Uan Muhuggiag is an archaeological site in Libya that was occupied by pastoralists between the early Holocene and mid-Holocene; the Tashwinat mummy, which was found at Uan Muhuggiag, was dated to 5600 BP and presently resides in the Assaraya Alhamra Museum in Tripoli. [1]
Uan Muhuggiag is a rock shelter in southwestern Libya in what is now the Sahara Desert. It is located on the bank of the Wadi Teshuinat, sitting on a plateau in the Tadrart Acacus at almost 3000 feet above sea level. [2] The site is approximately 1500 miles west of the Nile Valley. [3]
Uan Muhuggiag was inhabited during the early- to mid-Holocene in what has been termed as the African Aqualithic culture complex, or "Green Sahara" period. Analysis of pollen found at the base levels of the site dating to between 7500 and 5000 BC indicates a wet savannah. [4] Extensive samples from a number of sites indicate that tropical humid plants began to expand northward around 12,000 years ago after a lengthy dry period, eventually reaching deep into what is today the Sahara Desert. [5]
NASA satellites have been able to detect a vast network of ancient river beds and paleolakes underneath the sand dunes around Uan Muhuggiag. [6] Rock art findings depicting elephants, giraffes, and crocodiles were discovered at sites surrounding Uan Muhuggiag. Furthermore, fish bones, fish hooks, and harpoons were found at several sites in the Sahara region. [7] It is speculated that the dry period that continues into the present day began around 5000 BP, which led to the abandonment of the site. [8]
Uan Muhuggiag appears to have been inhabited from at least the sixth millennium BC to about 2700 BC, although not necessarily continuously. [2] The stratigraphic sequence comprises seven distinct occupation levels. Layer 1 is the very top layer, followed by layer 1a. The middle level is labeled from 2a to 2d, with 2d being the oldest. [9] Finally, below that, there is also a layer 3, which is further subdivided into section A, at the top, and section B, at the bottom. [4] Layer 1 has been dated as beginning around 3800 BP, and consists of loose aeolian sand at the very top, slightly cemented sand and dung below that, and hearths at the bottom. Farther down, layer 2 has evidence of humified organic sand and lenses of fresh plant remains. [4] These two layers represent the period of human occupation of the shelter. [7] Layer 3 has even stronger humidified sand, as well as gypsum concretions. [4] The stratigraphic sequence suggests that the shelter was inhabited during a much wetter period than today. The Tashwinat mummy was found on the eastern side of a 160 by 80 cm. excavation, under the lowest layer of coals, where the sandstone floor showed a deliberate round excavation of approximately 25 cm. in diameter and 3 cm. deep. The mummy lay just beneath a layer of vegetable fibers. [10]
Uan Muhuggiag was first excavated in 1950. The Tashwinat mummy was discovered by University of Rome Professor Fabrizio Mori in 1958. [1] More recently, in 1982, the site was excavated again by Barbara Barich. [7]
The most noteworthy find at Uan Muhuggiag is the well-preserved mummy of a young boy of approximately 2+1⁄2 years old. The child was embalmed, positioned into a fetal position, then placed in a sack made of antelope skin which was insulated by a layer of leaves. [3] The boy's organs were removed, as evidenced by incisions in his abdomen and thorax, and an organic preservative was inserted to stop his body from decomposing. [10] An ostrich eggshell necklace was also found around his neck. [2]
The mummy of the child has been radiocarbon dated, via the deepest coal layer where it was found, to 7438 ± 220 BP, and, via the animal hide it was wrapped in, to 5405 ± 180 BP, [11] which has been calibrated to 6250 cal BP. [12] This date precedes the earliest known Ancient Egyptian mummies by one thousand years.
Another date for the animal hide made from the skin of an antelope, which was accompanied by remnants of a grind stone and a necklace made from the eggshell of an ostrich, is 4225 ± 190 BCE. [13]
In 1958-1959, an archaeological expedition led by Antonio Ascenzi conducted anthropological, radiological, histological, and chemical analyses on the Uan Muhuggiag mummy. Morphological, anthropometric, radiological, histological, and chemical examination was performed. By these means it was possible to deduce the child had negroid features. [10] The body had been eviscerated and undergone natural desiccation. One other individual, an adult, was found at Uan Muhuggiag, buried in a crouched position. [2] However, the body showed no evidence of evisceration or any other method of preservation. [14]
Soukopova (2013) referenced a laboratory examination of the cutaneous features of the child buried at the site in which the results verified that remains of the child possessed a dark skin complexion. [14]
Among other significant finds at Uan Muhuggiag are elaborate rock paintings, mostly attributed to the later occupation period of around 5000 BP. There are more than 100 rock paintings on the walls and ceiling of the shelter. [10] The most notable of these are identified as, the Round Head paintings. [2] They were named as such because the heads depicted were quite large, out of proportion to the rest of the body, and also very round with a distinct lack of features. [15] Additionally, there was one painting depicting these types of figures inside a boat, which may have had a ritual or religious significance. [15] One particular figure inside the boat was upside-down and Mori interpreted that figure as representing someone who was dead. [8]
Some of the rock art depicted cattle with herders and running hunters. [15] There was also a painting of two oxen that was found on a rock that had detached from the wall above. The stratigraphic layer confirmed the painting to date from about 4700 BP. [14] This provided conclusive evidence that the inhabitants of Uan Muhuggiag at that time were pastoralists.
Animal remains found at the site include domestic cattle, sheep or goat, wild cat, wild donkey, warthog, gazelle, hare, baboon, and turtle. [15] Domestic cattle bones were also found in the lowest layers and perhaps date from the eighth millennium BP, providing some of the earliest known evidence of pastoralism in the Sahara. [8] Among the faunal remains in the middle layers, dated to be roughly between 5300 and 6000 BP, remains of sheep and goats appear more frequently. It has been surmised that this was probably the time period when the shelter was most actively occupied. [8] Fruits and plant seeds were also found. There were more than 30 different species of plant seeds found during the 1982 excavations by Barich, including millet and wild melon. The seeds spanned a long period of time, with the most recent being three date seeds that were radiocarbon dated to 2130 BP, suggesting that the shelter continued to be inhabited intermittently, even after the period of main occupation and subsequent drought. [7]
The pottery at Uan Muhuggiag was found mainly in the top layers. It is of the dotted wavy-line decorated variety that was common in the region during that period. There is evidence that a two-toothed tool was used in order to create equal spacing between the dots, known as the "return" technique. [15] Other finds at Uan Muhuggiag include two hemispherical hollows dug out of the rock, measuring approximately 30 to 40 centimeters, called "kettles". These were found completely covered by deposits and are estimated to be from at least 7500 BP. [2] Several pieces of charcoal were also found, the oldest of which were determined to be 7800 years old. [2] They were probably used in large fireplace pits. [7] The lower levels also uncovered backed and microlithic tools, while lithics such as flakes and arrowheads were found in the upper layers. [16] A total of 406 stone tool fragments were found in level 2a, and 77 in the earliest occupation level of 2d. [9]
Antonio Ascenzi, a pathologist, believes that Uan Muhuggiag and the surrounding area became inhabited around 10,000 BP by Negroid peoples, who followed the monsoon north. [17] It has been suggested that some time later, around 7000 BP, people from Mesopotamia and the Middle East arrived, introducing pastoralism to the region. [3] The idea of domestic cattle in Africa coming from the Fertile Crescent exclusively is now seen as having serious shortcomings. [18] As no hard archaeological evidence supports this claim and subsequent archaeology has revealed a deep well of cattle integration and early association of cattle with religious and subsistence strategies in Holocene Africa. More modern scholarship has instead found that the origins of pastoralism, cattle worship and cattle domestication lie most likely in areas of the Sudanese Nile Valley (e.g., Affad). [18] [19] Several discoveries at Letti, in Sudan, suggest early burial and domestication of cattle, including early implements used to safely bleed cattle without harming them. The cultural practice of drinking cow blood on special occasions is still shared to this day by many Nilotic cattle herding groups in Africa, such as the Maasai and Dinka. [20] One of the earliest burials of cattle can be found at the site of Nabta Playa, which had inhabitants that were of the same Nilo-Saharan traditions of Sudan and the broader Nile Valley. [21] These people were responsible for sacrificial cattle burials in clay-lined and roofed chambers covered by rough stone tumuli. [22] At one of the sites from the beginning of the Holocene (~10,000 BP), among the bones of wild fauna, remains of domesticated cattle with 'auroch-like' features were found. There is strong evidence that domestic livestock, principally cattle, played an important role in the lives of the inhabitants of Uan Muhuggiag, which is supported by the amount of cattle bones found at the site as well as evidence of a cattle cult and ritual sacrifice at a location in the Messak Plateau, approximately 60 miles in distance from the site. [3]
The Tashwinat mummy found at Uan Muhuggiag was one thousand years older than the oldest known Egyptian mummy. Its sophisticated form of evisceration indicates a highly advanced society. [6] Some scholars argue that the sub-Saharan African population living there could have had an influence on the process of mummification used in Ancient Egypt a thousand years later. [23] [24] [25]
Considerable debate also exists about whether the rock art found at Uan Muhuggiag along with the two mummies, signify that the shelter was a burial place or otherwise sacred. Mori was a strong advocate of this theory and believed that the site was a place where a cult of the dead took place. [2]
The prehistory of North Africa spans the period of earliest human presence in the region to gradual onset of historicity in the Maghreb during classical antiquity. Early anatomically modern humans are known to have been present at Jebel Irhoud, in what is now Morocco, approximately 300,000 years ago. The Nile Valley region, via ancient Egypt, contributed to the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age periods of the Old World, along with the ancient Near East.
The Sahara is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.
The Garamantes were ancient peoples, who may have descended from Berber tribes, Toubou tribes, and Saharan pastoralists that settled in the Fezzan region by at least 1000 BC and established a civilization that flourished until its end in the late 7th century AD. The Garamantes first emerged as a major regional power in the mid-2nd century AD and established a kingdom that spanned roughly 180,000 km2 (70,000 sq mi) in the Fezzan region of southern Libya. Their growth and expansion was based on a complex and extensive qanat irrigation system, which supported a strong agricultural economy and a large population. They subsequently developed the first urban society in a major desert that was not centered on a river system; their largest town, Garama, had a population of around four thousand, with an additional six thousand living in surrounding suburban areas. At its pinnacle, the Garamantian kingdom established and maintained a "standard of living far superior to that of any other ancient Saharan society" and was composed of "brilliant farmers, resourceful engineers, and enterprising merchants who produced a remarkable civilization."
Tassili n'Ajjer is a national park in the Sahara desert, located on a vast plateau in south-eastern Algeria. It holds one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world, and covers an area of more than 72,000 km2 (28,000 sq mi),
Saharan rock art is a significant area of archaeological study focusing on artwork carved or painted on the natural rocks of the central Sahara desert. The rock art dates from numerous periods starting c. 12,000 years ago, and is significant because it shows the culture of ancient African societies.
Nabta Playa was once a large endorheic basin in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern-day Cairo or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, 22.51° north, 30.73° east. Today the region is characterized by numerous archaeological sites. The Nabta Playa archaeological site, one of the earliest of the Egyptian Neolithic Period, is dated to circa 7500 BC.
The Acacus Mountains or Tadrart Akakus form a mountain range in the desert of the Ghat District in western Libya, part of the Sahara. They are situated east of the city of Ghat, Libya, and stretch north from the border with Algeria, about 100 kilometres (62 mi). The area has a particularly rich array of prehistoric rock art.
Sanga cattle is the collective name for indigenous cattle of some regions in Africa. They are sometimes identified as a subspecies with the scientific name Bos taurus africanus. Their history of domestication and their origins in relation to taurine cattle, zebu cattle (indicine), and native African varieties of the ancestral aurochs are a matter of debate. "African taurine", "sanga", "zenga", "sheko", "African indicine" are all sub-groups of Sanga cattle.
Bubalus, Bubaline, or Large Wild Fauna rock art is the earliest form of Central Saharan rock art, created in an engraved style, which have been dated between 12,000 BCE and 8000 BCE. The Bubaline Period is followed by the Kel Essuf Period. As the animal world is particularly emphasized in Bubaline rock art, animal depictions are usually shown in larger scale than human depictions. Bubaline rock art portrays a few geometric designs and naturalistic outlined depictions of animals, such as antelope, aurochs, buffalos, donkeys, elephants, fish, giraffes, hippopotamuses, ostriches, and rhinoceroses.
The Pastoral Neolithic refers to a period in Africa's prehistory, specifically Tanzania and Kenya, marking the beginning of food production, livestock domestication, and pottery use in the region following the Later Stone Age. The exact dates of this time period remain inexact, but early Pastoral Neolithic sites support the beginning of herding by 5000 BP. In contrast to the Neolithic in other parts of the world, which saw the development of farming societies, the first form of African food production was nomadic pastoralism, or ways of life centered on the herding and management of livestock. The shift from hunting to food production relied on livestock that had been domesticated outside of East Africa, especially North Africa. This period marks the emergence of the forms of pastoralism that are still present. The reliance on livestock herding marks the deviation from hunting-gathering but precedes major agricultural development. The exact movement tendencies of Neolithic pastoralists are not completely understood.
Ifri Oudadane is an archaeological site in the northeastern Rif region of Morocco. It is located on the southwestern coast of the Cape Three Forks on the Mediterranean Sea, and is one of the most important sites in the northwestern Maghreb region of Africa. Discovered during road construction, the site consists of a fairly large rock shelter above the modern coastline, the site has been excavated since 2006 by a team of Moroccan and German archaeologists. Although much is known about the transition of humans from hunter gatherer groups to food production in Europe and the Middle East, much of North Africa has not been researched. Ifri Oudadane is one of the first of such sites in North Africa. Dated to between 11000 and 5700 years BP, the site contains evidence that documents the shift of local inhabitants from hunter-gatherer groups to food producers. Such elements of change found at Ifri Oudadane include evidence of animal husbandry, domestication of legumes, and decoration of pottery. The site is known to contain the earliest dated crop in Northern Africa, a lentil.
Bir Kiseiba is a Neolithic archaeological site in Egypt, dating from approximately 11,000–5,000 BP, that lies approximately 250 km west of the Nile in Lower Nubia. Excavated by Fred Wendorf, Romauld Schild, and Angela Close, Bir Kiseiba, along with Nabta Playa, has some of the earliest evidence for food production, permanent settlement, and more diverse technologies as compared to sites from the Late Pleistocene. Wendorf and associates argue that cattle and pottery were here as early as any other place in Africa, although this assertion has been challenged.
Pastoral rock art is the most common form of Central Saharan rock art, created in painted and engraved styles depicting pastoralists and bow-wielding hunters in scenes of animal husbandry, along with various animals, spanning from 6300 BCE to 700 BCE. The Pastoral Period is preceded by the Round Head Period and followed by the Caballine Period. The Early Pastoral Period spanned from 6300 BCE to 5400 BCE. Domesticated cattle were brought to the Central Sahara, and given the opportunity for becoming socially distinguished, to develop food surplus, as well as to acquire and aggregate wealth, led to the adoption of a cattle pastoral economy by some Central Saharan hunter-gatherers of the Late Acacus. In exchange, cultural information regarding utilization of vegetation in the Central Sahara was shared by Late Acacus hunter-gatherers with incoming Early Pastoral peoples.
Round Head rock art is the earliest painted, monumental form of Central Saharan rock art, which was largely created from 9500 BP to 7500 BP and ceased being created by 3000 BP. The Round Head Period is preceded by the Kel Essuf Period and followed by the Pastoral Period. Round Head rock art number up to several thousand depictions in the Central Sahara. Human and undomesticated animal artforms are usually portrayed, with a variety of details, in painted Round Head rock art. Painted Round Head rock art and engraved Kel Essuf rock art usually share the same region and occasionally the same rockshelters. The Round Head rock art of Tassili and the surrounding mountainous areas bear considerable similarity with traditional Sub-Saharan African cultures.
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The population history of West Africa is composed of West African populations that were considerably mobile and interacted with one another throughout the history of West Africa. Acheulean tool-using archaic humans may have dwelled throughout West Africa since at least between 780,000 BP and 126,000 BP. During the Pleistocene, Middle Stone Age peoples, who dwelled throughout West Africa between MIS 4 and MIS 2, were gradually replaced by incoming Late Stone Age peoples, who migrated into West Africa as an increase in humid conditions resulted in the subsequent expansion of the West African forest. West African hunter-gatherers occupied western Central Africa earlier than 32,000 BP, dwelled throughout coastal West Africa by 12,000 BP, and migrated northward between 12,000 BP and 8000 BP as far as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania.
The prehistory of Central Africa spans from the earliest human presence in the region until the emergence of the Iron Age in Central Africa. By at least 2,000,000 BP, Central Africa was occupied by early hominins. West African hunter-gatherers occupied western Central Africa earlier than 32,000 BP, dwelled throughout coastal West Africa by 12,000 BP, and migrated northward between 12,000 BP and 8000 BP as far as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania. Prehistoric West Africans may have diverged into distinct ancestral groups of modern West Africans and Bantu-speaking peoples in Cameroon, and, subsequently, around 5000 BP, the Bantu-speaking peoples migrated into other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The prehistory of East Africa spans from the earliest human presence in the region until the emergence of the Iron Age in East Africa. Between 1,600,000 BP and 1,500,000 BP, the Homo ergaster known as Nariokotome Boy resided near Nariokotome River, Kenya. Modern humans, who left behind remains, resided at Omo Kibish in 233,000 BP. Afro-Asiatic speakers and Nilo-Saharan speakers expanded in East Africa, resulting in transformation of food systems of East Africa. Prehistoric West Africans may have diverged into distinct ancestral groups of modern West Africans and Bantu-speaking peoples in Cameroon, and, subsequently, around 5000 BP, the Bantu-speaking peoples migrated into other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Takarkori is an archaeological site and rock shelter located in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains of southwestern Libya. During the Holocene, humans occupied the site between 10,170 cal BP and 4650 cal BP. Takarkori rockshelter is one of two sites where the earliest evidence of plant processing in pottery has been found, is the first Saharan site where ancient DNA was able to be extracted, particularly from two interred individuals, and is also a site with artifacts which include bone tools, stone tools, wooden tools, pottery, fiber goods, and carved figurines.
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