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date: 13 February 2025

The Domestication of Livestock in the Saharalocked

The Domestication of Livestock in the Saharalocked

  • Michael BrassMichael BrassHonorary Research Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, University College London

Summary

Archaeology of early Saharan pastoralists has been dominated since the early 1980s by the debate surrounding cattle domestication. Geneticists’ determinations on the spread of haplotypes, and the timing thereof, extend the scope and increase the complexity of the debate. The ecological foundations of the early African domestication model, so prominent from the early 1980s onward, is no longer viable. The wider genetic and archaeological evidence speaks to the cultural variability made materially manifest in pre–Iron Age Saharan pastoral societies. The emerging picture is of a mosaic of population movements, clustering, and experimentation, resulting in transient peaks of wealth and the potential for incipient social complexity to become temporarily or permanently manifest.

Subjects

  • Archaeology
  • Northeastern Africa

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