The cave of Uan Muhuggiag located in the Acacus massif of the central Saharan desert of Libya, contains three phases levels of human occupation and rock art.
The most recent occupation of the site is dated to about 3400 BC and it contains grindstones and a short-horned cattle skull, stamped pottery and stone tools. Two levels below had wood charcoal radiocarbon dated to 7823 +/- 95 cal BP and 7550+/-120 cal BP. The oldest level was marked by two stone slabs covering a human burial.
Two donkey bones were recovered from Uan Muhuggiag, a mandible and a trapezoid, dated to 3160-2975 cal BP. DNA from these bones match an historic Nubian wild ass, but appear to be domesticated based on the size.
The cave walls are decorated with paintings, which were buried by the archaeological deposits in the cave, and include pictures of people, dogs, hippos, and cattle.
Uan Muhuggiag was excavated by Italian archaeologist Fabrizio Mori in the 1960s, at the time providing evidence for early cattle domestication in Libya.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guide to Prehistoric Cave Art and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Garcea, Elena A. A. 1995 New investigations in the Tadrart Acacus, Libyan Sahara. Nyame Akuma 44:35-27.
Kimura B et al. 2010. Ancient DNA from Nubian and Somali wild ass provides insights into donkey ancestry and domestication. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: (online pre-publish).
Minozzi, Simona, et al. 2001. Nonalimentary tooth use in prehistory: An example from early Holocene in Central Sahara (Uan Muhuggiag, Tadrart Acacus, Libya). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 120(3):225-232.
