the Tassili n’Ajjer as possi‐ allegory in the natural world analogous to that of ble predecessors of modern-day tents, thinking the east wall, and suggests as well a return to the from the past to the present rather than the re‐ plains in the rainy season. Holl summarizes his 2 H-Net Reviews verse, in creating a history of tent use in Africa. Archaeologist Elena A. A. Garcea at the Uni‐ She also points out the different principles in‐ versity of Cassino, Italy, also has criticized Holl’s volved in making mat-frame tents as opposed to attempts at interpretation, deeming them “haz‐ tensile tents, and discusses the difficulty of tracing ardous,” though it seems that she has missed the changes in technology over time, to which one point of the book.[6] Hazardous the attempt at in‐ might add, changes in population movements. terpretation may be, but to ignore the potential of Despite an ostensibly less aesthetic approach meaning inherent in such symbolic marks is neg‐ to the paintings, Holl does an excellent job of de‐ ligent. Instead, Holl should be applauded for mak‐ constructing the compositions and recognizing ing an effort at interpretation, despite its faults. the manner in which they have been organized by That said, Garcea makes a valid criticism that the artist. This is perhaps one of the strengths of Holl’s work fails to compare the emphasis on cat‐ his approach in recognizing each individual fg‐ tle versus sheep or goat herding at this site with ure and then understanding how it fts together contemporaneous archaeological evidence at such with its neighbors. That said, there is some confu‐ sites as the Tadrart Acacus in Libya, where sheep sion in his description and approach in relation to and goat herding predominates, or the Adrar Bous his earlier writing. First, Holl seems to contradict in Niger, where only cattle herding was practiced. himself when he states at the beginning of chap‐ [7] There is, moreover, a conspicuous lack of com‐ ter 4 that “the bottom to top and left to right struc‐ parison with paintings elsewhere. ture of Tassilian iconography outlined from my The most significant problem, however, is the analysis of the Tikadiouine paintings ... is explicit‐ difficulty of actually evaluating the validity of ly spelled out in composition III by a horizontal, Holl’s interpretations of individual images since dark red ochre line separating the upper from the the illustrations in the book are of such poor qual‐ lower scenes” (p. 47). While a bottom to top read‐ ity, consisting of pixelated line drawings. Body ing can be debated, Holl’s analysis of the Iheren decoration, gender, and color are impossible for paintings and the manner in which they intuitive‐ readers to determine and they must take Holl at ly read is based on a right to left movement, his word. This trust must remain tentative since rather than the reverse. He makes this clear in an Holl makes clear that he himself worked from earlier article where he notes “an overall move‐ tracings made in conjunction with Lhote’s expedi‐ ment from top-right to the bottom-left of the pan‐ tion in the 1960s rather than from the original el.”[4] Second, he does not address the process or paintings (p. xv). That these tracings are problem‐ sequence of creation or the tools used in the Dr.