Saharan Rock Art. Archaeology of Tassilian Pastoral Iconography. by Augustin F

BOOK REVIEW Saharan Rock Art. Archaeology of Tassilian Pastoral Iconography. By Augustin F. C. Holl. African Archaeology Series. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, 2004, 192 pages. ISBN Paperback 0-7591-0605-3. Price: UK£ 22.95. The rock art of the Sahara is world class, but it series of vignettes that correspond to the annual has tended to be ignored by rock art specialists out- rhythms of pastoral transhumant life. The two panels side Saharan studies. This was underlined by omission are suggested as a narrative in the form of an allegory of any mention of Saharan art in CHIPPINDALE & or play in six acts. Act I (or Composition I) has five TAÇONs (1998) edited volume on world rock art. The scenes that deal with arrival at a camp site, setting up reasons for this may be partially due to most Saharan camp and watering the animals. Act II has three scenes rock art researchers being either French or Italian, but that deal with transit to a new camp. Act III is the new more probably due to the history of work being limited camp site that anticipates some important event, which to dating sequences (MUZZOLINI 1993) and concentra- is suggested as being gift-giving and the birth of a tion on purely collecting data to contrast styles new child. Act IV is the continuation of camp life into (SANSONI 1994). This has meant that theoretical frame- the dry season, but is seen as a metaphor for life works have tended to be abstract and general, mostly events and the new generation. The four scenes in this dealing with issues of semiotics (LE QUELLEC 1993), act are suggested as dealing with human sexuality, and little attempt to frame these within specific Saha- marriage and reproduction. Act V is seen as The Fi- ran ethnographic examples, or to tie the art into the ar- nale or closure and involves a dance coordinated by chaeology. a leader demonstrating personal prowess. Act VI is the panel of wild animals on the opposite wall of the shel- The book under review is an attempt to resolve ter in four scenes, one of which is a ballet of the gi- some of these issues. It is a distillation and enlarge- raffes. Holl seems to think that this composition is the ment upon previous work done by Holl and col- artists own idea, however, it is a depiction of a natu- leagues (HOLL 1995; HOLL & DUEPPEN 1999). It focuses ral activity of young male giraffes who intertwine their on the paintings from one rock shelter in the Tassili necks as part of social play called necking or spar- nAjjer, called Iheren, first seen during one of Henri ring (SMITHERS 1983: 595). Interestingly, the fourth Lhotes later expeditions and transcribed by Pierre scene in this panel is of domestic cattle, one of whose Colombel. The panels are stylistically of the later horns are decorated with stripes. Bovidian II (or white-faced) art (SMITH 1993), probably dated to between 4500-3500 BP. They were initially This is an ingenious interpretation of the rock art published in KUPER (1978: pp. 418-9: fig. 2) in full col- panels, and Holl is convinced that their purpose is to our. They comprise over 440 individual images of hu- be used to instruct young people in the ways to be a mans and domestic animals on one side of the shelter, good pastoralist. While such pedagogic ends may and wild animals on the other side. well have been intended, the entire exercise assumes that Holl can get into the minds of the artists, and he Holl takes a generalised model of pastoral society is able to crack the ethnographic code. There is an- as his starting point. He reads the Iheren panel as a other assumption that this panel can be read literally DOI 10.3213/1612-1651-10033 © Africa Magna Verlag, Frankfurt M. Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 2 (2), 2004 281 Book review as narrative. The work on rock art in other parts of the able to read the art, which, inevitably, is going to be world, especially at the other end of Africa, suggests different from the western perspective and, presum- that what may seem to be narrative to the outside ably from Holls gaze and experience. Where there viewer is more liable to be a complex metaphor system can be an ethnographic commentary, rock art else- for deep meaning, ritual and myth. Indeed, ritual may where is seldom (if ever) purely narrative. It deals with have been intended by the gift-giving scene. basic beliefs and principles that are not always easy to understand from the outside, and sometimes it takes I have offered a different way into the interpreta- specialists from the inside to fully explain the com- tion of the art of this period in the Tassili (SMITH in plexities. The problem with taking a single panel and press). My entry is another panel from the Tassili at attempting to deconstruct it assumes that the panel Uan Derbaouen (KUPER 1978, pp. 426-7, fig. 12) that stood alone. It is possible that each of the Tassili pan- stylistically would also be Bovidian II period art. This els in other caves may have been part of a much larger scene shows four men and a woman involved in an landscape of meaning, with panels consecutively activity involving fire, while two oxen decorated with meant to add to each other as part of shared memory wavy lines and striped horns look on. My reading of of ritual and belief. this art is that there is a connection between the flick- ering fire and the wavy lines on the cattle. The motif By taking his own advice (HOLL 1989) in trying to of wavy line cattle is repeated in the Iheren panel get beyond simple chronologies and descriptions of (KUPER 1978, pp. 424-5, fig. 10, called Composition IV, the Saharan art, Holl has given us the chance to en- scene 3A in Holl, fig. 5.4), and one ox in Composition gage with the wider meaning of the art. Holls book IV, scene 1 in Holl, fig. 5.2 has striped horns. In Com- opens up Saharan art to the Anglophone world, and position III, scene 1 (Holl, fig. 4.2) other striped cattle we can anticipate much greater debate on its interpre- appear. This motif also appears at the site of tation, and perhaps engagement with the ethnographic Tadjelamine (LAJOUX 1963: 110). In fact, decorated cat- record. tle, some with dots and other markings, are wide- spread throughout the Sahara (ALLARD-HUARD 1983; Andrew B. Smith GAUTHIER et al. 1996, etc.), and DUPUY (1998, fig. 18) Department of Archaeology,University of shows a modern example of a cow painted by the Cape Town, South Africa Fulani during their annual crossing of the Niger River to new pastures. References To me the connection between fire and cattle is the crucial one. Pre-Islamic beliefs in spirits are wide- Allard-Huard, L. & Huard, P. 1983. Les gravures rupestres du spread among Saharan pastoralists (SMITH 2004), with Sahara et du Nil: II. Lère pastorale. Etudes scientifiques the forgerons (smiths) in Tuareg society being feared (mars-juin). due to their perceived access to the fire-djinns Chippindale, C. & Taçon, P.S.C. 1998. The Archaeology of (RASMUSSEN 1992). Although they may be socially Rock Art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. marginalised, these people play fundamental roles in the ritual life of the society. I have no way of knowing di Lernia, S. 1999. Discussing pastoralism. The case of the how these wavy-line cattle were integrated into the Acacus and surroundings. Sahara 11, 7-20. ritual life of prehistoric Saharan pastoral people, except Dupuy, C. 1998. Réflexion sur lidentité des guerriers représentés to note, as does DI LERNIA (1999: 17) that the Later dans les gravures rupestres de lAdrar des Iforas et de lAïr. Pastoral Period (5000-3500 BP) was one of unstable en- Sahara 10, 31-54. vironmental conditions, which put great pressure on Gauthier, Y., Gauthier, C., Morel, A. & Tillet, T. 1996. LArt cattle herders, and more small stock than cattle appear du Sahara. Seuil, Paris. in the archaeological record of this period. This may have increased the value of cattle in the eyes of the Holl, A.F.C. 1989. Social issues in Saharan prehistory. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 8, 313-354. herders. Like the eland to the Bushmen artists of southern Africa, increased depiction is a hint at the Holl, A.F.C. 1995. Pathways to elderhood, research on past ritual value of an animal. pastoral iconography: the paintings from Tikadiouine (Tassili-n-Ajjer). Origini 18, 69-113. There are alternative interpretations of the Tassili Holl, A.F.C. & Dueppen, S.A. 1999. Iheren I: research on art that might be offered, and this depends on being Tassilian pastoral iconography. Sahara 11, 21-34. 282 Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 2 (2), 2004.

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