Climate, environment, and human occupation in the Holocene Tadrart Acacus

This chapter offers a synthetic analysis of the climate and environmental
variations in the Tadrart Acacus during the Holocene. Most of the information is based
on geological and palynological data, although other proxies were occasionally used.
Starting with the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, wet conditions decreased until
they reached the cool and arid “8.2 calBP event”. The environmental improvements recorded
in the Middle Holocene were interrupted by a short arid interval around 7400-
7100 calBP. From 5900-5600 calBP onward, with the final disappearance of the African
Monsoons, the region turned to the desert conditions that endure to this day. Within
this environmental framework, the combination of geoarchaeological surveys, stratigraphic
excavations, and a firm radiocarbon chronology allowed for a reconstruction
of the societal and cultural changes across time. Groups of hunting-gathering-fishing
humans who practiced immediate and/or delayed systems of resource exploitation
were followed by transhumant cattle herders and year-round specialized shepherds
and, later, oasis farmers and traders.