Download - The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
1
Introduction
Chéïré is the name on the Ennedi topog-
raphic map by the IGN (sheet NE-34-IV) of
a sandstone peak, very easy to spot from far
away. A huge sand dune connects this peak
to the eastern slopes of a flat-topped hill,
where the Chéïré-1 shelter opens in a con-
cealed location at the elevation of 650 me-
ters (Fig. 1). About forty-two meters wide,
up to ten meters high and nineteen meters
deep, this shelter originated from the col-
lapse of three massive sandstone beds, gen-
tly dipping to the northeast (Fig. 2). Some
ground-stones scattered on the shelter floor
indicate the site was used at least as a tem-
porary dwelling place (Fig. 3). Paintings
decorate the most accessible surfaces of the
shelter walls for a length of twenty-seven
meters, following the floor at human height
and gradually sloping from west to east
(Fig. 4). The most elaborate and dense com-
positions are found on the most protected
sector of the shelter, behind a boulder act-
ing as a barrier, likewise painted on its sides
facing the out-side. Chéïré-1 was discovered
Chéïré-1 est un grand abri peint situé dans le secteur sud-
ouest de l'Ennedi, à l'est de la célèbre guelta du Wadi Ar-
cheï, particulièrement riche de belles peintures dépeignant
les éleveurs de bétail qui ont habité la région dans la pre-
mier âge du fer.
Chéïré-1 is a large painted shelter located in the SW sector of
the Ennedi, east of the renewed Wadi Archeï guelta, particu-
larly rich with fine paintings portraying the cattle herders
who inhabited the region during the early Iron Age.
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
Alessandro Menardi Noguera1
Andrea Bonomo2
Fig. 1 – Location map of the Chéïré-1 shelter (triangle). The
site is here named Chéïré-1 following the naming convention
consolidated in the regional scientific literature. The satellite
image in the background is from Digital Globe—Google
Earth©.
1) [email protected] - 2)[email protected]
doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.886590 - Creative Common Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Alessandro Menardi Noguera & Andrea Bonomo - Bergamo, AARS meeting, 31/05/2014
2 https://independent.academia.edu/AlessandroMenardiNoguera
during the 1997 winter by Andrea Bonomo.
Revisited in March 2014, the site was fully
documented using cross-polarized flash
lights, a basic photographic technique first
introduced in rock art studies by Hender-
son (2002). In all, 485 motifs have been ref-
erenced and indexed after image enhance-
ment by DStretch (Harman 2002; Le Quellec
et al. 2013).
For the present analysis of the surveyed
paintings, direct reference is made to the
styles and periods (Fig. 5) established by
Fig. 2 – Eastward
view of the Chéïré-1
shelter, opening at
650 metres of eleva-
tion, about 200 me-
tres above the bot-
tom of the nearby
Wadi Nohi. Paint-
ings decorate the
most accessible sur-
faces of the shelter
walls and the exter-
nal sides of the large
squared boulder
found toward the
shelter bottom.
Fig. 4 – Location sketch of the main decorated surfaces. The perimeter of the
painted panels is about twenty-seven meters. Scale is approximate since the
photo-mosaic is not orthorectified.
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The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
Bailloud (1997). These definitions proved to
be an effective tool in understanding the
new sites inventoried during time in the
south-west of the Ennedi highlands. How-
ever, many questions about the relative and
absolute chronology remain open to debate
(Yves and Christine Gauthier, 2006). Mov-
ing away from the Bailloud’s study area,
style variations and regionalization are rec-
ognized (Tilman 2015). From a practical
point of view, it is necessary to outline that
the sites described by Bailloud were sur-
veyed by direct tracing while only few
black and white photographs were shot.
The majority of these sites, hosting very
large compositions, have yet to be revisited
and fully documented anew with the com-
bination of modern digital technologies
available nowadays (Le Quellec et al. 2015).
Therefore, making reference to the Bailloud’
style definitions requires some caution.
The bottom walls paintings
At the shelter bottom, a two-meter thick
sandstone bed juts out, offering a promi-
nent surface densely populated with depic-
tions of humans, cattle and dogs. The over-
whelming majority of paintings shown on
the three main painted panels (A-B-C; Fig.
4) are in the Tamada style, which reference
site is located ninety kilometres west of
Fig. 3 – A sandstone slab with an elliptical hollow
found on the floor of the Chéïré-1 shelter, likely used
as a ground stone.
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Fada. This style, referring to the Recent Bo-
vine Period, is the first artistic expression in
the Ennedi to include unmistakable depic-
tions of iron weapons, predating the intro-
duction of camels and horses in the region.
It must be remembered that the earliest evi-
dence of iron smelting in Sub-Saharan Af-
rica (northern Niger) dates back to the clos-
ing centuries of the II millennium BC, while
technology is firmly confirmed in West Af-
rica by the eight century BC (Holl 2009).
Surprisingly, the first archaeological evi-
dence for the Iron Age in the Ennedi date
back to around the IV century AD, with
“some hints” that the local Iron Age might
have begun at the inception of the current
era, being the findings related to an already
mature technology (Kedig et al. 2007; Jesse
et al. 2013).
The unmatched quality of the Tamada style
paintings found at the shelter bottom al-
lows for a generalized description of the
portrayed people, sometimes finely painted
as polychrome figures in red, white and
pale orange.
Gender distinction relies only on clothes,
accessories and weapons; no explicit depic-
tions of sexual anatomic features are noted.
Heads of men and women are shaped as
short sticks, generally lacking facial details
but with the eyes sometimes represented as
pairs of tiny white dots (Fig. 6-7 and 8-9).
Men and women are typically featured by
rounded hairstyles, usually painted in pale-
Dromedary Period
Recent Dromedary Period -
Ancient Dromedary Period Keymena Style
Gribi Style
Bovine Period
(Pastoral Period)
Final Bovine Period -
Recent Bovine Period
Koko Style
Fada Style
Tamada Style
Middle Bovine Period Hohou Style
Ancient Bovine Period Ebiki Style
Archaic Period
Guérola Style
Checked Style
Elikéo Style
Sivré Style
Mayguili Style
Fig. 5 – Synoptic table of the styles and rock art periodization established in the SW Ennedi by Bailloud (1997). In
the Bailloud’s terminology, “Bovine Period” stands for the term “Pastoral Period” commonly found in the litera-
ture. The oldest domestic bovine remains in the Erg Ennedi and Middle Wadi Howar (Sudan), part of the eastern
Ennedi drainage system, are dated to the dawn of IV millennium BC (Jesse et al. 2013). The inception of first mil-
lennium AD is accepted for the introduction of the camel in the Sahara and the Sahel, although in the Egyptian
Lower Nubia there is evidence for camel presence by the first millennium BC (Blench & MacDonald 2014). The
throwing knife depicted during the final stage of the recent dromedary period was developed in central Sudan
around the begin of the second millennium AD (Ehret 2002).
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The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
orange, often only visible as a faint halo.
Men are shown with larger coiffures than
women. The shape of this hairstyle, identi-
fied as “Afro” in the hairdresser jargon
used in the northern America for people of
African descent, is naturally assumed as
curled African hair when let to grow long
(Sherrow 2006). The French word intro-
duced by Bailloud (1997) to indicate this
hairstyle is “chèche”. Clearly, it is not possi-
ble to prove the rounded shape of the men
hairstyles is effectively due to an intricate
Fig. 6-7 – Six warri-
ors aligned in a row
are depicted on the
lower bedding sur-
face of the sand-
stone bed hosting
panel D. The fifth
warrior is clasping
with the same hand
a spear, a decorated
quiver and a bow.
Two running dogs
are shown to the left
of the aligned warri-
ors (DStretch ver-
sion in CRGB colour
space, white im-
ported from the
YYE colour space).
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volume of natural curls but curls seem
sometimes depicted in women hairstyle, a
fact indicating natural African curly hairs
occurred among the portrayed people.
Men wear long recumbent feathers in their
hair or more rarely fan-shaped tufts of
feathers (Fig. 6-7). Exclusive to men are
lines of beads hanging from the lower lobes
of their coiffures and also hair decorations
in the form of dark coloured large dots (Fig.
8-9). These decorations, unprecedented in
the available documentation of the Ennedi
Fig. 8-9 – A row of
six finely depicted
warriors associated
to six variously
decorated shields,
vertically stacked to
their left. The first
warrior of the row is
superimposed on a
woman figure lean-
ing to the right
(DStretch version in
CRGB colour space,
white imported
from the YYE colour
space).
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The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
rock art, could have been produced in life
by smearing hair with coloured clays. Ban-
danas were likewise in use among men as
white lines painted on the forehead just be-
low the hair root and documented in two
cases (Fig. 8-9).
The sophisticated coiffures of men should
have required constant care; it is a known
fact that African hair quickly loses its
beauty if neglected (Sherrow 2006). Likely,
hair was a source of pride and an expres-
sion of cultural identity or social status sat-
Fig. 10-11 – A row
of aligned people
prevalently com-
posed by women.
Women hairstyles
a re s ome t i mes
marked by small
dots (second figure
from the left), likely
representing natural
afro-textured hairs
with tight curls in
corkscrews. Below
the fifth person of
the row from the
left, the draft of a
h u m a n f i g u r e
drawn in very thin
lines is recognizable
(DStretch version in
CRGB colour space).
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isfying many purposes as historically ob-
served all over sub-Saharan Africa
(Batulukisi 2000). Tribal affiliation could
have been one of the most important pur-
poses of these elaborated coiffures, thus re-
gionalization in the coiffure attributes is ex-
pected, considering that the Ennedi is more
than 30,000 square km at full length. In fact,
the multiple sets of triangularly shaped pins
completing the men’s coiffures observed in
Tamada-1 and nearby shelters (Bailloud
1997) do not appear in Chéïré-1.
Fig. 12-13 – The
woman opening the
row of aligned peo-
ple to the left has a
pointed chignon or
pin at the coiffure
top. This woman
wears a white drape
over the long gown,
fastened on the
waist with a sash.
The warriors of the
row are armed with
spears, shields,
bows and quivers. A
running dog pre-
cedes the aligned
people to the left
(DStretch version in
CRGB colour space,
white imported
from the YYE colour
space).
9
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
The outlines of women coiffures are some-
times marked by small dots, perhaps repre-
senting natural afro-textured hair with tight
curls in corkscrews (Fig. 10-11). Chignons
sometimes enrich the women’s coiffures as
shown in one case (Fig. 12-13).
The men’s basic garment is a loincloth of
various colours, ending with a loose, short
band, generally depicted on their right side
(Fig. 6-7 and 9-10). The length of this hang-
ing band represents just another difference
between Chéïré-1 and the sites centred on
Fig. 14-15 – A war-
rior depicted near a
cow with swollen
udder. Wavy body
decorations painted
in white are visible
on the warrior’s
legs. In the gap
opened by flaking of
the rock surface on
the upper right of
the cow, a draft of a
bovine figure drawn
in thin red lines is
evidenced by image
e n h a n c e m e n t
(DStretch version in
CRGB colour space).
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Tamada-1, where it is worn long to the an-
kle (Bailloud 1997).
Some warriors wear a white shirt with short
sleeves resembling a modern “T- shirt” (Fig.
6-7 and 8-9). Just the same, the naked torso
is the norm. Body decorations on the torso
are attested among men in the form of
white parallel vertical lines jointed by short
transversal segments and also as wavy lines
on the legs (Fig. 14-15). Similar decorations
on warrior legs have analogous examples in
the Nabara-1 and Enneri Doué-2 shelters
(Choppy et al. 2003). White leg bands com-
plete the men’s attire (Fig. 6-7, 12-13 and 14-
15).
The full panoply of the Tamada warriors is
composed of a spear with a leaf-shaped
spearhead (Fig. 8-9), a round shield (Fig. 12-
13 and 14-15), a bow and a quiver with a
top or cap adorned by a white appendix
with red stripes likely representing leather
tongues (Fig. 12-13). This interesting detail
is generally reduced to simple alternate
white and red stripes in the sketchiest
figures.
Bows and quivers are shown clasped in the
Fig. 16 – The men’s coiffures in Tamada style are very sophisticated: all the warriors but the first to the left wear
long recumbent feathers. Lines of beads hang from the lower lobes of their hairstyles. Decorations rendered as
large dark coloured dots are applied to the hairs. The three warriors in the row holding spears are shown with both
hands fully open and fingers widened. The warrior in the middle of the row is 33 cm tall.
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The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
same hand (e.g. Fig. 6-7 and 12-13). Effec-
tively, it is the bow to drive the identifica-
tion of the depicted ornamented objects as
quivers, an identification originally pro-
posed by Bailloud (1997). In this respect, it
must be remembered that African quivers
provided with sophisticated, bizarre deco-
rations or fancy caps, are very common in
ethnographic documentation (Boccassino
1960; Grayson 2007).
Quivers and bows seem exceedingly small
in relation to their owners, yet these objects
Fig. 17-18 – Family
scene composed by
two parents, two
girls and a boy. The
two girls overlap a
homestead flaked by
two small people
represented as verti-
cally stacked figures.
The father of the
family overlaps a
cattle figure with
r e t or t ed h orn s
(DStretch version in
CRGB colour space).
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were not necessarily represented in true
scale. In fact, also spears appear to be rather
short as their length is half or less than half
the height of their owners. Such spears
were similarly shown in reduced scale. In
fact, the length of spears with iron leaf-
shaped blades, preserved in the Pitt River
Museum, part of a vast collection originat-
ing from different Sudanese ethnic groups,
are in the range of 1.5 – 2.2 meters
(according to a homogeneous sample of
twenty specimens excluding spears classi-
fied as ceremonial or spears provided with
butt-spikes). The length of spears with iron
bladed points, used by the San people both
for thrusting or throwing weapons, are in
the range of 1.5 – 2.5 meters (Knecht 1997).
Evidently, it would be impossible to hold a
spear from the butt with an open hand, as
conventionally shown by the most detailed
warrior depictions (Fig. 16). One can con-
clude that it is the association between
weapons and owners of real importance to
the artist and not the achievement of real-
ism in portraiture. Weapons were evidently
necessary to qualify the masculine world
and their scaled versions were sufficient.
Considering the stylistically homogenous
panels A, B and C, fifty-one over sixty-three
warriors (i.e. 81%) are “holding” spears in
their left hand (Fig. 6-7). In contexts of hunt-
ing or fighting, spears would have been
generally wielded by the right-hand and
shields by the left, as left-handedness is
seen only in a minority of the human popu-
lation, although estimates widely vary in
the 5-30% range, depending on handedness
definitions (Holder 2001; Puri 2013). By ex-
amining the ethnographic photographic col-
lections available on-line, thanks to the Pitt
River Museum, it is deduced that in every-
day life, spears can be held indifferently in
the left or right hand only when not in ef-
fective use.
Shields are embellished by different geo-
metric decorations such as crosses, concen-
tric circles, partition in regular quarters or
fields delimited by a sinuous boundary,
perhaps inherited from the natural patterns
of cattle hides (Fig. 8-9 and 12-13). These
decorations, which recall coats of arms,
would have been useful in identifying their
owners, especially during a fight.
The women wear full length skirts with a
sash fastened on the waist, made visible by
the hanging loose end (Fig. 12-13). The most
elegant women wear a white semi-
transparent drape which reaches the
ground, hanging on one side and covering
half of the skirt. Contrary to evidence from
the sites in the neighborhood of Fada, no
clear depictions of blouses are observed
among women. However, bosoms are never
discernible, indicating that women were
clothed from neck to feet.
Girls and boys, are easy recognizable as
they are depicted shorter than their parents
and with a delicate constitution (Fig. 17-18);
girls are just women in diminutive size.
Boys might present smaller and less elabo-
13
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
rate hairstyles in comparison to the adults.
Only small children are shown without at-
tributes betraying gender.
The standing pose for men and women,
portrayed as isolated figures or in group
scenes, is essentially invariant, with very
few exceptions, clearly a hieratic pose, im-
plying that no individual is engaged in any
specific action. However, this recursive
standing pose, typical of the figures in the
Tamada style, is not trivial. In fact, it de-
parts from the basic posture that a relaxed
person would assume when standing, as
the lower arms are twisted to make an out-
ward angle in comparison to the body. A
certain minimum voluntary physical effort
is required to stand this way. The specificity
of this pose is clearer when hands are de-
picted with stretched widened fingers, since
it is attainable only with the palms in view,
thumbs up. Therefore, this conventional
pose, replicated by thousands of paintings
in a number of sites, cannot be confused
with the static basic frontal pose, childish or
primitively rudimentary art recurs to sche-
matize a human in the simplest way possi-
ble. In the expressions of the later subse-
quent derivative styles, such as the
“sentinels” from the eastern Ennedi (Kedin
et al. 2007; Jacquet 2013), this specificity is
Fig. 19 – The right sector of panel A is decorated by an oversized depiction of a warrior in Tamada style, about 45
cm tall, i.e. three times taller than the other similar figures found on the same panel (Photo-mosaic, DStretch proc-
essed version in CRGB colour space).
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diluted by stylization and oversimplifica-
tion of the human figure. The clue in under-
standing the origin of this conventional
pose must be sought in the earliest paint-
ings where it represents a novelty in the re-
gional art, i.e. in the Tamada style paint-
ings. In fact, the community portrayed
throughout the bottom walls of Chéïré-1 is
always shown in a pacific attitude, overtly
exhibiting its strength and wealth by its
many well-armed warriors and its cattle.
This conventional pose seems to effectively
Fig. 20-21 – A family
group; the father of
the family is fea-
tured by an ex-
tremely large coif-
fure (DStretch ver-
sion in CRGB colour
space).
15
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
express the relaxed, pacific mood of a
proud, self-reliant people.
Panel A
In the left upper quarter of Panel A (Fig. 4
and 19), undecipherable fragmentary fig-
ures in thick drawing lines, possibly be-
longing to an ancient pictorial layer, are evi-
denced by digital enhancement. In the mid-
dle left of the panel, overlapping white and
red cattle figures form a tight cluster, par-
tially obfuscated by weathering.
White bovine horns are seen on panels A, C
and B as apparently floating motifs. These
horns belong to cattle figures whose bodies
were originally painted in a brown dye
prone to disappear completely. An ex-
tremely faint brown bovine figure, identi-
fied near the upper border of panel A,
proves these isolated cattle horns, also indi-
cated as “phantom cattle” (see the statistic
by Choppy et al., 2002), are just imputable
to selective decay of pigments.
Toward the panel top, a herd composed of
four aligned cattle figures and a calf is pre-
sent. Standing warriors to the right of the
herd likely represent the cattle guards.
Enhancement of digital images reveal, in
the background of panel A, an oversized
warrior in Tamada style, forty-five cm tall,
i.e. about three times taller than the other
similar figures found on the same panel
(Fig. 19). This outstanding figure is shown
with down-stretched arms and a spear
drawn over his fully opened right hand. A
Fig. 22 – Panel B; the focal point of the composition is an oversized cow figure, twice larger than the other cattle
figures found on panel B. However, the dominant motifs adorning the panel are rows of aligned people.
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large disk in solid red, shown as an isolated
motif to the left, likely represents his shield,
proportioned in size. To the lower left of
this oversized figure, a warrior holding a
stick and a spear makes for an interesting
case; as documented by Evans-Pritchard
among the Nuer people in South Sudan
(Morton 2004), spear and stick constitute an
alternative weaponry combination that can
effectively replace the more common spear-
shield combination.
The lower right corner of Panel A is deco-
rated by a family scene showing a man fea-
tured with an exceedingly large hairstyle,
accompanied by a wife with a curly coif-
fure, holding two children hand in hand
(Fig. 20-21).
Panel B
The focal point of panel B is occupied by a
buxom cow, facing to the right, approxi-
mately twice the size of the other cattle fig-
ures which appear on the same panel (Fig.
22 and 23). It is a finely painted animal with
a white swollen udder, evidenced by an
outline drawn in red and four protruding
teats. The sharp white horns with red horn-
points are shown according to their frontal
profile, a graphic convention commonly
seen in the Tamada styled cattle (Bailloud
1997). Less evident is a calf painted in light
brown, underneath the white chest floor of
the cow.
The forelegs of this large cow clearly over-
lap the fragmentary figure of a bovine,
which survives only by the white convolute
patches of its coat (Fig. 23). Cattle with simi-
lar convoluted patches are sometimes asso-
ciated with Tamada styled humans (ibidem).
Therefore, this fragment could be just an
Fig. 23 – The buxom
cow at the centre of
panel B, about 30 cm
large, is accompa-
nied by a calf de-
picted in pale
brown, shown be-
low the chest floor.
This cow overlaps
an earlier bovine
figure surviving
only for the convo-
luted white patches
of its coat.
17
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
evidence for a superimposition internal to
the style.
On the left side of panel B, three cattle herds
are identified; they are composed of cows
painted in red with white horns, or painted
as brindled animal in red and white, fea-
tured by swollen udders. Calves are de-
picted facing their mother or pleasantly
suckling from the udder (Fig. 24-25). The
hind and rear legs of the cattle figures are
drawn by smooth lines, sometimes accord-
ing to arched segments, conferring a won-
Fig. 24-25 – Cattle
figures in Tamada
style were first draft
in thin drawn-lines
then coloured by
infilling shapes with
solid colours; this
technique is attested
by the few extraordi-
nary drafts of hu-
mans and animals
left unaccomplished,
visible on lower
right of the image
(DStretch version in
CRGB colour space).
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derful plasticity to the animal silhouettes.
The Tamada artists painted their cattle fig-
ures by first producing a draft in thin
drawn-lines, then by filling shapes with
solid colours, as proven by the extraordi-
nary unfinished painting left in draft state
on panel B (Fig. 24-25).
Cattle figures are clearly important in the
Chéïré-1 compositions. However, the domi-
nant motifs are rows of aligned people.
Such rows in Tamada style were distin-
guished as a motif per se in the rock art in-
Fig. 26-27 – A row of
five warriors and
two smaller indi-
viduals, may be
boys are superim-
posed on a faint
human featured by a
pear shaped body
(silhouette evi-
denced by a white
dotted line drawn
on the digital im-
age). This figure is
typical of the Hohou
style, referred the
middle bovine pe-
riod (DStretch ver-
sion in CRGB colour
space).
19
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
ventories by Choppy et al. (1996-2003); with
the over twelve sites counting this motif in
the Archeï sub-region, none have more than
three rows. In Chéïré-1, eleven rows are
counted, making the site exceptional in the
entire Ennedi. Even more astonishing, these
rows seem orderly laid in relation to the
depicted cattle herds, forming a surpris-
ingly tidy composition (Fig. 22).
The only scene apparently out of order on
panel B is a miniature herd scene, facing to
the left, with the cattle keeper drawn in
miniature size (Fig. 24-25), located on the
middle-right of the panel.
All the humans portrayed in rows on panel
B are stylistically indistinguishable, irrele-
vant of the scene they belong to. In fact,
they may have been portrayed by the same
painter, a much skilled one. In fact, there
are just few isolated Tamada warriors in
Chéïré-1 displaying those genres of subtle
differences in body proportions which
could claim for a different artist’s hand.
On panels A, B and C, the men outnumber
the women by seventy-five to twenty-four
(i.e. 75%). Apparently, the portrayed society
was biased towards the masculine gender.
It is only the first scene of aligned people on
the upper left corner of panel B, composed
of six women associated to a single man, to
represent making this bias manifest (Fig. 10-
11). This row, prevalently composed of
women, is followed underneath by three
warriors, two wearing white shirts. To their
right, a fourth figure with open legs is visi-
ble on enhanced images as a draft, made of
very thin drawing lines only.
In the lower left corner of panel B, a grace-
ful family composed of five people is
shown (Fig. 17-18); the father and mother of
Fig. 28 – The third
man of the row, may
be a youngster by
stature, is shown in
the full attire and in
the same pose of the
fellow or accompa-
nying adult to his
left side.
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20 https://independent.academia.edu/AlessandroMenardiNoguera
the family are flanked by two girls and a
boy (considering height and thin proportion
as indication of young age) with a diminu-
tive hairstyle topped by two divergent
white feathers. In the background of this
family group, a homestead enclosing food
containers is schematically represented. The
father of the family overlaps a small cattle
figure with calves.
The first upper group scene of aligned peo-
ple, located between two fractures on the
middle of panel B, is constituted by five
Fig. 29-30 – A cluster
of three women as-
sociated to U-shaped
objects enclosing
dots, likely food
containers. These
women are superim-
posed by cattle and
may be a goat (to the
left) painted in
white. Left of the
women group, near
the lower edge of
the panel, two small
sitting figures are
shown; one is in
frontal view holding
an object resembling
a drum, the second
one is by profile, in
s i t t i n g p o s e
(DStretch version in
CRGB colour space,
white imported from
the YYE colour
space).
21
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
warriors and two shorter individuals of thin
constitution, possibly youngsters, these lat-
ter equipped with proportionately short
spears (Fig. 26-27). Digital enhancement of
this group scene reveals in the background
a faded human featured by a narrow chest,
oversized hips and thick legs. The pear-
shaped body of this figure is truly distinc-
tive of the humans painted in the Hohou
style. This figure is in very good match with
the well-preserved figures in the Hohou
style surveyed in the Archeï-7 site (see Ne-
gro et al. 1996; Choppy et al. 2002). These
apparently fat figures, hallmark of the Mid-
dle Bovine Period, express a totally differ-
ent aesthetic of the human body in compari-
son to the overlapping paintings of the Re-
cent Bovine Period. It is interesting to note
that a time lapse of roughly one and a half
millennium is postulated between the late
Neolithic and early Ion Age in the Ennedi
(Kedin et al. 2007), to which the Hohou and
Tamada styles can be respectively related.
Below the first row of aligned people, a sec-
ond row begins to the right with a woman
hand in hand with a boy, followed by six
warriors and one more boy armed with a
“toy” spear (Fig. 12-13). This row is pre-
ceded by a running dog, facing to the right,
evidently part of the group scene, since the
association between dog and aligned people
is a constant in Chéïré-1.
Along the lower border of the triangular
space bounded fractures at panel B centre-
left (Fig. 22), a small homestead depiction
with a sitting boy and a girl outside is fol-
lowed to the right by a row of four warriors
with a much shorter individual, possibly a
youngster, shown in the full warrior attire
(Fig. 28).
Fig. 31 – Aligned
cattle figures with
forward pointing
horns. This nice herd
of brindled cattle is
superimposed on
remains of red cattle
figures, evidence of
an older layer of
uncertain attribu-
tion.
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Fig. 32 – Two kneeling women
grinding or preparing some food
are represented near a home-
stead enclosing food containers.
These containers evoke the large
pottery vessels still in use today
for food storage, placed within
the fences of the traditional
homesteads in the traditional
villages south of the Ennedi.
Fig. 33 – Panel C; paintings in the Tamada style form more rarefied compositions in respect of what is seen on
panel B, but superpositions internal to the style are anyway recognized.
23
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
In the lower-centre of panel B, within a
square flat space delimited by small relief
rock irregularities, six differently decorated
shields stacked in a column are depicted to
the left of six warriors (Fig. 8-9). In this case,
the relation between shields and warriors is
self-evident. On a lower register, a cluster of
three women is shown with open hands
and widened fingers (Fig. 29-30). To the left
of these three women, two “U” shaped ob-
jects enclosing large red dots, are shown.
Likely, these objects represent food contain-
Fig. 34-35 – Collared
running dogs fea-
tured by small
pointed ears, sharp
muzzles and curled
up tails (DStretch
version in CRGB
colour space).
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ers. The women group overlaps a partially
preserved human featured by large hips,
testifying the presence of an older layer of
paintings (Fig. 29-30). A herd of cattle and
may be one goat figure painted in white, are
revealed by enhanced images in overlap-
ping relation with these figures.
The lower-centre of panel B hosts a row of
five slender warriors with very impressive
coiffures, depicted with fully open hands
regardless of the spears they are holding
(Fig. 16). These warriors clearly overlap a
fragmentary bovine figure preserved only
by the convoluted patches of its coat. These
five warriors are sided to the right by four
sequenced cattle figures, aligned on the
same imaginary base line (Fig. 31). The un-
common forward pointing horns and colour
scheme coats make this herd especially at-
tractive.
The lower left border of Panel B is deco-
rated by a group of four warriors, two girls
and two boys (Fig. 22). The first warrior to
the left is followed by two running dogs,
vertically stacked; the upper one is painted
in red and the lower one in pale orange.
The silhouettes of two kneeling figures and
one homestead provided with food contain-
ers are shown on the lower right corner of
panel A (Fig. 32). The best proportioned fig-
ure, wearing a long white drape on her legs,
is clearly a woman. Both figures are in the
act of preparing some food; kneeling
women working bent on ground stones are
also common motifs in other sites where
Tamada style paintings are found, counting
the best examples in the Gotobelé site
(Bailloud 1997).
Panel C
To the right of panels A and B, the surface
of the sandstone bed jutting out at the shel-
ter bottom, makes a ninety degree angle,
leaving place for the ensuing panel C (Fig. 4
and 33).
On the upper corner of Panel C, a small hu-
man wielding a stick with stubby arms is
shown as an isolated motif. Men brandish-
ing knobbed sticks in such posture are
iconic of the Hohou style (e.g.: Sivré-1,
Soboro-23, Hohou and Archeï-7 sites).
The two figures attributable to the Hohou
style identified in the shelter, constitute
very limited evidence for paintings refer-
able to the Middle Bovine Period. Consider-
ing the regional context, the scarcity of mid-
dle bovine paintings in Chéïré-1 could be an
original fact, not necessarily explained by
painting decay, as the much better pre-
served figures in Hohou style present in the
gigantic Tarkey-1 and Archeï -7 sites are
scattered throughout large surfaces, never
forming dense compositions such as the
ones typical of the more recent periods.
On the lower left of the panel, traces of un-
decipherable paintings are followed by a
faded warrior in Tamada style, superim-
posed on faint cattle figures. These weath-
ered figures are followed by three running
25
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
dogs and a row of six slender warriors (Fig.
33). Two of the dogs are collared (Fig. 34-
35). They are featured by short pointed
muzzles and ears, thin curled-up tails, re-
calling the modern African Basenji breed of
primitive dogs. A fourth faint dog, evi-
denced by digital enhancement to the right
of the fresh-looking ones, suggests that
older scenes in Tamada style might have
inspired the painter of the scene, still visible
in bright colours.
To the right of the warriors row preceded
by dogs, i.e. towards the shelter exterior,
warriors in Tamada style are painted as iso-
lated figures among red cows with white
horns. Homogeneity of hue and similarity
of details suggest that all these figures are
part of a single herd scene, with the warri-
ors possibly overseeing the cattle. Quite in-
terestingly, within the large gap opened
near the right upper border of the panel by
the natural peeling of the rock, enhance-
ment of digital images reveals a draft of a
bovine figure (Fig. 14-15).
A very noticeable scene, made visible by
digital processing at the outer border of the
panel, shows four “packed” cattle figures,
two enclosed within a fence, and two stand-
ing just outside (Fig. 33).
The lower wall at the shelter bottom
Below the sandstone bed hosting panels A,
B and C, a lesser compact sandstone is ex-
posed down to the shelter floor on a reced-
ing irregular surface, quite difficult to ac-
cess. Deeply weathered paintings form rare-
Fig. 36 – On the recessed surface below panel B, faint cow figures painted in white preserve traces of the original
drawn lines. The cow at the center is about 45 cm wide (DStretch version in LRE colour space).
Alessandro Menardi Noguera & Andrea Bonomo - Bergamo, AARS meeting, 31/05/2014
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fied compositions.
On the left sector of the lower wall, ten cat-
tle figures, distributed in three clusters, are
counted. Five poorly preserved humans of
different size and execution are distin-
guished. One of these, wearing a long
feather in his hair and holding a spear ter-
minating with a large spearhead, is charac-
teristic of the final stage of the Recent
Dromedary Period, described by Bailloud
Fig. 37-38 – Fighting
scene involving two
warriors; dynamic
postures are simply
exceptional in the
T a m a d a s t y l e
(DStretch version in
CRGB colour space).
27
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
(1997) without a formal name for the style.
On the right sector of the lower wall, red
cattle figures are followed by a badly pre-
served scene composed of an animal draft
and eight aligned humans, drawn in a
pretty schematic manner. The ornamented
quiver held by the eighth figure to the right
allows for an attribution of these sketchy
paintings to the Tamada style. This group is
followed to the right by a white cow, a war-
rior and the representation of a compart-
mentalized homestead inhabited by a
woman, a girl and a boy. The homestead is
followed to the right by a woman and a
warrior and a further woman painted in red
(Fig 36). Underneath these figures, three
partially preserved oversized white cow
figures are present. Their body proportions,
posture and especially well-evident draw-
ing lines are distinctive of the Tamada style.
Three more cattle figures, painted in the
conventional red and white colour scheme
Fig. 39 – Panel D; paintings from the ancient and recent dromedary periods are superimposed on paintings in the
Tamada style. (DStretch version in CRGB colour space).
Fig. 40-41 – A camel shown in flying gallop stands
out on the upper right of panel D. The camel tail over-
lap a warrior in the Tamada style with a quiver in the
left hand, painted as a miniature. From the muzzle to
the tail end the camel figure is 70 cm large (DStretch
version in CRGB colour space).
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common to the main panels, adorn the last
portion of smooth surface available at the
extreme right of the lower shelter wall.
The western shelter wall
The first noticeable paintings found on the
western side-wall of the shelter, almost in
the outside, are two faded opposing hu-
mans shown amid cattle and humans
painted as miniatures (Fig. 37-38). Image
enhancement reveals a fighting scene; the
fighter to the right is driving his spear in
the thigh of his adversary. Both warriors are
equipped with rounded white shields; the
internal side of the left warrior’s shield is in
view, exposing the central grip or strap in-
dicated by a thin white trait. This dynamic
scene has no known analogy in the rock art
referable to the Tamada style. Certainly, the
diffusion of rounded shields, not much of
use in hunting or cattle herding, testifies the
real need of a defensive weapon in tribal
warfare.
Panel D
Proceeding more towards the shelter inte-
rior, on the surface of the sandstone bed
constituting panel D, a few cattle figures in
solid white and of uncertain attribution, are
followed by a mounted camel painted in
white and red (Fig. 39 and 40-41). The camel
is shown in flying gallop, adorned with a
two-pole saddle. Streamers are hanging
from the saddle front. The camel rider is
grasping the saddle front pommel with one
hand while holding a spear and a squared
white shield with the other hand. This
mounted camel is a good replica of the
many mounted camels in flying gallop per-
fectly preserved in Archeï-7 (Negro et al.
Fig. 42 – Caravan
scene; two mounted
camels are provided
with saddle blan-
kets, a third un-
mounted camel is
shown with the
reins tightly knotted
to the saddle front
pummel. The camel
to the left, from the
muzzle to the tail, is
18 cm large.
29
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
1996; Choppy et al. 2003). These mounted
camels are peculiar of the Gribi style and
represent the hallmark of the Ancient
Dromedary Period.
On the middle right of panel D, a caravan
scene, composed of two mounted camels
and a saddled un-mounted camel, stands
out (Fig. 42). A rectangular void shape, visi-
ble on the sides of the mounted camels, pos-
sibly represents a saddle blanket. The reins
of the mounted camels are held loose while
the reins of the un-mounted animal are
tightly tied to the front pummel of the sad-
dle. The elements of this well preserved
caravan scene perfectly match the Keymena
style paintings, marking the last stage of the
Ancient Dromedary Period.
A fourth, galloping mounted camel painted
Fig. 43-44 – Warrior hold-
ing a shield and a quiver.
This figure in Tamada style
is 35 cm tall (DStretch ver-
sion in CRGB colour
space).
Fig. 45-46 – Rider on horseback brandishing a stick or a sort of sword. This rider overlaps a bovine figure. To the
right a homestead plenty of food containers is shown (DStretch version in CRGB colour space).
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in red is shown on the lower left of the cara-
van but is too deeply eroded to decipher
details. To the lower right of the caravan
scene, a mounted galloping camel survives
only for its sitting rider.
The ancient and recent dromedary periods
paintings decorating panel D, are superim-
posed on faded humans and cattle figures,
mostly attributable to the Tamada style.
Two faded warrior figures, comparable in
style and details to the figures adorning the
shelter bottom panels, are portrayed in the
space between the white mounted camel
and the caravan scene. The warrior to the
left, holding a spear, is preserved in the up-
per half of the body only (Fig. 39). The bet-
ter preserved one to the right wears a tunic
ornamented by a “V” shaped motif (Fig. 43-
44). He is shown holding a quiver and a
rounded shield decorated with a red cross
Fig. 47-48 – An exceptionally large cattle herd; the most detailed animals are featured by short spiral horns and
wattles hanging from the throat. Long tails prove this herd is made of cattle, not goats (DStretch version in CRGB
colour space).
Fig. 49 – Panel E; a mounted camel, quietly walking, is preceded to the right by two ostriches and a rider on horse-
back painted in red. The camel and the rider are superimposed on herding scenes in the typical Tamada style
(DStretch version in CRGB colour space).
31
The Chéïré-1 painted shelter (Ennedi, Chad)
on a white background.
Past the caravan scene to the right, the
panel is decorated by sparse small-sized
humans including warriors and women,
some tending cattle or depicted as isolated
figures as well as two schematic representa-
tions of inhabited homesteads. These fig-
ures in Tamada style are superimposed by
riders on horseback; two are painted in
white and one is lightly scratched. The
painted two, apparently opposed in a fight,
are brandishing a fighting stick or a sort of
basic throwing knife (Fig. 39 and 45-46).
Just above the first section of panel A, on
the lower surface of a sandstone bed, a flock
of eighteen cattle figures is shown (Fig. 39
and 45-46). Five of them are characterized
by brindled coats. The most detailed ones
are featured by short spiral horns and wat-
tles hanging from the throat of their long
necks. The long tails prove that these ani-
mals are cattle and cannot be confused
Fig. 52 – Photo-mosaic of the barrier boulder (upper) sides exposed toward the shelter exterior. Riders on horse-
back brandishing maces or knives are superimposed on giraffes, which are in their turn superimposed on cattle
figures (DStretch version in CRGB colour space).
Fig. 50-51 – A pair of ostriches running with the beaks open are superimposed on a homestead and on a warrior
armed with a spear (DStretch version in CRGB colour space).
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with goats. In the upper part of the over-
hang more affected by weathering, just
above these large herd, digital processing
revives some faded figures which include
two cows, a running dog and a standing
warrior armed with a spear. The sketchy
style of this warrior allows for an attribu-
tion to the Late Dromedary Period.
Towards the shelter interior, on the lower
bedding surface bounding panel D, an iso-
lated scene composed of six aligned warri-
ors is shown (Fig. 6-7).
Panel E
Panel D terminates with a crest, leaving
space toward the shelter interior to panel E
(Fig. 49). Five men with spears amid a cattle
herd, executed as a miniature scene by few
brush strokes, are the first noticeable paint-
ings beyond the crest. This scene is fol-
lowed to the right by a very rough large hu-
man with a round head, painted in solid
red, appearing quite naïf and fresh.
On the upper middle border of panel E, a
mounted white camel is depicted in a qui-
etly walking gait, facing to the right. Two
bicolored ostrich figures, running with
open beaks, are shown ahead of the camel.
The advancing leg of the leading ostrich is
superimposed on a homestead inhabited by
a woman while the receding leg is superim-
posed on a warrior armed with a spear (Fig.
50-51).
Along the sloping median line of the head-
bed constituting panel E, three cattle herd
scenes are shown. The first one includes
women and warriors, the second one a girl,
the last one a running dog and a present
warrior (Fig. 49).
The last decipherable figure, recognizable
on the upper right of panel E, is a rider on
horseback partially overlapping a faded
cow.
The barrier boulder
The shelter bottom is partially obstructed
by a huge squared boulder forming a sort of
protective barrier (Fig. 2). Its steep faces ex-
posed towards the outside are covered by
faded paintings (Fig. 52). Near the boulder
apex, enhanced digital images reveal two
men sided by a dog and three cattle figures
in Tamada style. Two giraffes are shown
below these paintings. The speckled coat of
the fragmentary one to the left is schema-
tized by cross lines. The second one is very
different in style; it was evidently painted
in solid red with a sort of gross paintbrush,
leaving evident traces of the strokes. This
second giraffe overlaps a faint bovine figure
and is superimposed by a rider on horse-
back, painted in the linear style typical of
the terminal phase of the Recent Drome-
dary Period. Two other similar riders on
horseback, holding the reins with one hand
and brandishing a short weapon with the
other, follow more to the right, along with a
camel. On the lower half of the boulder, a
horse and a fragmentary human are distin-
guished amid undecipherable large red
33
patches. Undecipherable red daubs of ochre
are also noted on the side of the boulder
facing west.
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Acknowledgments
The visit of the Chéïré-I painted shelter was a
dream made true thanks to a team of Saharan
travellers composed by Paolo Carmignoto,
Carlo Freddi, Ettore Grugni, Pascale Hegy and
Michele Soffiantini.
Christian Dupuy and Jean-Loïc Le Quellec are
thankfully acknowledged for their helpful com-
ments on an earlier version of this paper, sub-
mitted to a public web session opened on the
site www.academia.edu during the 20 of March
– 20 of April 2015 period.