Civilization’s Mysterious Desert Cradle: Rediscovering the Deep Sahara | Stefan Kroepelin
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- Egypt’s pharaonic civilization rose on the Nile, but it was rooted in the deep Saharan desert and pushed by climate change, says Stefan Kröpelin.
Described in "Nature" magazine as “one of the most devoted Sahara explorers of our time,” Kröpelin has survived every kind of desert hardship to discover the climate and cultural history of northern Africa. He found that the “Green Sahara” arrived with monsoon rains 10,500 years ago, and people quickly moved into the new fertile savannah. There they prospered as cattle pastoralists-their elaborate rock paintings show herds of rhinoceros and scenes of prehistoric life-until 7,300 years ago, when gradually increasing desiccation drove them to the Nile river, which they had previously considered too dangerous for occupation.
To manage the Nile, the former pastoralists helped to invent a pharaonic state 5,100 years ago. Its 3,000-year continuity has never been surpassed.
Kröpelin, a climate scientist at the University of Cologne, is a dazzling speaker with hair-raising stories, great images, and a compelling tale about climate change and civilization.
"Civilization’s Mysterious Desert Cradle: Rediscovering the Deep Sahara" was given on June 10, 02014 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:
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Seeing how extreme these desert environments are & how drastically they have changed over time really drives home the remarkable precariousness of ancient Egyptian civilisation, Bedouin nomads & other groups who've survived around scarce water sources, surrounded by areas so incredibly inimical to human survival? Blows my mind how much teams like Stefan's have managed to achieve in that space given the logistical challenges 😳
Hopefully new technologies will continue to make such archeological & other scientific explorations of these regions safer over time, although I imagine in-person sampling & digging will remain both necessary and challenging?
Paleoclimatology is a very interesting field! Kröpelin has been risking his life for over 40 years by diving deep into the Sahara. The way he does that is very thorough. He is not looking for the confirmation of theories, but for the traces of the past and what these tell him based on contemporary research methodology. You can see that from his stories. It makes me accept his, in his own words, "politically incorrect" beliefs. An old Dutch saying is: 'One person's death is another's bread.' While humanity's limitless needs are leading to global warming and the melting of the ice caps, some oases have returned in the desert. Where the land has been taken from people, land has been created for other peoples. He talks about the exponential growth of the sub-Saharan people. Let's hope that at least a dozen Kröpelins will emerge from this to further reveal the secrets of the Sahara.
"If you are unlucky you hit an anti tank mine"
Holy shit just getting through the desert is absolutely insane
On the right track...
amazing
Hovercrafts would be good 👍
40:21
Well a lot of these Explorer died, and it is risky to go to that place. You have to tell the participants that they can easily die. Everyone who sees the Film are aware of it. Dont risk no ones life, wait for the new technologie. All these satalites are geting better. If Stefan kröplin risks his own life, its also not really ok, but as gar I know he has a wife and children
Cant you just go there with a helicopter? Or is that too expensive?
1:09:05 Looks like someone in the audience had the same question!