New rock engravings at Imaoun (Morocco)

              ALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016MM41
 ICDIGITAL Separata 46-47/2
ALMOGAREN
46-47/2015-2016
 IC             	
 
    
42MMALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016
 ICDIGITAL
Eine PDF-Serie des Institutum Canarium
herausgegeben von
Hans-Joachim Ulbrich
Technische Hinweise für den Leser:
Die vorliegende Datei ist die digitale Version eines im Jahrbuch "Almogaren" ge-druckten
Aufsatzes. Aus technischen Gründen konnte – nur bei Aufsätzen vor 1990
– der originale Zeilenfall nicht beibehalten werden. Das bedeutet, dass Zeilen-nummern
hier nicht unbedingt jenen im Original entsprechen. Nach wie vor un-verändert
ist jedoch der Text pro Seite, so dass Zitate von Textstellen in der ge-druckten
wie in der digitalen Version identisch sind, d.h. gleiche Seitenzahlen (Pa-ginierung)
aufweisen. Der im Aufsatzkopf erwähnte Erscheinungsort kann vom
Sitz der Gesellschaft abweichen, wenn die Publikation nicht im Selbstverlag er-schienen
ist (z.B. Vereinssitz = Hallein, Verlagsort = Graz wie bei Almogaren III).
Die deutsche Rechtschreibung wurde – mit Ausnahme von Literaturzitaten – den
aktuellen Regeln angepasst. Englischsprachige Keywords wurden zum Teil nach-träglich
ergänzt. PDF-Dokumente des IC lassen sich mit dem kostenlosen Adobe
Acrobat Reader (Version 7.0 oder höher) lesen.
Für den Inhalt der Aufsätze sind allein die Autoren verantwortlich.
Dunkelrot gefärbter Text kennzeichnet spätere Einfügungen der Redaktion.
Alle Vervielfältigungs- und Medien-Rechte dieses Beitrags liegen beim
Institutum Canarium
Hauslabgasse 31/6
A-1050 Wien
IC-Separata werden für den privaten bzw. wissenschaftlichen Bereich kostenlos
zur Verfügung gestellt. Digitale oder gedruckte Kopien von diesen PDFs herzu-stellen
und gegen Gebühr zu verbreiten, ist jedoch strengstens untersagt und be-deutet
eine schwerwiegende Verletzung der Urheberrechte.
Weitere Informationen und Kontaktmöglichkeiten:
institutum-canarium.org
almogaren.org
Abbildung Titelseite: Original-Umschlag des gedruckten Jahrbuches.
  Institutum Canarium 1969-2016 für alle seine Logos, Services und Internetinhalte
ALMOGAREN 46-47/ 2015-2016MM43
Inhaltsverzeichnis
(der kompletten Print-Version)
Franz Trost
Erzählungen der Twareg am nächtlichen Lagerfeuer ......................................... 7
Alain Rodrigue, Francis Auvray, Jean-Pierre Levallois & Mado Villet
New rock engravings at Imaoun (Morocco) ................................................ 45
Enrique Gozalbes Cravioto & Helena Gozalbes García
Nuevos datos sobre el círculo megalítico de Mezora (Marruecos) ................ 55
Hans-Joachim Ulbrich
Script mixing on ancient Fuerteventura and Lanzarote ................................ 69
Andoni Sáenz de Buruaga & Mark Milburn
Documentation of burial practices around the
Tingefuf E-1 goulet (Dougaj, West Sahara) .................................................. 87
Pablo Martín-Ramos, Jesús Martín-Gil, María del Carmen Ramos-Sánchez,
María Teresa Periáñez-Ramos & Francisco Javier Martín-Gil
Sobre las puntas de flecha procedentes del noroeste
del Sáhara (especialmente, aterienses y neolíticas) ..................................... 101
Marcos Sarmiento Pérez
Las investigaciones de Richard Greeff en Lanzarote en 1866-1867 ............ 113
Susan Searight-Martinet
Nomenclature of engravings of axes in Moroccan protohistoric rock art .....131
Hans-Joachim Ulbrich
Canarian "pyramids" revisited – are they pre-Hispanic or recent? .............. 139
Georgia Lee, Paul Horley, Paul Bahn, Sonia Haoa Cardinali,
Lilian González Nualart & Ninoska Cuadros Hucke
Secondary applications of rock art at coastal sites
of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) ........................................................................ 157
Hartwig-E. Steiner
Eine Kult-Höhle auf der Osterinsel
am Kratersee ›Rano Aroi  / Rapa Nui, Polynesien ...................................... 211
•
44MMALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016
Rodrigue, Alain; Auvray, Francis; Levallois, Jean-Pierre; Villet, Mado (2016):
New rock engravings at Imaoun (Morocco).- Almogaren 46-47 / 2015-2016
(Institutum Canarium), Wien, 45-54
Zitieren Sie bitte diesen Aufsatz folgendermaßen / Please cite this article as follows:
ALMOGAREN 46-47/ 2015-2016MM45
Almogaren 46-47 Wien 2016 45 - 54
Alain Rodrigue, Francis Auvray, Jean-Pierre Levallois, Mado Villet
New rock engravings at Imaoun (Morocco)
Keywords: Morocco, Imaoun, rock art, bovids, spirals
Résumé:
La région d'Imaoun (Akka) est connue pour ses stations rupestres. Le site principal a été
inventorié à plusieurs reprises. Depuis une dizaine d'années, la zone prospectée a livré de
nouveaux sites. La publication de nouvelles gravures contribue à abonder un inventaire
qui est loin d'être exhaustif. Quelques remarques et hypothèses sont proposées au sujet
de la chronologie.
Abstract:
The region of Imaoun (Akka) is well known for its rock engravings sites. The main station
was entered on inventory several times. For about ten years, the zone has been prospected
and new sites were discovered. The publication of new engravings contributes to set up
the inventory, far from being complete. Some remarks and hypothesis are made about the
chronology.
Zusammenfassung:
Die Region von Imaoun (Akka) ist gut bekannt für ihre Felsbild-Fundstellen. Die Haupt-station
ist bereits mehrere Male zur Erfassung der Paneele aufgesucht worden. Seit rund 10
Jahren ist die Region Ziel der Forscher, wobei auch neue Stationen entdeckt wurden. Die
vorliegende Publikation mit neuen Gravuren erweitert das Fundinventar, jedoch ohne voll-ständig
sein zu können. Einige Anmerkungen und Hypothesen betreffen die Chronologie.
General context
The enclosed plain of Imaoun, bounded in the north by the first hills of the
Anti Atlas and in the south by the ridges of the Bani, possesses one of the most
important rock engravings sites of Morocco. As it has already been shown in
the past that it is actually a "unique rock art site" as written by S. Searight
(Searight, 1996). Amongst numerous drawings of oxen and wild fauna
(estimated 740), the station shows spectacular pecked-and-polished large
crosses and a great number of spirals and winding lines. The greater part of
this kind of drawings (56%) led the author (Searight, 1999) to the conclusion
of a sacred, mystical place.
Though, other prospections in the enclosed plain (feija in Arabic) showed
numerous smaller stations in the north and in the south of the main site (Fig.
46MMALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016
1). They are notably smaller and do not show the "mystical" aspect of crosses
and winding lines (Salih & Heckendorf, 2000), but only few bovids, felids
and rhinos. Every expedition around Imaoun brings a lot of new discoveries
(Garcin & Garcin, 2004).
In the spring of 2013, the authors of the present note discovered a new rock
engravings site, five kilometres north-east of the main station, grounding their
research on oral informations but without any precise indications. The en-gravings
station is located along the Wadi Imi Tek, one of the rivers (with the
Wadi Akka and the Wadi Touna) composing the inverted delta-shape plain of
Imaoun, two kilometres south of the road to Tata. The ridge bearing the
engravings is oriented east-west. The first drawings can be seen immediately
above the river bank, from the eastern flank to the top of the hill (Fig. 2). There
are some destructions at the summit (copies and over-pecked cars...), but the
whole collection of drawings is in good conditions. First we give a panel (Fig.
3) which shows the number and percentage of each subject.
The bovids
As one can notice, the bovids represent the major part of the collection,
what is not really new among the majority of rock engravings stations in
Morocco. They are pecked in different styles, although a small lot seems to
bear identical details and could be the work of the same engraver (Fig. 4 ; 1,
6). It must be noticed that the majority of them are looking rightward. It is
remarkable too that all of them (except one) show bent-forward horns, simple
or double (Fig. 4) and that there is no case of U-shaped horns.
Two techniques of engravings were used : contours (Fig. 4 ; 9) and complete
pecked surface (Fig. 4 ; 10). This group of oxen and cows includes few notice-able
details, despite the fact that the engravers sometimes indicated the spots
of the coat (Fig. 4 ; 1, 2, 4, 6) in full checked lines or stripes (Fig. 6 ; 3). Two
curious drawings can be noticed, never seen before, of what could be a kind of
"signature" of a single engraver : round puckers under the belly (Fig. 4 ; 4, 6),
with no satisfactory explanation. One of the late cows shows udder (Fig; 4 ; 4)
and an other one a split hoof and a trident tail (Fig. 4 ; 5).
Non identified animals
In this group, we consider first what could be oxen or cows. These animals
are in such a bad shape that a doubt still remains. We have two images of cows
without horns (Fig. 5 ; 4, 6), the second one forming a group with two riders
pecked in the same technique and patina. Other ones are schematic or
incomplete (Fig; 5 ; 2). Other images could be elephants (Fig. 5 ; 1) or dogs
ALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016MM47
(Fig. 6 ; 11), but we can reach the conclusion that the series could also be
imputed to the poor skill of the engravers.
The enigmatic drawings
They are of two kinds :
• spots, lines, circles and serpentines (Fig. 5 ; 10 to 12) ... non figurative
drawings that can be found on almost every rock art station in Morocco,
particularly the ones presumably being recent.
• organised drawings of spirals and roundels (Fig. 5 ; 8, 9), what links this
station to the main one of Imaoun where they are particularly numerous. It
must be noticed that the snake-shaped lines or spots do not have patina, while
the organised or constructed drawings of spirals bear a brown patina, which is
the case in "central" Imaoun.
The wild fauna
This group is mainly composed of ostriches (Fig. 6 ; 6 to 8), some of them
chased by dogs, opening their wings and fleeing ; antelopes (Fig. 6 ; 2, 5), once
again chased by dogs, and two doubtful drawings of what can be considered as
felids (Fig. 6 ; 9). A discrete drawing can be the image of a camel (Fig. 6 ; 10).
Comments
The human presence is scarce. There is only one engraving that can be
registered as a human silhouette (Fig. 6 ; 3), under the belly of a huge cow,
linked by complex spirals and lines to a second one. Of course, men must be
taken in account when they are riding horses (Fig; 5 ; 6, 7). Five large blocks,
located at the summit of the ridge, bear numerous cupules, some of them being
five or six centimetres wide and one or two centimetres deep (Fig. 10).
This new station of north-east Imaoun gives evidence of two periods (Fig.
7): the oldest one is documented by the complex spirals and roundels, with
drawings which bear a strong brown patina and few bovids. In this case, the
station of Imaoun north-east can be considered as a satellite of "central"
Imaoun (Fig. 8). The second period is documented with drawings (60%) of
bovids, dogs, horsemen and ostriches (Fig. 9). A new indication is from now
on to be considered in Morocco: could the cows with a single forward-looking
horn be more recent than the animals with U-shaped horns?
Bibliography:
Garcin, A. & G. (2004) – Promenade autour d'Imaoun. Cahiers de l'AARS 9,
pp. 1-6.
48MMALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016
Salih, A. & R. Heckendorf (2000) – Nouvelle station d'art rupestre à Imaoun
(Pré-Sahara marocain). Lettre d'Information Internationale sur l'Art
Rupestre (INORA) 26, pp. 5-9.
Searight, S. (1996) – Imaoun: a unique rock art site in South Morocco. Sahara
8, pp. 79-82.
Searight, S. (1999) – Imaoun: un site de gravures rupestres du Sud marocain.
Cahiers de l'AARS 5, pp. 15-26
Legend of figures:
Figure 1: Location map (G.E.). Main site of Imaoun, four secondary sites and
new site of Imaoun north-east.
Figure 2: Engraved block above the river bank (photography M. Villet).
Figure 3: Distribution of the subjects in Imaoun north-east.
Figure 4: Bovids (drawings A.R.).
Figure 5: Animals, horsemen and spirals (drawings A.R.).
Figure 6: Bovids, wild fauna and dogs (drawings A.R.).
Figure 7: Two types of patina (photography A. Rodrigue).
Figure 8: Full patina complex spiral (photography A. Rodrigue).
Figure 9: Bovids without patina (photography A. Rodrigue).
Figure 10: Blocks with cupules (photography M. Villet).
     
ALMOGAREN 46-47/ 2015-2016MM49
      
Fig. 3
SUBJECTS Nb
Bovids 28
Enigmatic 22
Undetermined fauna 10
Ostriches 6
Dogs 5
Riders 3
Felids 2
Antilope 1
Camel 1
TOTAL 78
50MMALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016
      
 
 
	


    


 
 
 
 

 
   
 
    
ALMOGAREN 46-47/ 2015-2016MM51
      
 
 



 
   
 
    
 
 
 


	
 

 



52MMALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016
     

   
 


 
 
 
 


	
 
 

 



    
    
ALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016MM53
      
     	
54MMALMOGAREN 46-47/2015-2016