580

Site
Site name
RA01/55
Toponym(s) of the site

Ghrub I

Description

A famous cave located on the left bank of the middle course of the Wadi Teshuinat, known as Ghrub I. The site was one of Mori’s first discoveries in the 1950s and it has been reproduced on a synoptic canvas together with motifs from Ghrub II (Site ID 592) and Ti-n-Abrukin (Site ID 578). The cave is located about 200 meters above the wadi and contains seven panels of Round Heads anthropomorphic and zoomorphic paintings and petroglyphs. A few deeply carved Tifinagh characters were added in recent times. Two deeply carved and highly eroded petroglyphs representing ichthyomorphic figures are visible on both sides of the cave entrance (Panels 1 and 7). The rest of the artworks are located exclusively on the left side of the cave. The best-known paintings are three red contour anthropomorphic figures with large feet and hands showing fingers and toes located on two adjacent vertical walls (Panels 2 and 3). One is isolated on the left wall (Panel 2) while the pair appears on the right wall (Panel 3). The head and upper portion of a Round Heads human, smaller in size and fully painted in red, are visible below the pair (Panel 3). About eight meters to the left, Panel 4 contains two fully red Round Heads humans: one is standing and the other appears in movement. The figures were damaged by a few Tifinagh characters and other unrecognizable carvings; to their left is a fully red zoomorphic figure possibly representing a warthog (Panel 5). The right-most painted motif is an unrecognizable oval shape with several red lines (Panel 6). A few other scattered traces of red are scarcely visible. The state of conservation is critical owing to previous recording and conservation attempts that wetted the paintings, traced them with graphite, and covered them with thermoplastic resin (Paraloid).