Neolithic subpluvial
The Neolithic subpluvial or the Neolithic rainy season ( English Holocene Wet Phase ) was a longer period in the Holocene , which in North Africa was characterized by a markedly humid climate . In his from 7500 to 3500 BC Chr. (Or from 7000 to 3000 BC) the Sahara greened .
Dating
For the period of the Neolithic subpluvial, the period 7000 to 3000 BC is usually used. BC, the end of this wet period is occasionally also around 3300 BC. Seen.
The Neolithic subpluvial set at the beginning of the Atlantic in the 7th millennium BC. Chr. , And received his strong influence over some 2,000 years at most. After the 5.9 kilo-year event (3900 BC) its effect was already weakened. Towards the end of the Neolithic subpluvial (3500 or 3000 BC) dry conditions established themselves again. This led to the desertification of the Sahara, the aridity of which continues to this day.
Geography and hydrography
During the Neolithic Subpluvial, the hydrographic conditions in large parts of North , Central and East Africa were very different from today's conditions. Lakes that existed at the time had water levels up to 10 meters higher. Today's endorheic Lake Chad reached a surface area of almost 400,000 square kilometers; it exceeded today's Caspian Sea and had a maximum depth of 170 meters ( mega-Chad ). This lake drained over the Mayo Kébbi into the Niger , and thus the entire Chad basin of 2.4 million km². Further changes in discharge occurred, for example, at Lake Turkana in Kenya , which then drained towards the Nile . During the Neolithic subpluvial, several shallow lakes and rivers were created, which later disappeared and can only be identified today using radar and satellite images .
ecology
During the Neolithic subpluvial, North Africa experienced fertile climatic conditions. The present Sahara consisted of a savannah ecosystem with elephants , giraffes and other animals typical of the southern Sahel zone . Even now extinct large taxas such as Sivatherium and Pelorovis were still to be found.
The Africa researcher and historian Roland Oliver gives a description of the conditions at that time:
The highlands of the Central Sahara south of the Libyan desert, such as the Tibesti or the Hoggar , which today consist of bare rock , were then made up of forests of oak, walnut, linden, alder and elm. The somewhat lower regions such as the Tassili and the Acacus in the north and the Ennedi and the Aïr in the south were populated by olives and juniper bushes as well as Aleppo pines. The valley took in flowing, fish-rich waters all year round, which were framed by seed-bearing grasslands .
Cultural impact
The mild and fertile conditions during the Neolithic subpluvial now allowed a far more significant human settlement in the Nile Valley in Egypt. Neolithic communities also settled in Sudan and the entire Sahara region , including cultures that left rock paintings in , for example, Tassili n'Ajjer (Southeastern Germany) .
The climatic changes brought about a significant increase in the diet of fish, poultry, freshwater mollusks, rodents, hippos and crocodiles for the people of that time. Rafts, boats, pots, traps, harpoons, nets, hooks, fishing lines and sinking weights were used to capture this aquatic biomass. The way of life, shaped by the river, made possible much larger communities than was the case among hunter clans. As a result of the locally emerging pottery there were culinary innovations such as soup, fish stew and porridge, the latter requiring grain to be picked up.
In 2000, archaeologists from the University of Chicago discovered human remains from the Neolithic subpluvial at the Gobero site in the Ténéré Desert in northeastern Niger . The grave finds have been excellently preserved and thus represent unique evidence of human settlement. They are now assigned to the cultures of the Kiffium (7700 to 6200 BC) and Tenerife (5200 to 2500 BC).
The site of Anthony Arkell in Sudan on the Blue Nile and the site of Gabriel Camps in southern Algeria ( Amekni near Tamanrasset ) should also be mentioned. French archaeologists have also carried out excavations in Chad , Mali and Niger, which unearthed bone harpoons and wavy line pottery .
Arkell's site was in a savannah landscape with three times more rainfall than today. The skeletal finds suggested a relationship with today's Nilots such as the Nuer and the Dinka . Radiocarbon dates indicated an age of 7000 to 5000 BC. Chr. Arkell drew the conclusion based on similarities with the French finds in West Africa that these hunters and fishermen had formed an independent culture on the latitude from Khartoum westward to Mali.
The site of Camps is dated 6700 BC. Dated. Their culture bearers were hunter-gatherers and also of negroid origin. They too knew wavy line pottery.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kathryn A. Bard: Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt . Routledge, London 1999, pp. 863 .
- ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . Routledge, London 1999, pp. 372 .
- ↑ Frédéric Bouchette, Mathieu Schuster, Jean-François Ghienne, Cléa Denamiel, Claude Roquin, Abderamane Moussa, Patrick Marsaleix, Philippe Duringer: Hydrodynamics in Holocene Lake Mega-Chad (PDF document) (English)
- ^ Roland Oliver: The African Experience: From Olduvai Gorge to the 21st Century (Series: History of Civilization) . Phoenix Press, revised edition, London 1999, pp. 39 .
- ^ John EG Sutton: The Aquatic Civilization of Middle Africa . In: Journal of African History . tape 15 , 1974, p. 527-546 .
- ^ AJ Arkell: Early Khartoum . Oxford University Press , 1949.
- ^ Gabriel Camps: Les civilization prehistoriques de l'Afrique du Nord et du Sahara . Paris 1974, p. 22 and 225-226 .