Prehistoric Graffiti near Akka

Akka is famous for its prehistoric rock carvings although there are similar carvings all along the rocks south of the anti-atlas. We went to the most accessible group. To get there  you turn south off the N12 just west of Akka  and then travel several kilometres across piste

 which is definately not designed for the clearance of our little Peugot hire car.

 Without a guide you would be hard -pressed to find the right ridge and when you get there you may see some walking along the ridge but I doubt you'd find half.
 We used Moumoud (tel 06.62.29.18.64) who has been guiding the area for over 30 years.
The carvings  are 6,500 years old and mostly depict gazelles

 but also deer, elephant,

rhinocerous,

  giraffe

 and even a man hunting with a bow and arrow. 6,500 years ago the area was not semi-desert but a lush savannah and swamp and these and the animals that lived here. There are also fossils from when it was a seabed.

The carvings are incised into the rock about a millimetre deep. The thing about this rock is that it is like that at the National Petraglyph Park we saw near Albuquerque. It appears black but this is only a very thin surface layer which has oxidised over time. When they were first carved the graffiti would have been much clearer standing out as white against the black rock. The native american petroglyphs at Alberquerque are not incised as deeply as the carvings and and are dated from 1000BCE -1200CE. interestingly there are some later carvings here of goats which are only 3,000 years old, ie,c1000BCE and they are not deeply incised either.

I have to wonder how come two cultures so far apart have similar artistic expression. Also does this idea of scraping the surface of the earth to reveal the white (bone?) beneath persist in the chalk forms on the downs, the white horses of southern England and also is it related to the current Morrocan custom of writing in white painted stones on hillsides. as in Agadir or here at Tamgroute.