fossil digger finds 9,500-year-old graveyard
A 9,500-year-old find for U of C fossil digger
August 14, 2008
BY DAVE NEWBART Staff Reporter
For the University of Chicago's Paul Sereno, the fossils his team uncovered in a remote section of the Sahara desert eight years ago were a treasure trove - but of a different species than he was used to working with.
After uncovering evidence of some 200 graves, it turns out the paleontologist extraordinaire - who has discovered nearly two dozen species of dinosaurs in his career - had also located the largest Stone Age human graveyard ever found in the Sahara.
Sereno, who is holding a news conference in Washington D.C. this morning to discuss his findings, said his archaeological work in the West African nation of Niger has been “thrilling.''
“This the first time I've dug up my own species,'' said Sereno, who said he was so excited during one subsequent trip to collect specimens that “a little tingle went up my spine.'' Although he is not an archaeologist by trade, he has vowed “to bring back the stories'' of the people who lived in the area between 4,500 and 9,500 years ago in an area known as the “Green Sahara.''
But telling those stories hasn't proved easy. First he had to overcome skepticism among archaeologists who criticized everything from his collection methods to his qualifications. At one point one of his funding requests was denied.
And as the human remains face destruction in the wind-swept desert, he can't return to the site because fighting between the Taureg that live there and the government have led to a ban on foreign travel.
But Sereno says he won't give up - he knows the site is crucial to understanding early civilization in an area less studied than the Middle East.
In a paper being released today in PLoS ONE, the online journal of the Public Library of Science, Sereno and several colleagues describe how people lived in Africa at the time based on their findings at the site, which they dubbed “Gobero.'”
“We are opening up a window on this time,'' Sereno said.
Although the Sahara is the largest desert on earth today, a change in the earth's orbit more than 10,000 years ago produced a lake in the area. The lake attracted abundant animal life, fish, vegetation - and people. In addition to the graves, Sereno's team found evidence of 54 animal species, including 300-pound fish, elephants and giraffe.
Because of the difficulty of getting to the site, many of the fossils are extremely well-preserved and untouched by looters.
It's so pristine that study co-author Elena Garcea, a paleoanthropologist at Cassino University in Italy, called it a "treasure'' when she visited the site in 2005 to help with the excavation. It's by far the largest she had seen in her trips to Africa.
"In 50 years, we've found two burial sites,'' she said.
Even more spectacular, scientists said, is that the area was used for burials by two distinctive groups of people: the Kiffian, who lived there between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago, and the Tenerian, who lived there between 6,500 and 4,500 years ago.
The Kiffian, Sereno and his colleagues believe, were hunters and gatherers, said study co-author Christopher Stojanowski, an assistant professor of anthropology at Arizona State University.
They were big and strong: They uncovered a skeleton of one 6-foot, 3-inch male; the bones show evidence of well-developed muscles.
The Kiffian buried their dead in “unusual'' positions, Stojanowski said, including sitting with their knees in their face. It's possible they were tied or bound in animal skins that have long since decayed, he said.
But the mystery remains as to what happened to them: There is no real evidence of a mass disease, nor clear evidence of where they went, he said. But there is evidence the lake dried up for about 1,000 years.
The Tenerian followed, and may have brought cattle with them. They were generally smaller. And, in contrast to the Kiffian, they buried their dead with more “bling,'' including one female who was wearing a bracelet on her upper arm - the first one ever found from the period, Sereno said. Another wore a necklace made of a Hippopotamus tusk. One man was buried sitting on a turtle shell.
Perhaps the most striking find is a grave featuring a 25-year-old woman and two children, aged 8 and 5. They are buried with their arms around each other. Evidence of pollen underneath them suggests they were laid on a bed of flowers. Four arrowheads were also found in the grave site.
“This is incredible,'' Sereno said. “It's going to be one of Africa's most famous burials.''
Why both cultures chose the same sites, along dunes near the lake, to bury their dead remains a mystery, and how the Tenerian did so without disturbing the other graves is also fascinating, Stojanowski said.
In the end, despite doubts from some, archaeologists might end up learning something from Sereno about collection methods.
While archaeologists typically dig up individual bones in the field, Sereno was careful to cast the entire area around the fossils and brought them back to the lab in Chicago to prepare the bones. That allowed scientists to maintain the context of the burial and also better preserve the fossils, Sereno said.
Stojanowski was so impressed with methods used in the field that he wants Sereno to speak at an archeology conference in Chicago next spring.
While Sereno doesn't know when he can return to the site, he has made agreements with government officials to return many of the specimens to the country and house them in a new national museum in Niger. The museum could also include remains of some of the dozen dinosaurs species he found there.
And while Sereno plans to publish more on the harpoons and arrowheads found at the site, don't expect a career change: This will be his last archaeological dig he says, although he will continue hunting for new dinosaurs.
“Gobero will be studied for years and years to come, but certainly not mostly by me,'' Sereno said.
For more information, go to www.projectexploration.org.
August 14, 2008
BY DAVE NEWBART Staff Reporter
For the University of Chicago's Paul Sereno, the fossils his team uncovered in a remote section of the Sahara desert eight years ago were a treasure trove - but of a different species than he was used to working with.
After uncovering evidence of some 200 graves, it turns out the paleontologist extraordinaire - who has discovered nearly two dozen species of dinosaurs in his career - had also located the largest Stone Age human graveyard ever found in the Sahara.
Sereno, who is holding a news conference in Washington D.C. this morning to discuss his findings, said his archaeological work in the West African nation of Niger has been “thrilling.''
“This the first time I've dug up my own species,'' said Sereno, who said he was so excited during one subsequent trip to collect specimens that “a little tingle went up my spine.'' Although he is not an archaeologist by trade, he has vowed “to bring back the stories'' of the people who lived in the area between 4,500 and 9,500 years ago in an area known as the “Green Sahara.''
But telling those stories hasn't proved easy. First he had to overcome skepticism among archaeologists who criticized everything from his collection methods to his qualifications. At one point one of his funding requests was denied.
And as the human remains face destruction in the wind-swept desert, he can't return to the site because fighting between the Taureg that live there and the government have led to a ban on foreign travel.
But Sereno says he won't give up - he knows the site is crucial to understanding early civilization in an area less studied than the Middle East.
In a paper being released today in PLoS ONE, the online journal of the Public Library of Science, Sereno and several colleagues describe how people lived in Africa at the time based on their findings at the site, which they dubbed “Gobero.'”
“We are opening up a window on this time,'' Sereno said.
Although the Sahara is the largest desert on earth today, a change in the earth's orbit more than 10,000 years ago produced a lake in the area. The lake attracted abundant animal life, fish, vegetation - and people. In addition to the graves, Sereno's team found evidence of 54 animal species, including 300-pound fish, elephants and giraffe.
Because of the difficulty of getting to the site, many of the fossils are extremely well-preserved and untouched by looters.
It's so pristine that study co-author Elena Garcea, a paleoanthropologist at Cassino University in Italy, called it a "treasure'' when she visited the site in 2005 to help with the excavation. It's by far the largest she had seen in her trips to Africa.
"In 50 years, we've found two burial sites,'' she said.
Even more spectacular, scientists said, is that the area was used for burials by two distinctive groups of people: the Kiffian, who lived there between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago, and the Tenerian, who lived there between 6,500 and 4,500 years ago.
The Kiffian, Sereno and his colleagues believe, were hunters and gatherers, said study co-author Christopher Stojanowski, an assistant professor of anthropology at Arizona State University.
They were big and strong: They uncovered a skeleton of one 6-foot, 3-inch male; the bones show evidence of well-developed muscles.
The Kiffian buried their dead in “unusual'' positions, Stojanowski said, including sitting with their knees in their face. It's possible they were tied or bound in animal skins that have long since decayed, he said.
But the mystery remains as to what happened to them: There is no real evidence of a mass disease, nor clear evidence of where they went, he said. But there is evidence the lake dried up for about 1,000 years.
The Tenerian followed, and may have brought cattle with them. They were generally smaller. And, in contrast to the Kiffian, they buried their dead with more “bling,'' including one female who was wearing a bracelet on her upper arm - the first one ever found from the period, Sereno said. Another wore a necklace made of a Hippopotamus tusk. One man was buried sitting on a turtle shell.
Perhaps the most striking find is a grave featuring a 25-year-old woman and two children, aged 8 and 5. They are buried with their arms around each other. Evidence of pollen underneath them suggests they were laid on a bed of flowers. Four arrowheads were also found in the grave site.
“This is incredible,'' Sereno said. “It's going to be one of Africa's most famous burials.''
Why both cultures chose the same sites, along dunes near the lake, to bury their dead remains a mystery, and how the Tenerian did so without disturbing the other graves is also fascinating, Stojanowski said.
In the end, despite doubts from some, archaeologists might end up learning something from Sereno about collection methods.
While archaeologists typically dig up individual bones in the field, Sereno was careful to cast the entire area around the fossils and brought them back to the lab in Chicago to prepare the bones. That allowed scientists to maintain the context of the burial and also better preserve the fossils, Sereno said.
Stojanowski was so impressed with methods used in the field that he wants Sereno to speak at an archeology conference in Chicago next spring.
While Sereno doesn't know when he can return to the site, he has made agreements with government officials to return many of the specimens to the country and house them in a new national museum in Niger. The museum could also include remains of some of the dozen dinosaurs species he found there.
And while Sereno plans to publish more on the harpoons and arrowheads found at the site, don't expect a career change: This will be his last archaeological dig he says, although he will continue hunting for new dinosaurs.
“Gobero will be studied for years and years to come, but certainly not mostly by me,'' Sereno said.
For more information, go to www.projectexploration.org.