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Earliest Herders of the Central Sahara (Tadrart Acacus Mountains, Libya): A Punctuated Model for the Emergence of Pastoralism in Africa

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Journal of World Prehistory Aims and scope

Abstract

This paper focuses on a reassessment of the emergence of herding in Africa seen from the Tadrart Acacus and neighbouring regions in the Libyan central Sahara. The paper examines whether the presence of wild animals in the Early Holocene ‘green’ Sahara could have represented a ‘disease challenge’ to the spread of domestic livestock, as proposed for sub-Saharan Africa. Analysis of the zooarchaeological record and Saharan rock art highlights this potential threat also in North Africa, where it has hitherto been disregarded. Old and new data from the study area in SW Libya, with a focus on Takarkori rock shelter, highlight the presence of herding activity at a very early stage. Direct dating on bones of sheep/goat and cattle secures this chronology, providing evidence of a rapid ingression of small groups of herders who crossed Africa’s north-eastern quadrant around ~ 8300 years cal BP. This rapidity defies the ‘disease challenge’ hypothesis and suggests alternative scenarios. In the central Sahara, the cultural complexity of local Early Holocene hunter-gatherers and their delayed return system of resource exploitation could have facilitated the incorporation of new practices, including the herding of small numbers of domestic animals. The societal implications of the transition from hunting and gathering to herding are archaeologically better visible in the funerary record and in rock art. By contrast, both material culture and the subsistence basis seem to demonstrate continuity with the former foraging groups’ phase. Taken together, the Saharan evidence suggests a punctuated process of acculturation for the inception of food production in North Africa.

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(source Jousse, 2017 and additional works cited in the text. GIS Elaboration M. Di Matteo). 1: Tree Shelter-5; 2: Kom Ombo; 3: Elkab-Epipaleo; 4: Toukh; 5: El Abadyia-A-B; 6–7: Makhadma 2, 4; 8: Qantir; 9: El Omari; 10: Fayoum Site 3; 11: Merimde Benisâlame; 12–17: Fayoum Site 2, Site 1, Site 4, G1-H1, G3-H2, Site 5; 18: Qasr el-Sagha-1; 19: Kharga depression – Neolithic; 20: Bir Kiseiba-EN; 21: Bir Kiseiba-MN; 22: Eastpan 95–1/1; 23: Eastpan 95–2; 24: Abu Balias – 85/50–1; 25: Abu Balias – 85/56; 26: Abu Ballas – 85/51–3; 27: Wadi el Bakht; 28: Willmann's Camp – 81/61; 29: Dakhleh Ouasis, Ba; 30: Gash Delta-AA; 31: Khasm el Girba – KG15-16; 32: Khasm el Girba – KG14; 33: Khasm el Girba – KG68; 34: Abu Darbein; 35: Aneibis; 36: El Damer; 37: Shaqaduq-S1-B; 38: Shaqaduq-S21; 39: El Mahalab; 40: Sheikh Mustafa; 41: Umm Singid; 42: Um Direiwa; 43: El Temeyim; 44: Saggai 1; 45: Khabbashi Haitah; 46: Khabbashi; 47: Awlad el Imam; 48: El Qala'a; 49: El Zakiab; 50: Kadero; 51: Geili; 52; Esh Shaheinab; 53: El Nofalab; 54: Jebel Umm Marrahi; 55: Khartoum Hôpital; 56: Sheikh el Amin; 57: Kabbashi; 58:Shabona; 59: Wadi Howar – 80/73; 60–63: Selima Sandsheet – 85/78, 85/79, 85/73–2, 85/80; 64: Abu Tabari 02/1; 65: Laqiya area – 82/lake; 66: Rahib-80/87; 67: Erg of Ennedi; 68–70: Hauah Fteah-lberomaurusian, Libyco-capsian, Neolithic; 71: Et Tera; 72: Murzuq; 73: Uan Telocat (MP); 74: Uan Muhuggiag; 75: Takarkori; 76: Uan Afuda-US1-3; 77: Ti-n-Thora East; 78: Delebo; 79: Gabrong-d; 80: Enneri Bardagué; 81: Mankhor; 82: Ti-n-Hanakaten; 83: Damous el Ahmar; 84: Dra-Mta-el-Ma-el-Abiod; 85: Kef Zoura D; 86: Oued Telidjene A; 87: In Guezzam South; 88: Medjez II; 89: Amekni; 90: Gueldaman-Akbou; 91: Meniet; 92: Tamar Hat; 93: Columnata; 94: Gobero-K; 95: Gobero-T; 96: Tin Ouaffadene; 97–99: Adrar Bous 10, K, T; 100: TMY3; 101–103: Takene Bawat 6, 2,1; 104: Tarada-T; 105–107: Mentes 4, 5, north; 108–111: Kaf-taht-el-Ghar-D, E, F, G; 112: El Harhoura 2; 113: Kehf-el-Baroud; 114: Asselar; 115: Hassi el-Abiod; 116: Dhar Tichitt Site 46; 117: Berouàga. The animals selected are: Loxodonta africana; Papio cynocephalus; Papio anubis; Panthera leo; Hyaena hyaena; Rhinocerotidae ind.; Phacochoerus aethiopicus; Hippopotamus amphibius; Pelorovis/Bubalus antiquus; Bos primigenius; Syncerus caffer; Kobus ellipsiprymnus; Redunca redunca; Alcelaphus buselaphus; Hippotragus equinus; Addax nasomaculatus; Oryx dammah; Giraffa camelopardalis (for the list of species by site, see SI Table 1)

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(© Archive of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome)

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(© Archive of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome)

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(© Archive of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome)

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(© Archive of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome)

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(© Archive of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome)

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(© Archive of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome)

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(© Archive of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome)

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© digital enhancing of b applied in c (Ire_filter) and d (Ire_BW) (© Archive of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome)

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Acknowledgements

This paper owes much to many people. First of all, the Libyan institutions and colleagues, that made possible a long-lasting scientific project, in particular the Department of Archaeology in Tripoli and Ghat. I would like to thank Mauro Cremaschi, Elena Garcea, Giorgio Manzi, Anna Maria Mercuri, Mary Anne Tafuri and Andrea Zerboni, with whom I have shared several years of fieldwork in Libya. Their ideas and suggestions strongly shaped my perception of Saharan archaeology. I am also thankful to a younger generation of colleagues who have greatly enriched my old-fashioned perspective with their fresh views, in particular Emanuele Cancellieri, Marina Gallinaro and Rocco Rotunno. Thanks to Martina Di Matteo and Rocco Rotunno for their help in building the dataset. I have shared with several friends and colleagues many ideas and hugely learned from them: my warmest thanks to Barbara Barich, Graeme Barker, Mike Brass, Isabella Caneva, David Coulson, Nicholas David, Nicholas Drake, Maria Carmela Gatto, Achilles Gautier, Fekri Hassan, Paul Lane, Peter Mitchell, Francois Paris and Andrew Smith. I am particularly grateful to Francesca Alhaique, Anna Maria Mercuri and Peter Mitchell for their comments and insights on a previous draft of the manuscript. Sapienza University of Rome and the Verona Museum of Natural History are also thanked. I would like to thank the Editor of Journal of World Prehistory Timothy Taylor and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to Angelo Pasa and Fabrizio Mori who, without aDNA, metagenomics and MonteCarlo distribution of 14C datings, immediately grasped the historical depth of the first pastoral cultures of the central Sahara. Needless to say, any errors are solely mine.

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  1. Department of Ancient World Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Savino di Lernia

  2. GAES, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Savino di Lernia

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di Lernia, S. Earliest Herders of the Central Sahara (Tadrart Acacus Mountains, Libya): A Punctuated Model for the Emergence of Pastoralism in Africa. J World Prehist 34, 531–594 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-021-09162-8

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