Gobero Timeline

A note about the dates: The People of the Green Sahara website uses Before Present (BP) as the unit of measurement for time. “Before Present (BP) years are a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use 1 January 1950 as the arbitrary origin of the age scale. For example, 1500 BP means 1,500 years before 1950, that is, in the year 450.” For more information about this unit of dating, click here:

EVENT	AGE BP (“years ago”)
Gobero’s phases
Phase 1 Paleodune accumulation	16,000-9,700 Transient presence of Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers
Phase 2 Early Holocene occupation	9,700-8,500 (dark-stained skeletons)
Arid Interruption	8,200-7,200 Very dry phase; could have started 8,000 years ago, so map of green Sahara then is not a problem
Phase 3 Mid-Holocene	7,200-4,500 All but the earliest skeletons from this phase are light-colored (unstained)
Phase 4 Transient presence	4,500-2,300 Desert dries up to present state
Skeleton dates
Kiffian skeletons	9,700-8,200 Dark-stained skeletons
Kiffian man, 6’ 3” stature	9,535 Bundle burial, hyperflexed
Kiffian cemetery on G3	~ 9,500 Average age of five burials in concentrated area
Tenerean woman, title page National Geographic magazine story	~ 5,700 (6,600-4,800) G1B6 is undated; age likely in range of light-colored skeletons, midpoint 5,700
Tenerean man with turtle shell	~ 6,650 Average of enamel dates
Tenerean woman with necklace	5,620
Tenerean triple burial	~ 5,300 Woman and two children
Tenerean girl with bracelet	4,835 Youngest burial dated at Gobero
Other dates
Last Ice Age ends	12,000
Holocene Epoch	12,000 to 7,000 With some dry intervals
Recent dates
Gobero discovered	2000
Gobero explored	2003
Gobero excavated	2005, 2006

About Gobero