Conditions Of Heritage In The Urban Environments Of Ahaggar (Anthropological Approach)

Abstract

The Ahaggar region has known successive settlement manifestations dating back to the Stone Age. Cultures over time have left many archaeological evidences indicating the transition from nomadic patterns to stability based on the remains of ancient buildings concurrent with the Islamic era. This ended with the establishment of the first urban centers that turned into growing cities, like the city of Tamanrasset, which became its capital. Various sources confirmed the existence of an old circle of mixing of peoples in Ahaggar before the recent influx during and after the era of French occupation. When historical cities were formed and their heritage was revealed, the heritage[1] witnessed varying conditions of preservation as a result of its interaction with the inhabitants of the young city of Tamanrasset, especially after Tamanrasset witnessed a cultural influx and social transformations that continued harshly after the independence of Algeria to the beginning of the millennium from various regions of deep Africa.

The subject of this study deals with the emergence of Ahaggar’s urban centers and the city of Tamanrasset. It aims to present the conditions of cultural influx, social transformations, and the conditions of preserving cultural and material heritage within the space of cities and their suburbs, as it appears in positive and negative manifestations within one of the current issues on the local, national, and international levels. This important topic falls within the research in the developments of the anthropological peculiarity affecting the heritage of Algerian cities. The study procedures are based on the descriptive, historical, and analytical approach that provided results related to the variance of the stages of the emergence and development of Ahaggar centers and the city of Tamanrasset associated with the positive internal influx on its heritage contrary to the negative foreign influx.