Rock Art in the Central Sahara (SW Libya): A Geo-archaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Perspective

The Libyan rock art is known for a long time, and its stylistic and cultural issues have been widely discussed, but a convincing chronology is not yet available. This paper offers a geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental approach, allowing to interpret the central Saharan rock art in the perspective of the Holocene climate change and archaeology. The critical aspect of rock art dating is discussed in the same perspective. Even though important results have been acquired in the field of relative dating on the basis of rock varnish, radiometric dating results should be carefully evaluated, considering the environmental context and the climatic history of the region. Local climate changes occurred throughout the Holocene may have influenced AMS 14C results