Mesak Settafet

There are many distinctive and large prehistoric carvings at the Mesak Settafet escarpment, especially at Wadi Mathendous. The outcropping's exposed stones are covered in a dark varnish or patina containing minerals not currently present in the sandstone. The microns-thick patina of iron and manganese oxides were likely laid down on the rock when the area was much wetter, up to 3000 BC. The majority of the rock carvings in the area were probably first scratched then ground, likely with water, to create a purposeful finish. ==Rock tools==

The Mesak Settafet is littered with stone tools from the Pleistocene and later ages. A 2015 survey of randomly selected areas in the region estimated the tool density to be as high as in places. The researchers for the Libyan Department of Antiquities used this figure to call the escarpment the earliest evidence of an anthropogenic environment. ==References==