ORIGINAL ARTICLE Regional Variation of the Rock Art of Ethiopia: a Geological Perspective Agazi Negash # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Rock art in Ethiopia is concentrated in the north, east, south, and south-central part of the country. Previous investigations focused on description and sty- listic distribution of the art. A closer look at the mode of rendering the art allows grouping sites into three distinct assemblages: the northern assemblage of paintings and engravings, the eastern and southern assemblage of paintings, and the south-central assemblage of carvings. These paintings/engravings/carvings are executed most- ly on sedimentary rocks (sandstone or limestone), but also on granite. The rock type on which art is depicted is not the most important factor for the type represented. Other avenues must be looked into to explain differ- ences in the types of rock art distribution, as the striking inter-regional difference in rendering the rock art might epitomize specific culture areas. Résumé L ’art rupestre en Ethiopie est. principalement concentré dans le nord, l’est., le sud et le centre-sud du pays. Des recherches antérieures portaient sur la descrip- tion et la distribution stylistique de l’art. Un regard plus attentif sur le mode de rendu de l’art permet de les regrouper en trois assemblages distincts: l’assemblage nord des peintures et des gravures, l’assemblage oriental et sud des peintures et l’assemblage central-sud des sculp- tures. Ces peintures / gravures / sculpture sont exécutées sur grès ou le calcaire et rarement sur le granit. Le type de roche sur lequel ces art rupestres sont représentés n’est. pas le facteur le plus important pour le type d’art rupestre représenté. D’autres approches doivent être examinées pour expliquer les différences dans la distribution des types d’ art rupestre, car la frappante différence interrégionale dans la représentation de l’art rupestre pourrait incarner une zone de culture spécifique. Keywords Rock art . Geology . Culture area . Ethiopia Introduction Rock art, although restricted to the Later Stone Age/ Neolithic (in Ethiopia), and not found everywhere, is an informative source of evidence in reconstruction of the distribution of animals and their habitats, in addition to providing clues to human subsistence patterns. In the case of Ethiopia, it is also important in identifying the timing of the introduction of animal domesticates, as it is generally accepted that domestic livestock were intro- duced from elsewhere. Rock art in Ethiopia is mainly concentrated in the north, south, south-central and eastern parts of the coun- try (Fig. 1). From its inception, rock art research in Ethiopia was centered on description, stylistic distribu- tion and affinity with other sites, and on developing a relative chronology or culture history. Investigators fo- cused on documenting rock art sites, assigning them with tentative dates and looking for stylistic similarities elsewhere, whether in Arabia or the Sahara (Breuil 1934; Clark 1954; Graziosi 1964a, b; Cervicek 1979). Afr Archaeol Rev https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-018-9291-5 A. Negash (*) Paleoanthropology and Paleoenvironment Program, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P. O. Box 80031, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia e-mail: agazi.negash@aau.edu.et