Savino di Lernia

First dairying in green Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium bc

In the prehistoric green Sahara of Holocene North Africa—in contrast to the Neolithic of Europe and Eurasia—a reliance on cattle, sheep and goats emerged as a stable and widespread way of life, long before the first evidence for domesticated plants or settled village farming communities. The remarkable rock art found widely across the region depicts cattle herding among early Saharan pastoral groups, and includes rare scenes of milking; however, these images can rarely be reliably dated. Although the faunal evidence provides further confirmation of the importance of cattle and other domesticates, the scarcity of cattle bones makes it impossible to ascertain herd structures via kill-off patterns, thereby precluding interpretations of whether dairying was practiced. Because pottery production begins early in northern Africa the potential exists to investigate diet and subsistence practices using molecular and isotopic analyses of absorbed food residues. This approach has been successful in determining the chronology of dairying beginning in the ‘Fertile Crescent’ of the Near East and its spread across Europe. Here we report the first unequivocal chemical evidence, based on the δ13C and Δ13C values of the major alkanoic acids of milk fat, for the adoption of dairying practices by prehistoric Saharan African people in the fifth millennium bc. Interpretations are supported by a new database of modern ruminant animal fats collected from Africa. These findings confirm the importance of ‘lifetime products’, such as milk, in early Saharan pastoralism, and provide an evolutionary context for the emergence of lactase persistence in Africa.

The climate-environment-society nexus in the Sahara from prehistoric times to the present day

The Sahara is a key region for studies of archaeology, human-environment interaction, global biogeochemical cycles, and global climate change. With a few notable exceptions, the region is the subject of very little international scientific research, a fact that is remarkable given the Saharas proximity to Europe, the developmental issues facing its growing population, the regions sensitivity to climate change and the Saharas potential for influencing global climate through the export of airborne mineral dust. This article seeks to address human-environment interaction in the Sahara from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on the implications of Saharan environmental variability and change for human populations both within and outside of the region on timescales ranging from decades to millennia. The article starts by addressing past climatic changes and their impacts on human populations, before moving on to consider present day water resources and rainfall variability in their longer-term context; the possibility of a ‘greening’ of the southern Sahara as suggested by some climate models is also discussed. The role of the Sahara as the worlds largest source of airborne mineral dust is addressed in some detail, as are the impacts of dust on climate, ecosystems and human health, as well as the implications of future changes in climate for dust production and the role of the Sahara in the Earth system. The article ends with a discussion and synthesis that explores the lessons that may be learnt from a study of the physical and social sciences in the Sahara, in particular focusing on what the signature of past environmental and socio-cultural changes can tell us about human responses and adaptations to climatic and environmental change – a matter of great relevance to researchers and policy makers alike in the context of anthropogenic climate change or ‘global warming’.

Inside the “African Cattle Complex”: Animal Burials in the Holocene Central Sahara

Cattle pastoralism is an important trait of African cultures. Ethnographic studies describe the central role played by domestic cattle within many societies, highlighting its social and ideological value well beyond its mere function as ‘walking larder’. Historical depth of this African legacy has been repeatedly assessed in an archaeological perspective, mostly emphasizing a continental vision. Nevertheless, in-depth site-specific studies, with a few exceptions, are lacking. Despite the long tradition of a multi-disciplinary approach to the analysis of pastoral systems in Africa, rarely do early and middle Holocene archaeological contexts feature in the same area the combination of settlement, ceremonial and rock art features so as to be multi-dimensionally explored: the Messak plateau in the Libyan central Sahara represents an outstanding exception. Known for its rich Pleistocene occupation and abundant Holocene rock art, the region, through our research, has also shown to preserve the material evidence of a complex ritual dated to the Middle Pastoral (6080–5120 BP or 5200–3800 BC). This was centred on the frequent deposition in stone monuments of disarticulated animal remains, mostly cattle. Animal burials are known also from other African contexts, but regional extent of the phenomenon, state of preservation of monuments, and associated rock art make the Messak case unique. GIS analysis, excavation data, radiocarbon dating, zooarchaeological and isotopic (Sr, C, O) analyses of animal remains, and botanical information are used to explore this highly formalized ritual and the lifeways of a pastoral community in the Holocene Sahara.

Environment and settlements in the Mid-Holocene palaeo-oasis of Wadi Tanezzuft (Libyan Sahara)

Past research in the Acacus mountains has been mostly concerned with studies of rock art (Mori 1965) and site-oriented investigations, particularly rock-shelters in the central and northern Acacus (Uan Muhuggiag: Mori 1965; Barich 1987; Ti-n-Torha North: Barich 1974; 1987; Wadi Athal: Barich & Mori 1970). This important research disclosed the astonishing archaeological richness of the area. Particular emphasis was given to data suggesting the existence of early forms of pastoral economy in the region (Mori 1961; 1965; Barich 1987). This led to the hypothesis, differently and repeatedly formulated, of a Saharan focus for the emergence of food-producing activity, based on cattle herding, independent from the Nile Valley and the Near East (Mori 1961; Barich 1987). This is not the place to discuss in detail this interesting, but now largely discarded, hypothesis; what is important to underline, however, is the limited database used in its formulation. The results of only three excavations, all located in the mountain ranges, provided the basis of the evidence presented without any attempt to place these sites in a broader regional framework.

The date and context of Neolithic rock art in the Sahara: engravings and ceremonial monuments from Messak Settafet (south-west Libya)

The authors find a context for the rock art of the central Sahara by excavating and recording examples of engraved stones from circular platforms used to sacrifice animals. The type of rock art known as the Pastoral style, featuring evocative outline drawings of cattle, appears on upright stones incorporated into the platforms in the period 5430–5150 BP, and probably earlier. Furthermore, they show that these places were part of a dense and extensive monumental landscape, occupying a harsh environment, supplying quartzite, but with little settlement, appearing to serve the spiritual needs of hundreds of Neolithic people.

Earliest direct evidence of plant processing in prehistoric Saharan pottery

The invention of thermally resistant ceramic cooking vessels around 15,000 years ago was a major advance in human diet and nutrition1–3, opening up new food groups and preparation techniques. Previous investigations of lipid biomarkers contained in food residues have routinely demonstrated the importance of prehistoric cooking pots for the processing of animal products across the world4. Remarkably, however, direct evidence for plant processing in prehistoric pottery has not been forthcoming, despite the potential to cook otherwise unpalatable or even toxic plants2,5. In North Africa, archaeobotanical evidence of charred and desiccated plant organs denotes that Early Holocene hunter-gatherers routinely exploited a wide range of plant resources6. Here, we reveal the earliest direct evidence for plant processing in pottery globally, from the sites of Takarkori and Uan Afuda in the Libyan Sahara, dated to 8200–6400 bc. Characteristic carbon number distributions and δ13C values for plant wax-derived n-alkanes and alkanoic acids indicate sustained and systematic processing of C3/C4 grasses and aquatic plants, gathered from the savannahs and lakes in the Early to Middle Holocene green Sahara.

Environment, Archaeology, and Oil: The Messak Settafet Rescue Operation (Libyan Sahara)

Looking at the satellite images of Central Sahara, anyone would be amazed by a large, heavily black region: it is the Messak (or Amsach, in Tamasheq) Settafet Plateau, part of the Hamada of Murzuq (Fig. 1). Unfortunately, insuffi cient knowledge of this area exists in the archaeological literature. The region was already well known in the mid-nineteenth century, when Heinrich Barth crossed wadi Mathendousc, in the southern fringes of the plateau, and discovered the first rock engravings of the area (Barth, 1857). Decades after that pioneering and isolated journey, this rugged landscape was closely studied by rock art scholars (e.g., Graziosi, 1942; Le Quelleq, 1998; Lutz and Lutz, 1995; Van Albada and Van Albada, 2000), but little attention has been paid to the palaeoenvironmental and archaeological features of the region (e.g., Cremaschi and di Lernia, 1998). The dominant and distinguishing landscape of the Messak is nothing but its astonishing black color, formed by a thin, some microns-thick, film?the desert varnish, or patina?whose nature and age have been recently assessed (Cremaschi, 1996). Apart from its magnificent rock art gallery, probably among the richest in the world, which led UNESCO to include this territory and the adjacent Acacus moun tains on the World Heritage List in 1985, this area features an impressive concen tration of stone monuments: megalithic structures, tumuli, and rings (Cremaschi

Working in a UNESCO WH site: problems and practices on the rock art of Tadrart Akakus (SW Libya, Central Sahara)

Rock art contexts are a fragile aspect of the world’s cultural heritage and have always attracted the attention of scientists, institutions, stakeholders, and visitors. UNESCO gives due recognition to this significance by including many art sites on its World Heritage List. The Tadrart Akakus in SW Libya was awarded this status in 1985. However, over the past decade, given a series of threats (tourism, infrastructure, oil exploitation), these Holocene art sites have become increasingly endangered. The central authorities and local stakeholders have failed to reach a unanimous consensus on the best practices to be adopted to tackle the situation; proposed solutions range from the total closure of the area to self-regulation. The research presented here aims to demonstrate that simple measures at individual sites (information panels, fences), integrated in a comprehensive inter- and multi-disciplinary study of rock art contexts (in particular, statistical and GIS analysis), may represent the best way to help politicians and stakeholders to dynamically manage a cultural heritage site.

Decoding an Early Holocene Saharan Stratified Site. Ceramic Dispersion and Site Formation Processes in the Takarkori Rock-Shelter, Acacus Mountains, Libya

The surface pottery from a well-preserved Holocene archaeological site in south-western Libya is analysed. The collection suggests a long and protracted human occupation of the shelter, from Late Acacus (Mesolithic) hunter-gatherers to Late Pastoral (Neolithic) herders. Aim of the work is to decode the dynamic history of the site via the study of its surface elements, both artefacts and ecofacts, and the way they interacted over the millennia. To do this, traditional ceramic analysis is combined with recently developed methods of description imported from sedimentology, stressing the potentialities of surface archaeological material. In this framework, spatial analysis of scattered potsherds, in connection with their quantitative and qualitative features and chronological attribution, appears of main relevance in the analysis of site formation processes and postdepositional events that altered the archaeological deposit, transforming its present surface.

Combining intensive field survey and digital technologies: new data on the Garamantian castles of Wadi Awiss, Acacus Mts., Libyan Sahara

In recent years, Garamantian archaeology has received renewed attention from historians and archaeologists, particularly in the south-western corner of Libya in the central Sahara. This paper focuses on the potential of intensive field surveys and digital technologies as applied to a particular segment of the Garamantian state: the ‘castles’ of Wadi Awiss and their associated contexts ― necropoleis and site remains. The combination of a field survey, selected settlement soundings and territorial funerary data provided additional information on the chronological and functional organization of the Garamantian system.