L'Homme et les fauves dans le Haut Atlas marocain

The rock engravings of the Moroccan High Atlas represent a large number of domesticated oxen as well as metal weapons (daggers, halberds, points), and a rich array of wild animals. The image of man completes the inventory. Within the theme of the conference "Animaux peints et gravés : de la forme au signe" we examine the question of the connection which could possibly be extrapolated from the images of man with his weapons on the one hand and the images of man confronting wild animals on the other. This connection seems to reflect new behaviour, linked to the mastery of metallurgy and to the more and more settled life of the shepherds who migrated from the surrounding plains of the Atlas to summer pastures in the mountains. The simple and anecdotic representation of hunting activities would thus have been transcended, leading towards a more and more pronounced symbolisation, an indication of new times, far from the Saharan "ambiance".