Although art historians know that Egyptian art goes back a long way we are not really accustomed to thinking about seeing Paleolithic art there, but that will have to be reevaluated based on findings at Qurta, Egypt.
“The rock art discovered close to the village of Qurta on the east bank of the Nile is closer in style to European cave art, as seen at Lascaux in France, than to Egypt’s more typically stylized representations.” (World Archaeology 2012)
“Located in the higher parts of the Nubian sandstone scarp bordering the Nile floodplain, the petroglyphs are hammered and incised naturalistic-style images of wild animals. So far, 185 individual figures have been identified, more than three quarters of which are aurochs (Bos primigenius), followed by birds, hippopotamuses, gazelle, fish, and hartebeest, with some indeterminate creatures (‘monsters’ or hybrids), and several highly stylized representations of human figures.” (World Archaeology 2012)
It not only turns out that there is Pleistocene art in Egypt including many images of aurochs (Bos primigenius) - indeed, some scientists propose that the aurochs evolved in North Africa, radiating out from there to become the different regional sub-species known in the paleontological record - but these images have now been dated.
“The deposits covering the rock art, in part composed of wind-blown sediments, were dated using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques. This method determines the time elapsed since the buried sediment grains were last exposed to sunlight, thereby establishing at what date these areas of the rock art panels were covered over. The result gave us a minimum age of c. 25,000 calendar years – providing solid evidence that this is, indeed, Pleistocene Age artwork, the oldest graphic activity ever recorded in the whole of North Africa. It also makes it more or less contemporaneous with European art from the last Ice Age, as at Lascaux and Altamira caves.” (World Archaeology 2012)
This is not, however, a solid date for when the images of aurochs were created, only for when the windblown sand deposits covered it. “These OSL results give us a date for when the rock art was buried – its true age may be much greater. It is clear that some of the buried drawings were already considerably weathered before they became covered by sediment. - That would make the Qurta rock art more or less contemporaneous with Early Magdalenian and Solutrean art as known from the Upper Palaeolithic Western Europe. Further fieldwork in 2011 led to the discovery of several more buried petroglyphs, offering additional dating opportunities, using both OSL and other techniques. Whether or not it will be possible to push back the minimum age of the rock art still further remains to be seen - our research is ongoing.” (World Archaeology 2012)
So much of our picture of prehistory is based upon what we think we know from archaeological discoveries, but that only casts light on where the discoveries were made. The more we learn about other parts of the world the more we realize how far off the mark our early assumptions really were, and how much more exciting evidence is yet to be discovered in other places.
NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Clayton, Julie,
2020 Nile Rock Art is at Least 15,000 Years Old, July 29, 2020, https://heritagedaily.com
TARA
Back to Life? The Aurochs in African Rock Art, Trust for African Rock Art (TARA), https://africanrockart.org/aurochs-african-rock-art/
World
Archaeology,
2012 Egypt:
The Aurochs of Qurta, May 28, 2012, Current World Archaeology, Issue 53,
https://www.world-archaeology.com
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