Adrar Bous

An informative site on the Tenere Desert in Niger where excavations revealed a long succession of prehistoric occupation. The first was a Levalloiso-Mousterian settlement. By early in the 4th millennium BC, food production techniques are attested. A skeleton of a domestic shorthorn ox dates to 3700 BC and remains of small stock that was herded. Cereals, as sorghum, were possibly cultivated.

Site in the Air massif, on the edge of the Tenere Desert in Niger, where excavations have revealed a long succession of prehistoric occupation. Levalloiso-Mous-terian settlement was followed by an arid phase when the region was probably uninhabited. The succeeding Aterian industry represents a local variant in which bifacial points are a distinct feature. The prolonged post-Aterian arid period is marked by a further hiatus in the archaeological sequence, but by about 10,000 bc there was a rapid return to wetter conditions. Human settlement then resumed: it appears likely that the initial re-occupation of the area was by small mobile groups, perhaps of northerly origin. With increasingly moist conditions, however, the more settled life-style of the so-called ‘aquatic civilization’ was soon adopted. By early in the 4th millennium bc techniques of food-production are firmly attested. Adrar Bous is one of the most informative sites of the Tenere Neolithic. The skeleton of a domestic shorthorn ox there dates to 3700 bc. Small stock were also herded, while numerous grindstones suggest that cereals, including sorghum, were intensively exploited if not actually cultivated.