Round Head Period

Round Head rock art is the earliest painted,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} monumental form of Central Saharan rock art,^[7] which was largely created from 9500 BP to 7500 BP^[8] and ceased being created by 3000 BP.^[4] The Round Head Period is preceded by the Kel Essuf Period and followed by the Pastoral Period.^[2] Round Head rock art number up to several thousand depictions in the Central Sahara.^[4] Human and undomesticated animal (e.g., Barbary sheep, antelope) artforms are usually portrayed, with a variety of details (e.g., dancing, ceremonies, masks, spiritual animal forms), in painted Round Head rock art.^[2] Painted Round Head rock art and engraved Kel Essuf rock art usually share the same region and occasionally the same rockshelters.^[2] The Round Head rock art of Tassili and the surrounding mountainous areas bear considerable similarity with traditional Sub-Saharan African cultures.^[4]

At the start of 10th millennium BP, amid the Epipaleolithic, the walls of rockshelters (e.g., Tin Torha, Tin Hanakaten) were used as a foundation for proto-village huts that families resided in, as well as hearths, which may have been suitable for the mobile lifestyle of semi-sedentary Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers.^[9][10] Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers built a simple stone wall, dated to 10,508 ± 429 cal BP/9260 ± 290 BP, which may have been used for the purpose of serving as a windbreak.^[9] In 10,000 BP, Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers, to some extent, engaged in processing of flora, and were specialists in the use of Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia).^[11] Though uncommon, ceramics and lithic complexes were also utilized.^[11] Hunters of the Epipaleolithic especially hunted Barbary sheep, among other animals, as well as utilized ceramics and basic lithic constructs between 10,000 BP to 8800 BP.^[2] Hunters of the Epipaleolithic, who possessed a sophisticated social organization, as well as exceptional stone tools and ceramics, created the Round Head rock art.^[4] Amid an early period of the Holocene, semi-settled Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic hunters, who created a refined material culture (e.g., stone tools, decorated pottery) as early as 10,000 BP,^[6] also created the engraved Kel Essuf and painted Round Head rock art styles located in the region (e.g., some in the Acacus, some in the Tadrart) of Libya, in the region (e.g., some in the Tadrart, most abundant in Tassili n'Ajjer) of Algeria, in the region (e.g., Djado) of Nigeria, and the region (e.g., Djado) of Niger.^[6][12]

Amid the early Sahara, Round Head rock artists, who had a sophisticated culture and engaged in the activity of hunting and gathering, also developed pottery, used vegetation, and managed animals.^[13] The cultural importance of shepherded Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) is shown via their presence in Round Head rock art throughout the Central Sahara (e.g., Libyan region of Tadrart Acacus, Algerian region of Tassili n’Ajjer).^[14] Barbary sheep were corralled in stone enclosures near Uan Afuda cave.^[14] From up to 9500 BP, this continued until the beginning of the Pastoral Neolithic in the Sahara.^[14] Between 7500 BCE and 3500 BCE, amid the Green Sahara, undomesticated central Saharan flora were farmed, stored, and cooked, and domesticated animals (e.g., Barbary sheep) were milked and managed, by hunter-gatherers near the Takarkori rockshelter, which is representative of the broader Sahara; this continued until the beginning of the Pastoral Neolithic in the Sahara.^[15]

Between 8800 BP and 7400 BP, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers hunted different kinds of animals and used numerous grinding and flaking stone technologies and ceramics for the purpose of improving the overall number of undomesticated vegetation gathered.^[11] Among hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic, there was use of ceramics, due to the increased settling and acquiring of undomesticated vegetation, and considerable use of lithic grinding tools, between 8800 BP and 7400 BP.^[2] At Uan Afuda, Mesolithic hunter-gatherer settlements had remnants of baskets with undomesticated vegetation within them and cords, which date between 8700 BP and 8300 BP.^[9]