The Plateau of Rivers region of the Sahara desert contains about 15,000 pieces of rock art, made by societies between 12,000 and 3,000 years ago. It made me think. In 3,000 to 12,000 years from now, what will be remembered of our society?

In 1982 — yeah, long time ago — I traveled the Sahara desert in an old German army truck. With two friends and a Danish temporary fellow traveler. We were 21 years of age, the Dane a few years older. Highly unusual as the trip was, we did something even more exceptional. We took a deviation from the usual route  — the Trans-Sahara Highway — and we went to the East of Algeria, along the border with Libya. (Traditionally, the domain of the French Légion Etrangière, the Foreign Legion.) This could well be the most deserted area on the planet. Unknowingly, close to the small town of Djanet, we then crossed part of the now famous Tassili n’Ajjer national park.

Tassili n’Ajjer (“Plateau of Rivers”) is a national park in the Sahara desert, located on a vast plateau in southeastern Algeria, at the borders of Libya, Niger, and Mali. Having one of the most important groupings of – about 15,000 pieces of – prehistoric cave art in the world, and covering an area of more than 72,000 km², Tassili n’Ajjer was inducted into the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1982. — (Wikipedia)

Our old German MAN army truck

Tassili n’Ajjer – Sahara desert, 1982

So it turns out, we were in Tassili n’Ajjer in the exact year is was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Recently, it made my friend say we had been “visiting a museum before it was a museum.”

Who would have thought that 40 odd years later, I would write a story about this experience! As an artist. Why? Because Tassili n’Ajjer turns out to have “one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world”.

Here are two pictures I took of such art that we encountered during our 1982 trip:

Prehistoric cave art showing giraffe and buffalo

Tassili n’Ajjer – Sahara desert, 1982

Prehistoric cave art showing people and deer

Tassili n’Ajjer – Sahara desert, 1982

It made me think

Wikipedia tells us:

Among the 15,000 engravings so far identified, the subjects depicted are large wild animals including antelopes and crocodiles, cattle herds, and humans who engage in activities such as hunting and dancing. These paintings are some of the earliest by Central Saharan artists, and occur in the largest concentration at Tassili.

According to UNESCO, “The exceptional density of paintings and engravings…have made Tassili world famous.”

Similar to other Saharan sites with rock art, Tassili can be separated into five distinct traditions: Archaic (10,000 to 7,500 BCE), Round Head (7550 to 5050 BCE), Bovidian or Pastoral (4,500 to 4,000 BCE), Horse (from 2,000 BCE and 50 CE), and Camel (1000 BCE and onward).

So, all of this art dates between 12,000 and 3,000 years back. This means, there must have been societies in those places back then. There must have been rivers, obviously, as the region is called Plateau of Rivers. There must have been a lush green environment. There must have been lots of people living there.

And all that is left now is sand, rock and … art.

Sand, rock and art

And that made me think.

In 3,000 to 12,000 years from now, what will be left of our society?

Sand, rocks? Yes, probably. All digitally stored information, will it survive? Hmmm, don’t know. Our buildings, will they survive? Like the pyramids. Some probably, but not many.

Or will the only survivors be our art? Like the rock art of Tassili n’Ajjer, the Plateau of Rivers …