Photo Gallery

23 - Tagueït bas (Aïr). - Horse Period. A figure without a weapon, carrying an indeterminate round object on the left arm. Decoration on the central part of the body. From the top of the feathers to the base of the feet: 1.10 m.

218 - Tadrart Acacous. Oued Kessan. – Another scene in the same style as the previous one. On the right side, women with children are depicted. Width of the panel: 0.84 m.

226 - Tadrart Acacous. Tin-Achigh. – Two seated people, wearing long tunics and bare feet, talking to each other. The figure on the left is 0.16 m tall.

227 - Tadrart Acacous. Tin-Achigh. – Three figures in tight white tunics, emphasizing the waist. The middle figure has black arms, but the rest of the body is white. He holds a stick in his left hand. The middle figure is 0.20 m tall. Note the white stick on the left.

228 - Tadrart Acacous. Teshouinat-Tagzelt. – A curious sight of two figures whose white tunics flare out at the bottom, possibly due to a rotating movement (?). A strange representation appears in the center, above the larger subject, who has suspended a round object from his left arm, which could be a shield. Noticeable ankle rings are visible here. The width from the right to the left tunic is 1.10 m.

244 - Tadrart Acacous. Tin-Lalan. – Ritual intercourse scene between an exaggeratedly ithyphallic figure and a woman with Europoid features. This is a scene with a propitiatory character. See chapter "The History of a False Idea: Sex and the Desert". Height of the depicted panel: 1.50 m.

245 - Tadrart Acacous. Tin-Lalan. – Another ritual intercourse scene. This scene has become complex due to overpainting and is difficult to restore. The Europoid figure on the right is a false ithyphallic, the oversized genitals having been added later. The original scene seems to depict the right figure, the ithyphallic genitals at the top center, and the therocéphale facing a woman whose vulva corresponds to a rock defect.

246 - Tadrart Acacous. Tin-Lalan. – A woman in a gynological position, of decadent style. Due to clumsiness, the vulva seems to have been placed beneath the body. Above, a beautiful ostrich. This scene has no propitiatory character and can be attributed to the modern sexuality of the nomads.

247 - Tadrart Acacous. Tin-Lalan. – The nature of the scene, originally part of invoking the supernatural powers of fertility, has greatly degraded over time. The multiple retouches and difficulty in reconstructing the original work led F. Mori, who saw it, to deny its mythical character. See the chapter "The History of a False Idea: Sex and the Desert". Height of the central figure: 1.22 m.

248 - Tadrart Acacous. Tin-Lalan. – Detail of the female figure from the previous photograph (247). Width of the depicted panel: 0.82 m.

297 - In Djaren (Tadrart). - The red ochre painting of a woman being dressed by others is already known and pertains to the same pastoral ethnic group. In fact, the picture has two groups: the left group shows a woman at her toilette, while the right one depicts a character holding a stick or long object. The scene is difficult to interpret. The panel measures 0.55 m.

330 - Aouanrhet (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - On the left, two standing figures. On the right, a coitus scene and figures that are hard to identify. The coitus scene measures 0.16 m in width.

333 - Aouanrhet (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - Detail of the previous panel: the woman with tattooed breasts, painted in red ochre. Negroid type.

334 - Aouanrhet (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - The "White Lady" and the "Masked Sorcerer". The "White Lady" has nothing to do with her namesake from South Africa, who charmed Abbé Breuil, nor with a local depiction of another highly adorned woman. Here, it is a massive figure with a "round head" crowned with a feather (?). Facing her, on the left, the face of a man wearing a white loincloth, with his body depicted in a pattern of small diamonds. Everything is typically African.

335 - Aouanrhet (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - The true "White Lady" of Tassili. Notice the "horned mask." The attire is typically African. A mystical feeling emanates from this painting. From one horn to the other: about 0.50 m.

353 - Oued Djérat (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - At the junction of the Oued Touloult lies this depiction, which is linked to a very ancient fertility cult, now only visited by lonely nomads. Such representations are often degraded. For further explanation, see the chapter titled: "History of a False Idea. Sex and the Desert." (See: SAR-007B)

420 - Jabbaren (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - Pastoral scene painted in red and white ochre. The figures in the center have a very tall hairstyle. They may be women. The gestures are elegant and well-observed. The person in the center is 0.21 m in height.

423 - Jabbaren (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - The right part of the fresco, damaged by erosion, is unreadable. However, on the left, beneath the black figures we just saw, there is a procession of other people whose visible breasts allow us to affirm that six of them are women, and there are no taboos in this regard. Height of the depicted panel: 0.63 m.

464 - Ozeneare (Tassili-n'Ajjer). – Two shepherds, including a Negroid woman on the right. She has a white hairstyle and a white loincloth. Her breasts are visible. She holds a basket in her right hand and an indeterminate object in her left. The character on the left is less defined. Between the two, there is an indeterminate circular structure. The woman is 0.16 m tall. Red ochre and white painting.

485 - Séfar (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - Red ochre painting with white outlines. Time of the “round heads.” Perhaps we are witnessing an intimate scene depicting a couple and their child. This is a valid hypothesis. The figure on the right wears striped pants. Note the lack of muscle mass in the thighs, in contrast to the black bovid archers.

505 - Séfar (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - The wife of Séfar, identifiable by her breasts, has a prominent belly which could indicate pregnancy: She wears a bracelet on each arm and holds with both hands an unidentified curved object. Height of the figure: 0.95 meters.

513 - Séfar (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - A couple painted in red ochre, consisting of an archer who may be in the act of picking one of the arrows (left side), and a woman following him, with both hands stretched downward; the fingers are painted with precision. A piece of the woman’s clothing is blown by the wind to her back. Definitely a Negroid type, as revealed by several skeletons found in the region. The woman measures 0.19 m.

524 - Séfar (Tassili-n'Ajjer). – Return to the time of the "round heads" with these stylized but refined paintings. A woman in the background watches the dance of two others, leaning to the right and wearing a loincloth. The one on the right wears curious white shin guards, flared at the bottom, two pieces of fabric tied to her arms, and a white headdress. She measures 0.24 m from head to foot.

525 - Séfar (Tassili-n'Ajjer). – These extraordinary fashion engravings, in reality paintings, reveal much about a civilization of which we know nothing. These women (?) are dressed in blouses, trousers, and in two cases, "leggings".

531 - Séfar (Tassili-n'Ajjer). – In front of a stylized mouflon, an archer seems to be prostrated. At the bottom left, two elephant heads. Far right, a person in a long tunic tied at the waist. From the front paw to the back paw: 0.30 m.

537 - Tan-Zoumaïtak (Tassili n'Ajjer). - The dancers in ceremonial attire appear to wear long tunics, with the fabric band at the waist possibly forming a knot. If you look at the right hand of the left dancer, it seems to rest on the left mouflon, suggesting that the dancers and the mouflons were contemporaneous. Note the structure of the headdresses and the unique decoration of the heads. The arms bear numerous rings.

568 - Tin-Tazarift (Tassili-n'Ajjer). – In a shelter on the Tin-Aboteka trail, this seated woman watches a cow with lyre-shaped horns peacefully move away. Above, very difficult to read, older paintings can be seen. From the base of the tail to the nostrils, the cow is 0.33 m long.

591 - Tin-Teferist, near Séfar (Tassili-n'Ajjer). – The three figures painted in red ochre remind us of individuals with "dash heads", but it has already been stated that this dash is only the visible part of the head, with the rest covered by light hair, with the paint in most cases having disappeared. The "lancers" facing each other are dressed in a short tunic, tight at the waist and slightly flared at the base. The one on the left wears a sort of stole hanging from both sides of the neck. With his right hand, he holds the hand of a woman in a long tunic. The central figure is 0.55 m tall.

592 - Tiffeltest, near Séfar (Tassili-n'Ajjer). – A ruminant on the right, painted in dark ochre; at the top left, a couple in red ochre that could be a man and a woman. The most interesting feature is a quadrangular structure that could represent a dwelling. The depicted panel is 0.53 m wide. The animal on the right is 0.11 m tall.

602 - Tin-Kani (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - Ox painted in red-brown, with the coat depicted by tightly spaced curved lines. Opposite, two deers are treated in white. To the right, a man in red-brown holds a stick in his hand. The width of the panel depicted: 0.82 m.

606 - In ltinen (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - Two bovines and a calf (?) painted in dark ochre. The multiplicity of bovine depictions must reflect the actual importance of the herd during the great Pastoral Period. Nevertheless, it would probably be a mistake to imagine the region where it is found as the present-day Normandy. Evidence of this can be seen in the large herds of the Peuhls today.

607 - Ihérir (in the locality of Ahréné, Tassili-n'Ajjer). – Large ox painted with patterns intended to represent the coat. A comparison should be made with the bovine engraved at Tin-Terhert (photos 578 and 579).

624 - Col du Tafilalet (Tassili-n'Ajjer). - Third Aqba (Aqba: ascent) towards Tamrit. A slender woman, painted in red ochre, with darker arms. A part of her cloth hangs between her legs. She is in the special starting position for a "sprint". Her measurements from hands to feet: 0.60 m.