Takarkori Rock Shelter
Takarkori · Wadi Takarkori · Messak-Messelta
Early Holocene to Mid-Holocene (10,000–3000 BCE)·African Humid Period Pastoral (Early/Middle Holocene)·🇱🇾 Ghat District (Tadrart Acacus / Messak Settafet), Libya
Van Neer W, Alhaique F, Wouters W, Dierickx K, Gala M, Goffette Q, et al. · CC BY 4.0
About
About Takarkori Rock Shelter
Southwest Libyan Messak acacus dune-pocket shelter 80 m long, Takarkori is 10,000-year pastoral stratigraphy core with cow dung pollen, 500 mg cattle bone and 8200 cal BP milk lipids (oldest African dairy), clay figurines, 3 m deposit over bedrock with two mummies — TAK1 & TAK2 7000 BCE naturally-desiccated women with feather cape and hair braid — oldest Saharan human genomes (7300–5600 BP) showing isolated North African lineage (van de Loosdrecht Science 2018). Rock art: 'Round Head' monochrome bovid over mud pigment. Di Lernia project 1998–2009. Dairy earlier than Euclid.
Why it mattersEarliest African dairy proof and Saharan mummies 7000 BCE with unique genomes rewriting North African prehistory — pastoralism before pottery model outlier.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01How cattle entered Takarkori: diffusion vs independent African domestication
- 02Relationship TAK lineage to Iberomaurusian
Theories
- 01Amphibious cattle management in lakes (di Lernia)
- 02Green Sahara pastoral expansion model
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Occupation 10,000–3000 BCE; classic Pastoral 7000–4500 BCE; mummies 7000 BCE
- Period
- Early Holocene to Mid-Holocene (10,000–3000 BCE)
- Culture
- African Humid Period Pastoral (Early/Middle Holocene)
- Builders
- Saharan foragers → cattle herders
- Purpose
- Seasonal pastoral camp with ritual mummy interment
- Abandoned
- 3000 BCE aridification
- Rediscovered
- 2009 Biagetti
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
Occupation 10,000–3000 BCE; classic Pastoral 7000–4500 BCE; mummies 7000 BCE
Initial construction
c. 1118 CE
Rediscovery
On the ground
Structures & features
24.5822° N · 10.5161° E · 850 m · 2 mapped features
Mummy Depression (TAK1 burial)
burial7000 BCE desiccated burial pit with feather cape
24.5822° N · 10.5161° EDairy Dung Horizon
horizon8200 BP cattle dung layer with milk lipids
24.5820° N · 10.5160° E
Gallery