565

Site
Site name
RA01/71
Toponym(s) of the site

Kessan I-II

Description

A rock shelter known as Kessan I-II located along the left bank of the Wadi Kessan (a left branch of the Wadi Teshuinat) about 100 meters northeast of Site ID 564. The site was discovered by Mori in the 1950s and partially reproduced on two canvases in the Mori Collection. On the shelter’s vault there are several paintings made nearly invisible by natural and anthropogenic activities. As with many other sites, the paintings were reproduced through wetting and then covered with thermoplastic resin (Paraloid) as a means of conservation. The first scene represents a finely painted red and white human with a cow. On the right, the second scene shows several small couples of dark red humans. The third composition includes a palimpsest of overlapping red motifs with two cattle, a giraffe, a goat, and three Uan Amil-type human figures in progressing toward the left. Several very pale red paintings representing a pastoral scene were added in recent times along the margins of the latter scene.