The Oxford History of the Sahara

The Sahara, a vast region spanning 30 million square kilometers--larger than the United States or Europe--was a thriving green landscape between 12,000 and 5,000 years ago. Its stunning rock art reveals the presence of diverse ancient societies. Yet today it is often seen as an inhospitable desert shaped by various forms of trafficking. The first volume of The Oxford History of the Sahara explores this transformation and the historical evolution of the Saharan region from its prehistoric roots to the year 650 CE through paleoenvironmental data, archaeological artifacts, rock art and inscriptions, linguistics, and early written sources. During this period, the Sahara underwent numerous transitions, oscillating between dry and humid periods, which shaped its ecology and the cultures that flourished there.The volume starts by exploring the environmental changes that occurred in the Sahara, particularly since the beginning of the Holocene (ca. 12,000 years ago), and the various forms of documentation that offer insights into its past societies. Rock art, stone structures with diverse functions, including funerary, and ceramics, as well as zoological and botanical remains provide valuable clues to the subsistence strategies and adaptations of Saharan societies over time. The second half of this volume covers cultural histories by period, from the early Holocene resettlement of the Sahara, the transition to pastoralism, the development of chariot culture illustrating exchanges with Mediterranean societies to the expansion of the Tifinagh script across the desert. It also examines the perception of the Sahara and its inhabitants in Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sources, along with the role of oases, irrigation, and trade networks in Garamantian culture on the eve of the arrival of Islam.Written by seventeen international historians and archaeologists, and spanning the entire Sahara, from the Red Sea and Nile to the Atlantic, and from the Atlas Mountains and Mediterranean to the Sahel, The Oxford History of the Sahara: Volume I provides an up-to-date and comprehensive understanding of the Sahara's rich and complex history.