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 Monsoon, 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 or delayed systems of resource exploitation were followed by transhumant cattle herders and year-round specialized shepherds and, later, oasis farmers and traders.