Djibouti - 5,000 years ago

Thousands of engravings on the basalt rocks of Dakka

The Gobaad basin, the site of the Premières sociétés de production dans la Corne de l’Afrique (First Production Societies in the Horn of Africa) research programme, is a vast fault trough bounded to the north and south by table-land reliefs composed of stretches of thick basalt rock cleft at multiple points by faults. The steep slopes caused by these faults in the rock often feature long groups of rock carvings which have been studied as part of the research programme for a decade or so.

The rock art site of Yo’oren © Yoann Thouvenot

A still little-known group

The Horn of Africa is a major centre of African rock art, i.e. art painted onto or carved into the rock or the walls of caves, the best known of which are in the sandstone massifs of the Central Sahara (Hoggar Tassili, Messak).

As with all rock art provinces in these vast African regions that are sometimes hard to reach, every decade or so new decorated sites are discovered and added to the corpus. They raise questions about the chronological and stylistic classifications developed by Western researchers for almost a century. In fact, we know that this art was not produced in one particular period but has evolved over several millennia from the time of the first livestock breeders to the first use of writing systems.

About the mission

The Premières Sociétés de Production dans la Corne de l’Afrique mission (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and IRAH in Djibouti) has been directed since 2013 by J. Cauliez (CNRS, UMR 5608 Toulouse). It was created in 1984 by R. Joussaume and led from 2001 to 2013 by X. Gutherz.

Project supported by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs on the advice of the Excavation Committee (Commission des fouilles). 

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