Conny Waters – MessageToEagle.com – Prehistoric populations of hunter-gatherers have been totally examined in Europe, Asia, and jap Africa, however the final inhabitants of those individuals in West Africa stays insufficiently documented.
Now we’ll know rather more about hunter-gatherers of in West Africa due to a group from the College of Geneva (UNIGE) engaged on one of many uncommon archaeological websites in Senegal courting again to the early Holocene, over 9,000 years in the past.
Lithic materials present in layer 4 of RBX-1. (1–6) Chert micro-tranchets. (7) Chert phase. (8–9) Hematite micro-tranchets. (10) Greywacke scraper. (11) Hematite polished axe. (12) Hematite polished needle fragment. (13) Hematite polished and retouched adze fragment. Drawings: E. Gutscher. Images: C. Pruvost.
Researchers from the College of Geneva (UNIGE) have studied one in all Senegal’s uncommon archaeological websites, which dates again to the early Holocene, over 9,000 years in the past. Their analysis has led to new insights into the communities that lived throughout this era and the stone-knapping strategies they utilized for tool-making.
Prehistoric hunter-gatherers survived by searching, gathering, and fishing. Nomadic or semi-nomadic, they moved with the seasons to search out sources. This life-style was common till the Neolithic interval when pottery, animal husbandry, and agriculture emerged at totally different occasions worldwide.
‘’On this a part of the continent, climatic and geological elements haven’t favored the preservation of stratified stays within the soil. But stratification is essential: it captures successive phases of occupation and offers key data on chronology, life-style adjustments, and climatic and environmental evolution,’’ explains Anne Mayor, director of the ARCAN Laboratory at UNIGE’s College of Science and senior lecturer and researcher on the International Research Institute.
In West Africa, the presence of prehistoric populations of hunter-gatherers is way more durable to hint.
Flake cores, various cores, pebble fragment with bipolar percussion on anvil traces. Images and CAD: C. Pruvost and E. Gutscher.; Source
In line with Anne Mayor, director of the ARCAN Laboratory at UNIGE’s College of Science and senior lecturer and researcher on the International Research Institute, climatic and geological elements on this area haven’t been contributive to preserving stratified stays within the soil.
Stratification is essential as a result of it information successive phases of human occupation and provides useful insights into chronology, life-style adjustments, in addition to climatic and environmental evolution.
In 2017 researchers led by Eric Huysecom — an honorary professor at UNIGE after which director of the analysis challenge “Human Inhabitants and Paleoenvironment in Africa” found the Ravin Blanc X website in Senegal’s Falémé Valley. Exceptionally well-preserved regardless of its small floor space of 25 m², the deep layer of this website, uncovered beneath a way more latest Neolithic deposit, provides a uncommon snapshot of the early Holocene — the temperate interglacial period wherein we nonetheless reside right now. This era adopted almost 10,000 years of extreme drought within the area.
Researchers have efficiently found and analyzed the remnants of a 9,000-year-old quartz knapping workshop, in addition to an related fire.
’We didn’t discover any formal quartz instruments — the hunter-gatherers took them — however we did discover a pile of manufacturing waste. By patiently piecing collectively the flakes and cores that had remained in place since then, like a jigsaw puzzle, we have been in a position to reconstruct the strategies used, the factors for choosing high-quality quartz, and the talent stage of the knappers,’’ explains Charlotte Pruvost, lead writer of the research.
The few West African archaeological websites from this era function small stone instruments, or ”microliths,” used as searching weapons.
Evaluating Ravin Blanc X with different dated websites reveals technical similarities, suggesting shared traditions among the many final hunter-gatherers within the African savannahs.
These microliths reveal refined craftsmanship within the manufacturing of standardized instruments.
Supply – College of Geneva through Eurekalert
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Employees Author
