Jabbaren, Tassili n'Ajjer — the 'great Martian god'

OVERVIEW

Tassili n'Ajjer, a sandstone plateau in south-east Algeria, holds some of the oldest and largest rock paintings in Africa — one human figure over five metres tall — from the Archaic, Round Head (c. 7550–5050 BC), Pastoral, Horse and Camel periods, made when the Sahara was green.

HISTORY

French legionnaires' sketches, notably Lt Charles Brenans's in the 1930s, brought the paintings to the West; the archaeologist Henri Lhote returned in 1956–57, 1959, 1962 and 1970. In The Search for the Tassili Frescoes (1958) Lhote publicised the idea that the humanoid figures represented space aliens, named one large figure 'Jabbaren' and called it the 'great Martian god'. The press seized on it and Erich von Däniken later used it as evidence for ancient astronauts.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Mainstream scholars regard the 'Martian god' and the other figures as ordinary people in ritual masks and costumes, painted by Neolithic hunters some 6,000–8,000 years ago. In 2003 the anthropologist Jeremy Keenan concluded that many of Lhote's claims were misleading, that 'a number of the paintings were faked', that the copying was full of errors, and that brightening the paintings for tracing damaged their colours beyond repair. Separately, Giorgio Samorini and Terence McKenna read 'mushroom' figures here as evidence of ritual psilocybin use — disputed by Brian Akers. Filed UNVETTED.

VISITING

Jabbaren is in the Tassili n'Ajjer plateau of south-east Algeria, in the Djanet district. Visiting arrangements are not recorded in the sources.