What are the Sahara murals like?
Sahara mural is located on a desolate plateau named Tahiri in the Algerian Sahara desert, so it is also called Tahiri mural. There was once a mountain called Tashili, which stretched for 800 kilometers, with an average elevation of 1000 meters and the highest peak of 2335 meters. The baptism of years has made this mountain as desolate as the surface of the moon, and nothing grows. In distant ancient times, it was inaccessible, with abundant water sources, dense forests and vast pastures. Tahiri means "river terrace" in local Tuareg language. However, for a long time, it has long been a dry river, deserted, leaving behind countless valleys eroded by rivers, jagged hills and huge mushroom-shaped columns. They seem to tell the world silently what happened here, and painting has become their only way to talk.
At the beginning of the 20th century, several officers of the French colonial army, such as Captain Corthie and Captain Bourayne, came across these unknown murals while patrolling the unconquered area 5 kilometers south of Algiers. They are very curious. According to Brenin's suicide note: "1933, when I led a camel team to scout the Tahiri Plateau, I found several' art galleries' with many exhibits. There are scenes of hunters, drivers, elephants, cows, religious ceremonies and family life. I was deeply moved by these pictures, so I spent a lot of time sketching these artworks. "
When Bowen showed these sketches to French archaeologists and geographers, they were very excited. Because this will undoubtedly prove that the Sahara desert has never been as barren as people think. There used to be water and pasture. There has been human life and reproduction, otherwise what is the explanation of those murals?
Among those who have seen the sketches of the mine sea, there is the famous explorer Henry Lott. He is an orphan. He 14 years old makes a living by himself. Losing his parents since childhood has cultivated his indomitable character and indomitable enterprising spirit. Later, he became an air force pilot. /kloc-at the age of 0/9, he lost his hearing in one ear because of an accident, ending his flying career. However, he didn't lose hope in life. An accidental opportunity fascinated him with the vast desert. Since then, he has traveled back and forth in the desert and walked more than 30 thousand kilometers, accumulating rich experience in desert work. He regards studying the desert as his lifelong career.
He spent a year and a half visiting Tahiri and making friends with Tuareg people scattered in this area. This aborigine is still scattered on the dry land of this river. Men are veiled and women are not veiled, leading a free and unrestrained life. In some caves washed away by water tens of thousands of years ago, he found many well-preserved murals, which surprised him and delighted him. These murals record many interesting things in prehistoric times: naked hunters are shooting arrows, round-headed warriors are throwing spears, grazing calmly in aprons, wearing Egyptian headscarves, herding cattle with horns, and incredible canoes. There are also many animals painted on the cave walls, some of which have long since disappeared from the earth, and some such as rhinoceros, hippopotamus, ostrich and giraffe have long since disappeared from the local area.
In the face of these brilliant masterpieces created by prehistoric humans, Lott's excitement is beyond words, and he is determined to reproduce these works of art in original size and color. However, it is impossible to rely solely on personal strength, so he is determined to organize an expedition to Tahiri to complete this task. However, a fledgling young man doesn't even have a middle school diploma. Who will answer his phone? To this end, he entered the University of Paris to work and study, and finally got a doctorate. At this time, when World War II broke out, Lott was injured in the spine and stayed in bed for 10 years, so the plan to copy works of art in Tahiri had to be stranded.
1955, Lott recovered. He traveled around and got the support and funding from some French scientific research institutions and government departments, and formed an investigation team composed of four painters, 1 photographer and 1 young girl who knows Berber. 1956 In February, they set off with all kinds of necessities. They first flew to the Algerian city of Janete, and then went north from there. They rode a camel for eight days, slept all the way, and tasted hardships before reaching their destination.
Tahiri's natural environment is very bad, the temperature difference between day and night is very wide, the air is dry, and the wind is often howling and the sand is flying during the day, which is unbearable. Tahiri's rock paintings are scattered on the protruding part of the cave wall and the curved hanging rocks, and some of them will turn corners and jump over cracks. In order to accurately copy these paintings, team members endure the cold and heat, lack of water and loneliness, and often kneel or lie down in the isolated desert for hours or even days.
1956165438+1October, the weather turned cold, and the team members were exhausted, so the work came to an end temporarily. 1957, Lott recruited some enthusiastic young people to start working again. Finally, he brought 65,438+0,500 square meters of murals back to Paris, which are replicas of the greatest prehistoric art discovered so far. Immediately, these prehistoric art treasures were exhibited in the Louvre, which shocked the visitors and made them feel incredible that prehistoric humans could create such wonderful works of art.
There are thousands of painted and carved patterns in Tahiri's rock paintings. Most murals show that the Sahara desert was once a paradise with abundant water plants and flocks of cattle and sheep. The earliest murals can be traced back to the middle of the Stone Age, about 1 10,000 years ago, and the latest murals belong to works around A.D., which lasted nearly 10,000 years. Murals in different times have different themes and contents, different styles, some scribbled, some rigorous, some immature, some simple and colorful, which recorded the activities of all ethnic groups living here at that time.
The oldest pictures in rock paintings were drawn by prehistoric people who lived 8000-6000 years ago. Immature brushwork, depicting some purple characters. Their bodies are extremely asymmetrical, their heads are big and round, and their legs and arms are as thin as reeds. It may have been painted by smoked people who make a living by hunting and gathering, because there are tattoos and masked people in the rock paintings, just like black people. In the cave, there is a picture of a 5.5-meter-high giant. He has two hands, a round head and shoulders. There seems to be four pieces of metal on his head. His face has no nose and his eyes are crooked, just like Picasso's works. Because thousands of other mural designs are not very freehand, only this giant is particularly abstract, and Lott is puzzled, so he named it "Mars God". Swiss dreamer von Daeniken thinks that Mars God is wearing either a spacesuit or a diving suit. He is obviously an alien with a spherical helmet on his head. In fact, what looks like a helmet and wireless is actually a scarf decorated with feathers. Moreover, the figure painting on the uneven rock surface is not necessarily neatly drawn vertically, so Danny's speculation that it is a cosmic person is also far-fetched.
Headless figures and grotesque objects can be found everywhere in the rock paintings of this period, and similar pictures have been found in the early Neolithic sites in Anatolia Plateau of West Asia, but most of them can't be explained.
During this period, there were scenes of weddings, banquets and circumcision ceremonies. A group of people gathered around a man with a "magic wand" to find water. In addition, several children are sleeping under blankets, a group of women are building an arbor, a man is shaking a drunk to wake him up, and a dog is barking ... These vivid pastoral scenes reproduce the quiet and peaceful daily life of Saharan residents in the past.
From about 5000 AD to about 4000 BC, scenes of herding cattle and sheep, semi-circular houses, dancers, wars and daily life appeared in Tashili rock paintings. There are also many hunting pictures, from driving away birds and animals to shooting prey with bows and arrows, which are reflected in rock paintings. The painting style is completely realistic, the composition is ingenious and the colors are bright. It is speculated that these rock paintings were painted by Farbai people who still live in the south of the Sahara desert, because their hairstyles, hats, weapons, residences and polygamy are the same. When the Sahara was rich in pasture, they drove cattle from Le Fei. During this period, Tahiri's painting art reached its peak.
Around 1500 BC, the Sahara began to become dry, the valley was cut off, the oasis dried up, and the harsh natural environment was no longer suitable for grazing cattle and sheep. Farr Buys moved south in search of new pastures, and another people who used wagons moved with him. The two-wheeled carriage in Tahiri's rock paintings reveals this mysterious change. These two-wheeled wagons are not used for transporting goods, but for war and hunting. Because the roads in Tahiri are rugged, and there are many stone pillars, it is difficult for carriages to drive, so the residents are very scarce. This nation immigrated around 1000 BC.
Since then, the Sahara desert has become increasingly dry and the sand dunes have gradually expanded. Around A.D., today's situation was formed. At this time, Tahiri's rock paintings are not horses but "ships in the desert" camels. The camels in the picture are single or in groups, and some camels are still riding people on their backs. Camels are imported from Asia. According to the inscriptions in North Africa, the time when camels came to the Sahara was about 150 BC. The time recorded in the literature is a little later, which is 46 BC. With the arrival of camels on the African continent, the history of Sahara turned a new page, prehistoric times came to an end, and history entered the era of written records-Greek and Roman times.
The main pigments of Sahara murals are collected from shale. When painting, first grind the pigment into powder, dilute and dissolve it with water, and then add resin, animal oil, blood, honey, urine and other materials to make it into liquid or paste.
In some sites, stone vessels and bowls for dissolving pigments and small stone mortar for grinding pigments have also been found. Fingers, pens or brushes are used as painting tools. Pens and brushes are made of grass, hair, feathers and chopped branches.
Tahiri's murals are unforgettable. When visitors to Tahiri look around the endless desert, they can't help wondering whether there are mysterious rock paintings and unknown treasures in the vast desert.