Tenerian culture

Tenerian is the name given by archeologists to a prehistoric culture thriving between about 4600 BC and 2500 BC in the Sahara Desert. This was during a wet period of Saharan history known as the Neolithic Subpluvial. Human remains from this culture were found in 2000 at a site known as Gobero, located in Niger in the Ténéré Desert. Ténéré is a Tuareg word. The Tenerians' own name for themselves is unknown, as nothing is known of their langauge.

Discovery

The Tenerian culture was discovered in 2000 during a dinosaur-hunting expedition in the archaeological site known as Gobero in Niger. Two distinct cultures were discovered at the site: the Tenerian culture and the Kiffian culture. The Kiffians were a prehistoric people who preceded the Tenerians and vanished approximately 8000 years ago, when the desert became very dry. The desert stayed dry until about 4600 BC when the rains returned, and the earliest evidence of the Tenerians appears. Some 200 skeletons have been discovered at Gobero.

Culture

The desert region was lush at the time and the Tenerians were cattle-herders, fishermen, and hunters. The graves show the Tenerians were a spiritual people, being buried with artifacts such as jewelery made of hippo tusks and clay pots. The most interesting find is a triple burial, dated to 5300 years ago, of an adult female and two children, through their teeth guessed at five and eight years old, hugging each other. Pollen residue indicates they were buried on a bed of flowers. The three are assumed to have died within 24 hours of each other, but as their skeletons hold no apparent trauma (they didn't die violently) and they have been buried so elaborately - unlikely if they had died of a plague - the cause of their deaths is a mystery. Analysis of Tenerian skeletons reveals that the Tenerians were not related to the modern inhabitants of the region, having more similarities to Mediterranean people.

Decline

Approximately 4500 years ago the region became dry again, and the Tenerians vanished, possibly following the animals elsewhere.

References

*Gwin, Peter. "Lost Tribes of the Green Sahara." National Geographic, September 2008, 126-143
*Sereno, Paul, and others. [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002995 "Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5,000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change"] , PLoS ONE, August 14, 2008