The Aswan High Dam and the International Rescue Nubia Campaign

The preservation of the legacy of mankind is no less important than the construction of dams, the erection of factories and the greater prosperity of peoples (President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, cited in Säve-Söderberg 1987, 90). The Nubia Campaign mounted with the aim of salvaging the archaeological sites threatened by the construction of the Aswan High Dam (1960–1971) was the first collaborative international rescue effort involving UNESCO. One of the main outcomes of this campaign was the valorization of what came to be known as “world heritage” and the establishment of a UNESCO World Heritage Center entrusted with the mission to safeguard the cultural heritage of humankind. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Nubia Campaign and as more sites are increasingly in need of international drives to rescue them from dams and other threats, this contribution provides a critical assessment of this historical event highlighting the role of foreign scholars and institutions, governments, organizational infrastructures, sources of funding, activities undertaken, as well as the impact of the dam on Nubians. In retrospect and in light of what happened to the preservation of Egyptian and Sudanese heritage as work of the foreign missions united by a single cause came to end, and considering the ongoing projects in Egypt and the Sudan that require urgent international efforts, I canvass the shortcomings of the Nubia Campaign in order to come up with recommendations for immediate action.     

Desert environment and origins of agriculture in Egypt

Examination of paleoclimatological and archaeological data from the Egyptian Sahara and the Nile Valley strongly suggests that management of animals and supplementary fanning appeared in the southern part of the Western Desert during the early Holocene under subarid conditions. Excessive annual and short‐term variability in rainfall, associated with pronounced temporal and spatial unpredictability of water and food resources, is considered one of the key factors stimulating the initiation of domestication. The onset of marked desertification during the 7th millennium bp motivated an eastward movement into the Nile Valley attested to by an almost simultaneous appearance of ‘Neolithic’ sites from the Delta to the central Sudan.