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.