Gabon: at the National Museum, a virtual exhibition to revisit the Middle Ages of the country

#Gabon : “From shadow to light” is the theme of a virtual exhibition that has been taking place for a few days at the National Museum of Arts, Rites and Traditions in Libreville. It is the result of a reconstruction of vestiges dating from the Gabonese Middle Ages, which corresponds to the age of cut stone.

It is at the bottom of the Iroungou cave, hidden in the dense forest of southern Gabon, that the geo-archaeologist Richard Oslisly discovered at the end of 2018 a cavity composed of a pile of skeletons and objects dating from the 14th century, and which traced the main axes of mobility of the first inhabitants of Gabon and their commercial axes. The discovery concerned, among other things, 17 human skeletons, 1,490 calcite beads, 39 teeth and 127 drilled sea shells. This is a precious heritage, unique in the sub-region and on the continent.

“When you have a pile of bones and objects, it means that the characters were important. We had to know when it dated and carry out a series of analyses. We worked with 3D modelling. We brought in modeling specialists from the University of Bordeaux to scan the cave. The bones were dated by the carbon 14 method. This allowed us to know that they date from the 14th century,” says Oslisly, curator of the exhibition.

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These objects and human bones were found on three levels, at the end of the 25 meters of rope necessary to touch the bottom of the cave, a real “cave of Ali Baba” discovered by this French researcher. Several of these objects have no known functions. Richard Oslisly even had “the teeth found in the burial taken for genetic analysis”. “We received the first genetic analyzes. We can know that these populations had a genetic history that goes back to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Malawi. It is interesting to see that these populations have migrated with the genes of these regions,” he says.

The exhibition attracts and arouses the curiosity of schoolchildren and students, who parade by the dozens towards the National Museum to enter the universe of this fabulous discovery. “We are actually here to visit the cave we heard about. (…) It’s wonderful to see that, the beauty of what we have on Gabonese soil, ”rejoices Lutricia Bayone, visitor to the exhibition.

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In villages around Iroungou, researchers interviewed elders. In vain, no one knew of the existence of this cave, and the villagers say they have no idea who these men and women could be. According to the latest news, the research launched continues to this day in order to further deepen the knowledge of the cave.