What ever Happened to the People? Humans and Anthropomorphs in the Rock Art of Northern Africa: International Conference (Brussels, 17, 18 & 19 September 2015), edited by D. HUYGE and FRANCIS L. NOTEN. 2018. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, Brussels, hardcover, ISBN 978-90-756-5260-4. Top of Form

The aim of the thirty-six papers in this volume, as stated in the introduction, is to understand 'what the people [of North Africa] looked like, what their origin was, how they lived, and they dressed' (p. 5). The book is a follow up to a previous colloquium convened in 2010, which concentrated on chronology and palaeoenvironment aspects of North African rock art. Geographically grouped, the articles in this volume cover Morocco, Algeria, Tunisa, Libya, Egypt, Tchad, Niger and Mali. Three papers relate to rock art in Israel, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Expanding North African rock art research through the discovery (and rediscovery) of sites is extremely challenging. Rock art field research is not only intellectually demanding, but it often involves harsh, even dangerous, conditions, such as land mines from previous wars (see A. Zboray, p. 26), and the continuous menace of terrorism. It also requires important logistical and financial means, as well as long-term personal commitment. These qualifications are embodied in the late Francis Van Noten, a co-editor of this volume, and shared by many other Saharan field researchers, whose work is included in the book: A.-M. and A. Van Albada, C. Dupuy, C. and Y. Gauthier, M. Hachid, B. Fouilleux, B. E. Barich, S. Searight-Martinet and A. Rodrigue, to name only few.

On his tours in the Ouri plain of the Tibesti Mountains, in northern Tchad, Zboray braved mines and other uncertainties to discover and describe scenes of astonishing beauty and antiquity, testifying to a dynamic movement of ideas and people in the early Saharan Neolithic. In what is called the Korossom style, which is devoid of domesticated fauna, the depiction of human figures with 'unnatural body proportions,' along with 'fantastic beasts', evoke the headless animal from Wadi Sura (Egypt). On the other hand, the human figures of the pastoralist style--the Karnasahi--bear similarities to the paintings of the Tassili n'Ajjer (Algeria) and J. Uweinat, on the border of Egypt, Libya and Sudan. Among the pastoralists at Uweinat, Zboray notes the presence human figures with distinctive features: prominent eyes and double loincloths.

West of the Tibesti, Fouilleux looks at the diversity in human representations among the 'round head' and 'bovidian' paintings of the Tassili n'Ajjer (Sefar). Using images enhanced through the DStretch technique, he shows various human activities among the Bovidian style, including acrobatics, hunting, and copulation (Figs 29, 30). Some of the details have an important environmental significance (e.g. Fig. 39 showing two figures drawing water from a well). Other details, such as the belt and protome in the shape of an aurochs' head are similar to those found among engravings in the Libyan Messak (Figs 9 and 10). His focus on the round head figures is mostly on painted bodies and...