Multiple phases of North African humidity recorded in lacustrine sediments from the Fazzan Basin, Libyan Sahara

Armitage, Simon; Drake, Nicholas; Stokes, Stephen; El‐Hawat, Ahmed S.; Salem, Mustapha; White, Kevin; Turner, Peter; McLaren, Sue

doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2006.05.019

Cited by 130 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…of Angers, France). Strikingly similar patterns have been observed in new work on the Saharan Megalakes by Nick Drake and others, 2 and in a recently published study from the Levant. 3 One of the main conclusions of this session was that the Sahara should not be seen as a homogeneous entity, but rather as a series of latitudinally defined units, with a marked separation between east and west Sahara.…”

supporting

confidence: 83%

Putting North Africa on the map of modern human origins

Stringer¹,

Barton

2008

Evolutionary Anthropology

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supporting

confidence: 83%

Putting North Africa on the map of modern human origins

Stringer¹,

Barton

2008

Evolutionary Anthropology

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“…1 link river systems in this manner. The green Sahara also contained numerous closed basins that supported some very large lakes (10,(16)(17)(18)(19) (Fig. 1).…”

Section: African Humid Period Biogeography and Palaeohydrologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fortunately, Saharan megalakes appear to preserve the required long-term lacustrine sequences (16)(17)(18)(19)42) despite the general assumption that such records are rare in the Sahara because of deflation of lacustrine sediments during arid periods (43). We have applied optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to selected sediments (SI Appendix, Section 7) and have found evidence for synchronous humidity in the Fezzan-Chad-Chotts and Chad-Chotts-Ahnet-Moyer megalake corridors during MIS5 (Fig.…”

Section: Older Saharan Occupation and Crossingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert

Drake

Blench

Armitage

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

403

327

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Evidence increasingly suggests that sub-Saharan Africa is at the center of human evolution and understanding routes of dispersal “out of Africa” is thus becoming increasingly important. The Sahara Desert is considered by many to be an obstacle to these dispersals and a Nile corridor route has been proposed to cross it. Here we provide evidence that the Sahara was not an effective barrier and indicate how both animals and humans populated it during past humid phases. Analysis of the zoogeography of the Sahara shows that more animals crossed via this route than used the Nile corridor. Furthermore, many of these species are aquatic. This dispersal was possible because during the Holocene humid period the region contained a series of linked lakes, rivers, and inland deltas comprising a large interlinked waterway, channeling water and animals into and across the Sahara, thus facilitating these dispersals. This system was last active in the early Holocene when many species appear to have occupied the entire Sahara. However, species that require deep water did not reach northern regions because of weak hydrological connections. Human dispersals were influenced by this distribution; Nilo-Saharan speakers hunting aquatic fauna with barbed bone points occupied the southern Sahara, while people hunting Savannah fauna with the bow and arrow spread southward. The dating of lacustrine sediments show that the “green Sahara” also existed during the last interglacial (∼125 ka) and provided green corridors that could have formed dispersal routes at a likely time for the migration of modern humans out of Africa.

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“…Isolated tanged pieces have been found by the CPP project in the environs of the cave and an industry with pedunculates was excavated in the Hagfet et-Tera cave at the western edge of the Gebel Akhdar, w175 km from the Haua Fteah (McBurney and Hey, 1955;McBurney, 1960). It has been suggested that the first systematic occupation of North Africa by modern humans was probably as a result of a northward movement across the Sahara in MIS 5, when wetter climates created a string of major lakes across what is now desert (Armitage et al, 2007;Osborne et al, 2008;Garcea, 2010c;Drake et al, 2011). Given the topographic isolation of the Gebel Akhdar, separated from the Maghreb by the hyper-arid Gulf of Sirte desert, there is at least as strong a case for Egypt and/or the Levant (where early modern humans at Qafzeh and Skhul possibly date to ca.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The chronostratigraphy of the Haua Fteah cave (Cyrenaica, northeast Libya) — Optical dating of early human occupation during Marine Isotope Stages 4, 5 and 6

Jacobs

Farr

et al. 2017

Journal of Human Evolution

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a b s t r a c tThe 1950s excavations by Charles McBurney in the Haua Fteah, a large karstic cave on the coast of northeast Libya, revealed a deep sequence of human occupation. Most subsequent research on North African prehistory refers to his discoveries and interpretations, but the chronology of its archaeological and geological sequences has been based on very early age determinations. This paper reports on the initial results of a comprehensive multi-method dating program undertaken as part of new work at the site, involving radiocarbon dating of charcoal, land snails and marine shell, cryptotephra investigations, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sediments, and electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of tooth enamel. The dating samples were collected from the newly exposed and cleaned faces of the upper 7.5 m of the w14.0 m-deep McBurney trench, which contain six of the seven major cultural phases that he identified. Despite problems of sediment transport and reworking, using a Bayesian statistical model the new dating program establishes a robust framework for the five major lithostratigraphic units identified in the stratigraphic succession, and for the major cultural units. The age of two anatomically modern human mandibles found by McBurney in Layer XXXIII near the base of his Levalloiso-Mousterian phase can now be estimated to between 73 and 65 ka (thousands of years ago) at the 95.4% confidence level, within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4. McBurney's Layer XXV, associated with Upper Palaeolithic Dabban blade industries, has a clear stratigraphic relationship with Campanian Ignimbrite tephra. Microlithic Oranian technologies developed following the climax of the Last Glacial Maximum and the more microlithic Capsian in the Younger Dryas. Neolithic pottery and perhaps domestic livestock were used in the cave from the mid Holocene but there is no certain evidence for plant cultivation until the Graeco-Roman period.

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Multiple phases of North African humidity recorded in lacustrine sediments from the Fazzan Basin, Libyan Sahara

Cited by 130 publications

References 13 publications

Putting North Africa on the map of modern human origins

Putting North Africa on the map of modern human origins

Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert

The chronostratigraphy of the Haua Fteah cave (Cyrenaica, northeast Libya) — Optical dating of early human occupation during Marine Isotope Stages 4, 5 and 6

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