Places, monuments, and landscape: evidence from the Holocene central Sahara

Contexts with monumental features are common in the Holocene later prehistory of central Sahara. These consist of megalithic' stone monuments with different architectural features and various ceremonial purposes, dated from approximately 6000 uncalibrated years BP onwards. However, some loci of earlier occupation - from early Holocene hunter-gatherers to the first cattle herders (c. 8900-6400 BP) seem to possess those characteristics of social relevance and temporality as to be potentially considered places to be remembered'. In this paper, I analyse a number of case studies from the Tadrart Acacus and surroundings (southwestern Libya), which indicate a marked dichotomy between mountain contexts and the lowlands, with only the former interested by phenomena of monumentality. While far from being a systematic and exhaustive review, the evidence from these central Saharan contexts may contribute to the larger discussion on monumentality in Africa.