Stojanowski makes headlines with discovery of Gobero graveyard in the "green" Sahara
August 14, 2008
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School of Human Evolution and Social Change undergraduate alumnus Andrew Somerville (left) |
ASU assistant professor Christopher Stojanowski is getting international attention for his role in the discovery of the largest Stone Age graveyard in what was once a green, lush Sahara. The ancient site in Niger—named Gobero—has yielded 200 graves of two distinct populations that date between 10,000 and 4,500 years ago. Stojanowski, a bioarchaeologist who examined the remains of several individuals from each population, was interviewed at a National Geographic-sponsored news conference in Washington, D.C., and is quoted on several major news sites, such as NPR and The New York Times.
The plant, animal and human remains, as well as cultural deposits at Gobero are among the richest and most intact in North Africa. With today's technological advances, archaeologists can peer into the lives of past civilizations like never before. "A major focus of our research is the human response to cilimatic instability and environmental degradation," says Stojanowski.
Based on the remains, Stojanowski has noted significant differences between the two cultures represented at the Gobero site—the former group (Kiffians) were tall and robust, while the later Tenerians were smaller and probably led less physically strenuous lives—yet both populations interred their dead in the same swathe of ground and did so without disturbing earlier burials. Also of interest is the array of unusual items buried with the dead, such as 6-feet-long perch skeletons and turtle shells, articles that emphasize the Sahara was a green, fertile area dotted with lakes at the time of the Kiffians and again, following a thousand-year drought, when the Tenerians appeared in the region.
The initial findings of the Gobero project are found in the researchers' paper, published by the journal PLoS One, and is featured in the September edition of National Geographic magazine. Watch the National Geographic video to see the extent of this amazing discovery!
Media Contact:
Jodi Guyot, jodi.guyot@asu.edu
School of Human Communication and Social Change
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Arizona State University
(480) 727-8739
