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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A Provisional Historical Schema for Western Africa Based on Seven Climate Periods (ca. 9000 B.C. to the Nineteenth Century)
Author:Brooks, George E.ISNI
Year:1986
Periodical:Cahiers d'études africaines
Volume:26
Issue:101-102
Pages:43-62
Language:English
Geographic terms:West Africa
Africa
Subjects:climate change
chronology
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
History and Exploration
External link:https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1986.2164
Abstract:Recent scholarships concerning West African climate patterns in past times has made feasible a provisional periodization of the history of Western Africa which is independent of European-derived chronologies. Concomitantly, historical periodization offers provocative insights concerning such long-term processes as human migrations and settlement patterns, the diffusion of cultigens and domestic animals, and the development of long-distance trade routes. The historical schema discussed here comprise seven periods: 1) era of aquatic culture (c. 9000 to c. 2500 BC); 2) era of progressive desiccation (c. 2500 to c. 300 BC); 3) era of advanced aridity (c. 300 BC to c. 300 AD); 4) era of plentiful rainfall (c. 300 to c. 1100 AD); 5) era of progressive desiccation (c. 1100 to c. 1500 AD); 6) brief but eventful wet period (c. 1500-1630 AD); and 7) era of droughts, famines, warfare and slaving (c. 1630-1860 AD). Bibliogr., note, sum. in French (p. 287).
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