Other examples of ancient adornment are evident in 6,000 year old rock paintings from Tassili n'Ajer (a plateau approximately 900 miles southeast of Algiers in the Sahara Desert—see map). These ancient paintings, reproduced with extreme care by a group of ethnologists known as the Mission Lhote (after Henri Lhote, who found the paintings in 1956), offer wonderful examples of ancient African beauty. One of the paintings (see illustration) shows three women mounted on horned oxen. They wear long, decorative capes and large elaborate hairstyles. Their hair appears to have been curled, gathered in varying types of chignons and held in place by shells or some other instruments.

In the Bronze Age, beauty took on new, aggressive dimensions. For example, Nefertiti, that beauty goddess from the 14th c. B.C., wasn't exactly a natural beauty. Sure, good genes help, but a little primping, preening and cranial molding don't hurt either. Some historians believe that Nefertiti's head (see photo next page) was bound as a child in order to achieve the highly-prized, elongated shape that was popular with Egyptians at that time. This practice was also popular thousands of years ago with the Mayas in Central America, and can still be seen today in some remote areas of Africa (see Not Weird, Just Different...).

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Above: Map indicating Tassili n'Ajer region in Africa.

Above: Detail from a rock painting in the Tassili n'Ajer region (author's illus.)

Left: Nefertiti, who many believe had her cranium bound at birth to elongate its shape. (2)