Rock art of the Chadian Sahara
Bovidian period
The golden age: polychrome paintings of herds, milking and dance, left by a settled pastoral society.
Rock artUNESCO World Heritage 2016
- Period
- 5,000 BCE – 2,000 BCE
- Coordinates
- 16.9300° N, 22.0300° E
- Rock art
- Rock art of the Chadian Sahara
History
Between 5000 and 2000 BCE herding takes hold in the Sahara and rock art reaches its peak. Shelters fill with polychrome paintings: immense herds of piebald and two-tone cattle, scenes of milking, camp life, dance, women with elaborate hairstyles.
Human figures are slender, elongated, often adorned with jewellery and detailed clothing. What emerges is an organised, prosperous society whose wealth is counted in cattle. This period produced the most spectacular frescoes of the Ennedi, at Terkei and in the shelters of the western massif.
Galerie
Bovidian period en images
Sites & heritage
