The earliest known period of art in the Sahara is also sometimes known as the 'Large Wild Fauna Period'. This period is characterized by large and sometimes life-size engravings of elephant, rhino, hippo, crocodile, giraffe and buffalo which lived here when the Sahara was green and fertile. The images (always engravings) are found over a huge area of the Central Sahara.

Humans are normally shown as tiny figures dwarfed by the immensity of these animals and are often shown holding boomerangs or throwing sticks, clubs, axes or bows. Depictions of hippo, crocodile and even fish are fairly common during this period but are not found in later periods of Saharan art.