Upper Senegal and Niger, Vol. 2

that can be concluded with any reason. One may still hope that methodically executed excavations will one day reveal, at least in part, the origin of these Lobi ruins. For the moment, they remain an unexplained mystery and provide us with no information.

As for the inscriptions recorded in the Upper Senegal-Niger, they do not provide any indication of any importance, at least concerning the ancient era. The various drawings and signs discovered in the caves have not yet been explained. Most, moreover, resemble the ornamental drawings and signs traced today on the walls of dwellings and on certain rocks. They may be the work, not of ancient troglodytes, but of modern Sudanese natives, especially hunters, who take refuge in these caves to sleep or shelter from the rain and who may have decorated them to relieve their temporary idleness. Others seem to have a religious origin and meaning, but it is absolutely impossible to date them. Nothing even proves that these drawings are contemporary with the stone objects found in some of these caves.

Inscriptions in Tifinarh Libyco-Berber script are rare, most often indecipherable, and do not bear any date. Moreover, none have been encountered so far in the Sudan proper. They are localized to the countries that the Berbers occupy or have occupied (Mauritania, the Sudanese Sahara, and especially the Sahara proper) (1).

Arab inscriptions are more numerous. In particular, a considerable quantity has been found at Bentia, at Gao, and at other neighboring points on the Niger. All those that have been deciphered are funerary inscriptions, engraved on

(1) If the Arab inscriptions found in the Sudan are necessarily recent, at least relatively, it is not inevitably the same for inscriptions in Tifinarh. This alphabet was indeed in use as early as 1500 B.C., as evidenced by discoveries made at Knossos, where characters similar to Tifinarh were reportedly found used in the accounting records of the scribes of King Minos.