Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The legacy of prehistory: an essay on the background to the individuality of African cultures
- 2 North Africa in the period of Phoenician and Greek colonization, c. 800 to 323 BC
- 3 North Africa in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, 323 BC to AD 305
- 4 The Nilotic Sudan and Ethiopia, c. 660 bc to c.ad 600
- 5 Trans-Saharan contacts and the Iron Age in West Africa
- 6 The emergence of Bantu Africa
- 7 The Christian period in Mediterranean Africa, c.ad 200 to 700
- 8 The Arab conquest and the rise of Islam in North Africa
- 9 Christian Nubia
- 10 The Fatimid revolution (861–973) and its aftermath in North Africa
- 11 The Sahara and the Sudan from the Arab conquest of the Maghrib to the rise of the Almoravids
- Bibliographical essays
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Sections
- Plate Sections
- Plate Sections
- References
5 - Trans-Saharan contacts and the Iron Age in West Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 The legacy of prehistory: an essay on the background to the individuality of African cultures
- 2 North Africa in the period of Phoenician and Greek colonization, c. 800 to 323 BC
- 3 North Africa in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, 323 BC to AD 305
- 4 The Nilotic Sudan and Ethiopia, c. 660 bc to c.ad 600
- 5 Trans-Saharan contacts and the Iron Age in West Africa
- 6 The emergence of Bantu Africa
- 7 The Christian period in Mediterranean Africa, c.ad 200 to 700
- 8 The Arab conquest and the rise of Islam in North Africa
- 9 Christian Nubia
- 10 The Fatimid revolution (861–973) and its aftermath in North Africa
- 11 The Sahara and the Sudan from the Arab conquest of the Maghrib to the rise of the Almoravids
- Bibliographical essays
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Sections
- Plate Sections
- Plate Sections
- References
Summary
THE CLIMATIC BACKGROUND: THE DESICCATION OF THE SAHARA
Today all authorities agree that the Sahara had a humid climate during the six to eight millennia prior to about 2000 BC. Great lakes like the modern Lake Chad covered much of the southern Sahara. These have left evidence of their presence in the form of deposits of diatoms (which can provide radiocarbon dates); the skeletons of reptiles, mammals and fish; and waterside human habitation sites possessed of rich Stone Age industries. The largest of these lakes, ‘Mega-Chad’, then extended over 330,000 sq. km to the 325 m contour, whereas the modern lake has an area of only 25,000 sq. km, and is bounded by the 282-metre contour. The latter it should be noted, is not at the lowest point of the Chad basin, which in Djourab is only 165 m above sea level.
In these favourable conditions, a wide variety of fauna were able to live in areas which are today wholly desert, such as Tenere, Tanezrouft and Majabet al-Koubra. Innumerable neolithic sites have been found and, moreover, most of those rocks which are suitable are covered with pictures of the large ‘Ethiopian’ fauna which could then live in the Sahara, including elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, antelopes and hippopotamuses. Saharan man was then a hunter-gatherer and sometimes also a fisherman.
From about 5000 BC, the Sahara began slowly to change into desert, a development which is probably connected with the general increase in temperatures in the northern hemisphere which led to the melting of the glaciers of northern Europe.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Africa , pp. 272 - 341Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1979
References
- 5
- Cited by