Rock Art, landscape and prehistoric settlement at the High Atlas (Morocco).
Landscape Archaeology aims at the perception, not only physical but emotional, that human beings have about the space they are moving on and at the way they inscribe on it their own culture and experiences of being in the World in the phenomenological sense (Heidegger 2003). So, there are as many landscapes as socioeconomic organizations, and they differ from each other depending on the pattern of economy, social structure and material and mental (rational) control of their physical surroundings. This project focuses on the rock art area of Oukaïmeden, a high valley 80 km south of Marrakech, located at 2630 m. above sea level (photo 1).
Historical records from 16th century AD onwards describe its exploitation as summer pasturage exclusively by two tribes proceeding from the villages of the Rerhaya valley to the West and the Ourika valley to the East (Mahdi 1999; Franchi 2005). The hypothesis we want to test is that the prehistoric rock art of the area is connected with a seasonal but regular occupation of the valley that started at the Middle Holocene period (Sub boreal), i.e. 6000 BP, when the climatic conditions of seasonality started and differences in climate and vegetative growth justified the periodic movements between valley and mountain (see Alifriqui 2003). In that sense, the rock art could have served as a kind of mental map, conveying information both on sacred and profane subjects, as entrances, resources, rights of access and/or prohibitions. To test ours ideas we are developing a field study including GPS positioning of archaeological and rock art sites, digging, 14C and archeobotanical sampling and landscape modelling by means of GIS. We offer to discussion some first results on the GIS appliance devoted to modelling the Oukaïmeden rock art landscape.
Research on Oukaïmeden rock art started in 1949 and since then works went on discontinuously until a general Corpus was produced by Malhome in 1961. Nowadays the Centre National de Patrimoine Rupestre (Salih & al, 1998) is in charge of research, being responsible for test pits in the area. At the moment it is only provided one 14C datation for the rock art area, dated to the beginning of the first millennium B. C. (Graoui & al. 2008).
To study the mobility, first of all, we developed a friction surface based on the strong slopes which represent the resistance to travelling from a pixel to the nearest one. To create a magnitude of friction surface required assigning friction values to slope values through an empirically derived equation. Then we calculated a cost surface using an anisotropic function based on the direction of the movement and the friction surface. Those frictions that vary in strength depending on the direction of movement are known as anisotropic frictions.
Once a cost surface has been created using an anisotropic function, a pathway tool determined the least-cost route between any designated cell or group of cells.
With the help of the DEM from a cell the visual rays are extending in all directions and find the line of sight at the height of the cells to determine if they are (or not at sight.
Rock art areas lie predominantly on the slopes oriented S/SE facing to the sun and to the best sheltered and warmest side of the valley. This is also the main geological orientation of the sandstones on which rock art is engraved, although there are some exceptions, as the quadruped motifs engraved on sandstones standing on both sides of the Tiferguine’ stream ford. Opposite to them are located the funerary areas (tumuli), all of them aligned to the East and looking to the North. In between the valley bottom and the natural paths where people and animals move on the valley area run. One important shortcoming we have to cope with it is the dearth of chronological information. from a chronological point of view. So, we do not know yet whether rock art were partially or totally contemporary with tumuli. Anyway we might have to speak of a complementary between rock art and tumuli extended through time, sometimes both were complementary and sometimes one of them (the tumuli), could have substituted the art as a symbolic meaning of territorial control. So the location of both of them can be interpreted in a sacred and profane way at the same time. The south orientation provides the best shelter in an area subjected to alpine climatic conditions. At the same time, the confrontation rock art/graves suggests the opposition light/darkness or life/death. . It could be said the same about the predominant East orientation of tumuli, referred to death and regeneration in a symbolic/profane organization of the landscape with the paths at the valley bottom marking the border between life and death and the cycle of self-regeneration of nature (Bradley 2000).
sparse on the Rerhaya valley, so that the time spent could have been slightly longer before, although, given the steep terrain, differences may not have been very significant.
Next layer to be considered is the one devoted to visibilities. In this case, we are interested not as much where the rock art sites are visible from or the views commanded by a certain point marked by rock art, as what a person moving through the valley would have seen. Otherwise, whether there is a visible pattern in the rock art location. This is a question not easy to resolve, for weapons, idols and animals could have been depicted on the same rock surface (photo 2) or, as in some cases, weapons or other depictions are superimposed to animal engravings, so we could guess that the message conveyed could have changed through time.
rites of passage to the adulthood.
First results of GIS application to the archaeological area of Oukaïmeden suggest the existence of some kind of structure in the rock art distribution, probably related to different chronological periods and with apparent changes among them. This internal structure is organized on a main axis along the valley, connected with watersheds and in obvious relation with the geological structure of the area, but it also reflects the human use of the space in Prehistoric times, and subsequently. There is still a huge amount of research to be done on the site, but a crucial point to be developed on the future is the global understanding of the economic and social system underlying the gravures, what means to broaden the archaeological fieldwork and GIS to the valleys below, where trasterminant shepherds expend the rest of the year.
ALIFRIQUI, M. 2002: “Résultats des études écologiques et phytohistoriques de la station de l’Oukaïmeden ». Actes des Journées d’ étude du Patrimoine et Environnement. Rabat. Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.
FRANCHI, F. 2005: Société pastorale et société urbaine: enjeux territoriaux autour d’un agdal. étude réalisée à partir de l’exemple de l’agdal n’Oukaïmeden, Haut Atlas de Marrakech. LPED, Université de Provence.
GRAOUI EL, M.; ALIFRIQUI, M.; JUNGNER, H.; NAHID, A. & SEARIGHTMARTINET, S. 2008: “Recherche d’indices chronologiques sur le paysage des graveurs de rochers de l’Oukaïmeden (Haut Atlas, Maroc)”. Sahara, 19, pp: 105-108.
HEIDEGGER, M. 2003. Ser y tiempo. Madrid, ed. Trotta.
HIGGS, E. S. & VITA-FINZI, C. 1972. "Prehistoric economies: a territorial approach".
MAHDI, M. 1999 : Pasteur de l’Atlas. Production pastorale, droit et rituel. Casablanca, Fondation Konrad Adenauer.
MALHOMME, J. 1959-1961: Corpus des gravures rupestres du Grand Atlas. Rabat, Service des Antiquités du Maroc (Publications du Service des Antiquités du Maroc, Fascicules 13-14).
Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Archäologie, 18, pp: 253-295.