Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:06:41.123Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Sahara

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

E. W. Bovill
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The history of North Africa is dominated by the Sahara, which has always been a vital factor in the lives of the peoples of Barbary and the Western Sudan. The cultural and economic development of both has been profoundly affected by intercourse between the two. Yet they are separated by a desert which forms one of the world's greatest barriers to human intercourse.

A slight increase in the aridity of the Sahara would so extend the waterless stages that the caravan routes would become impassable to camels and therefme to men—leaving, of course, mechanical transport out of consideration. A correspondingly slight increase in rainfall would quickly multiply the waterholes and desert pastures and render man independent of the now necessary camel. The question of climatic change in historic times is therefore a matter of importance to the student of the history of northern Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 3 , Issue 12 , December 1929 , pp. 414 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1929 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Gautier, E.F. Sahara Algerien(Paris 1908), p. 60 et seq. Google Scholar Lauzanne. Bulletin du Comité de I’Afrique Française, 1921, p. 246.Google Scholar

2 A striking example in the Bardo (Musée Alaoui) at Tunis illustrates Orpheus charming the animals, amongst which is a remarkable picture of the Bubal hartebeest

3 Stéphane, Gsell, Histoire Ancienne de I’Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1921), vol. 1.Google Scholar

4 The Romans appreciated the value of good water and if local supplies were not of the desired purity they did not hesitate to look far afield for their needs.

5 Gautier, E.F., Les Sécles obscurs du Maghreb (Paris, 1927), pp. 14–16.Google Scholar

6 Ibid. op. cit., p. 16.Google Scholar

7 Jugurtha, 79 4.Google Scholar

8 Bell. Afric. LI, 5. LXIX, 5. LXXIX, I .

9 Procopius, . Bell. Vand. 1, 15, 34.Google Scholar De Aedificiis Google Scholar

10 Jugurtha, . 17, 5.Google Scholar

11 Hist. Augusti, Hadrian, 22, 14.Google Scholar

12 The Greeks had learnt the use of elephants during the campaigns of Alexander, first at Arbela and afterwards in the Indus valley where elephants were opposed to them. They subsequently organized elephant hunts in Africa.

13 Res gestae Divi Augusti, 4, 39.Google Scholar

14 Natural History, V, I. VIII, 10.

15 Gsell, . op. cit. vol. 1, p. 99 Google Scholar

16 Annales de Gbogruphie (1917) 26, 231, 377Google Scholar et sep. West Africa I April 1922.Google Scholar The Gambia, Annual Report, 1920.Google Scholar

17 Gautier, E.F., Sahara Algérien (Paris, 1908).Google Scholar Edwardes, H.S.W. Geographical Journal (1919), 53, 206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Col. Mangeot, L’Afrique franpise, (1922), p. 527.Google Scholar

18 Edwardes, H.S.W. loc. cit. Nigeria, Annual Report, 1921.Google Scholar Bovill, E.W. Journal of the African Society (1921), 20, 181–5, 259 et seq. Google Scholar SirHector, Duff, Growing in Nigeria, (London, 1921), pp. 4 8.Google Scholar Col. Tilho, , Geogruphical Journal, (1920), 24, 245.Google Scholar Hans, Vischer, Geogruphical Journal (1909), 33, 259.Google Scholar

19 Nigeria, Governor’s Annual Address, (Lagos, 1924). p. 121 Google Scholar

20 Gautier, E.F. Sahara algérien (Paris, 1908).Google Scholar Chudeau, R. Sahara soudunais (Paris, 1909). pp. 244–55.Google Scholar Annales de Géographie (1916), 26, 455.Google Scholar

21 Henri, Hubert, Annales de Géographie (1917). 26, 384.Google Scholar

22 Conrad, Kilian, Au Hoggur (Paris, 1925), pp. 106,Google Scholar 139-43, 158, 165, 178. Harding King, W.J. Geogruphical Journal (1919), 53, 49.Google Scholar Gautier, E.F., Le Sahara (Paris, 1928), pp. 61–7.Google Scholar

23 Rodd, F.R., People of the Veil (London, 1926), p. 361.Google Scholar

24 Herodotus, , 11, 32.Google Scholar

25 Ibid. IV, 181, 185.

26 Gsell, , op. cit. vol. 1, p. 57.Google Scholar