News on the rock art of the central Saharan massifs: the TadrartAkakus and the Messak Settafet (Libyan Fezzan).

The contribution deals with the recent researches of the italo –libyan joint mission, directed by S.di Lernia, on the rock art of the Tadrart Akakus and the Messak Settafet. The rich repertory of the sites with paintings and engravings represents, as we know, one of the most important world cultural heritages, which illustrates the symbolic sphere of the hunting-gathering and pastoralists communities inhabiting the central Sahara in prehistoric times. The increasing knowledge of the evidences shows the complex connections between the Akakus and the Messak, in general considered as very different “provinces”, as concerns the style, the techniques and the iconography of the pastoral art.