Mathilda had a post a few days ago which caught my eye, but I forgot to nibble it. Better late than never. She discusses a recent paper reporting on the archaeological excavation of Uan Afuda and other Early Holocene sites of the Acacus mountains, in the Libyan Sahara, and in particular the layers of animal dung that excavations uncovered. The paper suggests that these “dung layers are related to a forced penning of a ruminant, very likely Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia),” and that this is evidence of delayed use of resources designed to cope with lean periods. Mathilda goes on to hypothesize that cattle domestication keeping ((See comment from Mathilda.)) may have started in the Sahara — before the growing of crops — in a similar way.
“Mathilda goes on to hypothesize that cattle domestication may have started in the Sahara before the growing of crops”
Not really…
I point out that domesticated cattle only start appearing in Africa along with the Neolithic expansion from Asia and match the expansion of the Asian domesticates (other posts). The cattle at Nabta were probably captured and ‘kept’ from wild and not domesticated, like the Barbary sheep at Afada. Possibly to secure food for hard times or to make sure they had a cow to sacrifice on ritual days. There’s no evidence from the African languages or expansion patterns of morphologically domesticated cattle bones that cattle were ever domesticated in the Sahara until the concept had arrived from Asia.