Continental Patterns in Stone Tools: A Technological and Biplot-Based Comparison of Early Late Pleistocene Assemblages from Northern and Southern Africa

The technology of the end products i.e. blades and points in Late Pleistocene stone artefact assemblages from Klasies River, South Africa, and the Nile Valley, Egypt, are compared. The comparison includes univariate and multivariate analysis of metrical attributes enhanced by graphical biplot displays. The end products in these assemblages are either dominantly points or blades and this is related to the core reduction strategy adopted. The MSA 11 from Klasies River and the Nubian Complex industry from the Nile Valley are point industries made in the Levallois tradition, while the MSA 1 from Klasies River and the Taramsan from the Nile Valley may be non-Levallois or adapted Levallois blade industries. Dating of the assemblages shows the changes between dominant core reduction strategies are sequential and time restricted in both South and North Africa. It is concluded that variability of the same kind occurs in Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic assemblages south and north of the Sahara in the early Late Pleistocene.Dans cet article, les technologies des produits recherchés, des lames et des pointes, pour certains ensembles lithiques de Klasies River, Afrique du Sud et la Vallée du Nil, Egypte, sont comparées. Cette comparaison implique des analyses univariées et multivariées de variables métriques biplot. Les produits recherchés sont bien des pointes que des lames, selon les stratégies dexploitation adoptées. Le MSA II de Klasies River et le Complexe nubien de la Vallée du Nil sont des industries à pointes issues de la tradition Levallois. Par contre, le MSA I de Klasies River et le Taramsien de la Vallée du Nil évoquent une technologie de production non-Levallois ou Levallois modifiée. Les éléments de datation disponibles indiquent que les changements dans la prépondérance des stratégies dexploitation senchaînent dans une séquence chronologique bien identifiable, aussibien dans lAfrique du Sud que lAfrique du Nord. On arrive à la conclusion quune variabilité du même caractère est attestée dans les ensembles du Middle Stone Age et du Paléolithique moyen au sud et au nord du Sahara, pendant le Pléistocène supérieur ancien.     

Investigating the likelihood of a reservoir offset in the radiocarbon record for ancient Egypt

Some radiocarbon dates for ancient Egypt have been significantly offset from the established historical chronology (see Bonani et al., 2001). In this paper, short-lived plant species collected in Egypt between 1700 and 1900 AD were used to investigate the possibility that the radiocarbon record had been influenced by reservoir effects. AMS radiocarbon measurements were made on 66 known-age samples, resulting in an average offset from expected values of 19 years. The implications of this minor discrepancy on the likelihood of a reservoir process are discussed, and the agreement of the data with recent models of radiocarbon seasonality is also considered.     

Testing hypotheses of independence on symmetrical artifacts

Independence between attributes on artifacts with two equivalent loci has ordinarily been tested only when the loci can be differentiated from each other, say as left or right side or as distal or proximal end. If such an identification does not exist, is uncertain or is irrelevant, then a test of independence requires a special statistical procedure. Such a procedure is given here. Applications are illustrated for coreplatforms, geometric microliths and arrow-head typology, and an extension to artifacts with several equivalent loci is determined.     

Morphometric Assessment of the Appendicular Skeleton in the New Kingdom and Napatan Components from Tombos in Upper Nubia

Due to its critical location on the Nile River controlling trade from the south, Tombos is an important ancient site to explore the interaction between Egyptians and Nubians. To assess population continuity at Tombos through sociopolitical transitions, the appendicular skeleton of people from the New Kingdom and Napatan periods was examined. Using morphometric and statistical analyses, body proportions on the upper and lower limbs were studied on each element through size (i.e. length, breadth, and width) and shape (bone's measurements with size removed). The Napatan component (when Nubia ruled Egypt) was consistently larger in size than the earlier New Kingdom component (when Egypt ruled Nubia), with little variation in shape. More variability in both size and shape was observed in males. When compared with other Nubians (C‐group and Kerma) and Egyptians (Middle and New Kingdom), the Tombos Napatan sample (males and females) was generally larger, whereas the Tombos New Kingdom sample was generally smaller than other Nubians and similar in size to Egyptians. Some of the variability between the Tombos samples may be the result of gene flow, or rather changes in migration to the area through time and sociopolitics. However, the numerous differences in size with few in shape provide more support for an environmental explanation since size is more susceptible to nutritional stress, disease, and physical activity. These results show that the people of Tombos underwent biological alterations during these major sociopolitical changes from Egyptian rule over Nubia during the New Kingdom to Nubia ruling Egypt during the Napatan period. This study also demonstrates that morphometric analyses of multiple bones and measurements are an important supplement to other bioarchaeological analyses to provide a broader of view of physical changes that occur over time. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cultural Origins of the Egyptian Neolithic and Predynastic: An Evaluation of the Evidence from the Dakhleh Oasis (South Central Egypt)

The debate surrounding the origins of the Egyptian Neolithic and Predynastic has, over the past few decades, come to rest on the neighboring Saharan region as the most likely source of influence. Although there is some evidence for the appearance of domesticates in the Western Desert before food-producing communities emerged in Upper and Lower Egypt, there is a strong case for the introduction of Saharan artifacts and technologies to the Nile Valley communities. This paper examines this argument in relation to the Western Desert region of the Dakhleh Oasis (South Central Egypt). The intent of the paper is to recognize the role Dakhleh played in the cultural development of the Egyptian Neolithic and Predynastic and whether this can clearly be seen through artifact parallels. Les parties débattant des origines de l'Egypte néolithique et pré-dynastique ont fini, au cours des dernières décennies, par conclure que la région voisine du Sahara était leur source d'influence la plus vraisemblable. Bien que certaines preuves existent de l'apparition de plantes et d'animaux domestiques dans le Désert occidental avant l'émergence de communautés produisant des aliments en Basse et Haute Egypte, de solides arguments émergent en faveur de l'introduction d'objets fabriqués et de technologies dans les communautés de la Vallée du Nil. L'exposé en question examine cet argument par rapport à la région du Désert occidental de l'Oasis de Dakhla (centre-sud de l'Egypte). Le but de cet exposé est de reconnaître le rôle de Dakhla dans le développement culturel de l'Egypte néolithique et pré-dynastique et de déterminer si oui ou non celui-ci peut clairement être identifié, de façon parallèle, au travers d'objets fabriqués.     

Getting “Out of Africa”: Sea Crossings,Land Crossings and Culture in the Hominin Migrations

Palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists have advanced a wide range of explanatory narratives for the various movements of Homo erectus/Homo ergaster, and the first modern Homo sapiens, “Out of Africa”—or even back again. The application of Occam's razor—a parsimonious approach to causes—gives a more cautious approach. There is nothing in the available evidence that would require the ability for a human water crossing from Africa before the later Pleistocene, whether across the Strait of Gibraltar, the Sicilian Channel or the southern Red Sea (Bab el-Mandab). A parsimonious narrative is consistent with movements across the Sinai peninsula. The continuous arid zone from northern Africa to western Asia allowed both occupation and transit during wet phases of the Pleistocene; there is no requirement for a “sponge” model of absorption followed by expulsion of human groups. The Nile Valley as a possible transit route from East Africa has a geological chronology that could fit well much current evidence for the timing of human migration. The limited spatial and temporal opportunities for movements “Out of Africa,” or back again, also puts particular difficulties in the way of the gene flow required for the multiregional hypothesis of the development of modern Homo sapiens.     

The Predynastic of Egypt

The Predynastic of Egypt, spanning an interval from ca. 4000 to 3050 B.C., was an eventful period. After the inception of food production in the Nile Valley at least a millennium before, it was the time when the identity of Egyptian society was forged. Egypt was settled by refugees from the deserts of the eastern Sahara and the southern Levant, fleeing from mid-Holocene droughts, and became a melting pot of indigenous Nilotes and desert herders, part-time cultivators, and hunters. Within a millennium, an increasing dependence on agriculture led to sedentary life and, in some cases, to the development of sizable communities. By 4000 B.C., the settled communities had also developed a distinct division of labor between men and women and ritual and religious beliefs in which women, grain, fertility, and death were salient and interrelated elements. The Predynastic communities were also faced by the most destabilizing factor of agricultural economy, namely, fluctuations of yield. Attempts to dampen the fluctuations through interregional integration led to the emergence of community representatives and eventually chiefs. Legitimation of the status of chiefs through affiliation with the traditional and supernatural power associated with women, fertility, and death and the acquisition of exotic goods stimulated trade and an industry in funerary goods. Enlargement of economic units through alliances, with occasional incidences of fighting, especially after 3600 B.C., led to the rise of a state society governed by supreme rulers. The wedding of the funerary cult of Late Predynastic Egypt with political power and military might was the basis for the most fascinating aspects of Ancient Egypt—religion and kingship.     

Urban geoarchaeology and environmental history at the Lost City of the Pyramids,Giza: synthesis and review

Sediment accretion in ancient urban sites and tells records a combination of cultural and geomorphic processes. Urban geoarchaeology is focused on site accumulation, collapse, weathering and erosion, as constrained by architectural plans and structures. These may document settlement growth and decay, as well as environmental history, posing a multidisciplinary challenge of interactive and fluctuating processes.     

Shifting social networks along the Nile: Middle Holocene ceramic assemblages from Sai Island, Sudan

During the middle Holocene, profound changes in environment, economy, and social relations laid the foundations for the emergence of Africa’s earliest polities: the Egyptian Old Kingdom and the Kerma state. Regional shifts in economy and society may be reflected in local changes in patterning of ceramic production and exchange. Analysis of two pottery assemblages from Sai Island, north Sudan, reveals dramatic shifts in the scale of cultural spheres and the nature of cross-cultural interaction between 5000 BC (Khartoum Variant) and 2600 BC (Pre-Kerma). Near-sedentary Khartoum Variant hunter–gatherers at site 8-B-10C participated in a longstanding cultural sphere that extended far into the Sahara, but were beginning to focus more tightly on resources by the Nile. By Pre-Kerma times, Sai occupants familiar with animal husbandry started to use southwest Asian plant domesticates; they began to experiment with large-scale storage facilities and engage in long-distance trade along the Nile, outside of their own cultural boundaries. Beyond a shift in axes for contact from east–west to north–south, these changes signal progressive geographic and temporal compression of cultural entities, amidst accelerating processes of economic innovation and social change that finally culminated in the polities of Egypt and Kerma.     

Monuments on a migrating Nile

River courses migrate, but many Egyptologists plot the present-day River Nile on maps of the valley in archaeological times. This may have misled interpretations of ancient monuments and settlements. We show a river migrating rapidly on historical timescales in the Luxor region, sweeping > 5 km across the valley at rates on the order of 2–3 km per 1000 years. Satellite elevation data (SRTM), processed by a novel method, and Landsat imagery are used to trace ancient river levees and extend trends present in 200 years of archive maps thousands of years into the past. This supplements observations by Ptolemy (121–141 AD) and places local geo-archaeological studies in a wider spatial and temporal context. Satellite data are demonstrated to be a relatively quick and easy constraint upon ancient river courses, and a basis for investigations along the Egyptian Nile, even in logistically inaccessible regions.