Cattle in the desert. Cases beyond common certainties (Tibesti, Borku, Ennedi)

A Contemporary Occurrence in the Context of Rock Engravings (Tibesti, Borku, Ennedi)

Résumé

In North Borku, indicine cattle still lives in the hyper-arid desert where, according to common understanding, cattle keeping is not anymore possible. Starting from this fact, the author documents engravings of cattle from Borku, the Ennedi and the Tibesti, which were presumably executed after the ‘cattle period’ in Saharan rock art, i.e. at a moment, when it was already too dry for cattle husbandry. Favourable environments, i.e. mountain valleys or places with a groundwater level close to the surface, allowed cattle to be kept in many places, even when the Sahara has dried out. In several engravings documented, the humps of cattle, as they occur in zebu and its hybrids, are repeatedly noticeable. However, some of these engravings were almost certainly made before 700 CE, a moment which, according to recent genetic studies, marks the beginning migration of zebu heritage from the East African coast westwards. There are two possible explanations: either these humped cattle go back to a much more ancient zebu introduction, or they show aurochs ancestry.