Discovery sheds new light on 'green Sahara'

Photo credit: Mike Hettwer, Courtesy Project Exploration

Dinosaur hunters have stumbled across the largest and oldest Stone Age cemetery in the Sahara desert. Called Gobero, the area is a uniquely preserved record of human habitation and burials from the Kiffian (7700 to 6200 B.C.) and the Tenerian (5200 to 2500 B.C.) cultures.

A ridge on a male Kiffian thighbone told ASU bioarchaeologist Chris Stojanowski that the people – who ranged from six feet two inches to six feet eight inches tall – had huge leg muscles, likely from a high-protein diet and strenuous lifestyle.