The African Humid Period: Paleolimnological and Paleoecological Evidence

Summary

From about 15,000 to 5,000 years ago, lakes and rivers existed across now arid areas of northern Africa, accompanied by extended ranges of vegetation, animals and human settlement. In eastern Africa, lake levels were very much higher than present, with now-closed lakes overflowing into the Nile and tributary rivers. While it is widely recognised that this African Humid Period resulted from an intensified African summer monsoon linked to the early Holocene precessional increase in summer insolation, its precise timing and geographical extent, especially its onset and termination, are widely debated. Vegetation feedback factors may account for differences in the rate of changes between insolation drivers and climatic response. Local factors, especially lake hydrology and morphology, undoubtedly account for differences in the timing of changes between sites. In this contribution, I will review some of the evidence for the African Humid Period, demonstrate these apparent anomalies, and attempt to clarify its temporal and geographical boundaries.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20888