Beginnings of pastoralism and cultivation in north-west Africa and the Sahara: origins of the Berbers

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Abstract
Africa is truly Mediterranean only along its northern coastal fringe. During Palaeolithic times, similar or comparable lithic industries are found throughout both the countries of the Maghrib and the regions which today are desert. In North Africa and the immediately adjacent peripheral zone of the Sahara two great cultural traditions, namely Iberomaurusian and Capsian, succeeded one another without, however, occupying identical areas. The oldest phases of the Saharan-Sudanese Neolithic has led to an examination of the origins of agriculture, so that of the pastoral phase, chiefly known from the rock-art style referred to as Bovidian should begin with an analysis of the origins of animal domestication in the Sahara. There are a considerable number of paintings of the pastoral or Bovidian phase in the Tassili n'Ajjer and also in Ennedi, Tibesti and Tefedest in the northern Ahaggar.