Kiffian culture

The Kiffian culture is a prehistoric industry, or domain, that existed between approximately 8,000 BC and 6,000 BC in the Sahara Desert, during the Neolithic Subpluvial. Human remains from this culture were found in 2000 AD 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 the Holocene Wet Phase, a period when the Sahara desert 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 6,000 BC, as the Sahara went through a dry period for the next thousand years.[4] After this time, the Tenerian culture colonized the area.

See also

References
  1. "Stone Age Graveyard Reveals Lifestyles Of A 'Green Sahara'". Science Daily. 2008-08-15. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  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): e2995. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002995. PMC 2515196. PMID 18701936. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  4. Schultz, Nora (2008-08-14). "Stone Age mass graves reveal green Sahara". New Scientist. 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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