Mike Hettwer Photography - Documentary, Archaeology and Dinosaur

Green Sahara

While looking for dinosaurs on a Paul Sereno expedition in Niger in 2000, we found an ancient human site in the Gobero area of the Sahara. There were two distinct cultures - The Kiffian were a robust group of fishermen that lived from 7-9,500 years ago. The Tenerean were more gracile hunters that lived from 4-6,000 years ago.

It contained 200 partially buried human skeletons, hundreds of animal bones, and thousands of artifacts. Most poignant was the triple burial of a young Tenerian mother and two small children. They were all holding hands and buried with flowers by someone who obviously cared a great deal.

Ten thousand years ago when the ice from the last ice age melted, it formed a thousand mile lake system. The water attracted huge numbers of animals and provided a stable food source for the Stone Age hunter gatherers for thousands of years.

Wodaabe men dance at the Gerewol courting festival just as a massive sandstorm hits.
  
A Tenerian mother was found holding the hands of two children. They were all buried at the same time with flowers above and below them.
  
This 8,000 year-old giraffe rock carving is considered one of the finest in the world. The giraffe has a leash on its nose implying some level of taming the animals. It was found just ten years ago on the top of a granite hill by local Touaregs and dates to the Kiffian times (7000-9500 years ago).
     
  
The excavation is an utterly desolate area of the desert, so remote that camels are never seen. A wide aerial view of camp shows distant sand dunes, the team's tents and a tiny group of archaeologists excavating skeletons (lower left). Looking at it today, It is hard to believe this was the Green Sahara thousands of years ago.(c) 2008 Michael Hettwer Photography
   
A Niger army guard watches over the excavation.
  
A younger Tenerian skeleton was found with his middle finger in his mouth for reasons we do not yet know.
     
  
One of the most well preserved Tenerean skeletons looked like it had just fallen asleep in the sand.
  
Aerial view of the excavators in a large, dense cemetery
   
Arrowheads and points
     
  
Frequent sandstorms blew up to 30 mph while excavations took place.
   
This Tenerian man was found with his head buried in a pot. He also had a crocodile ankle bone and a wild boar tusk among the grave goods.
  
Amazingly, sand has a memory of when it last saw light. To provide dates for the ancient lake bed, a hole must be dug to the original lake bottom on a pitch black, moonless night. Testing of the sand completed at a US dating lab proved the lake bottom was formed 15,000 years ago during the last ice age.
     
  
Two Tenerean skeletons almost perfectly preserved, were found early in the excavation process. The skeleton on the left was found with its middle finger in its mouth. The one on the right was buried in a grave where the bones of a previous burial were pushed out of the way.
  
A previous burial was pushed out of the way to make way for this 20-year-old Tenerean's woman's skeleton.
   
Over just five years, this Tenerian skeleton was severely eroded by sand and wind. The jaw had been broken off and the ribs were worn down substantially.
     
  
A 3,000 year-old rock carving of stylized woman with a handbag
   
Modern fishermen catch the very small tilapia on the over-fished Niger River. We found ancient fish hooks, harpoons, and the bones of hundreds of six-foot Nile Perch at the excavation site.
  
A Wodaabe boy walks the family cows home each night from a well five miles away. The Wodaabe are the closest modern relatives to the possible pastoralists found at the excavation site. (c) 2008 Michael Hettwer Photography
     
  
One of the two main Gobero cemeteries in profile at sunset