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The African Humid Period and the ‘Green Sahara’

2023; Springer Nature (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-031-47160-5_15

2213-2104

Jasper Knight,

The African Humid Period (AHP, ~14.8–5.5 ka BP) is a key time period of the lateglacial and early Holocene when, under a wetter climate regime, areas of the central Sahara that are now dry once experienced flowing rivers and permanent lakes. More extensive vegetation and fauna then developed and this was able to sustain a greater intensity of and likely more sedentary patterns of human activity. For this reason, this period is known informally as the ‘Green SaharaGreen Sahara’. Evidence for the AHP comes from a range of geomorphic, sedimentary, biological, and archaeological data from across North Africa in particular. In the central Sahara, this evidence provides insight into AHP climates, environments, and the ways in which prehistoric human activity exploited these environmental conditions. This chapter reviews the AHP as a time period, including its onset and termination, the evidence for climatic and environmental conditions during this period, and the richness and diversity of the archaeological record. The AHP provides a good example of the close interrelationships between climate change, land surface processes and human activity, and as such may usefully inform on the sensitivity of both environmental and human systems to climate forcing.