Messak Settafet Rock Art
Messak Settafet · Messak Massif Engravings · Wadi Mathendous
Neolithic Pastoral ~8000–2000 BP·Pastoral Neolithic Saharan·🇱🇾 Fezzan, Murzuq District, Libya
About
About Messak Settafet Rock Art
Cliff escarpment engravings on the 350 km Messak Settafet sandstone plateau south of the Ubari Sand Sea. Tens of thousands of Pastoral period engravings (8,000–2,000 BP) show giraffe, elephant, crocodile, buffalo and boomerang hunters plus later chariot and Libyco-Berber script panels. Wadi Mathendous and Wadi In Elobu galleries reach 200 m long with life-size elephants. Desert varnish dates confirm Holocene humid phase art.
Why it mattersLargest Saharan engraving corridor outside Tassili/Acacus; Holocene climate archive.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Crocodile depictions 200 km from nearest modern Nile crocodile
- 02Chariot engraving chronology camel vs horse
Theories
- 01Green Sahara lake-basin aggregation maps
- 02Pastoralist territory marking at escarpment passes
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.8000–2000 BP
- Period
- Neolithic Pastoral ~8000–2000 BP
- Culture
- Pastoral Neolithic Saharan
- Builders
- Early Pastoralist groups of central Sahara
- Purpose
- Rock art corridor tracking lake and savanna fauna during African humid period
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.8000–2000 BP
Initial construction
c. 1562 CE
Abandonment
On the ground
Structures & features
26.2500° N · 12.3000° E · 850 m · 2 mapped features
Wadi Mathendous Main Panel
petroglyph panelLife-size elephant procession
26.3200° N · 12.2500° EMessak Escarpment North
petroglyph panelGiraffe and aurochs pecked line
26.1800° N · 12.3500° E
Gallery