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Courtesy of CIRSA, University of Rome

During Fezzan’s Mesolithic period (10,000–6,000 B.C.), ancient artists produced paintings in the “round heads” style. In the 1950s, a team from the University of Rome, headed by rock-art specialist Fabrizio Mori, began to study and document the hundreds of paintings in the Tadrart Akakus mountains. These paintings continue to attract interest: David Coulson of the Getty Conservation Institute, in Los Angeles, is photographing all of Africa’s ancient rock art—much of which has been included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites.