Funerary monuments and horse paintings: A preliminary report on the archaeology of a site in the tagant region of South East Mauritania – near Dhar Tichitt

Abstract

A preliminary expedition to record new rock art sites in the Tagant region of the Mauritanian Sahara led to the (re)discovery of previously unpublished stone-walled habitation and what are thought to be rectangular funerary monuments, built substantially and in profusion along the length of the sandstone ridge, Guilemsi. Paintings in cliffs below the top of the ridge depict antelope, giraffe, cattle and mounted horses, as well as camels, handprints and Tifinagh inscriptions. This article reports the findings at this site, and looks briefly at the possible authorship of the paintings and the culture of stone-walling. Some of the horse paintings are ‘bi-triangular’, and bear a striking resemblance to those photographed by two of us (Coulson and Campbell) some 3,500 km further east in Chad.

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