The background: the lost society of the central Sahara and the rise of ancient Egypt
The origins of ancient Egypt are archaeology’s greatest unsolved mystery. What prompted this remarkable culture to develop such distinctive rituals as mummification? Where did they get their ideas? As far as we know, Egypt was only preceded by one great civilisation: Mesopotamia. Although Mesopotamia is a far older culture – there is no evidence to suggest that these people had developed any similar funerary practises. But if Egyptian innovations did not come from earlier known civilisations – where did they come from?
The answer has come from an unlikely quarter – the barren Sahara desert. In the last few decades evidence has been mounting that the Egyptian civilisation was not the first advanced society in Africa. At the same time as Mesopotamia rose in the near east, another culture thrived in Africa. Although few people have heard of it – this central Saharan culture is providing evidence for the invention of ritual activity which had previously been attributed to the Egyptians...
The mummy and archaeology in Libya:
An Italian team of archaeologists first explored the Libyan Sahara almost fifty years ago. In 1958 they struck gold. Professor Fabrizio Mori discovered the black mummy at the Uan Muhuggiag rockshelter. The mummy of a young boy, Uan Muhuggiag was destined for controversy. He was older than any comparable Egyptian mummy and his mere existence challenged the very idea that Egyptians were the first in the region to mummify their dead. Although the Italian team from the university of Rome “La Sapienza”, has since discovered other mummified tissue, they have not yet discovered another complete mummy in the region. But Uan Muhuggiag was no one off. The sophistication of his mummification suggested he was the result of a long tradition of mummification. Investigations in the area continue under the direction of Dr Savino di Lernia and Professor Mario Liverani...
Well, many of us here already know the story but where is all the buzz now?? There was some buzz about it when the media led by the Discovery Channel made it public three years ago back in 2003, but even then the attention didn't seem as great as that of the debaucle that was the French reconstruction of Tut!
Uan Muhuggiag is the oldest known mummy in the world, so where is his fame??...
Or is Uan's recognition stifled by racial prejudice by peoples professor Hore calls the average "Joe sixpack"??...
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have that program and I must say watch your step. While they do admit the presence of mummification in Africa prior to Egypt, they at the same time make comments such as "the rock art of the sahara obviously represents NORTHERN peoples who entered the sahara"...... please.
Likewise the above mention of the antiquity of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is NOT more ancient than Egypt or other civilizations in Africa. Therefore, it is NOT the standard bearer for the FIRST civilization. Therefore, we MUST be careful when viewing this stuff. Also, this was NOT the only mummy found.
Posts: 8890 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Doug makes a good point about what constitutes a more ancient culture; Kemet was the world's first nation state, a centralized polity that spans a wide region [having brought different polities under a single polity], to extent of the abundance of evidence. No such state existed in Mesopotamia until much later. What Eurocentrist scholars do, is simple "artificially" unify the disparate complexes in the Levant, and impart the impression that "Mesopotamia" was some well-organized centralized polity from the onset. I guess, if one were to "artificially" unit all early separate predynastic Nile Valley polities from "Meroitic" regions, Kerma, all the way to the coast of Lower Egypt, even then, "Mesopotamia" would still not match up to the antiquity of the "combined" cultural complexes documented in the region.
As far as Uan Muhuggiag or "Black Mummy" is concerned, maybe if a facial reconstruction of it was done, with an attempt to give it an awkward "Nordic" appearance, and referred to as "Caucasoid" Black Mummy, the ensuing controversy would no doubt enhance the media/internet "sensation" about it.
Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Doug M: I have that program and I must say watch your step. While they do admit the presence of mummification in Africa prior to Egypt, they at the same time make comments such as "the rock art of the sahara obviously represents NORTHERN peoples who entered the sahara"...... please.
Unfortunately I haven't even seen the program yet, but what exactly do they mean by "northern"?! I maybe asking an undersatingly rhetorical question, but if by "northern" they mean by what anthropologists of the 'old days' used as a nickname for "caucasoid", then these folks are seriously desperate!
From what I understand, almost no anthropologists today speak of "caucasoids" in North Africa, at least by Neolithic times!!
There are fossil remains in the area described as "Proto-Mediterranean" but only in the sense of certain East Africans found in the Horn.
Exactly, WHAT rock paintings made them come to the conclusion of a "northern" people, anyway?!!
And who was the Italian anthropologist in the show anyway? I don't think it was Cavelli Sforza, especially since Sforza has recently come to his senses and admit the presence of blacks in North Africa since the Neolithic.
quote:Likewise the above mention of the antiquity of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is NOT more ancient than Egypt or other civilizations in Africa. Therefore, it is NOT the standard bearer for the FIRST civilization. Therefore, we MUST be careful when viewing this stuff. Also, this was NOT the only mummy found.
The whole mention of Mesopotamia is a joke to me. Egypt is far older than Mesopotamia with cultural complexes going back further than those found in the Near East proper. In fact thare are even urban communities found further up the Nile in Nubia that are much older than anything in Mesopotamia!
Judging by these claims, I believe that Discovery Channel did a cheap job in hiring the 'experts' for this project and these so-called experts obviously did a shoddy job to say the least.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Supercar: Doug makes a good point about what constitutes a more ancient culture; Kemet was the world's first nation state, a centralized polity that spans a wide region [having brought different polities under a single polity], to extent of the abundance of evidence. No such state existed in Mesopotamia until much later. What Eurocentrist scholars do, is simple "artificially" unify the disparate complexes in the Levant, and impart the impression that "Mesopotamia" was some well-organized centralized polity from the onset. I guess, if one were to "artificially" unit all early separate predynastic Nile Valley polities from "Meroitic" regions, Kerma, all the way to the coast of Lower Egypt, even then, "Mesopotamia" would still not match up to the antiquity of the "combined" cultural complexes documented in the region.
And again, the roots of Nile Valley civilization including those found in the 'Nubian' region are far older than anything found in Mesopotamia
quote:As far as Uan Muhuggiag or "Black Mummy" is concerned, maybe if a facial reconstruction of it was done, with an attempt to give it an awkward "Nordic" appearance, and referred to as "Caucasoid" Black Mummy, the ensuing controversy would no doubt enhance the media/internet "sensation" about it.
So you agree with Hore's opinion that racial bias is that great-- that if the mummy were not 'black' he would recieve greater fame and recognition??...
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
So you agree with Hore's opinion that racial bias is that great-- that if the mummy were not 'black' he would recieve greater fame and recognition??...
I don't agree with the idea of 'falsification' of real scientific analysis of a specimen by resorting to fraudulent typological constructs...and I don't know if the mummy been proclaimed not "black", that this in itself would have allowed greater fame, since some mummies in south-east/central Asia have been proclaimed to have affinities with "Caucasoids", yet those mummies don't seem to receive the same recognition as the Egyptian ones. However, the controversy generated by applying fraudulent science to the Black Mummy, would certainly make this Mummy a much talked about subject, just as Tut has become.
Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
^^I see. But in any case, if people are so fascinated with mummies and with Egypt then why isn't Uan getting that much attetion as the world's earliest mummy and representitive of a culture that introduced the custom of mummification to Egypt?!...
Uan is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time yet he is treated like 2nd class to the likes of Tut even though Tut's mummy is a result of the influence of Uan's people.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^^I see. But in any case, if people are so fascinated with mummies and with Egypt then why isn't Uan getting that much attetion as the world's earliest mummy and representitive of a culture that introduced the custom of mummification to Egypt?!...
Uan is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time yet he treated like 2nd class to the likes of Tut even though Tut's mummy is a result of the influence of Uan's people.
I wouldn't mind giving you a straight up answer, but I figure you know what's up.
Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Don't worry about these things too much. As more and more discoveries come out of North Africa, people will come around. Actually, it is a blessing in disguise for some to ignore these other areas. This gives us time to look these over first. When the others wake up, they will take over the research and interpretation.
And many more older mummies will be found in North Africa.
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
^^That's the same question I've been asking since the issue first came out!
Considering that these so-called "experts" placed the label 'black' on this earliest known mummy, I'd expected the remains to possess very rugged "negroid" features-- all the stereotypical features of the Eurocentric category of the "Forest" or "true-negro". Yet instead, the remains looked NO DIFFERENT from those of any Egyptian mummy! At least from my perspective.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
The question is whether we have details of cranio-metric analysis on the mummy. There is no reason to doubt that the mummy, being of Sahelian extraction, would fall within indigenous African ranges of bone morphology, which pretty much covers much of the variations across the globe; Hiernaux couldn't have put it better, recalling on:
Jean Hiernaux "The People of Africa" 1975 p.53, 54
"In sub-Saharan Africa, many anthropological characters show a wide range of population means or frequencies. In some of them, the whole world range is covered in the sub-continent. Here live the shortest and the tallest human populations, the one with the highest and the one with the lowest nose, the one with the thickest and the one with the thinnest lips in the world. In this area, the range of the average nose widths covers 92 per cent of the world range:
only a narrow range of extremely low means are absent from the African record. Means for head diameters cover about 80 per cent of the world range; 60 per cent is the corresponding value for a variable once cherished by physical anthropologists, the cephalic index, or ratio of the head width to head length expressed as a percentage....."
-------------------- Truth - a liar penetrating device! Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
^^Regardless, I still don't understand why the mummy was labeled black when it looke NO DIFFERENT from Egyptian mummies in terms of features.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^^Regardless, I still don't understand why the mummy was labeled black when it looke NO DIFFERENT from Egyptian mummies in terms of features.
I am assuming that you are using the term "regardless" here, along with the rest of the comment, on the basis of a study on cranio-metric comparison, right? If so, it wouldn't be a bad idea to share with us this study.
Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ No, I meant 'regardless' as in anyway or in any case. No need to be paranoid or smartass about it. I never disagreed with Hiernaux, and on the contrary I myself have cited that piece on many occasions.
I want to know why Uan's mummy was called 'black' or what basis when it looks no different from many Egyptian mummies.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
No need to be paranoid or smartass about it. I never disagreed with Hiernaux, and on the contrary I myself have cited that piece on many occasions.
No, I wouldn't want that; we have an ASS already, i.e. you, paranoid about a mere call for substantian of this: "it looke NO DIFFERENT from Egyptian mummies in terms of features - Djehuti.
One ASS is too many. You ought to stop the paranoia of turning each and any geniune desire to learn the source(s) of your claim as something cynical or someone out to 'gatch ya'; perhaps akoben and the like following you around has really focked your mind up, and got the better of you. You need a chill pill, buay!
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Explorateur wrote: ---------------------------------- No, I wouldn't want that; we have an ASS already, i.e. you, paranoid about a mere call for substantian of this: ----------------------------------
---------------------------------- One ASS is too many. You ought to stop the paranoia of turning each and any geniune desire to learn the source(s) of your claim as something cynical ----------------------------------
Djehuti is one of the most unscholarly and anti-intellectual posters to have ever post here outside of his fellow racists from the race loon forums.
He has absolutely no ability to provide evidence or facts for his claims, which in turn means that his claims are nothing more than opinions and wishful thinking.
This forum cannot afford his type of bankrupt anti-intellectual non-scholarship posts.
Posts: 3085 | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Explorateur: No, I wouldn't want that; we have an ASS already, i.e. you, paranoid about a mere call for substantian of this: "it looke NO DIFFERENT from Egyptian mummies in terms of features - Djehuti.
Oh! Well I did not know that was what you were referring to! I made my claims solely based on observation, and although I haven't seen the program, those who have all say they mentioned no craniometric studies for their classification of 'black'.
quote:One ASS is too many. You ought to stop the paranoia of turning each and any geniune desire to learn the source(s) of your claim as something cynical or someone out to 'gatch ya'; perhaps akoben and the like following you around has really focked your mind up, and got the better of you. You need a chill pill, buay!
LOL Not yet! Though they trying really hard. Speaking of asses, notice how your reference to them attracted one as per the post above!
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Gaygoyle9<--- wrote: Djehuti is one of the most unscholarly and anti-intellectual posters to have ever post here outside of his fellow racists from the race loon forums.
How so when I contribute scholarly and intellectual information all the time, while you NEVER?!
quote:He has absolutely no ability to provide evidence or facts for his claims, which in turn means that his claims are nothing more than opinions and wishful thinking.
B*tch, I provide more facts than YOU! As you have NON! You can't even cite proof that I am "racist" or have said anything racist or pertaining to "racial hierarchy" as you claimed!
quote:This forum cannot afford his type of bankrupt anti-intellectual non-scholarship posts.
You are definitely in a state of denial as well as psychological projection!
If you have nothing to add to this scholarly thread that I myself have created, you can get your gaping, leaky ass out!
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Alright then, I'll accept that there was a miscommunication; that said, this thread until now, has been one of the rare occasions of a clean discussion with great potential to be interesting -- hate to see a good thread go astray.
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
I finally seen this on National Geographic channel, and I must say, I don't get why they're sooo surprised that a so-called "BLACK MUMMY" found in Northern Africa, would be such a SHOCK. I mean it's in Africa. Now if they'd found an African in my country (USA) older then the oldest Africans found in the Mexico early 1500's, then that would be an interesting story.
And how can they tell features from a small child anyway, I thought our features didn't kick in, until we're adolescents. The Italian dude seemed really sincere, and honest, nothing like that katt Hawass. The only thing that bothered me is how he refers to the mummy as "the black mummy"....and we the public are suppose to trust the so-called scientist, please.
Posts: 62 | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Anyone know where I get this vid on the Net?
-------------------- Across the sea of time, there can only be one of you. Make you the best one you can be. Posts: 4028 | From: NW USA | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
Absolutely mindboggling that whites can pull the stuff they can and fools fall for it over and over and over.
Posts: 3085 | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Also interesting in the thread above is how Djehuti came to the defense of the racist loon yonis. But what else would we expect from him?
Posts: 3085 | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ Ignoring the white racist pyscho-idiot troll...
quote:Originally posted by Johnny Blaze: I finally seen this on National Geographic channel, and I must say, I don't get why they're sooo surprised that a so-called "BLACK MUMMY" found in Northern Africa, would be such a SHOCK. I mean it's in Africa. Now if they'd found an African in my country (USA) older then the oldest Africans found in the Mexico early 1500's, then that would be an interesting story.
And how can they tell features from a small child anyway, I thought our features didn't kick in, until we're adolescents. The Italian dude seemed really sincere, and honest, nothing like that katt Hawass. The only thing that bothered me is how he refers to the mummy as "the black mummy"....and we the public are suppose to trust the so-called scientist, please.
To me the surprise is that they classified this North African child as 'black' but not the Egyptians! I still ponder why this is so.
quote:Originally posted by osirion: Anyone know where I get this vid on the Net?
My question as well since I missed its showing in Discovery and I don't have the Natgeo channel.
quote:Originally posted by Obenga: The mummy was significantly prognathic, they had no doubts it was "Negroid".
So that was the feature on which they base their classification on??! I take it the 'significance' is emphasized since obviously many Egyptian mummies were prognatic as well but perhaps not that much, but then again what about those mummies of the early dynasties or those of dynasty 12 and 18?? Even those mummies were designated as either "negroid" or having "negroid-like" appearance decades ago by anthropologists.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
From what I read and deduce from the following, would be with the climatic desiccation in middle Holocene ultimately gave rise to developments of the civilizations in North Africa, the Near East, so called Mediterranean region. Indicating that the cause of these civilizations were result of the spread of indigenous Saharan's.
quote:The prehistory of Western Sahara in a regional context: the archaeology of the "free zone" by Brooks, Nick Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Saharan Studies Programme and School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK Coauthors: Di Lernia, Savino ((Department of Scienze Storiche, Archeologiche, e Antropologiche dell’Antichità, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Via Palestro 63, 00185 – Rome, Italy) and Drake, Nick (Department of Geography, King’s College, Strand, London WC2R 2LS).
The disputed territory of Western Sahara has long been inaccessible to research as a result of the military and political conflict between Morocco, which occupies some eighty per cent of the territory, and the Frente Polisario, the Algeria-based Western Saharan independence movement. This paper presents the findings of a two-week reconnaissance survey of the archaeology and environment of the Northern Sector of the Polisario-controlled zone of Western Sahara (Figure 1), which took place in September and October 2002, and comprised researchers from the UK and Italy. The results of the survey are described within the context of their relevance to the archaeology and environmental history of the wider Saharan region, after a consideration of the general environmental history of he Sahara as a whole. Fig. 1: Study area of the 2002 survey. The cultural history of the Sahara is intimately related to the existence of a succession of humid and arid episodes, which in turn are associated with periods of global warming and cooling respectively. Evidence from throughout the Sahara indicates that the region experienced a cool, dry and windy climate during the last glacial period, followed by a wetter climate with the onset of the current interglacial, with humid conditions being fully established by around 10,000 years BP, ***when we see the first evidence of a reoccupation of parts of the central Sahara by hunter gathers, most likely originating from sub-Saharan Africa*** (Cremaschi and Di Lernia, 1998; Goudie, 1992; Phillipson, 1993; Ritchie, 1994; Roberts, 1998). The cycle of glacial desiccation followed by interglacial greening is believed to be driven predominantly by variations in northern hemisphere insolation resulting from changes in the tilt of the Earth’s axis associated with the precessional cycle (Roberts, 1998). Stronger insolation leads to increase heating of the North African subcontinent, intensifying the African Monsoon, which penetrates deep into the Sahara. Superimposed on the interglacial humid episodes are brief periods of aridity lasting from decades to centuries, broadly coincident with cold events in the Atlantic that appear to be manifestations of internal climate variability that (Alley et al. 1997; Bond et al., 1997; Cremaschi et al., 2001, 2002; Di Lernia and Palombini, 2002). In the early Holocene, when northern hemisphere summer insolation was strong, these arid episodes were followed by recovery; however, the onset of aridity around 5000 years BP was followed by a long-term desiccation throughout the Sahara (Cremaschi, 1998; Jolly et al. 1998; Lioubimsteva 1995). While there is a high degree of homogeneity in the Saharan palaeoclimatic record on multi-millennial timescales (Jolly et al., 1998; Lézine, 1989; Petit-Maire et al., 1997), the timings of arid episodes and the onset of environmental desiccation are not identical at all locations (Alley et al., 1997; Gasse and van Campo, 1994; Goodfriend, 1991; Smith, 1998). This may be explained by a combination of geographical differences in the nature of the principal rain-bearing systems (particularly at the extremities of the Sahara), and the mediation of climate change impacts by local surface environments. The impacts of the final climatic desiccation of the Sahara on human populations would have been strongly mediated by the rapidity and nature of the corresponding environmental desiccation. Where surface water disappeared rapidly, human populations would have been forced to migrate to wetter areas; however, in certain areas populations undertook local adaptation to gradual desiccation by exploiting refugia in which water remained as a consequence of the near-surface geology or occasional rainfall resulting from local topography (Di Lernia et al., 2002; Mattingly et al., 2003). The area investigated during the 2002 field survey in Western Sahara is situated between the present day zones of westerly Atlantic rain-bearing systems to the northwest and monsoonal rainfall to the south, and is characterised by numerous ephemeral river channels. While further research is necessary to develop a detailed environmental chronology for the study area, two radiocarbon dates indicate wetter conditions in the region in the seventh millennium BP, with water present in one of the now-dry lakes in the fifth millennium BP (Brooks et al., 2003). These preliminary results are broadly consistent with data from the central Sahara indicating an early-middle Holocene humid episode followed by middle-late Holocene desiccation (Petit-Maire et al., 1997). Archaeological materials also indicate significant commonality with other Saharan regions. Acheulian and Aterian materials, and a single trihedral point, indicate that the study area was occupied in the Pleistocene, although the density of materials suggests that occupation may have been in the form of small, transient groups. The density of burial sites indicates a much larger population in the Holocene, and Holocene microlithic materials were also recorded. In particular, funerary monuments representing a wide range of typologies reflect the material culture of the central Sahara. Conical tumuli, platform burials and a V-type monument represent structures similar to those found in other Saharan regions and associated with human burials, appearing in sixth millennium BP onwards in northeast Niger and southwest Libya (Sivilli, 2002). In the latter area a shift in emphasis from faunal to human burials, complete by the early fifth millennium BP, has been interpreted by Di Lernia and Manzi (2002) as being associated with a changes in social organisation that occurred at a time of increasing aridity. While further research is required in order to place the funerary monuments of Western Sahara in their chronological context, we can postulate a similar process as a hypothesis to be tested, based on the high density of burial sites recorded in the 2002 survey. Fig. 2: Megaliths associated with tumulus burial (to right of frame), north of Tifariti (Fig. 1). A monument consisting of sixty five stelae was also of great interest; precise alignments north and east, a division of the area covered into separate units, and a deliberate scattering of quartzite inside the structure, are suggestive of an astronomical function associated with funerary rituals. Stelae are also associated with a number of burial sites, again suggesting dual funerary and astronomical functions (Figure 2). Further similarities with other Saharan regions are evident in the rock art recorded in the study area, although local stylistic developments are also apparent. Carvings of wild fauna at the site of Sluguilla resemble the Tazina style found in Algeria, Libya and Morocco (Pichler and Rodrigue, 2003), although examples of elephant and rhinoceros in a naturalistic style reminiscent of engravings from the central Sahara believed to date from the early Holocene are also present. The situation at Sluguilla is unusual in that carvings are located on isolated, largely horizontal limestone slabs exposed to the elements (Figure 3). Fig. 3: Example of engravings at Sluguilla, near the border with Algeria. The combination of familiar Saharan subjects and local stylistic innovation is also apparent at the previously recorded sites of Erqeiz and Irghayra (Soler et al, 1999) and the newly identified site of Bou Dheir (Brooks et al, 2003). These sites are all located along elevated areas overlooking wide plains, in contrast to Sluguilla, and are associated with paintings rather than carvings. Erqeiz and Bou Dheir are notable for their representations of large wild fauna, familiar from the central Sahara in the form of engravings (Dupuy, 1999, Jelínek, 2000; Phillipson, 1993). At Rekeiz an elephant and rhinoceros are depicted on the same vertical rock face in a location some distance from the main concentrations of paintings, while an elephant and a buffalo are recorded at Bou Dheir in close proximity to representations of human figures, hand prints, cattle, gazelle and a large painting that may be a wild or domesticated ovicaprid. Giraffe are represented in paintings at Bou Dheir and Rekeiz, and in engravings at Sluguilla, indicating that they occupied an important role in the lives of the prehistoric peoples of the region, as they did throughout the Sahara (Dupuy, 1999; van Hoek, 2003). Cattle feature prominently in the rock art of the Northern Sector, particularly at Erqueiz. They are also represented at Bou Dheir, in a particularly distinctive painted style. A remarkable isolated engraving of a cow with a smaller animal depicted inside the stomach, presumably an infant or unborn calf, was recorded on a rock at the edge of a plateau on which were located a number of funerary monuments, including platform and corbeille structures (Figure 4). Fig. 4: Representation of pregnant cow (?) in far north of study area (Wadi Tirnit). These images illustrate that cattle were crucial to the lives of the prehistoric peoples of Western Sahara, as they were throughout the Sahara (e.g. Di Lernia and Palombini, 2002; Holl and Dueppen, 1999). Ovicaprids are also a common theme in the rock paintings of the study area, although it is difficult to determine whether these images represent domestic or wild animals. At Rekeiz and Irghrayra sheep or goats are depicted in long lines consisting of many animals. The dominant painted panel at Bou Dheir is centred on a large image of an animal of uncertain type, possibly an ovicaprid or a wild herbivore, but clearly of great significance to the artist or artists (Figure 5). Human figures are represented only in the painted imagery recorded to date; they are absent from the recorded engravings of Sluguilla, although their presence at unrecorded sites cannot be discounted. Some of the figures at Bou Dheir are represented with distinctive crests or headdresses reminiscent of painted figures of Mediterranean or Near Eastern appearance in the central Sahara, while representations at Erqueiz are very different in appearance, suggesting at least two different population groups. Despite the large distances involved, it appears that the far west of the Sahara around the latitude of 25° N was far from isolated from the remainder of the greater Saharan region. The prehistoric inhabitants of Western Sahara hunted and recorded the same animals as their counterparts in central and eastern regions, and shared the same technologies. Fig. 5: Principal painted recess at the Bou Dheir rock shelter. As throughout the Sahara, they responded to the same pressures of climatic and environmental desiccation; the location of hearths within wide river channels suggests a congregation around diminishing water resources, while the depiction of a wide variety of more humid-climate fauna indicate Holocene desiccation following a humid phase. However, many questions remain regarding the chronology of human occupation and the processes of adaptation and cultural evolution. For example, was the region reoccupied at the same time as the recolonisation of the central Sahara, or did transient occupation continue through the arid period that preceded the Holocene? Did changes in funerary practices evolve in situ as societies became more stratified during the final period of desiccation, or were new practices introduced fully formed by migrants from other regions where desiccation was more advanced? How and when were cattle introduced to the region? In what directions did migration occur throughout the Holocene? These questions can only be answered by further extensive research in the region, which is contingent on a continued ceasefire between the parties to the conflict, and ultimately on its peaceful and just resolution.
Beyond collapse: the role of climatic desiccation in the emergence of complex societies in the middle Holocene Nick Brooks Saharan Studies Programme, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. Email: nick.brooks@uea.ac.uk. Extended Abstract Abrupt climate change is often invoked as a trigger for the collapse of civilisations. The fall of the Akkadian Empire and the end of the Egyptian Old Kingdom around 4200 years before present (BP) have both been attributed to climatic change resulting in regional desiccation (Cullen et al., 2000; Hassan, 1997; Weiss, 1997). However, there is widespread evidence that climatic and environmental stress played a major role in the emergence of early civilisations, and that aridification in particular acted as a trigger for increased social complexity associated with urbanisation and state formation. This paper argues that the highly urbanised, state-level societies of the sub-tropical arid belt that emerged in the middle Holocene did so as a result of a process of adaptation to water scarcity. Evidence that the desert belt of the northern hemisphere experienced wetter conditions in the past is widespread, but is particularly rich in the Sahara (Jolly, 1998; Kutzback and Liu, 1997; Lezine, 1989; Lioubimsteva, 1995; Maley, 1977). Dating of archaeological sites, lake sediments and faunal remains indicates that wet conditions were established in the Sahara by around 10,000 BP after a long period of aridity associated with the last glacial period (Goudie, 1992, Ritchie, 1994; Roberts, 1998). This humid phase was associated with an intensification of the African Monsoon caused by increased northern hemisphere summer insolation, resulting in its penetration far north of its current northernmost position (Claussen et al., 1999, 2003; Ganopolski et al., 1998; Tuenter et al., 2003). The early Holocene humid phase was, however, punctuated by episodes of aridity that appear to have coincided with North Atlantic cooling events evident from ice-rafted debris and Greenland ice-core records (Alley et al. 1997; Bond et al., 1997; Cremaschi et al., 2001, 2002; Di Lernia and Palombini, 2002; Goodfriend, 1991; Smith, 1998; Guo et al., 2000). While summer insolation remained strong, the Saharan region recovered from these arid interruptions, and humid conditions were re-established. However, there is evidence that recovery was at best partial in the eastern Sahara after an arid event around 6000 BP (Di Lernia and Palombini, 2002; Goodfriend, 1991; Smith, 1998), and the entire Sahara had entered a period of desiccation by around 5000 BP (Cremaschi, 1998; Grandi et al. 1999; Jolly et al. 1998; Lioubimsteva 1995). The process of environmental desiccation that followed the southward retreat of the monsoon was mediated by geography; while water persisted at or near the surface in some locations long after the cessation of significant rainfall, hyper-arid surface conditions were established rapidly in other Saharan regions (Cremaschi and Di Lernia, 1998). It has been noted that the rise of Dynastic civilisation in Egypt coincided with the onset of widespread Saharan desiccation, and a number of authors have suggested that increased social complexity in the Nile Valley may have been precipitated by desertification in the eastern Sahara. Adams and Cialowicz (1997, p 57) state that the formation of the pharaonic state was the result of the expansion of the Naqada culture of Upper Egypt and was “encouraged by the pressure of a greater population in the south, where climatic change in the late Predynastic had reduced winter rainfall and husbandry in the deserts and brought about a reliance of agriculture in natural basins.” This view is supported by Wilkinson (2003), who argues that populations that had previously practiced seasonal migration between the Nile Valley and the summer savannah in what is now Egypt’s Eastern Desert were forced to settle permanently in the Nile Valley as a result of the cessation of summer rainfall. Malville et al. (1998, p 448) suggest that “an exodus from the Nubian Desert at ~4,800 [uncalibrated radiocarbon] years BP may have stimulated social differentiation and cultural complexity in pre-dynastic Upper Egypt.” It is plausible that the necessity to settle permanently in the Nile Valley, coupled with a likely increase in population due to immigration resulting from the desiccation of the surrounding Saharan 2 regions, stimulated both technological innovation and further social stratification. Current models of Egyptian state formation suggest that the northward expansion that led to unification followed a period in which competing “proto-state entities” coalesced in Upper Egypt in the late sixth millennium BP (Maisels, 1999). It is tempting to interpret such a process within a context of both cooperation (between the constituent elements of such entities) and conflict (between entities) driven by the need for collective security in a time of instability and dwindling resources. Migrant groups arriving in the Nile Valley are likely either to have come into conflict with existing populations or to have formed disadvantaged groups, either of which would have increased social stratification. Groups of lower status would have provided a pool of labour which during the Early Dynastic period could have been exploited for the monumental building projects that were a prominent feature of Egyptian society. The cultural and environmental trajectories of Mesopotamia are less well understood and arguably more complex than those of Egypt. The courses of the Tigris and Euphrates appear to have been more variable than that of the Nile, and shifts in river courses had dramatic impacts on local environments, meaning that caution must be exercised in palaeo-environmental interpretation (Maisels, 1999; Matthews, 2003). Nonetheless, a combination of palaeo-environmental evidence and modelling studies reviewed briefly by Algaze (1991) indicate that parts of southern Mesopotamia underwent a process of aridification in the middle and late sixth millennium BP, the formative period of Mesopotamian civilisation characterised by the Uruk culture. A combination of changes in river courses and increasing aridity has been postulated by Algaze (2001) as a driver of increasing social complexity, stimulating social instability, regional competition and conflict, and population agglomeration. While palaeoclimatic proxies are unavailable at present for the southern Mesopotamian alluvial lowlands, evidence from surrounding regions suggest a precipitation minimum from around 5200-4900 BP (Butzer, 1995, cited in Pollock, 1999), coinciding with the transitional Jemdet Nasr period. During this period the Uruk culture collapsed, giving way to “an extended period of regionalism” (Matthews, 2003, pp 118-119). The principal Uruk city of Uruk-Warka nonetheless grew dramatically, and “The region around Uruk-Warka played host to a sudden tenfold increase in settlement density at about 3200 BC, coupled with the development of a four-tiered hierarchy of settlement, all made possible by increased availability of dry and very fertile land newly freed from constant inundation by an ameliorating [sic] climate” (Matthews, 2003, p110, citing Nissen, 1988 pp 66-67). This period also appears to have been associated with increased conflict and the fortification of settlements, suggesting competition for resources as much as abundance resulting from the availability of new fertile land (Leick, 2001, p 55; Schwartz, 2001, p 262), and was followed by a period of competing and cooperating city states (Leick, 2001; Pollock, 1999). While the factors driving demographic, social and political change in Mesopotamia in the sixth and fifth millennia BP were doubtless complex and numerous, there is evidence that the wider region was subject to significant environmental change during this period, characterised by increasing aridity (Wright, 2001. p 128). It is therefore a reasonable hypothesis that water scarcity and a consequent shift of population and food production to the vicinity of major rivers was a significant factor in the evolution of Mesopotamian society. The growth of urban centres and the emergence of competing city states that ultimately gave way to the Akkadian and Babylonian empires is reminiscent of the process postulated above for the Nile Valley, albeit unfolding over a much longer timescale. In Mesopotamia the emergence of city states is preceded by a degree of apparent cultural homogeneity during the Ubaid and Uruk periods. There is still much debate as to the nature of Ubaid society, and of the Uruk expansion throughout the sixth millennium BP; while some scholars view the latter in an imperial context, others question the view of Uruk as an imperial capital (Algaze, 2001; Matthews, 2003). What does seem unambiguous is that, while Mesopotamia is experiencing fragmentation at a time of unity in early Dynastic Egypt, in both cases cooperation and conflict are associated with the emergence of stratified state-level societies during a time of increasing aridity in the late sixth and early fifth millennia BP. It is also notable that complex urban societies emerge in other parts of the world in the early fifth millennium, for example in the Indus Valley region (Maisels, 1999, p 192; Chakrabarti, 1995, pp 111-114) and the Supe Valley of Peru (Solis et al., 2001). In both cases this form of increasing social complexity appears to follow regional climatic desiccation in the late sixth and fifth millennia BP (Enzel et al., 1999; Haug et al., 2001). While the interactions of human populations with the physical environment are even more obscure in the Americas and the Indus region than in Mesopotamia and Egypt, we can postulate (as a hypothesis to be tested) competition, cooperation and population agglomeration as responses to water scarcity that led to new social structures, as the surface environment underwent desiccation in response to a reduction in rainfall. 3 The purpose here is not to present a case for climatic determinism, rather to illustrate that climatic and environmental change of a kind usually associated (correctly or incorrectly) with the collapse of civilisations also appears to have played a significant role in the emergence of the very same civilisations. The environmental desiccation experienced in sub-tropical Africa and Asia in the sixth and fifth millennia BP appears to be associated with an abrupt cool episode occurring around 5900 BP that led to widespread aridity (Bond et al., 1997; Goodfriend, 1991; Smith, 1998). Research into land-atmosphere interaction suggests that this event may have acted as a trigger for long-term desiccation in some regions (such as the eastern Sahara) and that subsequent desiccation around 5000 BP was due to a collapse of vegetation feedbacks as orbital forcing of the summer monsoon weakened (Claussen et al., 1999, 2003; Haug et al., 2001). It should be noted that the cool/arid episode that has been linked to societal collapse around 4200 BP (Cullen et al., 2000; Weiss, 1997) was of a qualitatively similar nature to that of 5900 BP, while the outcomes of these events, according to the above hypothesis, were very different. It is not only different outcomes from similar types of event that caution us against simple climatic determinism. The concentration of populations in expanding settlements where surface water is available, and the organisation of these populations into specialised urban and/or stratified state-level societies, is not the only response to increasing aridity evident in the archaeological record. In other words the nature of the response is not determined by the nature of the climatic stress to which people must adapt. Differential adaptation is apparent in response to climatic desiccation in the Fezzan region of southern Libya, where Di Lernia and Palombini (2002) describe two contrasting responses to aridity in the middle Holocene. In higher elevation regions cattle herding, previously the dominant economic activity, almost completely disappeared after 5000 BP. The keeping of cattle was replaced by highly mobile pastoralism based on sheep and goats and involving large-scale year round movement in order to exploit remnant water and pasture, a nomadic lifestyle that persists to this day. In contrast, lower elevation regions were characterised by increasing settlement in relict oases, associated with sedentism and more intensive exploitation of local resources. Settlement in the relict oases ultimately led to the emergence of the Garamantian civilisation in the early third millennium BP, based on the exploitation of underground water resources via the construction of subterranean irrigation channels or foggara (Wilson and Mattingly, 2003). The Garamantes dominated the Fezzan between about 3000 BP and 700 AD, and their society appears to have arisen as the result of local innovation, the outcome of a process of increasing social complexity among the pastoral groups of the Fezzan (Di Lernia et al., 2002; Mattingly, 2003). As seems to have occurred in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the emergence of the Garamantian polity was associated with inward migration, increased population density, changes in religious beliefs and practices, social stratification and a more territorial approach to the landscape, catalysed by the final desiccation of most of the landscape soon after 3000 BP (Brooks et al., 2003; Cremaschi and Di Lernia, 2001; Di Lernia et al, 2002; Mattingly et al., 2003). The evidence strongly suggests that climatic desiccation centred around 5000 BP played a major role in the emergence of early complex societies or “civilisations”, characterised by a high degree of some or all of the following: urbanisation, specialisation, social stratification, and state-level organisation. This event appears to have been connected with a combination of millennial-scale North Atlantic variability, orbitallyinduced southwards monsoonal retreat, and a collapse of vegetation-atmosphere feedbacks. Nonetheless, the nature of early civilisations varied considerably, and there was no single trajectory followed by societies as they adapted to increasing aridity.
quote:Population genetic relationships between Mediterranean populations determined by HLA allele distribution and a historic perspective.
1) Greeks share an important part of their genetic pool with sub-Saharan Africans (Ethiopians and west Africans) also supported by Chr 7 Markers. The gene flow from Black Africa to Greece may have occurred in Pharaonic times or when Saharan people emigrated after the present hyperarid conditions were established (5000 years B.C.).
Posts: 6572 | From: N.Y.C....Capital of the World | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Still looking for the video. Anybody have a valid link to it?
-------------------- Across the sea of time, there can only be one of you. Make you the best one you can be. Posts: 4028 | From: NW USA | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
--------------------------- Thanks a million for that link Argyle, I couldn't find it. Do you also have the link to the thread with the images of the Acacus Mummy? ---------------------------
quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: [QUOTE]Originally posted by Doug M: [qb]
And who was the Italian anthropologist in the show anyway? I don't think it was Cavelli Sforza, especially since Sforza has recently come to his senses and admit the presence of blacks in North Africa since the Neolithic.
What study or info are you referring to on Cavalli-Sforza when he said this?
Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ I don't remember the title or name of the study, but Rasol cited a part many times that goes something like "..blacks were the original inhabitants of the Sahara.."
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
posted by Knowledgeiskey718: [QB] From what I read and deduce from the following, would be with the climatic desiccation in middle Holocene ultimately gave rise to developments of the civilizations..
The prehistory of Western Sahara in a regional context: the archaeology of the "free zone" by Brooks, Nick Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Saharan Studies Programme and School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK Coauthors: Di Lernia, Savino ((Department of Scienze Storiche, Archeologiche, e Antropologiche dell’Antichità, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Via Palestro 63, 00185 – Rome, Italy) and Drake, Nick (Department of Geography, King’s College, Strand, London WC2R 2LS).
Agreed. The Sahara seems the foundation. The black mummy is not as glamorous as say a pharoah in a massive pyramid, but it was the Saharan peoples that laid the foundation. In religion, those foundations appear to also be in the Sahara and northeast Africa, according to the older reference below.
I read a long time ago that the early inhabitants of Crete showed 'negroid' affinities but can't remember that source except that it said they were "pug-nosed" and showed said affinities. Does anyone know of any studies examining this angle or the archealogy of Crete's early inhabitants?
Blurb on Egyptian religion origins:
"A large number of gods go back to prehistoric times. The images of a cow and star goddess (Hathor), the falcon (Horus), and the human-shaped figures of the fertility god (Min) can be traced back to that period. Some rites, such as the "running of the Apil-bull," the "hoeing of the ground," and other fertility and hunting rites (e.g., the hippopotamus hunt) presumably date from early times.. Connections with the religions in southwest Asia cannot be traced with certainty."
"It is doubtful whether Osiris can be regarded as equal to Tammuz or Adonis, or whether Hathor is related to the "Great Mother." There are closer relations with northeast African religions. The numerous animal cults (especially bovine cults and panther gods) and details of ritual dresses (animal tails, masks, grass aprons, etc) probably are of African origin. The kinship in particular shows some African elements, such as the king as the head ritualist (i.e., medicine man), the limitations and renewal of the reign (jubilees, regicide), and the position of the king's mother (a matriarchal element). Some of them can be found among the Ethiopians in Napata and Meroe, others among the Prenilotic tribes (Shilluk)." (Encyclopedia Britannica 1974 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 506-508) Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by zarahan: Agreed. The Sahara seems the foundation. The black mummy is not as glamorous as say a pharoah in a massive pyramid, but it was the Saharan peoples that laid the foundation. In religion, those foundations appear to also be in the Sahara and northeast Africa, according to the older reference below.
The mummified child Uan in Libya may not be as 'glamorous' as a mummified pharaoh but it is still significant as it is older than any Egyptian mummy.
quote:I read a long time ago that the early inhabitants of Crete showed 'negroid' affinities but can't remember that source except that it said they were "pug-nosed" and showed said affinities. Does anyone know of any studies examining this angle or the archealogy of Crete's early inhabitants?
Yes I know the exact study you are referring to! It comes from archaeologist Sinclair Hood and his book, The Home of the Heroes: The Aegean Before the Greeks (1967) and no doubt the source which you read it from was (Encyclopedia Britannica 1990 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 20: Greek and Roman Civilizations:
The people of the Bronze Age Aegean. Physical appearnce. "The inhabitants of the Aegean area in the Bronze Age may have been much like many people in the Mediterranean basin today, short and slight of build with dark hair and eyes and sallow complexions. Skeletons show that the population of the Aegean was already mixed by Neolithic times, and various facial types, some with delicate features and pointed noses, others pug-nosed, almost negroid, are depicted in wall paintings from the 16th century BC..."
I've posted the info above in one of various threads we had on the population origins of Greece and the Aegean, but you can discuss more about it in the thread here where I also posted findings from archaeologist Arthur Evans.
quote:Blurb on Egyptian religion origins:
"A large number of gods go back to prehistoric times. The images of a cow and star goddess (Hathor), the falcon (Horus), and the human-shaped figures of the fertility god (Min) can be traced back to that period. Some rites, such as the "running of the Apil-bull," the "hoeing of the ground," and other fertility and hunting rites (e.g., the hippopotamus hunt) presumably date from early times.. Connections with the religions in southwest Asia cannot be traced with certainty."
"It is doubtful whether Osiris can be regarded as equal to Tammuz or Adonis, or whether Hathor is related to the "Great Mother." There are closer relations with northeast African religions. The numerous animal cults (especially bovine cults and panther gods) and details of ritual dresses (animal tails, masks, grass aprons, etc) probably are of African origin. The kinship in particular shows some African elements, such as the king as the head ritualist (i.e., medicine man), the limitations and renewal of the reign (jubilees, regicide), and the position of the king's mother (a matriarchal element). Some of them can be found among the Ethiopians in Napata and Meroe, others among the Prenilotic tribes (Shilluk)." (Encyclopedia Britannica 1974 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 506-508)
Yes, I answered your source here. The area of Libya where the mummy of Uan was found also yielded artifacts such as animal gods including a dog-headed god and other items showing Saharan roots for many other Egyptian customs other than mummification.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
^^Dang. You had that quote on tap in no time. Thanks for that link. It is gonna be added to my library.
-------------------- Note: I am not an "Egyptologist" as claimed by some still bitter, defeated, trolls creating fake profiles and posts elsewhere. Hapless losers, you still fail. My output of hard data debunking racist nonsense has actually INCREASED since you began.. Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Why is there so little data on this subject? I really just can't find much at all. The oldest mummy in the world at hardly anything about it at all. Very odd indeed.
-------------------- Across the sea of time, there can only be one of you. Make you the best one you can be. Posts: 4028 | From: NW USA | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
There has been data avialable on the subject for at least 50 years prior. The mummy was found way back in 1958, and it is mentioned in Van Sertima's 1976 "The Came before Columbus". Such data however did not fit the 'approved' line on AE.
Time magazine ran a blurb on it way back in 1959:
It notes that: "Dr. Mori's mummy provides support for the theory that Egyptian culture grew by slow stages in the Sahara, which was not then a desert. When the climate grew insupportably dry, the already civilized Egyptians took refuge in the Nile Valley, and the sands of the Sahara swept over their former home." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
For years, Italian Anthropologist Fabrizio Mori has been trekking into the Libyan Desert to look for graffiti, ancient inscriptions on rocks. Near the oasis of Ghat, 500 miles south of the Mediterranean coast, he found on his last expedition a shallow cave with many graffiti scratched on its walls. When he dug into the sandy floor, he found a peculiar bundle: a goatskin wrapped around the desiccated body of a child. The entrails had been removed and replaced by a bundle of herbs.
Such deliberate mummification was practiced chiefly by the ancient Egyptians. But when Dr. Mori took the mummy back to Italy and had its age measured by the carbon 14 method, it proved to be 5,400 years old—considerably older than the oldest known civilization in the valley of the Nile 900 miles to the east.
The discovery suggested a clue to one of the great puzzles of Egyptology: Where was the birthplace of Egyptian culture? Although many authorities believe it is the world's oldest, they have been perplexed by the fact that it did not develop gradually in the Nile Valley. About 3200 B.C. the First Dynasty appeared there suddenly and full grown, with an elaborate religion, laws, arts and crafts, and a system of writing. Until that time the Nile Valley was apparently inhabited by neolithic people on a low cultural level. Dr. Mori's mummy provides support for the theory that Egyptian culture grew by slow stages in the Sahara, which was not then a desert. When the climate grew insupportably dry, the already civilized Egyptians took refuge in the Nile Valley, and the sands of the Sahara swept over their former home.
The mummy does not prove that there is a civilization buried in the Sahara but it does mean that, in the next few years, the desert will be swarming with anthropologists looking for one.
-------------------- Note: I am not an "Egyptologist" as claimed by some still bitter, defeated, trolls creating fake profiles and posts elsewhere. Hapless losers, you still fail. My output of hard data debunking racist nonsense has actually INCREASED since you began.. Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |