Human Remain In GREEN SAHARA
A On October 13, 2,000, a small team ofpaleontologists led by Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago clambered outof three battered Land Rovers, filled their water bottles, and scattered onfoot across the toffee-colored sands of the Tenere desert in northern Niger.The Tenere, on the southern flank of the Sahara, easily ranks among the mostdesolate landscapes on Earth. The Tuareg, turbaned nomads who forcenturies-have ruled this barren realm, refer to it as a "desert within adesert" a California-size ocean of sand and rock, where a single massivedune might stretch a hundred miles, and the combination of 120-degreeheat andinexorable winds can wick the water from a human body in less than a day. Theharsh conditions, combined with intermittent conflict between the Tuareg andthe Niger government, have kept the region largely unexplored
B Mike Hettwer, a photographer accompanyingthe team, headed off by himself toward a trio of small dunes. He crested thefirst slope and stared in amazement. The dunes were spilling over with bones.He took a few shots with his digital camera and hurried back to the Hettwersaid Land Rovers. "I found some bones: when the team had regrouped."But they're not dinosaurs. They are human.』』
C In the spring of 2005 Sereno contactedElena Garcea, an archaeologist at the University of Cassino, in Italy,invitingher to accompany him on a return to the site Garcea had spent three decadesworking digs along the Nilein Sudan and in the mountains of the Libyan Desert andwas well acquainted with the ancient peoples of the Sahara. But she had neverheard of Paul Sereno. His claim to have found so many skeletons in one placeseemed farfetched, given that no other Neolithic cemetery contained more than adozen or so. Some archaeologists would later be skeptical; one sniped that hewas just a "moonlighting paleontologist. " But Garcea was toointrigued to dismiss him as an interloper. She agreed to join him.
D Garcea explained that the Kiffian were afishing-based culture and lived during the earliest wet period, between 8,000and 10,000 years ago. She held a Kiffian sherd next to a Tenerian one."What is so amazing is that the people who made these two pots lived morethan a thousand years apart.
E Over the next three weeks, Sereno andGarcea--along with five American excavators, five Tuareg guides, and fivesoldiers from Niger's army, sent to protect the camp from bandits--made adetailed map of the site, which they dubbed Gobero, after the Tuareg name forthe area. They exhumed eight burials and collected scores of artifacts fromboth cultures. In a dry lake bed adjacent to the dunes, they found dozens offishhooks and harpoons carved from animal bone.Apparently the Kiffian fishermenweren't just going after small fry: Scattered near the dunes were the remainsof Nile perch, a beast of a fish that can weigh near 300 pounds, as well ascrocodile and hippo bones.
F Sereno flew home with the most importantskeletons and artifacts and immediately began planning for the next fieldseason. In the/meantime, he carefully removed one tooth from each of fourskulls and sent them to a lab for radiocarbon dating. The results pegged the ageof the tightly bundled burials at roughly 9,000 years old, the heart of theKiffian era.The smaller sleeping"skeletons turned out to be about 6,000years old, well withinthe Tenerian period. At least now the scientists knew whowas who.
G In the fall of 2006 they returned toGobero, accompanied by a larger dig crew and six additional scientists. Garceahoped to excavate some 80 burials, and the team began digging. As the skeletonsbegan to emerge from the dunes, each presented a fresh riddle, especially theTenerian. A male skeleton had been buried with a finger in his mouth.
H Even at the site, Arizona StateUniversity bioarchaeologist Chris Stojanowski could begin to piece togethersome clues. Judging by the bones, the Kiffian appeared to be a peaceful,hardworking people. "The lack of head and forearm injuries suggests theywere not doing much fighting, he told me. " And these guy were strong." He pointed to a long, narrow ridge running along a femur. That's themuscle attachment, "he said. "This individual had hu. eg muscles,which means he was eating a lot of protein and had a strenuous lifestyle both consistentwith a fishing way of life. " For contrast, he showed me the femur of a Tenerianmale. The ridge was barely perceptible. "This guy had a much less strenuouslifestyle, " he said, "which you might expect of a herder
I Stojanowski's assessment that theTenerian were herders fit the prevailing view among scholars of life in theSahara 6,000 years ago, when drier conditions favored herding over hunting. Butif the Tenerian were herders, Sereno pointed out, where were the herds? Amongthe hundreds of animal bones that had turned up at the site, none belonged togoats or sheep and only three came from a cow species. " It's not unusualfor a herding culture not to slaughter their cattle, particularly in a cemetery,M Garcea responded, noting that even modern pastoralists, such as igersWodaabe, are loath to butcher even one animal in their herd. Perhaps,Serenoreasoned, the Tenerian at Gobero were a transitional group that had not fullyadopted herding and still relied heavily on hunting and fishing.
J Back in Arizona, Stojanowski continues toanalyze the Gobero bones for clues to the Green Saharans' health and diet.Other scientists are trying to derive DNA from the teeth, which could revealthe genetic origins of the Kiffian and Tenerian- and possibly link them todescendants living today. Sereno and Garcea estimate a hundred burials remainto be excavated. But as the harsh Tenere winds continue to erode the dunes,time is running out. "Every archaeological site has a life cycle,"Garcea said. "It begins when people begin to use the place, followedby disuse, then nature takes over, and finally it is gone. Gobero is at the endof its life.」