Although the precise meaning of most African rock art also re-
mains uncertain, a considerable literature exists that describes, ana-
lyzes, and interprets the varied human and animal activities shown,
as well as the evidently symbolic, more abstract patterns. The human
and humanlike figures may include representations of supernatural
beings as well as mortals. Some scholars have, in fact, interpreted the
woman from Tassili n’Ajjer as a horned deity instead of a human
wearing ceremonial headgear.Nok and Lydenburg
Outside Egypt and neighboring Nubia (see Chapter 3), the earliest
African sculptures in the round have been found at several sites in
central Nigeria that archaeologists collectively call the Nok culture.
Scholars disagree on whether the Nok sites were unified politically
or socially. Named after the site where these sculptures were first dis-
covered in 1928, Nok art dates between 500 BCEand 200 CE.Hun-
dreds of Nok-style human and animal heads, body parts, and figures
have been found accidentally during tin-mining operations but not
in their original context.M
ost African objects bear neither labels nor signatures, and
consequently it is nearly impossible to date them precisely or
to identify their makers definitively. Early collectors did not bother to
ask the names of artists or when the works were made. Although a
firm chronology is currently beyond reach, broad historical trends
are reasonably clear. But until archaeologists conduct more extensive
fieldwork in sub-Saharan Africa, many artworks will remain difficult
to date and interpret, and even whole cultures will continue to be
poorly documented. Some African peoples, however, have left written
documents that help date their artworks, even when their methods of
measuring time differ from those used today. Other cultures, such as
the Benin kingdom (FIGS. 15-12and 15-13), have preserved complex
oral records of past events. Historians can check these against the ac-
counts of European travelers and traders who visited the kingdom.
When artists are members of craft or occupational guilds—such
as blacksmiths and brass casters in the western Sudan—commissions
for artwork go to the head of the guild, and the specific artist who
worked on the commission may never be known. Nevertheless, art
historians can identify individual hands if their work is distinctive.
Documentation now exists for several hundred individual artists,
even if their names are lost. For some sculptors who worked in the late
19th or early 20th centuries, scholars have been able to compile fairly
detailed biographies (see “African Artists,” Chapter 34, page 897).
Where documentation on authorship or dating is fragmentary
or unavailable, art historians sometimes try to establish chronology
from an object’s style, although, as discussed in the Introduction,
stylistic analysis is a subjective tool. Scientific techniques such as
radiocarbon dating (measuring the decay rate of carbon isotopes
in organic matter to provide dates for wood, fiber, and ivory) and
thermoluminescence (dating the amounts of radiation found in fired
clay objects) have proved useful but cannot provide precise dates.
Nonetheless, art historians are slowly writing the history of African
art, even if there are still large gaps to fill.
One of the major problems impeding compilation of an accu-
rate history is illegal and uncontrolled excavation. By removing
artworks from the ground, treasure hunters disturb or ruin their
original contexts and reduce or eliminate the possibility of estab-
lishing accurate chronologies. This phenomenon is not unique to
Africa, however (see “Archaeology, Art History, and the Art Market,”
Chapter 4, page 83). Archaeologists on all continents have to con-
front the problem of looting and the consequent loss of knowledge
about the provenance and original function of objects that collec-
tors wish to acquire. That is the unfortunate result of the worldwide
appreciation of African art that began in the early 20th century,
when many European artists looked to “primitive art” for inspira-
tion (see “Primitivism,” Chapter 35, page 920).Dating African Art and
Identifying African ArtistsART AND SOCIETY15-2Running horned woman, rock painting, from Tassili n’Ajjer,
Algeria, ca. 6000–4000 bce.
This early rock painting is thousands of years older than the first African
sculptures. It represents a running woman with body paint, raffia skirt,
and horned headgear, apparently in a ritual context.Prehistory and Early Cultures 395