obsessive with his perspective as to accept his invitation willingly.
In the following three weeks, Sereno and Garcea (along with five excavators, five Tuareg
guides, and five soldiers from Niger’s army) sketched a detailed map of the destined site, which
was dubbed Gobero after the Tuareg name for the area, a place the ancient Kiffian and Tuareg
nomads used to roam. After that, they excavated eight tombs and found twenty pieces of
artefacts for the above mentioned two civilisations. From these artefacts, it is evidently seen
that Kiffian fishermen caught not only the small fish, but also some huge ones: the remains of
Nile perch, a fierce fish weighing about 300 pounds, along with those of the alligators and
hippos, were left in the vicinity of dunes.
Sereno went back with some essential bones and artefacts, and planned for the next trip to the
Sahara area. Meanwhile, he pulled out the teeth of skeletons carefully and sent them to a
researching laboratory for radiocarbon dating. The results indicated that while the smaller
‘sleeping’ bones might date back to 6,000 years ago (well within the Tenerian period), the
bigger compactly tied artefacts were approximately 9,000 years old, just in the heyday of
Kiffian era. The scientists now can distinguish one culture from the other.
In the fall of 2006, for the purpose of exhuming another 80 burials, these people had another
trip to Gobero, taking more crew members and six extra scientists specialising in different
areas. Even at the site, Chris Stojanowski, bio-archaeologist in Arizona State University, found
some clues by matching the pieces. Judged from the bones, the Kiffian could be a people of
peace and hardworking. ‘No injuries in heads or forearms indicate that they did not fight too
much,’ he said. ‘And they had strong bodies.’ He pointed at a long narrow femur and continued,
‘From this muscle attachment, we could infer the huge leg muscles, which means this individual
lived a strenuous lifestyle and ate much protein. Both of these two inferences coincide with the
lifestyle of the people living on fishing.’ To create a striking contrast, he displayed a femur of a
Tenerian male. This ridge was scarcely seen. ‘This individual had a less laborious lifestyle,
which you might expect of the herder.’
Stojanowski concluded that the Tenerian were herders, which was consistent with the other
scholars’ dominant view of the lifestyle in Sahara area 6,000 years ago, when the dry climate
favoured herding rather than hunting. But Sereno proposed some confusing points: if the
Tenerian was herders, where were the herds? Despite thousands of animal bones excavated in
Gobero, only three cow skeletons were found, and none of goats or sheep found. ‘It is common
for the herding people not to kill the cattle, particularly in a cemetery.’ Elena Garcea remarked,
‘Even the modem pastoralists such as Niger’s Wodaabe are reluctant to slaughter the animals
in their herd.’ Sereno suggested, ‘Perhaps the Tenerian in Gobero were a transitional group that
had still relied greatly on hunting and fishing and not adopted herding completely.’
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