Art, Landscape and Settlement in the Oukaïmeden Valley, (High Atlas). A Research Project

Abstract

Main objectives of the project and principal results of field campaigns are summarized. Our hypothesis was that the valley was occupied not before the Mid Holocene, associated to environmental changes caused by the displacement of the summer monsoon and the onset of more arid conditions. Also that it was the value of bovines as mobile wealth, the reason behind the first summer trips to Oukaïmeden, profiting of snow melting and wet pastures in the valley. The control of critical resources as summer pastures could be underlying into the act of carving rock art.