New rock art discovered in the Atbai Desert of Eastern Sudan tells a tale of the ‘green Sahara’. Over 4,000 years old, the images found depict cattle in groups or as part of a herd. But what are cows doing in a desert? And what does this discovery teach us about human societies from so long ago?

Dr Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University, is a leader of the Atbai Survey Project which discovered the rock art sites. He joined 2SER today to talk more about how people were affected by climate change in the Sahara thousands of years ago, and the significance of the artworks.