Comment on “The demographic response to Holocene climate change in the Sahara”, by Katie Manning and Adrian Timpson (2014)

Vermeersch, Pierre

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.12.007

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The underlying principle of this method assumes a monotonic relationship between the amount of data and the amount of human presence, which is reliant on the law of large numbers to overcome small-scale temporal and spatial biases. Full details on the methods are described in Shennan et al 52 , whilst criticisms 53 , 54 , and subsequent defense 55 , 56 of the method have been presented in several publications. The population estimates used in the present analysis 22 were created from a dataset comprising 3287 radiocarbon dates from 1011 “Neolithic” sites.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara

2018

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The climate deterioration after the most recent African humid period (AHP) is a notable past example of desertification. Evidence points to a human population expansion in northern Africa prior to this, associated with the introduction of pastoralism. Here we consider the role, if any, of this population on the subsequent ecological collapse. Using a climate-vegetation model, we estimate the natural length of the most recent AHP. The model indicates that the system was most susceptible to collapse between 7 and 6 ka; at least 500 years before the observed collapse. This suggests that the inclusion of increasing elements of pastoralism was an effective adaptation to the regional environmental changes. Pastoralism also appears to have slowed the deterioration caused by orbitally-driven climate change. This supports the view that modern pastoralism is not only sustainable, but beneficial for the management of the world’s dryland environments.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara

2018

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“…The underlying principle of this method assumes a monotonic relationship between the amount of data and the amount of human presence, which is reliant on the law of large numbers to overcome small-scale temporal and spatial biases. Full details on the methods are described in Shennan et al 52 , whilst criticisms 53,54 , and subsequent defense 55,56 of the method have been presented in several publications. The population estimates used in the present analysis 22 were created from a dataset comprising 3287 radiocarbon dates from 1011 "Neolithic" sites.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara

Brierley¹,

Manning²,

Maslin³

2017

Preprint

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The benefits of pastoralism for marginal, arid environments are often not appreciated. One notable past example of the human response to encroaching desertification comes from the regional climate deterioration after the most recent African Humid Period, which ended around 5,500 years ago. Recent evidence points to a population expansion in northern Africa prior to this, associated with the introduction of pastoralism. Here we consider the role, if any, of this population on the subsequent ecological collapse. Using a climate-vegetation model driven by global forcings, we estimate the natural length of the most recent African Humid Period (AHP). The model indicates that the system was most susceptible to collapse between 7-6 ka, which is at least 500 years before the observed collapse. Together with archaeological and ethnographic evidence from northern Africa, this suggests that the inclusion of increasing elements of pastoralism after 7 ka was an effective adaptation to the regional environmental changes. Pastoralism also appears to have slowed the deterioration caused by orbitally-driven climate change. This supports the view that modern pastoralism is not only sustainable, but beneficial for the management of the world’s dryland environments.

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“…For the Mediterranean and Saharan regions, several SPD-led analyses have been conducted in the past [5,6,9], and have also been the object of criticism, mainly on the grounds that they predominantly reflect research bias toward certain regions over others (e.g. [10], but see [7]). Most published radiocarbon databases provide little to no information beyond details of the dated sample.…”

Section: ) Reuse Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

The MedAfriCarbon Radiocarbon Database and Web Application. Archaeological Dynamics in Mediterranean Africa, ca. 9600–700 BC

Lucarini¹,

Wilkinson²,

Crema³

et al. 2020

Journal of Open Archaeology Data

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The MedAfriCarbon radiocarbon database and its accompanying web application are outcomes of the MedAfrica project-Archaeological deep history and dynamics of Mediterranean Africa, ca. 9600-700 BC. The dataset presented here in Version 1.0 of the database includes 1587 archaeological 14C dates from 368 sites in Mediterranean Africa. The database is unusual because the majority of the dates within it have been annotated with further cultural and environmental variables, notably the presence/absence of different domestic/wild species and particular material culture traits. MedAfriCarbon also includes an publicly-accessible web application that facilitates data exploration and informal analysis.

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Comment on “The demographic response to Holocene climate change in the Sahara”, by Katie Manning and Adrian Timpson (2014)

Cited by 5 publications

References 5 publications

Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara

Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara

Pastoralism may have delayed the end of the green Sahara

The MedAfriCarbon Radiocarbon Database and Web Application. Archaeological Dynamics in Mediterranean Africa, ca. 9600–700 BC

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