Kiffian culture

Kiffian is the name given by archaeologists to a prehistoric culture thriving between about 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in what is now the Sahara Desert. This was during a wet period of Saharan history known as 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 Kiffian were skilled hunters, and the discovery of bones of many large savannah animals 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, often over six feet tall.[1]

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.[3] After this time, another culture, the Tenerians, colonized the area.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Stone Age Graveyard Reveals Lifestyles Of A 'Green Sahara'". Science Daily. 2008-08-15. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wilford, John Noble (2008-08-14). "Graves Found From Sahara's Green Period". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  3. ↑ 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/)