Sahara Yields Ancient Cemetery

Find shows desert was once lush, green, populated
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 15, 2008 2:13 PM CDT
Sahara Yields Ancient Cemetery
This photo provided by the National Geographic Society shows a triple burial containing a woman and two children, their limbs entwined, discovered at the Gobero site.   (AP Photo)

Explorers hunting for dinosaur bones have found a Stone Age cemetery deep in the Sahara desert, National Geographic reports. The team of paleontologists discovered bones from two separate ancient human cultures that lived in the region as long as 10,000 years ago, when monsoon rains turned parts of the desert lush and green.

Experts say the find in a forbidding corner of the desert will shed new light on the cultures of the people who dwelt in the so-called "Green Sahara" thousands of years ago. One find has been dubbed the "Stone Age embrace"—a woman and two children buried on a bed of flowers, arms outstretched toward each other. (More paleontology stories.)

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