Customer Reviews

Saharan Rock Art, Archaeology of Tassilian Pastoralist Icongraphy

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I bought this book hoping to find an overview on the rock art of the Tassili n'Ajjer in the Sahara as I hope to visit there, but found something else and of less value.
Professor Holl does not write about the whole of Tassilian rock art at all, but only on ONE set of compositions called the Dr. Khen Shelter of the Iheren complex. He has not seen the site himself but has based his findings not even on photographs but on drawings made in the '60s by an artist with the expedition of Henri Lhote who discovered Iheren. He has made himself dependent on this artist interpretation.
Moreover, as I was given to understand by a friend who has seen this site for himself, the Dr. Khen Shelter containes many more paintings than those interpreted by Professor Holl. They surround the parts interpreted in this book and should not be separated from them.
And what of the interpretations themselves? They are of course of an artform made by a civilisation long gone, but seem mostly plausible. But because of all the problems stated above, I have no idea how seriously one can take these findings.
This book is therefore not only not about Saharan or Tassilian rock art in toto as stated in the title, it isn't even about the whole of one shelter in one complex.
I found it a wasted chance.