IELTS Reading: Ancient People in the Sahara Passage Explained

The Sahara Desert today is one of the most barren and inhospitable regions on the planet, yet thousands of years ago, it was a lush ecosystem that sustained numerous ancient civilizations. The reading passage Ancient People in the Sahara follows the expedition of Professor Paul Sereno and Dr. Elena Garcea to the Gobero site, uncovering the mysteries of two ancient communities: the Kiffian and the Tenerian. This passage helps learners sharpen their ability to identify synonyms and master three common IELTS Reading question types: True/False/Not Given, Short-answer Questions, and Note Completion.

Reading Passage

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On Oct. 13, 2000, Paul Sereno, a professor from the University of Chicago, led a team of palaeontologists as they climbed out of three broken-down Land Rovers, refilled their water bottles, and trekked across the toffee-coloured expanse known as the Tenere Desert. The Tenere, one of the most barren places on Earth, is located on the southern flank of the Sahara. According to the turbaned Tuareg nomads who have inhabited this arid domain for centuries, this California-sized ocean of sand and rock is a ‘desert within a desert’. In the Tenere, massive dunes can stretch for a hundred miles, as far as the eye can see. Furthermore, 120-degree heat waves and relentless winds can dehydrate a human body in less than a day.

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Mike Hettwer, a photographer on the team, was captivated by the stunning scenery and wandered toward several dunes to capture the landscape. Upon reaching the first slope, he was shocked to find that the dunes were littered with numerous bones. He photographed them with his digital camera and hurried back to the Land Rover. ‘I found some bones,’ Hettwer told the other team members, ‘and to my great surprise, they aren’t from dinosaurs. They are human bones.’

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One day in the spring of 2005, Paul Sereno contacted Elena Garcea, a prestigious archaeologist at the University of Cassino in Italy, inviting her to return to the site with him. Having spent 30 years researching the history of the Nile in Sudan and the mountains of the Libyan Desert, Garcea was well-versed in the lives of the ancient people of the Sahara. However, she had not met Sereno before this expedition, and his claim of having found so many skeletons in the Tenere Desert was viewed with skepticism by some archaeologists, one of whom dismissed Sereno as a ‘moonlighting palaeontologist’. Nevertheless, Garcea was so intrigued by his findings that she readily accepted his invitation.

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Over the next three weeks, Sereno and Garcea (along with five excavators, five Tuareg guides, and five soldiers from the Nigerien army) mapped out the site, which was dubbed Gobero, after the Tuareg name for the area, a place where the ancient Kiffian and Tuareg nomads used to roam. They excavated eight tombs and recovered twenty artefacts from these two civilisations. These artefacts clearly show that the Kiffian fishermen caught not only small fish but also massive ones: the remains of Nile perch, a fierce fish weighing about 300 pounds, along with those of alligators and hippos, were found near the dunes.

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Sereno returned with essential bones and artefacts, planning a follow-up trip to the Sahara. Meanwhile, he carefully extracted teeth from the skeletons and sent them to a laboratory for radiocarbon dating. The results indicated that while the smaller ‘sleeping’ bones dated back to 6,000 years ago (within the Tenerian period), the larger, compactly bundled remains were approximately 9,000 years old, placing them in the heyday of the Kiffian era. Scientists could now distinguish one culture from the other.

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In the fall of 2006, with the goal of exhuming another 80 burials, the team returned to Gobero with more crew members and six additional scientists specializing in various fields. At the site, Chris Stojanowski, a bio-archaeologist at Arizona State University, found some clues by piecing the remains together. Judging by the bones, the Kiffian appeared to be a peaceful and hardworking people. ‘The absence of injuries to the head or forearms suggests they did not engage in much fighting,’ he noted. ‘And they had robust bodies.’ He pointed to a long, narrow femur and continued, ‘The muscle attachment sites suggest massive leg muscles, which means this individual lived a strenuous lifestyle and consumed a high-protein diet. Both inferences align with a lifestyle based on fishing.’ To provide a striking contrast, he displayed the femur of a Tenerian male. The ridge was barely visible. ‘This individual had a less laborious lifestyle, which is what you would expect of a herder.’

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Stojanowski concluded that the Tenerian were herders, which was consistent with the prevailing view among scholars regarding the lifestyle in the Sahara 6,000 years ago, when the arid climate favoured herding over hunting. However, Sereno raised some puzzling points: if the Tenerian were herders, where were the herds? Despite thousands of animal bones excavated at Gobero, only three cow skeletons were found, and no goat or sheep remains were discovered. ‘It is common for pastoralists not to slaughter their cattle, especially in a cemetery,’ Elena Garcea remarked. ‘Even modern pastoralists, such as the Wodaabe of Niger, are reluctant to slaughter animals from their herds.’ Sereno suggested, ‘Perhaps the Tenerian at Gobero were a transitional group that still relied heavily on hunting and fishing and had not fully adopted herding.’

Questions

Questions 15 – 18 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? In boxes 15 – 18 on your answer sheet, write:

• TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

• FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

• NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

15. The pictures of rock engravings found in the Green Sahara are similar to those in other places.

16. The Tenere Desert was a quite fertile area in the Sahara Desert.

17. Hettwer found human remains in the desert by chance.

18. Sereno and Garcea had collaborated on archaeological projects before studying the ancient people of the Sahara.

Questions 19 – 21 Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 19-21 on your answer sheet.

19. What did Sereno and Garcea produce in the initial weeks before excavation began?

20. What did Sereno send to the research laboratory?

21. How old were the larger, tightly bundled burials estimated to be?

Questions 22 – 27 Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 22-27 on your answer sheet.

A comparative study of two ancient cultures

The Kiffian

• They appeared to be peaceful and industrious, as the researcher did not find 22. _______________ on their heads and forearms.

• Their lifestyle was 23. _______________.

• Observations of their large leg muscles suggest their diet was rich in 24. _______________.

The Tenerian

• Stojanowski presumed that the Tenerian preferred herding to 25. _______________.

• However, only the bones of individual animals such as 26. _______________ were found.

• Sereno suggested the Tenerian in Gobero lived in a 27. _______________ group at that time.