Rock art of the Chadian Sahara
Cameline period
The dromedary replaces everything: schematic caravans, tifinagh inscriptions, and the slow extinction of rock art.
Rock artUNESCO World Heritage 2016
- Period
- 500 BCE – 1,500 CE
- Coordinates
- 16.8700° N, 22.2000° E
- Rock art
- Rock art of the Chadian Sahara
History
From around 500 BCE the dromedary is introduced to the Sahara and becomes the only way to cross a desert now firmly established. It floods the walls: caravans in file, riders, ownership marks.
The style simplifies radically — schematic lines, pale paint or fine incision. Inscriptions in tifinagh, the Berber alphabet, appear beside the figures. This is the last layer of Saharan rock art, reaching almost into historical times, before the tradition dies out.
Galerie
Cameline period en images
Sites & heritage
