ジブチに残る７千年前の岩面彫刻　当時の生活色濃く反映

【アブルマＡＦＰ＝時事】アフリカ北東部・ジブチの砂漠地帯にある、灼熱（しゃくねつ）の太陽が照りつける黒い岩だらけの崖は、遠くから見てもよくわからないが、近くから見ると、そこには約７０００年前のキリンやダチョウ、アンテロープが描かれているのが分かる。（写真は先史時代に描かれたイメージ。ジブチ北部のアブルマのロックアート遺跡で）
　岩の表面を削って描かれたこれらのイメージは、人類発祥の地とされ、考古遺産が数多く存在する「アフリカの角」地域の重要なロックアート（岩面画）の一つだ。
　北部タジュラ州のアブルマロックアート遺跡にある岩面彫刻は、約３キロにわたって点在しており、その数は約９００点に上る。野生動物と対峙（たいじ）したり、牛を追い立てたりする当時の様子が描かれ、先史時代の生活をのぞき見ることができる。
　描かれている動物は現在もアフリカの平原や草原に生息している。ただ、厳しい砂漠が広がり、水や草木が数千年にわたって不足しているジブチにはいない。
　アブルマのガイド、オマル・モハメド・カミルさんは「今のアブルマは、ある意味においては墓地のようです。ここにはもう動物がいません。当時のジブチは森に覆われていたので、こうした動物たちが生息していました」と話す。
　「アブルマでは…私たちは今の文明から少し切り離されています。私たちは先史時代にいて、先史時代を生きているのです」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/08/24-11:08）

From a distance, the black cliffs appear featureless, scorched by a blazing desert sun. But up close, the basalt reveals engravings of giraffe, ostrich and antelope made 7,000 years ago.
These masterful works, etched onto stone in northern Djibouti, are among the most important examples of rock art in the Horn of Africa, a region rich in archaeological heritage and the birthplace of humanity.
Stretching three kilometres (almost two miles), some 900 panels at Abourma depict in wonderful relief prehistoric life in these parts, dramatic scenes of early man confronting wildlife, and droving cows.
But these centuries-old images, rendered by flint onto igneous rock, also offer a valuable record of a bygone era -- and a land drastically reshaped by millennia of climate change.
The wildlife illustrated are still found today on Africa's plains and grasslands, but not in Djibouti, a harsh desert landscape where water and greenery have been scarce for thousands of years.
Today, Abourma is something of a cemetery because we don't have these animals here anymore. At the time, they roamed here because Djibouti was covered in forest, said Omar Mohamed Kamil, a young tour guide who takes visitors to Abourma.
In Abourma... we are a little removed from civilisation. We are in the prehistory, we are living in prehistory.
- Millennia upon millennia -
This treasure trove lies a six-hour drive away from the capital, Djibouti City, then a further one hour on foot over a craggy expanse of boulders.
It would be all-but impossible to find were it not for Ibrahim Dabale Loubak, a camel breeder and Abourma's custodian, who claims to know every stone, every nook and cranny of this rocky massif.
The 41-year-old is from the Afar community, a historically nomadic people who wandered the arid fringes of Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and have known about the carvings for generations.
Our grandfathers told our fathers and then our fathers told it to us, said Loubak, a traditional turban and cloth skirt cladding his slim figure.
Despite this local wisdom -- and roughly 70 centuries of existence -- Abourma was not visited by archaeologists until 2005.
It was Loubak who guided the first French team to the site, trailed by a caravan of camels bringing food, sleeping quarters, and other essential equipment including a generator for the remote investigation.
Archaeologist Benoit Poisblaud, who was part of the team, still evokes with wonder the extraordinary site, not found anywhere else in the region that he studied as a 25-year-old researcher.
Abourma is a continuity, over several millennia, of passages, engravings, made by very different people: hunters, pastoralists, and those after... Thousands upon thousands of representations, he said.
The oldest carvings predate the birth of Christ by 5,000 years, while newer examples were painted around two millenia ago, he said.
- Desert custodians -
Africa boasts a wealth of archaeological sites, but few, especially rock art, have been fully studied, said Emmanuel Ndiema, head of archaeology at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi.
Up to now, as we speak, we still get reports about sites here in Kenya, not even elsewhere, he said, estimating that just 10-20 percent of archaeological troves in sub-Saharan Africa had been properly researched.
This risks the universal value and preservation of these finds, experts say, which if nurtured could in time attract tourists and history buffs, generating much-needed government revenue.
However, greater visibility comes with its own potential cost for heritage.
Abourma, for example, receives so few visitors there are no fences, barricades or rules or any kind for those who make the journey to this vast, hidden-away expanse.
Loubak, however, is not too worried about threats to these millennia-old artworks, with eyes everywhere reporting the slightest disturbances or outsider presence.
Nobody can come here without my knowledge, he said.