Kiffian culture

The Kiffian culture is a prehistoric industry that existed between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Sahara Desert, during the Neolithic Subpluvial. Human remains from this culture were found in 2000 at a site known as Gobero, located in Niger in the Ténéré Desert.[1] The site is known as the largest and earliest grave of Stone Age people in the Sahara desert.[2]

Characteristics

The Kiffians were skilled hunters. Bones of many large savannah animals that were discovered in the same area suggest that they lived on the shores of a lake that was present during a period when the Sahara was verdant and wet.[2]

The Kiffian people were tall, standing over six feet in height.[1] Craniometric analysis indicates that this early Holocene population was closely related to the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb, as well as mid-Holocene Mechta groups.[3]

Decline

Traces of the Kiffian culture do not exist after 8,000 years ago, as the Sahara went through a dry period for the next thousand years.[4] After this time, another culture, the Tenerians, colonized the area.

References

  1. 1 2 "Stone Age Graveyard Reveals Lifestyles Of A 'Green Sahara'". Science Daily. 2008-08-15. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  2. 1 2 Wilford, John Noble (2008-08-14). "Graves Found From Sahara's Green Period". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  3. ↑ Sereno PC, Garcea EAA, Jousse H, Stojanowski CM, Saliège J-F, Maga A; et al. (2008). "Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change" (PDF). PLoS ONE 3 (8). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002995. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  4. ↑ Schultz, Nora (2008-08-14). "Stone Age mass graves reveal green Sahara". NewScientist. Retrieved 2008-08-15.

4. Kamrani, Kambiz. "The Kiffian & Tenerean Occupation Of Gobero, Niger: Perhaps The Largest Collection Of Early-Mid Holocene People In Africa." Anthropology.net. N.p., 14 Thursday August 2008. Web. 01 Jan. 2015. (http://anthropology.net/2008/08/14/the-kiffian-tenerean-occupation-of-gobero-niger-perhaps-the-largest-collection-of-early-mid-holocene-people-in-africa/)

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