A part of the history of Kabylia: The stele of the horseman Abizar

KABYLIA

Unlike Arab history, which is a crude and recent improvisation and its language which is only an Esperanto of the end of the middle ages, the history of Kabylia shows linguistic continuity which dates back several millennia before our era; the perpetual use of systems of signs and symbols from Protohistory:

ⵣ ⴻⴰⵓⵔⵙⵀⴱⵕ ⵢⵉⵏⵜⵄⵖⴼ
ⴷⵠⴸⵝⴽⵊⴳⴵⴴⵅⵡⵎⵇⴿⴽⵟⴹ

Abizar, in Kabylia, is famous for its stele called Amnay n Ubizar ⵎⵏⵢ ⵏ ⵡⵓⵠⵉⵣⵔ (the horseman of Abizar). A stone about one meter in diameter, representing a horseman armed with a shield, a javelin (sometimes two) and an object in the left hand and carrying a pointed beard.  It was found in this Kabylian village in 1858, by Henri Aucapitaine, known as Baron Aucapitaine, who baptized it with the name of the village. The stele is the first of a long series found in the Sebaou basin in Kabylia. Legend tells us that Prince Abizar, 2000 BC, had made four identical stelae to delimit his territory.

The shield is an important part of arming African soldiers. At the beginning of the first century, Roman authors describe it small and round (Strabo). Herodotus specifies that the Ma Kae tribe, living on the Lybian Coast, cover their shields with ostrich leather, or elephant leather according to Orose, whose skin is taut and hardened. In the 4th century, elephants are still found in the provinces of Mauretania (North Africa) and Ostriches in the Atlas.