Editorial preface

This volume is a catalogue of the Tadrart Acacus rock art sites recorded by the Libyan-Italian Mission of the Department of Antiquities of Tripoli and the University of Rome “La Sapienza” until 2011. The Atlas is one of the cornerstones of the three-year project Ancient Saharan Art- Decoding Art through Theoretically-sounded Archive (ASArt-DATA - 2019-2021), funded by the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme of the European Union under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant (agreement 795744). The project proposed a new theoretical and methodological approach to rock art through an integrated study combining archaeology, anthropology, visual studies, digital humanities, and cultural resource management. Its specific objectives include focused archaeological research of the rock art produced by Pastoral Neolithic groups, a broad interest in the role of rock art in archaeological and anthropological research, and specific attention to the dissemination and management of the rock art heritage (www.asartdata.eu). The rationale of the Atlas is to create a systematic dataset of the Tadrart Acacus rock art sites and their archaeological contexts as a sound basis for the understanding, dissemination, management, and specific scientific investigations of the rock art of the Saharan region. The book’s structure reflects this rationale, with several chapters discussing critical topics and the catalogue of sites.