An Engraved Landscape is a contextual analysis of a substantial new corpus of engravings from the Wadi al-Ajal, situated in the Central Saharan region of south west Libya. The wadi is renowned as the heartland of the Garamantian civilization, which emerged from local mobile Pastoral communities in the 1st millennium BC, and dominated trans-Saharan trade and politics for over a thousand years. Extensive archaeological and palaeoenvironmental investigations in recent years have provided detailed insight into the later prehistory and protohistory of the wadi and surrounding areas. However, prior to the fieldwork detailed in this work, only a handful of carvings had been recorded in the wadi. This work is based on systematic survey, conducted between 2004 and 2009, which recorded around 2,500 previously unknown or unpublished engraved and inscribed rock surfaces. All forms of engraving, whether figurative or surface markings, were viewed as significant residues of human interaction with the rock surface and were recorded. The resulting database provides an opportunity to analyze the engravings in relation to their changing physical and cultural contexts, and the discussion offers a fresh interpretation of Saharan rock art based on this substantial new evidence. An Engraved Landscape also captures in detail a unique heritage resource that is currently inaccessible and threatened. This record of the fragile engravings provides an important source of information for researchers and students.

The vast spaces of the Karoo abound with images pecked, incised or engraved onto rock surfaces. These landscape markings, generally known simply as ‘rock engravings’, were created in the pre-colonial period by San hunter-gatherers who roamed this land in search of sustenance and water. Their engravings most commonly (though not always) depict animals such as eland, quagga or elephant, and reflect, in fascinating and unusual ways, the relationship of the San to the harsh environment of the Karoo. San Rock Engravings explores the visual legacy of these ancient artists, the signs they left on the land and the meanings that could be attached to them. Neil Rusch’s superb photographs, complemented by John Parkington’s thought-provoking text, bring to life these enigmatic markings and the way of life of their creators. Neil Rusch is an independent publisher, writer and photographer. He entered publishing after studying journalism at Rhodes University and later became the editor of SA Yachting magazine. He has produced The Mantis, the Eland and the Hunter and other books in the Follow the San series for the Krakadouw Trust and the Living Landscape Project. John Parkington is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town, and has had a lifelong research interest in southern African hunters and gatherers. He has published a number of academic papers and books on the subject and is involved in the Living Landscape Project in Clanwilliam.

In the early sixteenth century, Albrecht Altdorfer promoted landscape from its traditional role as background to its new place as the focal point of a picture. His paintings, drawings, and etchings appeared almost without warning and mysteriously disappeared from view just as suddenly. In Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape, Christopher S. Wood shows how Altdorfer transformed what had been the mere setting for sacred and historical figures into a principal venue for stylish draftsmanship and idiosyncratic painterly effects. At the same time, his landscapes offered a densely textured interpretation of that quintessentially German locus—the forest interior. This revised and expanded second edition contains a new introduction, revised bibliography, and fifteen additional illustrations.