Editing History of Chad (section)

==Prehistory==
[[Image:Sahelanthropus tchadensis - TM 266 location.jpg|thumb|Location of ''[[Sahelanthropus tchadensis]]'' find in 2002.]]
The territory now known as [[Chad]] possesses some of the richest [[archaeological site]]s in Africa.<ref name="locchad">{{Citation
 | editor-last =Collier
 | editor-first =John L.
 | title =Chad : A Country Study
 | series =Library of Congress Country Studies
 | chapter-url =http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/tdtoc.html
|access-date=2011-02-08
|edition=2nd
|year=1990
|publisher=Library of Congress
|location=Washington, D.C.
|isbn=0-16-024770-5
|chapter=Historical Setting
|page=13
}}</ref> A [[hominid skull]] was found by [[Michel Brunet (paleontologist)|Michel Brunet]], that is more than 7 million years old, the oldest discovered anywhere in the world; it has been given the name ''[[Sahelanthropus tchadensis]]''. In 1996 Brunet unearthed a hominid [[jaw]], which he named ''[[Australopithecus bahrelghazali]]'', unofficially dubbed [[Abel (hominid)|Abel]]. It was dated using [[beryllium]]-based [[radiometric dating]] as living {{circa}} 3.6&nbsp;million years ago.

During the 7th millennium BC, the northern half of Chad was part of a broad expanse of land, stretching from the [[Indus River]] in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, in which ecological conditions favored early human settlement. [[Rock art]] of the "Round Head" style, found in the [[Ennedi]] region, has been dated to before the 7th millennium BC and, because of the tools with which the rocks were carved and the scenes they depict, may represent the oldest evidence in the [[Sahara]] of [[Neolithic]] industries. Many of the [[pottery]]-making and Neolithic activities in Ennedi date back further than any of those of the [[Nile]] Valley to the east.<ref name="locchad" />

In the [[prehistory|prehistoric]] period, Chad was much wetter than it is today, as evidenced by large game animals depicted in [[Cave painting|rock paintings]] in the [[Tibesti]] and Borkou regions.<ref name="locchad" />

Recent linguistic research suggests that all of Africa's major language groupings south of the Sahara Desert (except [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]], which is not considered a valid genetic grouping anyway), i.e. the [[Afro-Asiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]], [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] and [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] [[Language family#Subdivision|phyla]], originated in prehistoric times in a narrow band between [[Lake Chad]] and the Nile Valley. The origins of Chad's peoples, however, remain unclear. Several of the proven archaeological sites have been only partially studied, and other sites of great potential have yet to be mapped.<ref name="locchad" />