The Archaeology of Western Sahara: Results of Recent Research

Western Sahara has on e of the last remaining unexplored prehistories on
the planet. Recent environmental and archaeological research in the Free
Zone of Western Sahara reveals a sequence of Holocene occupation beginning
in a humid period around 9000 b.p. superseded around 5000 b.p. by an
arid phase in which the land was mainly given over to pastoralism and
monumental burial. This paper summarises excavations at seven lithic scatter
sites and of two burial mounds and contextualises the results of this work
within the wider Saharan landscape.