This particular fresco which, though strictly Saharan, has a Chadic or maybe central and east African feel about it. Some say she is Auset (Isis). The provence of this art piece is Inaouanrhat, Tassili N Ajjer in the middle of the Sahara of southeast Algeria. A larger size repro is in Henri Lhote The Search for the Tassili Frescoes New York: EP Dutton, 1959
Me, I think the figure is of a legendary or mythological woman or goddess. Her pose suggests she may be fleeing. More likely she is, perhaps, in a ritual dance.
She appears to have no hands or maybe her hands are covered. Whatever. Toward the wrist end of her forearms is some kind of meshed and woven covering. They are tied, clamp-like, at the ends. The right hand covering has a single long thread. The left hand covering has four threads 2/3 as long as the right hand thread.
She also has meshed anklets. Her armlets have fiber threads hanging from them and her skirt likewise is composed of fibrous threading, not at all appearing to be a cloth. Between the skirt and the belly are two strings of beads(?). Her knees are wrapped in a material similar to that of the armlets but without any strand attachment. The left knee wrapping does has something attached to it that extends in length down to the anklet. It appears to be solid and may be cloth or leather.
That the figure is female is attested by the slightly protuberent rounded belly, no hint of a penis seen behind the skirt, and two long thin breasts. The breasts are profusely scarified. Scarification is also evident on the shoulders, the sides or chest to the stomach, and the right leg. There is some stratified marking on the right thigh that doesn't appear to be raised bumps of scarification. The left leg may be missing scars because they were only raised on the outer side of the leg.
The absence of hands or their covering is one piece of evidence of the legedary or mythological significance of the figure. Even more so is the prescence of horns either growing directly from the head or as part of a headress. Then there is some sort of aura looking part of the drawing of the head that composes part of the forehead nose and upper lip. This "aura", mask, or headressing completely surrounds the short Afro style hair and sits up over the crown of the head above the hair. It's possible that what's taken for horns, actually represents something else that is associated with what looks like a field of grain or grass stretched between them. This "field" adds to the legendary/mythological interpretation and has something represented by medium sized dots under it that fills up the space between the "horns", borders the bottom of the "horns", and borders the face, neck, and collar of the figure.
The painting was executed on the wall of a completely isolated shelter indicating a sacred space. There are other figures superimposed on, in front of, and under the raised right leg of the main figure. These smaller figures drawn above the knee level of the main figure appear to be mostly male. The vast majority of them have a bushy Afro and a goatee beard. Two of them have very short hair or are bald. Four of them, though in a fleeing stance, are headless! One set of three men are armlocked in perhaps a dance step? Alongside them are three bushy Afro figures with broad hips, thick thighs, and possibly small breasts, most likely they are female and a part of the dance. All these little figures are nude.
Below the knee level is another scene. Another female depicted in larger size than those already described but smaller than the main figure, also appears to be a legedary or mythological personage. Only her head, arms, and torso are drawn. She has a skirt, breast, side and stomach scars, armlets, strands dangling from the right arm, and a headress or nimbus. Surrounding her is what looks like a rainbow. She is approached by two small figures, a female walking with the right arm upraised, and a goateed male in a position of obeisance, legs spread, proffering a bowl, perhaps containing an offering of some type.
The entire scene may relate a single motif or story or set of beliefs held at least 6000 years ago. The paintings are executed in the style of the Masks period. There are paintings very similar in style to the "Horned Goddess" in Sefar. One such has a waistband with clothlike or leather material hanging from it like the Horned Goddess has on her left knee. It also has the same type anklets. Another shows pubescent females with body, thigh, and leg scars.
__________________________ Replaced Image per request
[ 30. April 2007, 01:10 AM: Message edited by: Horus_Den_1 ]
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
The "White Lady" nickname actually comes from its putative resemblance with the "White Lady" of Brandberg, Namibia, noticed by BREUIL in the 30's:
Could you please tell us who identified this character with Isis and why? Did the people who advocated this identification claim this as being the result of the bogus early theory of influence of Egypt and Eurasia on Saharan Art or the other way around?
Also, I am not very knowledgeable about modern "Chadic" culture...What in the painting made you think it looks "Chadic"?
Did you identify other cultural traits from specific to other recent Ethnic/Linguistic groups as well?
What do you think about the relevance of the comparatism between Kemetic and Saharan Art?
Posts: 307 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Where are no native white people of Africa, and there are no white people in the paleolithic anywhere.
Leucoderm 'white' people are the result of recent mutations which disable the melanin receptors, this process occured during the ice ages and reached it's most extreme among the depgimented European Nordes who are the major outliers in terms of skin color amongst human populations.
From the reconstructions we have been able to do (using molecular and other comparative data), darkly pigmented skin was the original state for ALL members of the genus Homo (that is, for our lineage beginning about 2 million years ago). It is impossible to say exactly how dark this was, but it was probably much darker than a "medium hue" and **approached those seen in equatorial Africa today.**
quote:Originally posted by rasol: There are no native white people of Africa, and there are no white people in the paleolithic anywhere.
Leucoderm 'white' people are the result of recent mutations which disable the melanin receptors, this process occured during the ice ages and reached it's most extreme among the depgimented European Nordes who are the major outliers in terms of skin color amongst human populations.
quote:Originally posted by rasol: Where are no native white people of Africa, and there are no white people in the paleolithic anywhere.
Leucoderm 'white' people are the result of recent mutations which disable the melanin receptors, this process occured during the ice ages and reached it's most extreme among the depgimented European Nordes who are the major outliers in terms of skin color amongst human populations.
If white people are the result of mutations during the Ice Age, why are the Eskimoes brown skin, eventhough they live in extreme cold?
quote:If white people are the result of mutations during the Ice Age, why are the Eskimoes brown skin, eventhough they live in extreme cold?
People with depigmented skin have an easier time synthesizing vitamin D. Since a large percentage of the Inuit diet is fish, which is rich in vitamin D, the Inuit haven't lost as much melanin as Europeans.
posted
What do you mean literally there are no people with black or white skin? The Sudanese and Wolof aren't BLACK to you? I've seen many whites with pale skin. I don't know what you're looking at.
Posts: 603 | From: Mobile, Alabama | Registered: Jan 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Ebony Allen: What do you mean literally there are no people with black or white skin? The Sudanese and Wolof aren't BLACK to you? I've seen many whites with pale skin. I don't know what you're looking at.
Evergreen Writes:
What is the melanin level that seperates Black skin from Brown skin? What is the melanin level that distinguishes White skin from Olive skin? I eagerly await your answer.
Posts: 2007 | From: Washington State | Registered: Oct 2006
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quote:Originally posted by rasol: Where are no native white people of Africa, and there are no white people in the paleolithic anywhere.
Leucoderm 'white' people are the result of recent mutations which disable the melanin receptors, this process occured during the ice ages and reached it's most extreme among the depgimented European Nordes who are the major outliers in terms of skin color amongst human populations.
If white people are the result of mutations during the Ice Age, why are the Eskimoes brown skin, eventhough they live in extreme cold?
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THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SKIN AND SKIN COLOR by Nina G. Jablonski
One of the most interesting aspects of this investigation was the examination of groups that did not precisely fit the predicted skin-color pattern. An example is the Inuit people of Alaska and northern Canada.
The Inuit exhibit skin color that is some-what darker than would be predicted given the UV levels at their latitude. This is probably caused by two factors. The first is that they are relatively recent inhabitants of these climes, having mi-grated to North America only roughly 5,000 years ago. The second is that the traditional diet of the Inuit is extremely high infoods containing vitamin D, especially fish and marine mammals. This vitamin D–rich diet offsets the problem that they would otherwise have with vitamin D synthesis in their skin at northern latitudes and permits them to *retain more darkly pigmented skin.* Posts: 15202 | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote:Originally posted by rasol: Where are no native white people of Africa, and there are no white people in the paleolithic anywhere.
Leucoderm 'white' people are the result of recent mutations which disable the melanin receptors, this process occured during the ice ages and reached it's most extreme among the depgimented European Nordes who are the major outliers in terms of skin color amongst human populations.
If white people are the result of mutations during the Ice Age, why are the Eskimoes brown skin, eventhough they live in extreme cold?
.
THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SKIN AND SKIN COLOR by Nina G. Jablonski
The first is that they are relatively recent inhabitants of these climes, having mi-grated to North America only roughly 5,000 years ago.
Evergreen Writes:
This is also consistent with the migration of Oceanic Asians to the America's and the finds of these Oceanic Asian phenetic types in early Olmec graves.
Posts: 2007 | From: Washington State | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
T-rex is correct about why many Inuit retain dark complexions.
Other than that, this thread has also been diverted from its main topic into that of "human skin color" which our resident troll had already been defeated and debased by Jablonski.
Either way, indigenous peoples of the Sahara have always been 'black'.
Posts: 26237 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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I often disagree with fellow forum members. Yet, I don't request their banishment. Disruption is the name of Jaime's game. None are so blind save they who can't see that. Neither does suggesting ignoring the banned work. The proof? Why this very thread!
Jaime does one thing, comment on colour. To be precise, anti-black comments. When he did that, what happened? Even though this thread began garnering subject matter posts, it was diverted to another colour conversation.
And who caused it? A person who loudly brays on the irrelevance of colour and who will, after broaching the colour issue, now cry that all ES AE&E does is talk colour.
Nobody likes a heavy handed moderator but wake up. This guy is clearly disruptive, diverting the forum to his agenda by hijacking others' threads seldom starting his own.
How long will you tolerate this and force us to be captive to it?
posted
I wrote that piece a few years ago and now don't have the index cards noting who drew the Isis analogy or why. Probably, as you said, it resulted from pro-Egypt diffusionists from back in the day before the "Bird Lady" paintings were disclosed as fraudulent.
The scarification pattern most closely matched that of what I've seen on Chadic female bodies hence my call on a Chadic feel.
I can't articulate what about the entire scene (which isn't in the c
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
I wrote that piece a few years ago and now don't have the index cards noting who drew the Isis analogy or why. Probably, as you said, it resulted from pro-Egypt diffusionists from back in the day before the "Bird Lady" paintings were disclosed as fraudulent.
The scarification pattern most closely matched that of what I've seen on Chadic female bodies hence my call on a Chadic feel.
I can't articulate what about the entire scene (which isn't in the cheezy image I had no choice but to use) culturally resembles which cenral/east African ethny.
I never given any thought to similarity of Saharan and Kemitic art because frankly I don't see any.
I'm very interested in your opinions about this painting and hope you get to look at a quality repro. Also what do propose in answer to your last two questions?
quote:Originally posted by Gedegbe: Could you please tell us who identified this character with Isis and why? Did the people who advocated this identification claim this as being the result of the bogus early theory of influence of Egypt and Eurasia on Saharan Art or the other way around?
Also, I am not very knowledgeable about modern "Chadic" culture...What in the painting made you think it looks "Chadic"?
Did you identify other cultural traits from specific to other recent Ethnic/Linguistic groups as well?
What do you think about the relevance of the comparatism between Kemetic and Saharan Art?
posted
^Some of the Saharan rock art has also been identified as Fulani nomads by certain facial features and hairstyles as well as cattle customs which are still practiced today.
Posts: 26237 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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This is also consistent with the migration of Oceanic Asians to the America's and the finds of these Oceanic Asian phenetic types in early Olmec graves.
Can you provide me with a direct quote and a citation for this? I thought the idea was that the Olmecs were Mande and/or Egyptian.
Posts: 833 | From: Austin, TX | Registered: Jan 2007
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posted
The Horned Goddess fresco presents nothing remotely similar to pastoral Fulani. Ba analyzed other pieces that in fact do show that Fulani herder practices stretch back to the time of a green Sahara. http://ennedi.free.fr/abaniora.htm
This poor quality repro, often dubbed "Peul Girls," has facial features that are just as much Soninke or Malinke as Fulbe.
Let's not be hastily anachronistic. Fulani, and other later sahel ethnies, aren't depicted in early Saharan rock art.
The people on the rock art would very much later branch off and recombine to compose the peoples founding the sahel and savanna states.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
This is the Bird Head Goddesses fake that mislead many an archaeologist, ethnologer, and historian. Much to his credit Lhote removed it from later editions of his book. He admitted one of his art crew fabricated it.
Ausar, can you dig up the exchange we had on this after you brought it to my attention years ago?
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
This is one of the prime Saharan painting's Ba used.
The "calf rope" used to divide a pastoral Fulani encampment is very noticeable. Evidence like this show that Fulani have local antecedence that far outweighs any distant infusions or accretions.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
I remember discussing this one with an Amazigh friend. She pointed out to me that maybe one of the "women" may really be a man (beard) and that one of the ladies is an Amazon (she has a bow).
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
Copy of rock paintings at Sefar, Tassili n'Ajjer, by Henri Lhote. Currently on display at the Musée de l'homme in Paris, the 6,000-year-old paintings show human and animal life in the early Algerian Sahara
Palimpsests of a lost paradise Two Paris exhibitions reveal the variety and multi-layered history of the Algerian Sahara, writes David Tresilian
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With more than 80 per cent of its land area covered by desert, visitors to Algeria have traditionally confined themselves to the country's coastal regions. Yet, as twin exhibitions on the Algerian Sahara in Paris confirm, the desert, though inhospitable, is not uniform, and it contains the remains of some of Africa's oldest cultures, making parts of it at least a kind of vast museum open to the sky.
The two exhibitions, "Tassili d'Algérie -- Mémoires de pierre" at the Musée de l'homme and "Saharas d'Algérie" at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, present the prehistoric rock paintings and engravings from the Tassili n'Ajjer area of the Algerian Sahara near the country's borders with Libya and Niger, placing them in the context of the Sahara as a whole. Tassili means plateau in tamahaq, the language of the local Touareg people, and the Tassili n'Ajjer is one of two vast desert plateaux in the south-east of Algeria, the other being the nearby Tassili Hoggar, containing one of the most important groupings of prehistoric rock art in the world and recording the climatic changes, animal migrations and development of human life in the Sahara from around 6,000 BC to the first centuries of the present era.
The rock images, thought to number some 15,000, were discovered in the early 20th century by French archaeologists working in Algeria, and they were first displayed outside Algeria in 1958 at a Paris exhibition of full-size copies made by archaeologist Henri Lhote, according to André Malraux "one of the most striking exhibitions of the half century". The present exhibition presents a selection from these copies, starting with rock engravings from the so-called "bubaline" period around 6,000 BC, which show animals that are now confined to more southerly temperate zones of Africa, such as elephants, giraffes and rhinoceros, indicating that at this early date this now extremely arid area would have enjoyed a quite different climate. Later images, and those most beautifully copied by Lhote and his team, are the rock paintings from the "round head" and "bovidian" periods, that show human figures and animals painted in strong, dark colours, often in bizarre and impossible arrangements.
These final images, called "cameline" because of their subject matter, record the beginnings of the nomadic lifestyle associated with today's Touareg populations in Algeria, Mali and Niger, as increasing desertification and the disappearance of previous eco-systems favoured the development of regional trading caravans and nomadism. Camels, now associated firmly with north Africa in the popular imagination, originated in Central Asia, but they swiftly proved their worth in the now arid Sahara. Such images, the exhibition suggests, superimposed on those drawn or painted thousands of years earlier, still preserve the memory of an earlier Sahara of animal and vegetable abundance, the tropical climate then supporting what was later to become something of a "lost paradise".
"Saharas d'Algérie", the parallel exhibition at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, across Paris at the Jardin des plantes, explains the geography and animal and human populations of the present Algerian Sahara, drawing attention not only to the region's geographical diversity, with its vast reg and hamada, rocky plateaux uniform in every direction as far as the eye can see, erg, or sand seas, tassili and scattered oases, but also to its different human populations and how these have adapted themselves to the harsh environmental conditions. The exhibition focusses on the Algerian Touareg, former nomads now mostly settled around Tamanrasset to the south of the Tassili n'Ajjer plateau and in Djanet, the nearest settlement to it. Called Kel-Tagoulmoust, or the "veiled people", on account of elaborate turbans worn to protect themselves from the heat, the Touareg have now found a new role as guides to the growing numbers of tourists visiting Tassili n'Ajjer and Tassili Hoggar, both Algerian national parks.
Saharas d'Algérie also presents materials on the desert's many oases, the best known of which for foreign visitors is still likely to be Biskra in the north, described by André Gide in his novel L'Immoraliste. Gide, like most of his contemporaries, did not venture to the oasis settlements further south, which include the M'Zab Valley, 400km directly south of Algiers, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the Tassili n'Ajjer plateau. This oasis, containing seven towns, among them the fortified city of Béni Isguen founded in the 11th century, would once have played a significant role as a staging post on caravan routes across the Sahara and from sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean. Today, the Sahara's main product is not dates but oil and gas, and immense pipelines run from the gas field of Hassi R'Mel, north of M'Zeb and one of the largest in the world, to the Mediterranean coast from where gas is shipped to Europe. An asphalt road has linked Algiers to Tamanrasset since 1978, and more recently a similar road has reached Djanet, leading the Touareg to abandon their camels for lorries.
It is a matter for regret that the Musée de l'homme exhibition, presenting the splendid copies made by Lhote of the Tassili n'Ajjer rock paintings to the public for the first time since 1958, has been able to present so few of them: according to exhibition material Lhote made hundreds of such copies, but only a handful of these are on display. More distressing still, however, is the condition of the palais de Chaillot itself, now a fast-deteriorating and empty shell following the removal of the museum's collections to the Louvre prior to the opening of the new Musée des arts premiers on the Quai Branly in 2005.
The future of this landmark building on the place du Trocadéro is apparently under debate. But at present its condition makes a depressing introduction to an otherwise fascinating exhibition.
"Tassili d'Algérie: Mémoires de pierre", Musée de l'homme, palais de Chaillot, Paris. 21 May 2003 to 5 January 2004; "Saharas d'Algérie, les paradis inattendus", Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Jardin des plantes, Paris. 30 April to 12 October 2003.
quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: [QB] I wrote that piece a few years ago and now don't have the index cards noting who drew the Isis analogy or why. Probably, as you said, it resulted from pro-Egypt diffusionists from back in the day before the "Bird Lady" paintings were disclosed as fraudulent.
I have it (from a note by serious and apparently relatively unbiased French scholar MUZZOLINI)that this paintings were a joke from his crew to make LHOTE believe that XVIIIth Dynasty's artists created this paintings in Algeria, not that it was ideologically driven. Do you know more about it?
quote:The scarification pattern most closely matched that of what I've seen on Chadic female bodies hence my call on a Chadic feel.
I can't articulate what about the entire scene (which isn't in the cheezy image I had no choice but to use) culturally resembles which cenral/east African ethny.
Is this the kind of scarifications or their repartition on the body that made you feel the character looked "Chadic"? I'm saying that because I've seen several Vodun/Orisha priests with this kind of spotted scarifications.
Also still referring to religious Bight of Benin people, I'm wondering if the spots on the character's skin aren't painted spots rather than scarifications. What do you think? (I'll try to take a look at the books I've seen these pics for more precise infos asap)
quote: I never given any thought to similarity of Saharan and Kemitic art because frankly I don't see any. I'm very interested in your opinions about this painting and hope you get to look at a quality repro. Also what do propose in answer to your last two questions?
Actually, that's not that I don't see any similarities between them, but rather than I don't know how relevant they are!
When I started to compare arts at a layman level (as I still do), I noticed some common features between Dahomey, Saharan , Kemetic arts that were mostly dealing with style of human representations (i.e.the stereotypical Ancient Egyptian posture, important characters being depicted as much bigger than less important ones, skin tone, etc.), but I quickly realized that those features were universal and couldn't be attributed to a common way of thinking/heritage especially with a such important hiati between the different arts (know this can sound stupid but that was actually what I was first thinking at the time!).
Same with animal-headed characters. Even cases like the orned rams/sun-disk headed Amun comparison leave me suspicious although I've never seen similar instances in distant cultures. I guess only specific and complex ornaments such as the Atef crown would convince me but I've yet to see one. French scholar LE QUELLEC also made a mention of mythological similarities illustrated by an Egyptian scene featuring Hathor resembling a Messak scene which sounded pretty convincing to me.
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posted
While scarification is spread nearly throughout the continent where the dark skin makes for permanent beautiful keloids, the particular patterns are bound to vary due to everything from asthetics to ritual specifications or symbology. It's the pattern not the scarring that makes me think Tschad (which isn't so far from Tissili N'Ajjer at all and the Tibesti is in the Sahara anyway, though the Chadics with similar body art patterns are south of the lake iirc).
I know the repro isn't the highest of quality but in the book where it's clearer the body art looks like keloid rather then paint but then keloids aren't white so obviously your point's better than mine.
quote:Originally posted by Please call me MIDOGBE: Is this the kind of scarifications or their repartition on the body that made you feel the character looked "Chadic"? I'm saying that because I've seen several Vodun/Orisha priests with this kind of spotted scarifications.
Also still referring to religious Bight of Benin people, I'm wondering if the spots on the character's skin aren't painted spots rather than scarifications. What do you think? (I'll try to take a look at the books I've seen these pics for more precise infos asap)
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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Many of these carvings depict Nile Valley and desert fauna that retreated from the region soon after 3500 BC, including elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros and ostrich. Also depicted are indigenous desert wildlife such as ibex, gazelle and antelope. There are also images of people, including those wearing the typical penis pouch and others with ornamental wigs, which can also be dated to about 3500 BC. Other rock art depicts boats and groups of people wearing feather ornaments, who were originally thought to have been invaders who moved into the area from the Red Sea. However, somewhat recent scholarship appears to prove otherwise. More likely, they were probably indigenous people who came in contact with others from the Nile Valley, and in fact, these people may have spent a part of their lives in the Nile Valley, migrating to the eastern desert during specific seasons.
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
During the Pharaonic Period, as now, desert nomads traveled from water source to water source across the coastal regions of the southern part of the Eastern Desert. In reports from expeditions during these times, the people who inhabited the desert were collectively referred to as "Medjay" Today, we make the assumption that the Bedja and Ma'aza tribes who inhabit the region are the descendants of the pharaonic Medja, but mostly because of the similarities in their names. This may not be the case, however. There is no documented continuity of settlement, since during the fourth and fifth centuries, nomadic groups called the "Blemmyes" penetrated the region. The Medjay were used by the ancient Egyptians as scouts and workers, organized under their own chiefs on pharaonic expeditions.
Nubian soldiers and scouts carefully controlled and monitored the "desert of Coptos". The southern desert areas and especially the gold deposits in the Wadi Barramiya and the Wadi Mia across from Edfu were controlled by the viceroy of Nubia. [Source]
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
alTakruri: I actually do have a Black and White picture of the upper-part of the painting.
I forgot to say I never saw elsewhere than in areas susceptibles to have been influenced by Ancient Saharan culture pics of two headed bulls with no behinds, kind of "siamese" twins.
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posted
^What?? I'm a little confused. Exactly, which Saharan art are you speaking of Midogbe??
Also Myra, you think the modern day Beja are not the direct descendants of the Medjay? If so, then who then? Or rather what is your take on the history of the Eastern desert nomads??
Posts: 26237 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: Also Myra, you think the modern day Beja are not the direct descendants of the Medjay? If so, then who then? Or rather what is your take on the history of the Eastern desert nomads??
The Medjay, which were dwellers of the Eastern Desert is identified with the 'pan grave' culture. The Medjay are the forefathers of the Beja (known to the Romans as the “Blemmyes).
Reference:
Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, by Katheryn A. Bard (1999)
She is coming out with a revised edition May 11th as a textbook.
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Masked Figure. Sahara. Algeria. Archaic or Round Head style. 9000-7000 BCE
Horned Figure. Sahara. Algeria. Archaid or Round Head Style. 9000-7000 BCE
The human and human-like figures express a very high degree of symbolism (e.g. the 'Great God' at Sefar), which seems to infer a more developed society, with well established religious beliefs and rituals.
This could be the most ancient ethno-mycological finding up to the present day, which goes back to the so-called "Round Heads" Period (i.e. 9,000-7,000 years ago). The centre of this style is Tassili, but examples are also to be found at Tadrart Acacus (Libya), Ennedi (Chad), and at Jebel Uweinat (Egypt) (Muzzolini, 1986:173-175).
Jebel Uweinat, Egypt (South West corner of Egypt's Western Desert (or Libyan Desert)) 8000 BCE
A 1,000 1,000 blessings unto you (especially for the Horned Goddess)!
ATTN Moderator Could you place that photo beside (not below) the repro in the initial post, please. Thanx.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
A couple of days ago , alTakruri asked Myra in reference to a painting of a boat:
quote:Myra, what's the provenance of that pic? Is it the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea?
I, too, would be interested in the answer. Are there many more pictures of boats? where are they mostly found?
Posts: 833 | From: Austin, TX | Registered: Jan 2007
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posted
another paper supporting the original color of modern humans as dark;
Lao, O., et al. 2007 “Signatures of Positive Selection in Genes Associated with Human Skin Pigmentation as Revealed from Analyses of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms,” [u]Annals of Human Genetics [/u] 71: 354–369
Summary Phenotypic variation between human populations in skin pigmentation correlates with latitude at the continental level. A large number of hypotheses involving genetic adaptation have been proposed to explain human variation in skin colour, but only limited genetic evidence for positive selection has been presented. To shed light on the evolutionary genetic history of human variation in skin colour we inspected 118 genes associated with skin pigmentation in the Perlegen dataset, studying single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and analyzed 55 genes in detail. We identified eight genes that are associated with the melanin pathway (SLC45A2, OCA2, TYRP1, DCT, KITLG, EGFR, DRD2 and PPARD) and presented significant differences in genetic variation between Europeans, Africans and Asians. In six of these genes we detected, by means of the EHH test, variability patterns that are compatible with the hypothesis of local positive selection in Europeans (OCA2, TYRP1 and KITLG) and in Asians (OCA2, DCT, KITLG, EGFR and DRD2), whereas signals were scarce in Africans (DCT, EGFR and DRD2). Furthermore, a statistically significant correlation between genotypic variation in four pigmentation candidate genes and phenotypic variation of skin colour in 51 worldwide human populations was revealed. Overall, our data also suggest that light skin colour is the derived state and is of independent origin in Europeans and Asians, whereas dark skin color seems of unique origin, reflecting the ancestral state in humans.
Posts: 833 | From: Austin, TX | Registered: Jan 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Quetzalcoatl: A couple of days ago , alTakruri asked Myra in reference to a painting of a boat:
quote:Myra, what's the provenance of that pic? Is it the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea?
I, too, would be interested in the answer. Are there many more pictures of boats? where are they mostly found?
Eastern Desert "Boat" Rock Art
The "chieftains" boat from Wadi Abu Wasil, Eastern Desert
4500 BCE
Petroglyph reflecting an occupied boat with oars and a star overhead. This petroglyph is located in the Wadi Hammamat in the Eastern Desert and the general interpretation of the imagery is religious in nature, perhaps depicting an afterworld journey. Interestingly, many of the occupants of the boats in the petroglyphs of the Eastern desert reflect the same position, arms upraised and bent, almost into a circular position. This position is also seen reflected in early clay forms of prehistoric deities and could have developed into the later two-plumed figure.
This petroglyph is located in the Wadi Barramiya in the Eastern Desert and was discovered during Toby Wilkinson's expedition (December 2000). Perched high upon the cliff face, has saved it from modern graffiti. Again you'll find the occupants with the same type of arm positioning. What is quite intriguing about the rock art of the Eastern Desert is the frequent use of boats. Whether or not they were all meant to depict journeys into the afterworld is a matter of speculation.
Petroglyph reflecting an occupied boat, with the occupant wearing a very interesting head-dress and pointing westward. This petroglyph is located in the Wadi Barramiya as well, but has unfortunately been defaced by modern graffiti, a common hazard to any rock art within easy reach. The head-dress worn by the occupant of the boat seems a precursor to the twin-plumed head-dress usually seen worn by later gods. If it is, and the occupant of the boat is a deity, it makes the direction in which he is pointing all the more interesting as west was the land of the dead in ancient Egyptian religion. This could be the earliest representation of a funerary deity.
Wadi Hammamat Desert People
In this part of the Eastern desert live the Ababda Bedu people.
These boats were located between the Nile and the Red Sea. Are there boat pictures in places like the Hoggar and Tibesti?
Posts: 833 | From: Austin, TX | Registered: Jan 2007
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posted
Djehuti: You may be familiar with a double bovine depicted on a Predynastic Egyptian Palette: that's the one I was referring to as well as its ressemblances with other "double bovines" from Séfar (Tassili) and from Sumerian archaic Sumerian dynasties. I'll try to find some pics of them online later.
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