CRESO · Cognition and Representation of Self and the Other in North African Rock Art
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-01-01 → 2018-12-31
- EU contribution
- €195,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Cognition and Representation of Self and the Other in North African Rock Art
In North Africa, hundreds of rock art sites testify to the occupation of the so-called Green Sahara from 9500 to 3500 BC (Early and Mid-Holocene), when palaeoenvironmental conditions were favourable to human settlement. Rock art is largely dominated by animals and by humans performing activities: hunting, herding, house-keeping, confronting, dancing, celebrating and interacting. Extensive surveys were undertaken from the 1930s. As new technologies facilitate the recording and processing of data, in tandem studies of Saharan rock art need a renewed vigour to go beyond the classical stylistic and regional studies. CRESO project has been designed to investigate the potential of this rock art to tell us about human and cultural thought, systems of meanings and social dimensions. The wider research objective was to reach a better understanding of the emergence of individual and collective identities amongst Saharan populations. To sum up the importance of the project for society: it contributes to provide a better understanding of how social change happens, especially when groups are confronted to rapid environmental changes. The results show that the transition from hunting and gathering to pastoralist ways of life did not mean a transition from egalitarian to inegalitarian forms of society, as it has often been caricatured. The project thus brings a new light on social evolutions at this major transition in human history.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Before it became desert, the so-called ‘Green Sahara’ was maintained by wetter conditions during the Early and Mid-Holocene periods (ca. 9500 to 3500 BC). Prehistoric groups have painted numerous scenes and motifs, especially in the Saharan massifs such as Ahaggar, Tassili, Messak, Acacus, Aïr, Tibesti, Ennedi, Gilf el-Kebir and Jebel Uweinat, from Westto East. Rock art of this 'optimum' encompasses a wide range of representations, in which images of the human body and social life are at a very high proportion, compared to rock art traditions of other parts of the world. As such, it is a unique corpus for studying body perception and depiction in the late Prehistory. Until today, the potential of the corpus is still under-explored in terms of human and cultural thought, systems of meanings and social dimensions. The objective is to get Saharan rock art studies beyond typology, style and dating to actually learn about the meanings involved, particularly on the body and on identity. It aims to review prehistoric paintings of humans in the perspective of what they tell to us about perception and representation of the body, of Self and of the group. Beyond, the research question posed is ‘How prehistoric groups of North Africa have built images of their identity and social being?’. The CRESO project is based on rock art data already collected in the Saharan massifs. The research questions focus on body conception and human relationships throughout a period of profound ecological and socio-economic changes, and on generic and symbolic representations and what they tell of the ‘worldviews’ of the painters. Two approaches will be applied, (1) at a large scale with a database and GIS platform, and (2) on a small subset in which images will be ‘excavated’ through a very detailed analysis. At the crossroads of several disciplines including cognitive archaeology and palaeosociology, CRESO is expected to renew the research issues in North African rock art studies.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · CAMBRIDGECoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union