The rock art found in the Atbai Desert reflects the vitality and fertility of the region's past. Despite today's extremely arid and barren landscape, these artworks make it possible to imagine a time when the region was full of water sources, green pastures and rich animal life.

 

Dating back some 4,000 years, this rock art also reveals the rapid and radical change of the Sahara Desert. Archaeologists at Macquarie University have discovered 16 new rock art sites in the deserts around Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan.

It is remarkable that in addition to figures such as humans, antelopes, elephants and giraffes, cattle are also depicted in these areas. Although there is almost no rainfall in this region today, the repeated depiction of cattle shows that cattle breeding was an important way of life in the past.

 

These rock paintings offer important clues about the lifestyles of people at that time and carry the traces of the past to the present.

Dr. Julien Cooper, leader of the Atbai Research Project, says it is surprising to find carved cattle in the desert. This is considered important evidence that the region was green and wet in the past.

 

In Africa's past, from about 15,000 to 5,000 years ago, there was increased rainfall across the continent with periodic alternating summer monsoon rains. These rains transformed the continent into lush pastures covered in freshwater lakes. But when the rainy season ended, the region and its inhabitants faced major changes. In the Atbai Desert around Wadi Halfa, the population declined drastically and those that remained gave up their cattle for sheep and goats.

These changes have had profound consequences for every aspect of human life. From dietary habits to migration patterns, lifestyles linked to cattle-based livelihoods have changed radically. Cooper emphasizes that these changes had profound effects on people's identities and livelihoods.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: arkeofili.com