Julian Delphiki
Aug 16, 2008, 05:44 PM
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14536-stone-age-mass-graves-reveal-green-sahara.html
One of the driest deserts in the world, the Saharan Tenere Desert, hosted at least two flourishing lakeside populations during the Stone Age, a discovery of the largest graveyard from the era reveals.
The archaeological site in Niger, called Gobero, was discovered by Paul Sereno at the University of Chicago, during a dinosaur-hunting expedition. It had been used as a burial site by two very different populations during the millennia when the Sahara was lush.
Careful examination of 67 graves - a third of the 200 plots on the site - has uncovered unprecedented details about the lifestyles of the people who inhabited the green Stone Age "desert", says Sereno.
"The first people who used the Gobero cemetery were Kiffian, hunter-gatherers who grew up to two metres tall," says Elena Garcea of the University of Cassino in Italy and one of the scientists on the team. The large stature of the Kiffian suggests that food was plentiful during their time in Gobero, 10,000 to 8,000 years ago.
Harpoon tips found near the graves suggest that the Kiffian were skilled hunters, and the discovery of the bones of many large savannah animals in the same area suggest that they lived on the shores of the lake.
All traces of the Kiffian vanish abruptly around 8,000 years ago, when the Sahara became very dry for a thousand years.
When the rains returned, a different population, the Tenerians, who were of a shorter and more gracile build, based themselves at this site. Bones and artefacts dated to the Tenerian episode suggest that these people herded cattle and hunted fish and wildlife with tools that required less physical strength than those of the Kiffian.
"The most amazing find so far is a grave with a female and two children hugging each other. They were carefully arranged in this position. This strongly indicated they had spiritual beliefs and cared for their dead," says Garcea.
The researchers hope that by studying the remaining graves and natural remains at the site, they will obtain a more detailed picture of Stone Age lifestyle - including how they adapted to climate change.
"We can learn a lot about how humans adapt to dramatic climate change from these remains. The environment changed a lot on several occasions over a relatively short time, and we can read this unique record to reconstruct how people coped," says Garcea.
It seems that Kiffian didn't adapt too well. Big people, I wonder if they have found any DNA to make comparisons for finding out if they have descendants still alive.
More detailed stuff (http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002995) (i didn't have time to read this yet)
One of the driest deserts in the world, the Saharan Tenere Desert, hosted at least two flourishing lakeside populations during the Stone Age, a discovery of the largest graveyard from the era reveals.
The archaeological site in Niger, called Gobero, was discovered by Paul Sereno at the University of Chicago, during a dinosaur-hunting expedition. It had been used as a burial site by two very different populations during the millennia when the Sahara was lush.
Careful examination of 67 graves - a third of the 200 plots on the site - has uncovered unprecedented details about the lifestyles of the people who inhabited the green Stone Age "desert", says Sereno.
"The first people who used the Gobero cemetery were Kiffian, hunter-gatherers who grew up to two metres tall," says Elena Garcea of the University of Cassino in Italy and one of the scientists on the team. The large stature of the Kiffian suggests that food was plentiful during their time in Gobero, 10,000 to 8,000 years ago.
Harpoon tips found near the graves suggest that the Kiffian were skilled hunters, and the discovery of the bones of many large savannah animals in the same area suggest that they lived on the shores of the lake.
All traces of the Kiffian vanish abruptly around 8,000 years ago, when the Sahara became very dry for a thousand years.
When the rains returned, a different population, the Tenerians, who were of a shorter and more gracile build, based themselves at this site. Bones and artefacts dated to the Tenerian episode suggest that these people herded cattle and hunted fish and wildlife with tools that required less physical strength than those of the Kiffian.
"The most amazing find so far is a grave with a female and two children hugging each other. They were carefully arranged in this position. This strongly indicated they had spiritual beliefs and cared for their dead," says Garcea.
The researchers hope that by studying the remaining graves and natural remains at the site, they will obtain a more detailed picture of Stone Age lifestyle - including how they adapted to climate change.
"We can learn a lot about how humans adapt to dramatic climate change from these remains. The environment changed a lot on several occasions over a relatively short time, and we can read this unique record to reconstruct how people coped," says Garcea.
It seems that Kiffian didn't adapt too well. Big people, I wonder if they have found any DNA to make comparisons for finding out if they have descendants still alive.
More detailed stuff (http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002995) (i didn't have time to read this yet)