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| 8000-year-old skeleton found in Libyan desert |
Ancient human skeletons were found in a Libyan desert that shed some light on the ancient humans living in that region at that time, according to press reports in the United States.
Archaeologists have discovered 20 skeletons of the Stone Age in and around a rock shelter in the Sahara Desert in Libya, according to a new study.
The skeletons date between 8,000 and 4,200 years ago, meaning that the burial place was used for thousands of years.
"It must have been a place of memory," the study co-author, Mary Anne Tafuri, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge, said.
"People throughout time have remained and have buried their people, again and again, generation after generation," she added.
About 15 women and girls were buried in the rock shelter, while five men and boys were buried under piles of giant stone tombs outside the shelter during a later period, when the region became a desert.
The results, which was detailed in the March issue of the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, suggest the culture changed with the weather.