Asselar man is a

Later Stone Age The Later Stone Age (LSA) is a period in African prehistory that follows the Middle Stone Age. The Later Stone Age is associated with the advent of modern human behavior in Africa, although definitions of this concept and means of studying it ar ...

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

discovered by Theodore Monod and

Wladimir Besnard Wladimir Besnard (1890, St. Petersburg, Russia – 1960, São Paulo, Brazil) was a French biologist and Brazilian oceanographer, and is considered to be the father of Brazilian oceanography.Homenagem aos mestres: esculturas na USP, vol. 5 of "C ...

(in various sources incorrectly named M.M. Besnard or M.V. Besnard) in 1927, in the

Adrar des Ifoghas The Adrar des Ifoghas (also Adrar des Iforas; Tamasheq: ⴰⴷⵔⴰⵔ ⵏ ⵉⴼⵓⵖⴰⵙ in Tifinagh; Adrar n Ifoghas; ar, أدرار إيفوغاس Ifoghas' Mountains) is a massif located in the Kidal Region of Mali, reaching into Algeri ...

. The

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

is located near

Essouk Essouk (Arabic: : "the market") is a commune and small village in the Kidal Region of Mali. The village lies 45 km northwest of Kidal in the Adrar des Ifoghas massif. The ruins of the medieval town of Tadmakka (Arabic: ) lie 2 km nort ...

in what is now the

Kidal Region Kidal Region ( Bambara: ߞߌߘߊߟ ߘߌߣߋߖߊ tr. Kidal Dineja) the eighth administrative region of Mali, covering . This area was formerly part of Gao Region, but was created as a separate region in 1991. It is located in the north of the coun ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

Wickliffe Draper Wickliffe Preston Draper (August 9, 1891 – 1972) was an American political activist. He was an ardent eugenicist and lifelong advocate of strict racial segregation. In 1937, he founded the Pioneer Fund for eugenics and heredity research; he l ...

funded the expedition. The Asselar specimen has been dated to around 6,400 BP, making it no older than the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

. Along with such fossils as Iwo Eleru (11,000 BP) and

Ishango Ishango is a Congolese lakeshore site located in the north-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, previously known as Zaire. This present day village is known as a "fishermen settlement" as it lies on the shores of the Semli ...

(8,000 BP), which were excavated from archaeological sites in West and Central Africa, Asselar is one of the earliest known anatomically modern human skeletons, with negroid phenotype, living in sub Saharan Africa. Older fossils with a similar morphology have also been found near

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

, dated to between 8,000 and 5,000 BC. Due there being no specific publication or reference found in and among existing academic literature, beyond simple mention (e.g.,

Cheikh Anta Diop Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 – 7 February 1986) was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. Diop's work is considered foundational to the the ...

in 1968), which provides contextualizing explanation for the dating of the Asselar remains at 6390 BP, as well as the absence of data on the femur used to generate the date and the degree of error that 1960s-era

carbon-14 dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

methods can produce, the date of 6390 BP provided for the Asselar remains is regarded as meriting caution in its consideration and use. More recently, in the 1980s, geological dating from the Asselar site in the Saharan region of northern

has produced a date for the Asselar remains as being between 9500 BP and 7000 BP, amid the early

Holocene Wet Phase The African humid period (AHP) (also known by other names) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses ...

. The Asselar individual was found near what, during the time of the

African Humid Period The African humid period (AHP) (also known by other names) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, ...

, was likely a lake. Medical imaging techniques of the skeleton and surrounding matrix show that the Asselar individual was likely intentionally buried, rather than having been drowned and subsequently buried by accident as originally thought. Human remains found buried in similar anatomical positions have been found at other early Holocene sites such as Hassi-el-Abiod in Mali.

References

*This article began as a translation of the corresponding

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

in the French Wikipedia, Retrieved 17 December 2005.

External links

Encyclopædia Britannica: Asselar man entry

Human Timeline (Interactive)
– Smithsonian,

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

(August 2016). {{clear Human remains (archaeological) History of Mali

See also

References

External links