In search of the lost Sahara

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Archaeologists doing some research. Photo: EiTB

The region of Tiris, a vast desert area south of Western Sahara, is the work field of the Basque-Sahrawi expedirion researching the past of this inhospitable place of the planet.

A team of Basque archaeologists led by Andoni Sáenz de Buruaga, a professor at the Basque public university UPV, is visiting the Western Sahara for a fifth time.

"We presented our research project to the Sahrawi Government in 2004. It was very well received and we have been given every chance. The results are very good, we have really made progress and that encourages us to travel for the fifth time to the region of Tiris", Andoni Sáenz de Buruaga says.

The research of the Basque archaeologists covers an area of 30,000 km2, three times the surface of Navarre. These lands are part of the Western Sahara that escapes the control of Morocco, which controls 75 percent of the former Spanish colony.

More than 300 archaeological sites found

In five years' work, the Basque archeologists have catalogues more that 300 archaeological sites, including former human settlements, carvings and cave paintings. Most of them are between 3,000 and 10,000 years old. The research work helps to make the prehistoric heritage of the southern region of the Western Sahara better known. The gathered material will be part of the first archaeological catalogue of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

"We are sweating blood but it is worthy. We will keep on trying to research the past of the Sahrawis. It is vet important for them to know their cultural heritage, which is very rich opposite to what it was generally thought. It is a way to show and claim and their ancestors lived here", Sáenz de Buruaga said.

One of the most remarkable conclusions is the verification that today's arid desert was a subtropical savanna with plenty of flora and fauna six thousand years ago. Rains decreased as a consequence of a process of climate change and animals moved to other places to face the lack of water.

A different way of cooperation

Apart from their research work, the Basque archaeologists also target to cooperate with their Sahrawi colleagues. Expeditions are always based on joint work. This time, the expedition is formed by three Basque and three Sahrawi archaeologists.

"We can only work together with them for a month, which is all the time we spend at the Sahara every time. It is little time but we try to make the most of it. What we want if is to give them technical training. They have very few resources and what we teach them is very useful for them for future research works. But certainly, the cooperation is mutual. We receive much from them, Sáenz de Buruaga says.

In fact, Basque archaeologists would not be able to go deeper into the inhospitable desert of Tiris without the help of the Sahrawi Government and the local researchers.