Stone Age Mass Graves Reveal Green Sahara

iminplaya sends along a New Scientist article that begins: "One of the driest deserts in the world, the Saharan Tenere Desert, hosted at least two flourishing lakeside populations during the Stone Age, a discovery of the largest graveyard from the era reveals. The archaeological site in Niger [is] called Gobero... It had been used as a burial site by two very different populations during the millennia when the Sahara was lush... 'The first people who used the Gobero cemetery were Kiffian, hunter-gatherers who grew up to two meters tall,' says Elena Garcea of the University of Cassino in Italy and one of the scientists on the team. The large stature of the Kiffian suggests that food was plentiful during their time in Gobero, 10,000 to 8,000 years ago... All traces of the Kiffian vanish abruptly around 8,000 years ago, when the Sahara became very dry for a thousand years. When the rains returned, a different population, the Tenerians, who were of a shorter and more gracile build, based themselves at this site... 'The most amazing find so far is a grave with a female and two children hugging each other. They were carefully arranged in this position. This strongly indicated they had spiritual beliefs and cared for their dead,' says Garcea." The research article is at PLoS One.

Comments

The One will bring the green back

[Kohath]

Too bad. I'm sure we'll hear that the Sahara would still be green except George Bush doesn't care about black people. The desert undoubtedly spread because of global warming (er, I mean "climate change" because you can't sell warming when it's cold -- and scientific consensus is all about marketing for some reason) caused by those evil SUVs of the time.

I hope The One can bring the green back. And future generations will say "... this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal...".

ALL HAIL GNU!

[jozmala]

And some people don't kill because they fear eternal damnation.

'm sure there are other reasons. What's yours?

They don't stay still during a ritual sacrifice, for the GNU god. We must open their sources for the GNU god, its for common good.