Rare Gabon burial cave sheds light on African history

French geo-archeologist Richard Oslisly and two French anthropobiologists Sebastien Villotte and Sacha Kacki examine the remains of a skull in the Iroungou cave near Mouila in Gabon, March 2 2020. Picture: PASCAL MORA / ARCHEOVISION / AFPThe discovery of a 14th-century underground burial site deep in Gabon’s tropical forest may shed light on a little-known period in Africa’s history.

The mission is also funded by the local environmental branch of Singapore’s palm oil giant Olam International, which is well established in the west African state. Oslisly, 69, began to speak of the discovery only a year afterwards, but it has caused a wave of excitement and hope in the regional scientific community.

Vestiges of the past are unusual in this part of the world, but that is also partly because archaeological research is rare and generally underfunded. When researchers questioned the elders in villages around the Iroungou cave, nobody was aware of the existence of the site. The villagers said they had no idea who the men and women buried there could be.

In March, a team of anthropologists and specialists in bone pathology — people with skills to diagnose illnesses from remains — were due to go down into the cave.

Was there looting by Africans then as well

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