posted
Anyone remember this old illustration showing the distribution of archaeological sites in the eastern Sahara circa >8500-3500 BC?
Because I notice that, in the period between 8500 and 5300 BC, there seems to be a dearth of sites along the Egyptian Nile relative to the Western and Eastern Desert. The period after 5300 BC, by the way, is when we find the first hard evidence of crop cultivation in Egypt.
Between 8500 and 5300 BC, where on this map would the ancient Egyptians' ancestors have been hanging out? I'm tempted to identify them with some of the people hanging out in the Western and Eastern Deserts during this time, but I've been informed that some of these populations (e.g. Nabta Playa) have skeletal remains with a more "sub-Saharan" (presumably southern Sudanic) affinity than later predynastic Egyptians. Can we confidently identify any of the Western/Eastern Desert cultures on this map with pre-Neolithic Egyptians? If not, where would they have been?
Climate-Controlled Holocene Occupation in the Sahara: Motor of Africa's Evolution
Rudolph Kuper, Stefan Kröpelin* Science 11 Aug 2006:
Climate-controlled occupation in the Eastern Sahara during the main phases of the Holocene. Red dots indicate major occupation areas; white dots indicate isolated settlements in ecological refuges and episodic transhumance. Rainfall zones are delimited by best estimate isohyets on the basis of geological, archaeozoological, and archaeobotanical data.
(A) During the Last Glacial Maximum and the terminal Pleistocene (20,000 to 8500 B.C.E.), the Saharan desert was void of any settlement outside of the Nile valley and extended about 400 km farther south than it does today.
(B) With the abrupt arrival of monsoon rains at 8500 B.C.E., the hyper-arid desert was replaced by savannah-like environments and swiftly inhabited by prehistoric settlers. During the early Holocene humid optimum, the southern Sahara and the Nile valley apparently were too moist and hazardous for appreciable human occupation.
(C) After 7000 B.C.E., human settlement became well established all over the Eastern Sahara, fostering the development of cattle pastoralism.
(D) Retreating monsoonal rains caused the onset of desiccation of the Egyptian Sahara at 5300 B.C.E. Prehistoric populations were forced to the Nile valley or ecological refuges and forced to exodus into the Sudanese Sahara where rainfall and surface water were still sufficient. The return of full desert conditions all over Egypt at about 3500 B.C.E. coincided with the initial stages of pharaonic civilization in the Nile valley.
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I would like to know what that lone occupation area that touches the Nile in the (B)Map 8,500-7,000 B.C. It seems to be near modern day Esna and Edfu
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quote:Originally posted by the lioness,: [QB] (B) With the abrupt arrival of monsoon rains at 8500 B.C.E., the hyper-arid desert was replaced by savannah-like environments and swiftly inhabited by prehistoric settlers. During the early Holocene humid optimum, the southern Sahara and the Nile valley apparently were too moist and hazardous for appreciable human occupation. /QB]
Fair enough. I should have recalled this. Yeah, it seems likely that the proto-Egyptians were hanging out in what are now Western and Eastern Deserts during this period.
quote:Originally posted by the lioness,: [QB] (B) With the abrupt arrival of monsoon rains at 8500 B.C.E., the hyper-arid desert was replaced by savannah-like environments and swiftly inhabited by prehistoric settlers. During the early Holocene humid optimum, the southern Sahara and the Nile valley apparently were too moist and hazardous for appreciable human occupation. /QB]
Fair enough. I should have recalled this. Yeah, it seems likely that the proto-Egyptians were hanging out in what are now Western and Eastern Deserts during this period.
except this
I looked over the article, the site is El Kab
Elkab is the present name of the ancient site of Nekheb (or Elethya), which was situated in the third nome of Upper Egypt. The city is on the right bank of the Nile, opposite the almost as old town of Nekhen (or Hierakonpolis, present Kom el Ahmar). It is situated 90 km. to the south of Thebes and 32 km. to the south of Esna. Numerous proofs indicate that the site was occupied since prehistory with signs of an pre-paleolithic industry dating from about 7000 years B.C., and an important cemetery dating from the time of Nagada III (toward 3300 B.C.). Very numerous prehistoric graffiti also exist on the walls of the wadis.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Maps in Kuper's supplement pp14-15 beat those from the main article. More detail, plus sites are named and dated. Not all known sites are given.
Two sites in the Hierkonpolis / Wadi Hammamat region are the only east of Egyptian Nile places mapped. Hierakonpolis/El Kab hosted the Kabian industry. Tree Shelter/Sodmein culture rezembled El Kab somewhat. They have the oldest domestic sheepgoat remains of Africa. Kuper's major concern is the eastern Sahara (Western/Libyan Desert).
Just as, or even more, important than the maps are Fig S1 and the exhaustive Table S1.
Basically, the Eastern Desert was not a happening. Or it's undersampled, not expected to yield much of use.
posted
All this is interesting considering Wilkinson's Eastern Desert Pharaonic Genesis theory. He seems to associate Western Desert cultures with Nubian much more than Egyptian though this makes little sense to me as Qustul Culture shows as much ties if not more to Nubian Eastern Desert cultures like Abkan, while we see many features of Western Desert cultural features like pottery, mummification, and animal-headed deities in Egypt. Let's not forget biological ties in the form of Blood Group B that ties Egyptians to Haratin, Benin HBS, and Haplogroup IV.
Also what about the ancient Oases cultures?? I don't hear much about them in the archaeological record even though these would have been the first place to settle before the Nile Valley during the desertification of North Africa.
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: All this is interesting considering Wilkinson's Eastern Desert Pharaonic Genesis theory. He seems to associate Western Desert cultures with Nubian much more than Egyptian though this makes little sense to me as Qustul Culture shows as much ties if not more to Nubian Eastern Desert cultures like Abkan, while we see many features of Western Desert cultural features like pottery, mummification, and animal-headed deities in Egypt. Let's not forget biological ties in the form of Blood Group B that ties Egyptians to Haratin, Benin HBS, and Haplogroup IV.
Also what about the ancient Oases cultures?? I don't hear much about them in the archaeological record even though these would have been the first place to settle before the Nile Valley during the desertification of North Africa.
Given the apparent links in lithic culture between the Fayum Neolithic and the Bashendi A culture from the Dakhla Oasis, I'm inclined to think that the oasis cultures did have at least some substantial influence on later Egyptian ones.
By the way, didn't you argue sometime back that predynastic Lower Egyptian cultures were related to Libyco-Berber ones to the west? My own hypothesis is that those Lower Egyptian cultures might have been related to both Libyco-Berber and Proto-Semitic ones (since Lower Egypt would have been a logical point of dispersal for both the progenitors of Berber and Semitic languages).
Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Again Kuper 2006 supplement Ignore to remain ignorant Google search a listed site for its archaeology records.
Thumb link to full size img see African Humid Period maps B maximum and C optimum (top center). Red diamonds in text mark within OP time range sites particularly Western Desert, oases, and Gilf Kebir.
Red boxed are north of Sudan & Nubia sites west of the Nile. In a redux I'd move Nabta/Kiseiba (Lower Nubia) to in between Gilf Kebir and Selima Sand Sheet where, by latitude, it belongs.
Tree Shelter/Sodmein may be Kuper's only Eastern Desert site north of Sudan & Nubia because of his Wrstern Desert focus.
Vermeersch et al (2015) Holocene Sodmein is probably the most up to date reference for this thread. They co-sign Montenat's (1986) Red Sea coast survey. It said "Neolithic sites are almost entirely absent." Is that still correct?
Back to the Western Desert. Siwa/Qattara has 2 sites. Abu Muhariq Plateau and the Great Sand Sea 5. Pending artifacts, all remained foragers until their ends. Abu Ballas Region had 7, one picked up on cattle, three on sheep/goats.
quote:Originally posted by Tyrannohotep: Given the apparent links in lithic culture between the Fayum Neolithic and the Bashendi A culture from the Dakhla Oasis, I'm inclined to think that the oasis cultures did have at least some substantial influence on later Egyptian ones.
Yes and just as the Bashendi Culture had influence on the Fayum Neolithic, the Sheikh Muftah had influence on the Badarian Culture.
quote:By the way, didn't you argue sometime back that predynastic Lower Egyptian cultures were related to Libyco-Berber ones to the west?...
quote:..My own hypothesis is that those Lower Egyptian cultures might have been related to both Libyco-Berber and Proto-Semitic ones (since Lower Egypt would have been a logical point of dispersal for both the progenitors of Berber and Semitic languages).
The only predynastic culture I could think of that could be a potential candidate is the Helwan Culture which is sometimes called a 'Natufian Outpost' in Egypt.
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: Yes and just as the Bashendi Culture had influence on the Fayum Neolithic, the Sheikh Muftah had influence on the Badarian Culture.
Isn't Sheikh Muftah a bit young to be influential on the Badarian? The sources I have read indicate it goes back to around 4000 BC, well after the Badarian culture appeared in Upper Egypt.
posted
^ You're probably right. As I said, I'm not as familiar with the predynastic oases cultures as I should be and am probably confusing Sheikh Muftah for another oasis culture.
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Looking at these red dots indicating some human settlements in Egypt and Sudan 7,000-5,300 B.C.E. are we to assume that some of these are significant locations of the ancestors of dynastic Egyptians?
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posted
^ Yes, that is the logical conclusion assuming there aren't other major archaeological sites near the river valley though there is nothing to rule out that possibility.
As such, according to that map the Fayum site is ancestral to the Delta culture, the Eastern Desert Wadi Hammamat site is ancestral to dynastic Ta Shemu culture per Wilkinson's Eastern Desert Pharaonic Genesis, while the Nubian Western Desert sites of Dir Kiseiba and Nabta Playa are at least partly ancestral to Qustul Culture.
Though note that the majority of red dots in the Western Desert are in and around the areas of the modern oases.
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