Today it is the largest and most inhospitable desert on the planet, but thousands of years ago the Sahara was a luxuriant savannah, furrowed by rivers and populated by elephants, hippos and crocodiles. During the so -called African wet period (Between 14,000 and 5,000 years ago), ancient populations of hunter-gathers lived in this environment, leaving behind extraordinary testimonies such as the rock paintings and ancient boats. Then, about 5,000 years ago, a rapid climate change broke the region, forcing its inhabitants to migrate: many of them concentrated along the banks of the Nile, bringing with them a cultural background that contributed to laying the foundations for the birth of the great Egyptian civilization.
Prehistoric settlements and fauna of the “Green Sahara”
During the African wet periodthe landscape of the Sahara was completely different Compared to how we know it. The environment was made up of one Great and luxuriant Savanawith numerous plant species and large quantities of waterincluding considerable lakes. This is because, following a change in the orbit of the earththere was an increase in theinsolation which, causing a greater contribution of humidity from the Atlantic Ocean, he brought more intense and frequent rainfall in northern Africa. Because of this climate, a lot more humid and rainy of how much it is today, the Saharan region was characterized by the presence of lakes and riverswho contributed to revive considerably the landscape, making it very similar to that of the current savannah Central subtropical Africa. Near the main sources of water were real and its own forestscompletely unimaginable in what is now one of the most arid places in the world.
Scholars managed to reconstruct the landscape of the “green Sahara” of the African wet period thanks to the contribution of different scientific disciplines, such as geology, botany and archeology. The studies of geologists in some areas of the Sahara have made it possible to identify river river valleys for millennia in the sands, while the botanical studies performed on samples of sediments dated to this wet period found the pollen of the different plant species that grew in the area. Archaeologists have dealt with instead of identifying and studying some prehistoric settlements that have returned faunistic remains that allow us to reconstruct which animal species populated this environment, being preyed and consumed by human groups. They were animals typical of the Savana ecosystem, such as crocodiles, elephants, gazelles, hippos. Given the presence of numerous water mirrors, the ancient inhabitants of the Sahara also feeds on fish and molluscs.
In this phase of prehistory, the groups of hunters-racpers left numerous traces of their presence in the Green Sahara environment. Archaeologists have identified cover and camps that highlight the seminomad lifestyle of these populations. Subsequently, around 8000-7000 years ago, the great Neolithic revolution touched just this territory, agriculture did not take particular rooted, perhaps due to the exploitation of other resources and the purely seminomad lifestyle of these ancient human groups. The breeding of animals, especially sheep, is instead attested, together with the collection of wild cereals.
The populations who lived in “Green Sahara” left obvious traces of their passage. In the 5th Millennio Aci began to spread the processing of ceramic, and the processing of spear points and arrow suitable for hunting the fauna of this particular ecosystem, by these ancient hunters, is evidenced. The importance of water in this environmental context and in the exploitation of resources emerges from numerous cultural data: in the state of Yobe, in Nigeria, in 1987 the dufuna canoe was found, the second oldest boat in the world, dated to the radioocarbon between 8500 and 8000 years ago. This area of Nigeria, today part of the arid Sahel region, was in fact lapped by the waters of Lake Chad which, during the African wet period, was 200 times more extended today.
The artistic expressions of the African wet period
The prehistoric artistic expressions of the African wet period are quite well known, and are made up of engravings and rock paintings, made of caves and shelters under rock. These representations bring out the vitality and richness of the cultural expressions of the ancient civilizations that populated the “green Sahara”. Some of the best known sites are the cave of swimmers in Egypt, the massifs of Tadrart Acacus in Libya, of Tassili N’Ajjer in Algeria, and Tibesti in the Chad.
The African wet period ended between 6000 and 5000 years ago. The quantity of rainfall suddenly decreases, helping to make the Sahara area more arid and dry. With the decrease of water, the vegetation retired, yielding its place to the sands. Lakes and rivers drafted themselves, some disappearing completely, while others reducing their scope enormously. The seminomad populations that populated the green Sahara, due to desertification, concentrated in specific areas: some groups migrated north, on the Mediterranean coasts, while others south, in the current Sahel.
In conditions of great aridity, many groups concentrated along the banks of the only watercourse that had maintained a certain flow in the region, or the Nile river. These populations, heirs of the great prehistoric cultural richness of the Green Sahara, will give rise to the great Egyptian civilization.
