Groovy23
Environmentalist
Reged: 09/08/06
Posts: 1230
Loc: Central London, UK.
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A prehistoric graveyard has been unearthed in the Sahara desert, revealing Stone Age people who lived there when the land was wet and green. The site is in Niger in the Tenere desert, an intensely dry quarter of the Sahara. Millennia ago it was grassland, where big game roamed and fish swam in huge lakes and rivers. Animal bones scattered all over the area were from wildlife common today in the Serengeti in Tanzania, such as elephants, giraffes and warthogs. Stone Age people known as the Kiffian hunted and fished there 10,000 years ago, and their remains reveal big, powerful people who grew up to 1.8m (6ft) tall, and who must have had a good diet to grow so big.
But 8,000 years ago the Kiffian vanished during a dry period. When the monsoons returned the rains were less plentiful and another tribe, the Tenerians, colonised the area. These were much shorter and less muscular people, who seem to have herded cattle. Then 4,500 years ago the Tenerians also disappeared, possibly in only a few decades, marking the end of human settlement in the desert.
The dramatic swing in the Sahara’s climate, from grassland to desert, was due to a change in the Earth’s orbit. As the Earth spins on its axis, it slowly wobbles in a circle like a spinning top. Thousands of years ago, that wobble strengthened the solar energy during the summer in the northern hemisphere and helped to drag monsoon rains further north. As the Earth’s spin gradually tilted back thousands of years later, the monsoons weakened, and the Sahara became drier, until eventually it turned to desert and left the Stone Age tribes in dire trouble.
Source: Times Online
Thanks to Felippo for finding the images!
PS Felippo, your PM inbox is full! 
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Hill
Master Guide
Reged: 10/31/04
Posts: 9230
Loc: Southern California
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You scooped me on this one Mr Groovy. It's quite a story. Here is a link another source I was planning to use, the Los Angeles Times. It includes a few more images and a national geographic video. BTW, my National Geographic just came in the mail today and it has great coverage. Here is a link to their on line coverage.
I'm working on a post about Paul Sereno's dinosaur discoveries in the Sahara. As the article says, he was searching for more dinosaurs when he came across this find of humans in a green Sahara 8,000 to 11,000 years ago.
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Diane9247
Humanitarian
Reged: 01/15/07
Posts: 1921
Loc: Californian in Oregon
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Groovy - Glad to see this post! I thoroughly enjoyed this when I saw it in the paper. Regarding the two skulls on the bottom, which is Kiffian and which Tenerian? I'm guessing the more ape-looking one is the older Kiffian example. I wonder what the average lifespan was - anything about that in your NG, Hill?
Diane
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Groovy23
Environmentalist
Reged: 09/08/06
Posts: 1230
Loc: Central London, UK.
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Hi Hill,
Thanks a lot, I'm only sorry that I didn't do it enough justice as you would have done 
I must start searching other sources! 
Cheers Diane, I'm sure Hill will enlighten us 
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Hill
Master Guide
Reged: 10/31/04
Posts: 9230
Loc: Southern California
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The NGS article identifies the skull on the left as a male Kiffian skull and says that tooth wear patterns indicate some lived into their 40's. There is no age range given for the Tenerians.
There is a description of the dichotomy between the two populations.
Quote:
One of the experts [Sereno] took with him was archaeologist Elena Garcea of the University of Cassino in Italy, a pottery expert who has spent three decades working in northern Africa.
She immediately spied small potsherds inscribed with a pointillistic pattern characteristic of the nomadic Tenerian, who lived 6,500 to 4,500 years ago.
But she quickly found others that had a wavy, zigzag pattern characteristic of the Kiffian, who lived 10,000 to 8,000 years ago.
That dichotomy continued throughout the excavations. One group of graves contained individuals who averaged more than 6 feet tall, with some as tall as 6 feet 8. These individuals, the Kiffian, were folded in tight burial arrangements with their knees against their chests and arms at their sides, almost as though they had been buried in burlap bags.
Accompanying the graves were remains of elephants, giraffes, hartebeests, wart hogs and pythons, as well as abundant 6-foot-long, 300-pound Nile perch, which indicated the presence of a deep lake at the site during the period.
The team found harpoon points and fishing hooks as well as stone tools associated with the Kiffian. Their bodies were heavily muscled and robust, suggesting that they were active fishermen.
Bodies in the other graves were shorter and more slender, characteristic of pastoralists who did less fishing and more herding. The same animals, as well as a small number of cattle, were associated with them, but the fish were smaller catfish and tilapia, suggesting that the lake was shallower during their occupation.
Among the Tenerian graves was a heart-rending burial tableaux: A young woman was lying on her side. Pollen under her body suggested that she was placed on a bed of flowers. Lying on their sides facing her were two young children, their fingers interlocked with hers, leaving a tangle of bones.
From the LAT article
Edited by Hill (08/22/08 09:54 AM)
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