November 29, 2011

Oldest North African rock art

Antiquity Volume: 85 Number: 330 Page: 1184–1193

First evidence of Pleistocene rock art in North Africa: securing the age of the Qurta petroglyphs (Egypt) through OSL dating

Dirk Huyge et al

Long doubted, the existence of Pleistocene rock art in North Africa is here proven through the dating of petroglyph panels displaying aurochs and other animals at Qurta in the Upper Egyptian Nile Valley. The method used was optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) applied to deposits of wind-blown sediment covering the images. This gave a minimum age of ~15 000 calendar years making the rock engravings at Qurta the oldest so far found in North Africa.

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3 comments:

  1. AzertyTuesday, November 29, 2011 2:52:00 pm

    the most old north african Libyc inscription is from Azib n'Ikkis (upper Atlas, Morocco) 16.000BC-15.000BC

    the picture:

    http://www.amazighworld.org/tamazgha/culture/tifinagh_alphabet/tifinagh_2_P200.JPG

    source:
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/37475848/Muzzolini-1995

    ReplyDelete
  2. PascvaksTuesday, November 29, 2011 3:36:00 pm

    Good for them. Another little piece of the puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JimTuesday, November 29, 2011 9:06:00 pm

    Maybe there's only one way, but that style looks very familiar.

    ReplyDelete

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