One surviving bit of the culture of the last wet era in Saharan history, from The Big Picture (click to see the "big picture," or go here to see a whole collection of Saharan archaeology pics.)
One surviving bit of the culture of the last wet era in Saharan history, from The Big Picture (click to see the "big picture," or go here to see a whole collection of Saharan archaeology pics.)
The pictures are fantastic. Knowing the difficulties of working in the region, I am amazed at the thoroughness and professionalism that was exercised at the Gobero site. No Saharan site that I know of equals the importance of this one (cemetary sites from any age are extremely rare in the Sahara). The work opens a window to two distinct pluvial eras (7700–6200 B.C.E. and 5200–2500 B.C.E.)when the central Sahara supported dense fishing-hunting-gathering cultures exploiting lakeside sites.
ReplyDeleteThe paper on the dig is exemplary:
Sereno PC, Garcea EAA, Jousse H, Stojanowski CM, Saliège J, et al. 2008 Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change. PLoS ONE 3(8): e2995 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002995
Thanks Dr. Muhlberger for posting this link! I can't get over how well preserved many of the skeletons are!
ReplyDeleteThank you again for posting this!