El-Ghoula : two new sites of Libyco-Berber inscriptions in the Jebel Bani (Morocco)
le géoparc du jbel bani - tata

El-Ghoula : two new sites of Libyco-Berber inscriptions in the Jebel Bani (Morocco)

Complément à l'inventaire des inscriptions libyco-berbères du Maroc; avec de nouveaux documents gravés ou incisés, repérés dans le Jebel Bani. L'un panneaux associe par deux fois une séquence composée de l'ancien et du nouveau signe pour /W/.

Addition to the inventory of Moroccan Libyco-Berber inscriptions, with new engraved or incised documents located in the Jebel Bani. One of the panels associa- tes twice a sequence composed of the old and the new signs for /W/.

Both sites are situated next to a very important access from the plains of Oued el Faija to the plateau of Jebel Bani, fourteen kilometres S-E of the small village of Bou er-Rbi.

El-Ghoula 1

This new discovery is situated amongst the dozens of rock art panels of the well known site (Simoneau 1977: No. 150060) very close to the bottom of the valley, six kilometres South of the well of Bir Lghoula.

El-Ghoula 1-1

A short vertical line consisting of five signs, the second one (a triangle) is not usual in Libyco-Berber alphabets (fig. 1). Transliteration: S *YHT

El-Ghoula 2

The second site is situated on a mountain slope with thousands of boulders; the incised boulder lies some meters next to the track which leads to the plateau. It seems that this new site was not known from Simo- neau 1977.

El-goula 2-1

This panel (fig. 2) looks very similar to a panel documented at Ait Ouazik. In both cases there are groups of small dots which possibly do not belong to the inscriptions.

In both cases there are cartouches which frame a part of the inscriptions -the only occurrences of this phenomenon in the whole of Morocco. The surface of the boulder is damaged partly by erosion and natural splintering. The lines are thin and shallow. No line seems to be completely intact.

El-Ghoula 2-2

The inscriptions are incised on two sides of the boulder. The rock surface is very smooth but crisscrossed with several cracks.

This panel shows a really enigmatic mixture of signs (fig. 3):

-a sequence of three H;

-two examples of the Tifinagh sign for /k/ (:);

-two examples of the sequence: ll : i.e. the ancient sign for /w/ and the Tifinagh sign for /w/.