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 African humid period referred to as 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 burial place 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] A craniometric analysis by Sereno et al. suggests that this early Holocene population was related to the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb, as well as mid-Holocene Mechta groups.[3]

Based on dental evidence, Joel D. Irish of Liverpool John Moores University suggests sub-Saharan West African affinities for the Kiffians, in turn suggesting that the common ancestors of West African and Proto-Bantu peoples may have originated in the southwestern region of the Sahara amid the Kiffian period at Gobero, and may have migrated southward from the Sahara into various parts of West Africa (e.g., Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo) as a result of desertification of the Green Sahara in 7000 BCE.[4] From parts of southeast Nigeria and Cameroon, agricultural Proto-Bantu peoples began to migrate, and amid migration, diverged into East Bantu peoples (e.g., Democratic Republic of Congo) and West Bantu peoples (e.g., Congo, Gabon) between 2500 BCE and 1200 BCE.[4]

Language

Kiffians may have been Nilo-Saharan[5][6][7] or Niger-Congo speakers.[4]

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.[8] After this time, the Tenerian culture colonized the area.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Stone Age Graveyard Reveals Lifestyles Of A 'Green Sahara'". Science Daily. 2008-08-15. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  2. 1 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. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.2995S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002995. PMC 2515196. PMID 18701936. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Irish, Joel D (April 2016). Tracing the "Bantu Expansion" from its source: Dental nonmetric affinities among West African and neighboring populations. American Association of Physical Anthropologists. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.14163.78880 – via ResearchGate.
  5. ↑ Garcea, Elena A. A. (2013). Gobero: The No-return Frontier : Archaeology and Landscape at the Saharo-Sahelian Borderland. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Africa Magna Verlag. pp. 9, 274. ISBN 9783937248349.
  6. ↑ Blench, Roger. "The evolution of foraging and the transition to pastoralism in the Sahara". Landscapes and Landforms of the Central Sahara. University of Cambridge.
  7. ↑ Blench, Roger. "The Linguistic Prehistory of The Sahara". Published in a Volume of Selected Papers. D. Mattingley ed. Cambridge University Press & Libyan Studies Association. University Press & Libyan Studies Association.
  8. ↑ 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/ Archived 2017-04-14 at the Wayback Machine)


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