Rock Rock Art as a Source of Knowledge For Ancient Maghreb

Abstract:
      The human sense of beauty is innate, and humans have expressed it in a way consistent with their natural instincts—a fact confirmed by anthropologists through their discovery of human art in archaeological sites. Nevertheless, humans were also driven by various motives to produce such artistic works. These motives may have included magical or ritual purposes, religious aims, the pursuit of art for art’s sake, or other objectives that propelled humans toward artistic creation.

Humans have practiced the art of painting since the Mesolithic period, and this art spread widely across the world, most notably in North Africa, particularly in the lands of the ancient Maghreb, which constitute the focus of this study. Rock art extended from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco in the west to the Tadrart Acacus and Fezzan in Libya in the east, and as far as Jebel Uweinat on the Libyan–Sudanese border. A distinctive feature of the sites containing rock paintings and engravings in the Maghreb, compared to other regions of the world, is that they are generally found in open-air settings rather than in caves, with only a few exceptions.

Overall, this study aims to define artistic activity in general, to examine the nature and purposes behind the artworks created by humans of those prehistoric eras, and to provide a chronological classification of rock art in the Maghreb. It also seeks to highlight the role and significance of Maghrebian rock art in conveying a nearly complete picture of the prevailing way of life in these regions during prehistoric times.