Wadi Mathendous is a prehistoric archaeological site in the Mesak Settafet escarpment, located in the southwestern Fezzan region in Libya. It contains many

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s of figures and objects, as well as other

rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

. The chiseled animals include elephants,

giraffe The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, ''Giraffa camelopardalis ...

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocen ...

, wildcats, and

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...

s. These rock engravings and

cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

s have been dated to the Neolithic period, around 8,000 years ago.

On postage stamps

The

General Posts and Telecommunications Company The General Posts and Telecommunications Company (GPTC) is the state-owned organisation responsible for overseeing all postal and telecommunication services in Libya. This includes fixed telephony, satellite communications, mobile telephony (in pa ...

of the Libyan government at the time, dedicated an issue of postage stamps to the rock engravings of Wadi Mathendous. The issue is made of five stamps and was released in 1978, January 1st (ref.

Scott catalogue The Scott catalogue of postage stamps, published by Scott Publishing Company, now a subsidiary of Amos Media, is updated annually and lists all the stamps of the world that its editors recognize as issued for postal purposes. It is published in f ...

n.711-715 -

Michel catalogue The Michel catalog (''MICHEL-Briefmarken-Katalog'') is the largest and best-known stamp catalog in the German-speaking world. First published in 1910, it has become an important reference work for philately, with information not available in ...

n.624-628).Libyan Stamps online
/ref>

References

Saharan rock art Archaeological sites in Libya Fezzan {{libya-geo-stub

On postage stamps

See also

References