There are 30 skeletons in the Iroungou cave, and carbon dating has shown they are from the 14th century. It is only the second cave burial site to be unearthed on the continent.
A 14th century underground burial site deep in Gabon’s tropical forest may shed light on a little-known period in Africa’s history.
There are no golden platters or diamonds at the end of the 25m of rope needed to reach the floor of the cave but the site, called Iroungou, is still a treasure trove for scientists. Carbon-14 dating was conducted on 10 femurs — or thighbones — making it possible to date the skeletons in the cave in the 14th century, a worthwhile discovery in itself.
The oral record of indigenous clans and families handed down in villages “doesn’t let us go back further than one or two centuries”, said Louis Perrois, a French anthropologist who has studied oral tradition in much of Gabon since the 1960s.
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