From 8,000 to 3,500 BCE, the Saharan desert was known to have been savanah.
Several black african mummies were found in the Uan Muhuggiag region of Libya that was dated to 5,500 BCE, which predates the contemporary Egyptian mummies that we know now.
As the Sahara's climate turned back to what we see today, is it plausable that the cattle-herder culture that was developing this mummification technique receded to the Nile valley with whichever culture was existing there to merge together into the Egyptians?
Or did the techniques develop seperately and unknown to each other and the black African recede to the south as the Egyptian culture took root?
The Tashwinat Mummy of a child found in Wan Muhuggiag (or Uan Mughjaj), Tadrart Acacus (Akakus Mountain), Fezzan, southern Libya, by Professor Mori in 1958. The mummy was thought to be at least 5400 years old and therefore it is much older than any of the mummies found in Egypt. The child is thought to have been 3 years old at the time of death. The mummy was found wrapped in an animal skin and covered with herbs and plants, probably to aid preservation and to ward off decay. |