Round Head Period
[2] The Round Head rock art of Tassili and the surrounding mountainous areas bear considerable similarity with traditional Sub-Saharan African cultures.
[9][10] Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers built a simple stone wall, dated to 10,508 ± 429 cal BP/9260 ± 290 BP, which may have been used for the purpose of serving as a windbreak.
[9] In 10,000 BP, Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers, to some extent, engaged in processing of flora, and were specialists in the use of Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia).
[2] Hunters of the Epipaleolithic, who possessed a sophisticated social organization, as well as exceptional stone tools and ceramics, created the Round Head rock art.
[6][12] Amid the early Sahara, Round Head rock artists, who had a sophisticated culture and engaged in the activity of hunting and gathering, also developed pottery, used vegetation, and managed animals.
[2] A spatula and lithic grinding tools with ocher remnants on them, which serves as evidence of painting, were found in an Acacus rockshelter with Round Head rock art.
[2] Based on 13 sediment samples from the floor directly at or near the walls of Round Head rock art in Sefar and Ti-n-Tazarift, and determined via the optically stimulated luminescence dating method, the Round Head rock art may have been created amid the Holocene and may have a terminus ante quem date of 9000 BP to 10,000 BP.
[2] Amid the late period of the Pleistocene, with its varied climate system, the mountainous environment remained sufficiently humid, which allowed for animal, plant, and human life to be sustained.
[5] The precursors for Round Head rock art may have originated in the mountainous northern area (e.g., Adrar Bous, Air) of Niger.
[5] The emergence and expansion of ceramics in the Sahara may be linked with the origin of both the Round Head and Kel Essuf rock art, which occupy rockshelters in the same regions (e.g., Djado, Acacus, Tadrart) as well as have common resemblances (e.g., traits, shapes) with one another.
[23] Between the 5th millennium BCE and the 4th millennium BCE, the Central Saharan rock art depiction of a horned running woman, who may have been a goddess or a dancer[24] with body scarification markings (e.g., breasts, belly, thighs, shoulders, calves),[25] was created by Africans, during the Round Head Period[26][24] of Tassili N’Ajjer, in Tanzoumaitak, Algeria.
[29][20] Long-dwelling Tuareg from the same area also recognized the Round Head rock art as a creation of black people who resided in the Tassili region long ago.
[9] Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers built a simple stone wall, dated to 10,508 ± 429 cal BP/9260 ± 290 BP, which may have been used for the purpose of serving as a windbreak.
[9] In 10,000 BP, Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers, to some extent, engaged in processing of flora, and were specialists in the use of Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia).
[2] Hunters of the Epipaleolithic, who possessed a sophisticated social organization, as well as exceptional stone tools and ceramics, created the Round Head rock art.
Bone tools derive from various kinds of fauna (e.g., Ammotragus lervia, Bird, Canis aureus, Gazella dorcas, Large Bovid, Phacochoerus aethiopicus, Vulpes rueppelli).
[31] The distinct designs of the various bone objects (e.g., item with an hourglass shape, spatula-knife made from a warthog tooth, two pendants, leadership emblem), which were expertly created, designed, and used by the Tin Torha hunter-gatherers, may have served as collective identity markers and those created bone objects may have served a vital purpose in trade with other groups.
[31] Amid the early Sahara, Round Head rock artists, who had a sophisticated culture and engaged in the activity of hunting and gathering, also developed pottery, used vegetation, and managed animals.
[4] The Round Head rock art of Tassili and the surrounding mountainous areas bear considerable similarity with traditional Sub-Saharan African cultures.
[4] A vital aspect for young male and female initiates of Sub-Saharan African ceremonies to partake in is body painting.
[4] Traditional Sub-Saharan African cultures regularly use horn emblems in reference to their focus on improved reproductive capability and development.
[4] Comparatively, Round Head rock art may have been created, in specially chosen rockshelters, by initiating individuals who were undergoing ceremonial rites.
[6] Common traits between Round Head rock art and Sub-Saharan African cultures include concepts of down-headed animals and mighty deities.
[32] There are also individuals depicted in an "A-pose" – the most common of depicted posted in the Round Head rock art at Uweinat, which, in West African art, bears the meaning of a person who is alive in contrast to a person is dead, and in African dance, is usually the starting stance that bears the meaning of unlimited expressive possibility.
[32] There is an abundance of ancient rock art (e.g., paintings, petroglyphs) in the Algerian Tadrart and Tassili as well as the Libyan Acacus regions of the Sahara.
[11] Pastoralists after 5000 BP occupied higher and lower elevated areas on a seasonal basis and possessed often-used lithic grinding tools, ceramics (plain in detail), and, with heightened use, distantly located resources.
[11] As cattle pastoralism had endured in the Sahara since 7500 BP, Central Saharan hunters and herders may have lived together in a common area for a long period of time.
[11] Desertification may have resulted in migrations from the Central Saharan region, where the Round Head paintings are located, toward Lake Chad and the Niger Delta.
[35] While some migrated south of the Sahara, other Central Saharan hunter-gatherers may have taken on the custom of pastoralism[4] (e.g., herding domesticated cattle and goats).
[11] Given the opportunity to become socially distinguished, to develop food surplus, as well as to acquire and aggregate wealth, this led to the adoption of a domestic cattle pastoral economy by some Central Saharan hunter-gatherers.
