Regional Variation of the Rock Art of Ethiopia: a Geological Perspective

Rock, pigments, and weathering. A preliminary assessment of the challenges and potential of physical and biochemical studies on rock art from southern Ethiopia

“…Rock art study in Ethiopia has played a marginal role (e.g. Gallinaro et al, 2018;Negash, 2018) and was substantially ignored in the research area. In 1943, John Desmond Clark rapidly surveyed the area during his military service in East Africa during the Second World War, recording a few very weathered and schematic red paintings.…”

Geological origin of the archaeological obsidian artifacts from the Holocene sequences of Mochena Borago and Yabello, southern Ethiopia

“…Azga, Aroresa, Haroruna, Mome Gongolo 1 and 2, and Sodicho, although some of the rock shelters contain rock art depicting domestic animals that are, based on styles, thought to have been executed around the mid-Holocene (Negash, 2018). Mochena Borago and the sites mentioned in Table 2 are located in the heart of what has been termed as the "enset zone" (Asfaw, 2018).…”

“…The absence of domestic fauna in Mochena Borago is replicated in the excavations of other areas in the region (Table 2). No domestic fauna have been found at the rock shelter sites of Azga, Aroresa, Haroruna, Mome Gongolo 1 and 2, and Sodicho, although some of the rock shelters contain rock art depicting domestic animals that are, based on styles, thought to have been executed around the mid‐Holocene (Negash, 2018). Mochena Borago and the sites mentioned in Table 2 are located in the heart of what has been termed as the “enset zone” (Asfaw, 2018).…”

“…Interestingly it is not only the subsistence of the inhabitants of the two sites that are different but also the rendering of prehistoric rock art around the two sites: Mochena Borago is located in the heart of a rock carving tradition, whereas the rock art in the Yabello area is characterized by painting (Negash, 2018). It is also worth mentioning that Mochena Borago is located in the heart of the megalithic tradition of south‐central Ethiopia, which is absent around Yabello (Negash, 2020).…”

“…This is in contrast to Mochena Borago, where there is no indication of domestic fauna, in spite of the retrieval of more than 33,000 faunal remains from its Holocene deposits (Lesur et al, 2007). As well as these differences, it must also be noted that the Yabello and Mochena Borago areas are characterized by different types of rock art (Negash, 2018).…”