Bioarchaeological Reconstruction of Early and Middle Holocene Human Adaptations Across the Sahara-Sahel Border

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Human societies struggle to adapt to climate change, and decades of prehistoric archaeological research has determined this is not a uniquely modern problem. In fact, humans have been grappling with cycles of desertification and the degradation of ecosystems for millennia and will continue to do so in the future. Therefore, it is critical that inferences about past lifeways are used to better inform decisions in the present and future. Using interdisciplinary approaches, it is now possible to study the way of life of past peoples in unprecedented detail, delineating diverse dietary and economic strategies, community organization patterns and health experiences. Such inferences are particularly powerful when informed by the deep time perspective that archaeological investigations afford. While relevant to all societies, the interaction of health and environment is particularly critical for disadvantaged communities throughout the developing world, as in Niger (northwestern Africa) where this research project is focused. This project assembles an international team of collaborators to conduct bioarchaeological, geological, and paleoenvironmental investigations of a newly discovered paleolake that was once home to thousands of people during the Early and Middle Holocene (8,600 through 4,500 years ago) but is today in the middle of the Sahara Desert. The specific focus of this research team is a series of cemeteries containing several hundred human burials found within sand dunes that were once islands within the now extinct lake. The investigators will reconstruct the nature of this lake and surrounding habitat using sedimentological and zooarchaeological analyses and correlate these data with two burial occupation phases distinguished by a 500-1000 year hiatus. Intensive excavation of human burials will implement analyses of inherited osteo-dental markers, pathologies, biomechanical properties and biogeochemical signatures which will be used to examine genetic relationships between occupations, to infer how dietary quality and diversity changed as the lake dried, to reconstruct residential mobility and seasonal migration patterns, and to document patterns of sickness and population health. By combining these datasets with reconstructed paleoenvironments and climates this project will provide insights into the causes and repercussions of major transitions in human organization strategies. In particular this research will elucidate whether dietary diversity increased with increasing aridity and whether human communities grew or decreased in size or became more or less mobile both seasonally and over longer life course intervals. Until the discovery of Gobero, much of the information necessary to inform biological and cultural analyses was lacking due to the difficulties of archaeological research in Niger, despite its critical position at the intersection of the Sahara and Sahel regions. In particular, the density of human burials at Gobero is unique for this time period and belies the importance of this extinct lake system to peoples of North Africa for millennia prior to the onset of desert conditions circa 4000 years ago. Perspectives from the human past can inform decisions in the present to improve human-environment synergy. This project relies on the expertise and exchange of ideas of scholars from three continents and will improve the infrastructure for training students about how best to study and understand major changes in the human condition in the past and present. The research and collections it produces will be shared with the scientific community and public through online databases, academic publications, and popular venues that promote interdisciplinary science. Collaboration with scholars and students in Niger will develop research and training relationships that will enable the establishment of an anthropological museum in Niger for educational initiatives promoting cultural patrimony. This will be done as part of a broader effort to establish World Heritage status for the endangered, prehistoric resources of Niger, one of the world?s poorest countries.