Pastoral period

Rock art is categorized into different groups (e.g., Bubaline, Kel Essuf, Round Heads, Pastoral, Caballine, Cameline), based on a variety of factors (e.g., art method, organisms, motifs, superimposed). Compared to painted Round Head rock art, in addition to its art production method, depictions of domesticated cattle are what makes engraved/painted Pastoral rock art distinct; these distinct depictions in the Central Sahara serve as evidence for different populations entering the region. The decreased appearance of large undomesticated organisms and increased appearance of one-humped camels and horses depicted in latter rock art (e.g., Pastoral, Camelline, Cabelline) throughout the Sahara serves as evidence for the Green Sahara undergoing increased desiccation. ==Chronology==

Critique of overly simplistic and errant views presented in the long chronology is the value shown in the short chronology. Yet, the rather spontaneous development of Central Saharan rock art said to occur in the later 7th millennium BP, which is presented in the short chronology, is its challenge. The traditional view is that of Pastoral rock art ending, followed by Horse rock art beginning and ending, and then Camel rock art beginning and ending, yet it is likely more complicated (e.g., cross-regional mixing, overlaps, long rock art traditions, some pastoralists who did not create Pastoral rock art). In the case of Pastoral rock art, what may be more dependable is the likelihood that painted cattle, engraved cattle (which compose more than half of all engraved rock art), and pastoral motifs were composed by the same group of people. Gray, light-colored patina, abundant in manganese, has been climatologically connected with the drying of the Green Sahara, connected with the engraving being performed amid the development of the patina, and archaeologically connected with the Middle Pastoral Period. At Wadi al-Ajal, there were ten scattered archaeological sites - nine sites from the Early Pastoral Period and Middle Pastoral Period as well as one site likely from the Pre-Pastoral Period. Numerous engraved Pastoral rock art of animals may reflect an increase in activity (e.g., increased utilization of natural resources) among pastoralists amid the Early Pastoral Period and Middle Pastoral Period. Amid the Middle Pastoral Period, dairy farming and cattle grazing at pastures in the area of Wadi al-Ajal as well as transhumance between the southern region of the Messak and Wadi al-Ajal may have occurred. Amid the Late Pastoral Period and Final Pastoral Period (3800 BCE – 1000 BCE), out of all of the engraved animal rock art, which included desert-adaptable animals (e.g., Barbary sheep, Ostriches), red-colored patina developed and underlay 33% of the engraved animal rock art at Wadi al-Ajal. Desertification availed new areas to creating Pastoral rock art that were previously unavailable in prior times. ==Climate==

Early Pastoral Period From 8000 BP to 7500 BP, the climate of the Central Sahara may have been arid. Between the two periods, there was an arid period, which lasted from 7300 cal BP to 6900 cal BP. Late Pastoral Period A considerably arid environment may have been present, which also involved wind-caused erosion in rockshelters. After 5000 BP, physical breakdown of rockshelters may have occurred as intense aridity began to set in throughout the region of the Sahara and a plant landscape (e.g., grasslands with Chenopodiaceae, Compositae, psammophilous plants) similar to a steppe and desert region may have developed. Final Pastoral Period The environment became increasingly dry and oases began to develop. ==Origins of pastoralists==

Pastoral rock art Di Lernia et al. theorized: In 10,000 BP, black African hunter-gatherers may have migrated northward, along with the tropical monsoon rain system, from Sub-Saharan western Africa into the Central Sahara, particularly the Acacus region of Uan Muhuggiag; thereafter, in 7000 BP, pastoralists from the Near East (e.g., Palestine, Mesopotamia) and Eastern Sahara are believed to have migrated into the Central Sahara, along with their pastoral animals (e.g., cattle, goats). Based on the view that some rock art from the Acacus region of Libya portrayed persons with the phenotype (e.g., style and profile of the face) of white people, Savino Di Lernia characterized the Central Saharan pastoral culture that produced the child mummy of Uan Muhuggiag as mixed race. Round Head rock art portrays human artforms with additional attributes (e.g., occasionally wielding bows, body designs, masks) and undomesticated animals (e.g., Barbary sheep, antelope, elephants, giraffes); the final period of the Round Head rock art portrayals have been characterized as Negroid (e.g., dominant mandible, big lips, rounded nose). Pastoral rock art, as distinct (e.g., technique, themes) from Round Head rock art, portrays situations from pastoral life and domesticated cattle; its portrayals have been characterized as Europoid (e.g., thin lips, pointed nose). While this may be the case, the uncertainty of whether or not the rock art portrayals actually reflect the phenotypic differences found among the African ethnic groups that occupied the region of ancient Libya has resulted in caution about the opinions formed regarding these rock art portrayals. At Gobero, in Niger, hunter-gatherers dwelled amid the early period of the Holocene and ceased doing so by 8500 BP; after one thousand years of vacancy, pastoralists began dwelling by 7500 BP; these phenotypically (e.g., tall and robust compared smaller and tiny) and culturally (e.g., hunter-gatherer compared to pastoralist) distinct peoples are viewed as being similar to what occurred in the Acacus region of Libya and Tassili region of Algeria. In the Tassili n'Ajjer region, at Tin Hanakaten rockshelter, there was a child (7900 ± 120 BP/8771 ± 168 cal BP), with cranial deformations due to disease or artificial cranial deformation that bears a resemblance with ones performed among Neolithic-era Nigerians, as well as another child and three adults (9420 ± 200 BP/10,726 ± 300 cal BP). The Sub-Saharan West African Fulani, the North African Tuareg, and European agriculturalists, who are descendants of these Neolithic agriculturalists, share the lactase persistence variant –13910*T. While shared by Fulani and Tuareg herders, compared to the Tuareg variant, the Fulani variant of –13910*T has undergone a longer period of haplotype differentiation. The Fulani lactase persistence variant –13910*T may have spread, along with cattle pastoralism, between 9686 BP and 7534 BP, possibly around 8500 BP; corroborating this timeframe for the Fulani, by at least 7500 BP, there is evidence of herders engaging in the act of milking in the Central Sahara. ==Origins of pastoral animals and locations of domestication==

Cattle Near Eastern introduction of domesticated cattle into Africa Rather than the domesticating of cattle happening in the region of the Tadrart Acacus, it is considered more likely that domesticated cattle were introduced to the region. By the end of the 8th millennium BP, domesticated cattle are thought to have been brought into the Central Sahara. Based on cattle remains near the Nile dated to 9000 BP and cattle remains near Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba reliably dated to 7750 BP, domesticated cattle may have appeared earlier, near the Nile, and then expanded to the western region of the Sahara. particularly, the eastern region of the Sahara, between 10,000 BP and 8000 BP. Cattle (Bos) remains may date as early as 9000 BP in Bir Kiseiba and Nabta Playa. Based on the cattle (Bos) remains found at Affad and Letti, Osypiński (2022) indicates that it is "justified to raise again the issue of the origin of cattle in Northeast Africa. The idea of domestic cattle in Africa coming from the Fertile Crescent exclusively is now seen as having serious shortcomings." Indian humped cattle (Bos indicus) and North African/Middle Eastern taurine cattle (Bos taurus) are commonly assumed to have admixed with one another, resulting in Sanga cattle as their offspring. Rather than accept the common assumption, admixture with taurine and humped cattle is viewed as having likely occurred within the last few hundred years, and Sanga cattle are viewed as having originated from among African cattle within Africa. Near Nabta Playa, in the Western Desert, between 11th millennium cal BP and 10th millennium cal BP, semi-sedentary African hunter-gatherers may have independently domesticated African cattle as a form of reliable food source and as a short-term adaptation to the dry period of the Green Sahara, which resulted in a limited availability of edible flora. Sheep The most early domesticated sheep remnants in Africa (7500 BP – 7000 BP) were found in the eastern Sahara, Nile Delta, and Red Sea Hills (specifically, 7100 BP – 7000 BP). Domesticated sheep, which are thought to have probable origins in the Sinai Peninsula (7000 BP), may have, due to climate instability and water shortages, migrated from the Levant to Libya (6500 BP – 6800 BP), then to the central Nile River Valley (6000 BP), then to the Central Sahara (6000 BP), and finally, into West Africa (3700 BP). ==Pastoral rock art and pastoralists==

Among thousands of archaeological sites, which usually have several different periods of rock art traditions (e.g., Wild Fauna, Round Head, Pastoral, Horse, Camel) present at a single site and almost 80% of sites that are found in rockshelters, the most common form of Saharan rock art is the engraved and painted Pastoral rock art. Pastoral rock art, which are of latter times, are frequently found covering the Round Head rock art of earlier times. In the late period of the Pleistocene as well as the early and middle periods of the Holocene in West Africa and North Africa, peoples with Sudanese, Mechtoid, and Proto-Mediterranean/Proto-Berber skeletal types (which are outdated, problematic physical anthropological concepts) occupied these regions, and thus, occupied the Central Sahara (e.g., Fozziagiaren I, Imenennaden, Takarkori, Uan Muhuggiag) and Eastern Sahara (e.g., Nabta Playa). There are various types of stone constructions (e.g., Keyhole: 4300 BCE – 3200 BCE; Platform: 3800 BCE – 1200 BCE; Cone-Shaped: 3750 BCE; Crescent – 3300 BCE – 1900 BCE; Aligned Structures: 1900 BCE – Beginning of Islamic Period; Crater Tumulus: 1900 BCE – Beginning of Islamic Period) in Niger. Funerary monuments and sites, within possible territories that had chiefdoms, developed in the Saharan region of Niger between 4700 BCE and 4200 BCE. The Agades cross, a fertility amulet worn by Fulani women, may be associated with the hexagon-shaped carnelian piece of jewelry depicted in the rock art at Tin Felki. At Uan Derbuaen rockshelter of eastern Tassili, composition six may depict a white ox, under the spell of serpent-related animals, crossing through a U-shaped gate of vegetation, toward a powerful benevolent figure, in order to undo the spell on the ox. Composition six has been interpreted as portraying the Lotori ceremonial rite of Sub-Saharan West African Fulani herders. and commemorates the ox and its origination in a source of water. in the Western Sahara. The painted Pastoral rock art of Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria and engraved Pastoral rock art of Niger bear resemblance (e.g., color markings of the cattle) with the engraved cattle portrayed in the Dhar Tichitt rock art in Akreijit. The engraved cattle pastoral rock art of Dhar Tichitt, which are displayed in enclosed areas that may have been used to pen cattle, is supportive evidence for cattle bearing ritualistic significance for the peoples of Dhar Tichitt. The Early Pastoral Period spanned from 6300 BCE to 5400 BCE, which has been calibrated to 6250 cal BP. More specifically, with regard to the mummies, one of the naturally mummified females was dated to 6090 ± 60 BP and the other was dated to 5600 ± 70 BP. These two naturally mummified females were the earliest dated mummies to undergo histological inspection. In 5000 BP, the development of megalithic monuments (e.g., architecture) increased in the Central Sahara. Late Pastoral Period Amid the Late Pastoral Period, animals associated with the modern savanna decreased in appearance on Central Saharan rock art and animals suited for dry environments and animals associated with the modern Sahelian increased in appearance on Central Saharan rock art. Later, Garamantes acquired a monopoly on the oasis-based economy of the southern region of Libya. ==References==