Running Horned Woman Tassili
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Running Horned Woman Tassili
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Digital Art - Digital Oil Painting
Description
Running Horned Woman, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria, 6,000–4,000 B.C.E. Digital oil painting.
Located within a compact group of mountains known as the Aouanrhet massif, the highest of all the “rock cities” on the Tassili, "on the rock surface stood out the gracious silhouette of a woman running. From the knees, the belt and the widely outstretched arms fell fine fringes. From either side of the head and above two horns that spread out horizontally was an extensive dotted area resembling a cloud of grain falling from a wheat field. Although the whole assemblage was skillfully and carefully composed there was something free and easy about it . . ."
A notable and common piece among academic writings is the "Running Horned Woman", also known as the "Horned Goddess", from the Round Head period. According to Arisika Razak, the Horned Goddess of Tassili is an example early "African Sacred Feminine." Her femininity, fertility, and her connection to nature are emphasized as the Neolithic artist superimposes the figure onto smaller, older ones. The use of bull horns is a common theme in later roundhead paintings, reflecting the constant integration of domesticated livestock into daily Saharan life. Livestock imagery, specifically that of bulls, became a central theme not only in Tassili, but also in other nearby sites in Libya.
Who was the Running Horned Woman? Was she a goddess, and her rock shelter some sort of sanctuary? The Horned Woman was found on an isolated rock shelter that could not have been used as dwelling. This remote location, coupled with an image of marked pictorial quality—depicting a female with two horns on her head, dots on her body probably representing scarification, and wearing such attributes of the dance as armlets and garters—suggested that the site, and the subject of the painting, fell outside of the everyday. Rather, this female horned figure, her body adorned and decorated, found in one of the highest massifs in the Tassili—a region is believed to hold special status due to its elevation and unique topology—suggests ritual, rite, or ceremony.
We don't know how and where African of rock art began —some ten million images across the continent. Scholars have estimated the earliest art to date to 12,000 or more years ago, but very few firm dates exist. In the north, where rock art tends to be quite diverse, research has placed works in chronological sequence based on style and content. This approach results in useful classification and dating systems, dividing the Tassili paintings and engravings into periods of concurrent and overlapping traditions. The Running Horned Woman is estimated to date to approximately 6,000 to 4,000 B.C.E., placing it within the "round head period", but offers little in the way of interpretation of the painting itself.
Tassili n'Ajjer (Plateau of rivers) is a national park in the Sahara desert, located on a vast plateau in southeastern Algeria. It holds one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world, and covers an area of more than 72,000 km2 (28,000 sq mi). Tassili was inducted into the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1982
More amazing Cave Art sorted in caves and animals just one copy-paste away at theCaveArtGallery.com
Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
February 27th, 2024
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