Uan Muhuggiag

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Uan Muhuggiag (also: Wan Mughjaj , Uan Mugjaj (possibly as a misspelling of: Muhjaj), Wan Mahugag and Uan Muhuggiag ) is a place in the Libyan Sahara . He is known for his prehistoric rock carvings and for the mummy of a little boy, which the archaeologist and anthropologist Fabrizio Mori found in 1958 in this place (near the oasis town Ghat ) in the Tadrart Acacus , Fessan .

The mummy shows a highly developed mummification technique. It is around 5500 years old and therefore older than all comparable ancient Egyptian mummies. It is exhibited in the Assaraya Alhamra Museum in Tripoli . The mummy comes from a culture of cattle herders who found large grazing grounds at the time because the Sahara was still a fertile savannah . Possible connections to the later Egyptian culture could also be established after dog-headed human figures, similar to Anubis , had been found as rock drawings and on ceramics in the southern Nile valley .

Mori came across a cave during his research, which indicated that it had been used over and over again at different times. There were pictures of people, animals, and cattle on the walls, as well as scratched graffiti. Since the cave floor was sandy and soft enough to dig into, Mori took the opportunity to dig the cave. Just below the surface, he came across a strange bundle which, after careful examination, turned out to be a child's mummy. The child had been carefully wrapped in goatskin. Its entrails were lying next to it and were, presumably for preservation purposes, placed in wild herbs.

It is believed that the child was around three years old at the time of his death. Using the 14 C dating method , the mummy could be determined to be between 5400 and 5600 years old.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Trust for African Rock Art
  2. ↑ Science: Older than Egypt? - Monday, December 21, 1959
  3. ↑ a b c The Wan Muhuggiag Mummy, on display at the Assaraya.

literature

  • Ivan Van Sertima (Ed.): Egypt: Child of Africa . (The Mumm Infantry of Uan Muhuggiag). In: Journal of African civilizations. Volume 5, No. 12. Transaction Books, New Brunswick, USA, 1994. ISBN 978-1-560-00792-0 . Online version
  • Fekri A. Hassan: Droughts, Food, and Culture. Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York 2002, ISBN 0-306-46755-0 , pp. 70 ( Google Books [accessed August 1, 2013]).

Coordinates: 24 ° 54 ′ 0 ″  N , 10 ° 22 ′ 0 ″  E