New radiocarbon dates and Late Palaeolithic diet at Wadi Kubbaniya, Egypt

Antiquity ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (235) ◽  
pp. 279-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Wendorf ◽  
Romuald Schild ◽  
Angela E. Close ◽  
Gordon C. Hillman ◽  
Achilles Gautier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nile Valley ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Palaeolithic Diet ◽  
Late Palaeolithic

Vegetable remains are a rarity in Palueolithic contexts. These new determinations on material from southern Egypt establish securely the date of an intensive grass-tuber and fish economy in the Nile Valley towards 20,000 years ago.

Current research and recent radiocarbon dates from Northern Africa

1980 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela E. Close
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Northern Africa ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
The West ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The North ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Late Palaeolithic

The effect of recent radiocarbon dates from North Africa has largely been to extend the principal phases of prehistory back in time. The Middle Palaeolithic now seems to be essentially beyond the range of the radiocarbon technique, at least in the Eastern part of North Africa, although it may persist later in the West, and, throughout North Africa (with the sole exception of Cyrenaican Libya), there remains a disturbing hiatus between the Middle Palaeolithic and the subsequent Late Palaeolithic bladelet industries. The latter now seem to appear at about 20,000 B.c. over most of non-Saharan, North Africa, and may eventually be found to be earlier. Some of the earliest such occurrences may well be associated with domestication of plants (in Egypt) and of animals (in Algeria). If so, this will necessitate serious reconsideration of our concepts of the ‘Neolithic’. In any case, a true Neolithic appears in parts of the Southern Sahara as early as the eighth millennium B.C., and is widespread in the area by the seventh millennium. Curiously, the beginnings of the Neolithic are much later in the neighbouring and more luxuriant areas (the Nile Valley, the Mediterranean littoral and the Maghreb) than they are in the desert. Less research has been done on the final prehistoric and early historic periods, but, in the North, the invention of the Libyan alphabet and, in the South, the later Iron Age of Chad both seem earlier than had been thought.

Current Research and Recent Radiocarbon Dates from Northern Africa, III

1988 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela E. Close
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Good Evidence ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
North African ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Khartoum Mesolithic ◽  
Subsistence Activities ◽  
First Time

This article reports on developments in archaeological research in North Africa during the last four years, as these are reflected in the 350, or thereabouts, radiocarbon (and thermoluminescence) dates that have appeared since the last review. The number of new dates, and new data, becoming available indicate that North African archaeology is flourishing, although, in contrast to the earlier decades of this century, the focus seems now to be moving toward the eastern part of the region, and toward matters of adaptation rather than of simple classification, as exemplified by the new interpretations of the Dhar Tichitt Neolithic in Mauritania.The lower Nile Valley has yielded evidence for an intensification of subsistence activities in the Late Palaeolithic in two areas, Makhadma and Kubbaniya, both involving fish-harvesting and the latter also witnessing the use of plant-foods on a scale hitherto undocumented for this period.At the beginning of the Holocene, there is now good evidence for an eighth millennium bc Neolithic in northern Niger, complete with sophisticated ceramics, which complements the evidence already known for similar phenomena further east in the Sahara. There is even a possibility that the Khartoum Mesolithic of the central Nile Valley might be equally old. Our understanding of the Sudanese Neolithic has greatly increased. For the first time, there appears to be a development from the Khartoum Mesolithic into the Khartoum Neolithic, albeit located outside the Valley. The Khartoum Neolithic is more or less confined to the fourth millennium bc, but did give rise to the later Kadada Neolithic. After Kadada, the focus of settlement seems to have shifted outside the Valley until Meroitic times.In the protohistoric and historic periods, we have a better understanding of the chronology of the Egyptian Predynastic, although not yet of its development; what models exist will be radically modified if the pyramids are indeed as old as the dates on them now indicate. Finally, far from the Nile Valley in northern Niger, there comes detailed evidence of the development of a precocious metallurgical tradition within a Neolithic context.

New Radiocarbon Dates for Northern and Western Africa

1976 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merrick Posnansky ◽  
Roderick McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Emotional Problem ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
Late Stone Age ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Iron Working

Several significant trends are noted in the recent radiocarbon dates from North and West Africa. The early Khartoum Neolithic dates from Nabta Playa of the seventh millennium B.C. and the thermoluminescence dates from the Badarian of the sixth millennium, would appear to have redressed the balance for the time being in favour of the Nile Valley in the argument as to whether agriculture in the Nile Valley predates that in the Sahara. A more cautious approach might be to say that these dates emphasize the need for far more securely dated evidence before conclusions are drawn on this complicated, and often emotional, problem. The presence of sorghum in the first quarter of the first millennium A.D. at Jebel et Tomat provides the earliest direct evidence for this key African agricultural staple. Many interesting very late Stone Age dates have come from West Africa and indicate the contemporaneity of stone and iron using communities throughout the first millennium A.D. in certain remote areas. The dates of the Senegambia megaliths are clearly falling within the first millennium A.D. Dates for iron working in both Nigeria and Ghana are confirming that iron technology was well established by the first half of the first millennium A.D. The dates from Ife and elsewhere in Nigeria are clearly indicating that the ‘classic’ terracotta period, and also the pottery pavements, belong to the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. The state of research in North and West Africa reflects the well-known, but too often neglected, archaeological truism that researchers find what they are looking for and rarely more; the Iron Age emphasis in West Africa, and the Paleolithic-Epipaleolithic concentration in the francophone lands. Presumed general trends in these areas, particularly conclusions comparing development in North and West Africa, should be examined carefully for underlying sampling biases of an ideological as well as of a geographical nature.

scholarly journals The late Holocene record of Lake Mareotis, Nile Delta, Egypt

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Clément Flaux ◽  
Matthieu Giaime ◽  
Valérie Pichot ◽  
Nick Marriner ◽  
Mena el-Assal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lake Level ◽  
Nile Delta ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Isotopic Signature ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Lake Level Changes ◽  
Lake Maryut

Abstract. Lake Maryut (northwestern Nile Delta, Egypt) was a key feature of Alexandria's hinterland and economy during Greco-Roman times. Its shores accommodated major economic centers, and the lake acted as a gateway between the Nile valley and the Mediterranean. It is suggested that lake-level changes, connections with the Nile and the sea, and possible high-energy events considerably shaped the human occupation history of the Maryut. To reconstruct Lake Maryut hydrology in historical times, we used faunal remains, geochemistry (Sr isotopic signature of ostracods) and geoarcheological indicators of relative lake-level changes. The data show both a rise in Nile inputs to the basin during the first millennia BCE and CE and a lake-level rise of ca. 1.5 m during the Roman period. A high-energy deposit, inferred from reworked radiocarbon dates, may explain an enigmatic sedimentary hiatus previously attested to in Maryut's chronostratigraphy.

scholarly journals EVOLUTION OF PREHISTORIC FISHING IN THE NILE VALLEY

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Van Neer
Keyword(s):  
Open Water ◽  
Growth Increment ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Flood Season ◽  
Main River ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Future Consumption ◽  
Late Palaeolithic

The available data are reviewed on ichthyofaunas from prehistoric sites along the Nile in Egypt and Sudanese Nubia. Former fishing practices are reconstructed using information derived from species spectra, reconstructed fish sizes, growth increment analysis and fishing implements. It is demonstrated that fishing was initially practised exclusively on the floodplain and that it was limited to a small number of shallow water taxa during Late Palaeolithic times. From the Epipalaeolithic onwards (ca 10000-8000 bp), fishing was also undertaken in the main Nile whereby the number of exploited species increased. Technological innovations allowing the exploitation of the deeper parts of the main river included nets and fish-hooks as well as improved vessels, permitting the capture of larger species from the open water. It is argued that fish must always have been a staple food because the animals seasonally occurring in large numbers on the floodplain were intensively exploited and because these fish could be easily dried for future consumption. Once the fishing grounds also included the main river, fishing was no longer restricted to the flood season, but could also be carried out when the Nile levels were low. Hence the role of fish in the resource scheduling also changed at the transition of Late Palaeolithic to Epipalaeolithic times.

Body Size, Skeletal Biomechanics, Mobility and Habitual Activity from the Late Palaeolithic to the Mid-Dynastic Nile Valley

2011 ◽  
pp. 347-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay T. Stock ◽  
Matthew C. O'neill ◽  
Christopher B. Ruff ◽  
Melissa Zabecki ◽  
Laura Shackelford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Habitual Activity ◽  
Late Palaeolithic

A Survey of recent results in the radiocarbon chronology of Northern and Western Africa

1973 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Flight
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Ivory Coast ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
Selective Approach ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Radiocarbon Chronology

The number of radiocarbon dates relating to Africa has increased rapidly during the last twelve years, as a glance through the back numbers of thisJournalwill show; and the increase reflects quite accurately the growth in our knowledge of later African prehistory. Almost 200 dates are given in this article which have not been quoted before, but even so the list is incomplete. It seems clear that a more and more selective approach will have to be adopted, and perhaps that is a desirable policy in any case. A paper of this kind does not reach a conslusion: it just comes to an end. However, there are some points which deserve particular attention. The thermoluminescence measureents from sites in Cameroun are of interest from a technical point of view, though they seem to be without historical calue. The Dynastic Egyptian dates are important historically as well as technically, and so are the dates from shell middens in Ivory Coast. Indication of contact across the western Sahara during the first millenniumb.c.are reinforced by additional dates for copper mine in Mauritania. One final points is worth repeating. There is evidence, by now amounting almost to proof, that pottery was present in the central Saharan highlands at an earlier date than in the Nile valley or North Africa; and this should affect out ideas about the whole configuration of later African prehistory.

Understanding the Late Palaeolithic tools with lustrous edges from the Lower Nile Valley

Antiquity ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 65 (246) ◽  
pp. 122-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helle Juel Jensen ◽  
Romuald Schild ◽  
Fred Wendorf ◽  
Angela E. Close
Keyword(s):  
Nile Valley ◽  
Late Palaeolithic

A new examination of the polish on Late Palaeolithic tools from the Nile identifies some kind of siliceous sheen, but shows no ‘sickle gloss’. This is consistent with the demonstration that cereals were not in precociously early cultivation in Egypt.

scholarly journals Late Glacial and Holocene aeolian deposition and soil formation in relation to the Late Palaeolithic Ahrensburg occupation, site Geldrop-A2, the Netherlands

2018 ◽  
Vol 97 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Kasse ◽  
L.A. Tebbens ◽  
M. Tump ◽  
J. Deeben ◽  
C. Derese ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Younger Dryas ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Initial Soil ◽  
Aeolian Dunes ◽  
Late Glacial And Holocene ◽  
Late Palaeolithic

AbstractThe lithostratigraphy, age and human occupation of the Late Glacial and Holocene aeolian succession of a Late Palaeolithic Ahrensburg site in the excavation Geldrop-A2 (municipality of Heeze-Leende) have been investigated. The exposure revealed a stacked sequence of aeolian sand units and intercalated soils (Older Coversand II, Younger Coversand I (YCI), Usselo Soil, Younger Coversand II (YCII), Holocene podzol, drift sand). Fourteen optically stimulated luminescence dates on quartz and three radiocarbon dates provide the age control of the aeolian deposition (coversands, drift sand), landscape stability (soils) and human occupation. The upper part of the YCI unit was dated to the early Late Glacial. The well-developed Usselo Soil was formed during a phase of landscape stability during the late Allerød interstadial and onset of the Younger Dryas stadial. During the Younger Dryas, low aeolian dunes were formed locally (YCII), as a response to landscape instability due to cooling and vegetation decline. In the fine-grained lower part of the YCII unit an initial soil testifies to a decadal to centennial period of landscape stability. An Ahrensburg site in the upper part of this initial soil was dated at 10,915±35 BP (c. 12,854–12,789 cal BP). The lithostratigraphic position, radiocarbon dates of the underlying Usselo Soil and a possibly old-wood effect of up to 200 years suggest that Ahrensburg occupation of the dune environment occurred during the early Younger Dryas, shortly afterc. 10,750 BP (12,750 cal BP). Landscape stability and podzol soil formation dominated the early and middle Holocene periods. Drift-sand deposition, probably related to human land use and vegetation decline, occurred in a 200-year period from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

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