 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||||
 |
||||||
|
Contents The Nile, at the eastern end of the vast Sahara Desert, is one of the few desert areas that has been habitable by human, animal and plant life during even high periods of aridity. Other areas that saw ongoing, if temporary, settlement during arid phases are the oases of the Western Desert, and the highland areas of the Sahara like Tibesti and Tassili - places were humidity provided resources even when the lowlands were uninhabitable. It is clear that the Saharan past has seen fluctuations in aridity and humidity which have impacted the range and type of human occupation at different times. During more humid phases, more of the desert was available for human occupation - places where ephemeral waters could gather, where plants could grow and to which animals were attracted. The following page has been put together using a number of different sources. It is important to be aware that not everyone is in absolute agreement about some of the changes that have occurred in terms of chronological timelines and relationships between different areas. As Fagan puts it (Fagan 2004, p.xiii) “Reconstructing the climate changes of the past is a difficult task . . . . While you can place limited reliance on contemporary observations of monks, country parsons and even ancient Assyrian scribes, our knowledge of climatic changes over the last fifteen millennia comes entirely from what are called proxy records constructed from tree rings, minute pollen grains from ancient marshes and swamps, and deep cores from glaciers, lake beds and ocean floors”. Not everyone is in agreement about how to interpret these different details when they are assembled. The following reconstruction is based on some of the most recent available papers, and represents a compromise between different opinions. I charted climatic changes, and the evidence for them, chronologically, tying them into archaeological data where appropriate. It is worth pointing out that the picture of the climatic and environmental past changes constantly as new excavations, surveys and cores provide new data which help to clarify regional and more universal climatic events and trends, and their impacts on highly local ecologies. Egypt consists of a number of different ecological zones and individually distinctive niches which will have offered very different challenges and opportunities at any given time. Looking at Egyptian and Nubian environmental and climatic change, it is useful to remember that the northern area was impacted more directly by Mediterranean climatic conditions, whereas southern Egypt and Nubia were impacted by Sub-Saharan African climatic conditions and changes in the reach of the summer Monsoonal rain-belt that at one stage reached Dakhleh Oasis. So there was a marked difference in opportunity for human groups living in north and south. In addition, even within these zones, different geomorphologies and different human responses may well have impacted the way in which climatic economies and societies can develop and the way in which they are organized, so very different types of economy and society could be expected to develop depending on the available resources and inherent limitations of an area at a given time. Other impacts on human groups during these times of swinging climatic conditions would have been access to new types of resource - for example domesticated goat and sheep, ceramic technologies and similar innovations. One of the interesting things about studying Egypt at this time is looking at how all these variables combined to create different human adaptive behaviours. Reconstruction the climatic and environmental past has been dependent on a number of different types of data, most of it acquired during archaeological investigations in both southern and northern parts of Egypt. These are summarized by Nicol (2003, p.561-562) as follows: Palaeontological data (plant macrofossils, archaeozoological remains, molluscs, gastropods, and microfossils including pollen, diatoms, charophyta), sedimentary and geomorphic data (karst, fossil springs, lake muds, palaeosols, wadi gravels, slack-water deposits, colluvium, dunes and deflation features - others are aoelian activity, and landscape lowering) and chronological data (stratigraphic relationships, typological relationships and carbon 14 dating. Studies of climatic change include that carried out by Schild and Wendorf (2002) who used sedimentary data from playa lakes, evidence of deflation and aeolian activity to pick out a sequence of climatic change for the southern Western Desert, while Hassan (1986), amongst others, has been working for many years on refining the lake level sequence and sedimentary contents of the Lake Qarun in the Faiyum Depression with a view to understanding the impact of the environment on northern Egypt. Other multidisciplinary projects are taking place in Dakhleh Oasis, Farafra Oasis and elsewhere, and will be described both here and the Geographic Areas page. Finally, although climate change and localized ecologies influence human occupation and subsistence practices, they do not determine them, a point made by a number of writers (e.g. Cremaschi and Di Lerna 1999, Fagan 2004, Yokell 2004). Cremaschi and Di Lernia’s study of the Tadrat Acacus in Libya, a highland zone of the Sahara, goes so far as to conclude that “no ineluctable coincidence exists between climatic changes and cultural dynamics: environmental change does not directly determine any human adaptations; instead, cultural responses varied depending on specific external and internal cultural factors, with different times and modalities of realization. Probably, only the onset of dramatic arid conditions produced effective changes in human occupation (Cremaschi and Di Lernia 1999, p.232). However, as Fagan also points out: “To ignore climate is to neglect one of the dynamic backdrops of the human experience” (p.xiv). In northeast Africa in particular, an area with very limited rainfall, “any small changes in precipitation are bound to affect vegetation, and so human responses” (Smith 2005).
At c.20,000BC (22,000bp) the River Nile was braided into several small streams and flowed slowly through the floodplain, permitting the growth of reeds and marsh-vegetation. Egypt was occupied at this time by small groups whose subsistence strategy was based on hunting and gathering and is characterized by sites like E-78-3 at Wadi Kubbaniya, located on a sand dune overlooking floodwater ponds and small lakes (Wendorf et al 1980). Between 17,000 and 11,000BP much of north Africa was hyper-arid and that the Nile was lower and slower than was throughout much of the Holocene, or is today (Kuper 2002, Nicoll 2003, Fagan 2004) . According to Munro (2003, p.50) this Younger Dryas cold phase, dating in the Southern Levant to between 13,000 and 11,500BP was marked by the shrinkage of Lake Lisan, decreased arboreal pollen and the northward shift of arid-adapted snails. The arid period coincided with the last glaciation: “Fifteen thousand years ago, the effects of Ice Age chill extended into the heart of southwestern Asia. From Greece to Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean lay under the influence of northeasterly anticyclonic winds that blew from the high-pressure masses over the Scandinavian and Siberian ice sheets” (Fagan 2004). The first signs of global climatic improvements following the last glaciation were felt at around 13,000BC (15,000bp) when warmer and moister conditions began to impact the Near East. After the last glaciation, temperatures began to rise in the Near East and northern Africa: “Between 12,000 and 10,88BC, however, everything changed as the late glacial interstadial brought a sudden increase of temperature and rainfall. The East African highlands became covered in woodland and hence the extent of erosion and the sediment load carried by the river were markedly reduced. At the same time the quantity of its water was vastly increased, partly due to the new rainfall and partly because the White Nile broke through it s dune barrier” (Mithen 2003, p.451). The consequent cutting down of the Nile through its own sediments at around 12,400bp meant that Egypt went through a phase of very high rapid floods known as the Birbet Recession. This period of Nile activity is known as the “Wild Nile” phase, destroyed marshlands, and made occupation of the floodplains and the surrounding areas difficult for human groups. The Nile area was still clearly occupied at this time, as is demonstrated by the Makhadma 2 and 4 sites which exploited the river for fish at this time. However, it is speculated that some groups dispersed elsewhere: “The Nile underwent some catastrophic inundations and provoked a dispersion of Nilotic peoples towards the eastern Sahara ” (Garcea 1994, p.23). The cemetery at Jebel Sahaba dates to this time. 300km south of Wadi Kubbaniya, the cemetery contained 59 burials, of which 24 had suffered violent deaths, with arrowheads buried in skulls and bones of men, women and children: “a young man, aged twenty to twenty-five years , who had a slender muscular build. He had evidently died from arrows shot into his abdomen because two pointed blades were found within his pelvis” (Mithen 2003, p.452). It has been speculated that this may have been one of the results of competition for newly reduced resources due to Wild Nile conditions. In Tadrat Acacus, a mountainous region of the the Fezzan area in Libya, an analysis of cave sediments dated by Uranium Thorium indicates that increased humidity began at around 14,000BP, becoming increasingly humid until c. 9700BP (Cremaschi and Di Lernia 1999), and the earliest site, an Epipalaeolithic occupation, dates to 9765+/-105BP in the Uan Afuda cave. In the southern Levant the onset of the warmer and wetter phase of the Early Holocene dates to c.11,500-7000BP (Munro 2003, p.50). There are apparently indications that the climate began to improve in Egypt at between 11,500 and 11,000 in some southerly areas and wet conditions were established during the Early Holocene by the El Adam phase of Early Neolithic occupation in the southern Western Desert and at Abu Ballas between the 10th and 9th millennium BP (Schild and Wendorf 2002). Fekri Hassan (Pre-Publication) suggests that although rainfall returned to the eastern Sahara by the beginning of the post-glacial warming, there were not sufficient water sources to cater for human occupation before 11,000BP when the ephemeral playa lakes began to be established. The earliest stage of the southern Western Desert humidity has been named the Pre-Adam Humid Interphase. It has been impossible to date this stage, but is assumed to be contemporary with the Allerod Chronozone (Schild and Wendorf 2002, p.21). This was followed by a dry phase, probably coinciding with the Younger Dryas c.13,000-11,500BP. Early Holocene c.10,000 - 6000BP The pluvial maximum dates to the between 9000 and 6000BP in Egypt and the northern Sudan: “Histograms, of frequency plots, of the radiocarbon age determinations suggest that wetter conditions commended during the 10th millennium BP, and that there was a subsequent decline in water availability of human activity across the regions after 7000BP” (Nicoll 2003, p.563). However, as Kuper points out (Kuper 2000, p.3) although the Early Holocene is often called the Neolithic Wet Phase, “In actuality this period, at lead in major parts, was neither wet nor Neolithic”. Nicoll states that it is not possible to put a precise date on the return of humid conditions, partly because this appears to vary regionally. Hassan (pre-publication) points to relative aridity at between 9600-7800BP in the Near East (after the Middle PPNB), and droughts in North, East and Equatorial Africa between 8200 to 7800BP, and suggests that this may have been instrumental in processes which saw sheep and goat appear in areas not native to them. In most areas, wetter conditions were established at between 10,000 and 9,000bp throughout Egypt, and in some areas perhaps a little earlier. Playa lakes were recorded in the Gilf Kebir before 9400bp, the Wadi Howar was active at this time, flowing into the Nile in northern Sudan, Kharga and Dakhleh had active springs and artesian lakes by 9100bp. In the south and in the modern desertic areas this period is marked by playa lakes, rising water tables and changes in local vegetation from hyper-arid species to steppe/sahelian conditions with some woodland species, shrubs and grasses amongst others. Smith (2005) adds that during the early Holocene the freshwater lakes that developed in the central Sahara supported crocodile, large catfish and hippopotamus, dating to between 9600 and 8500 years ago. Human occupation requires a minimum annual rainfall of at least 24mm for a nomadic existence, and a minimum of 100mm is required for human habitat between the oases and rivers (Nicol 2003, p.566). As rainfall filled ephemeral lakes, animal and plant species returned to the area, and human presence is again detected. One example of early Holocene conditions is demonstrated by the Gilf Kebir. Today, this area is so dry that rainfall volume is too low to be measured, and there are no natural water sources in the area. In the Wadi El-Akhdar and Wadi Bakht, however, human occupation extended from the Epipalaeolithic into the Neolithic, when dense artefact scatters show how successful the local adaptation to newly humid conditions actually were (Schon 1989). Steppe vegetation included members of the following plant families (Nicol 2003, p.565): Mimosacae (dry region species of which the most characteristic in dry regions is Acacia), Rhamnaceae (buckthorn), Capparidaceae (caper family, which could be used for seeds or small berries depending on the species), Tamariceae (Tamarix) and Balanitaceae (small trees and shrubs). Limited faunal remains include arid to semi-arid species. Nicol (2003) suggests that at both the Gilf Kebir and south of the Gilf towards Sudan, as well as in the Great Sand Sea, a cover of vegetation may have stablized the sand sheets (2003, p.567). Another example is provided by the Faiyum Depression in northern Egypt where the earliest Holocene lake (the Nile-fed Lake Qarun) was the Epipalaeolithic Qarunian industry (Caton-Thompson and Gardner’s Faiyum B) found at sites like FS2 and corresponding with a level of the lake referred to by Wendorf and Schild (1976) as the Palaeomoeris, at 11-13m above sea level Wendorf and Schild obtianed dates of 8100+/-130bp from E29G1 area F and 8070+/-115bp from E29H1, and FS2 was dated by Wenke et al (1983) from radiocarbon dates to around 7714+/-45bp. At other areas like Siwa, Abu Ballas, the Great Sand Sea, Napta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, most now desert zones, fauna included hare, gazelle and small carnivores as the main animal hunted and consumed. At Abu Ballas remains of giraffe were also found, which suggests “that sufficient tree vegetation was at least occasionally extant across the region” (Nicol 2003, p.565). At Dakhleh other faunal species were also found including hartebeest, hippo, bovid, ostrich and fish. All these species of plant and animal are found in savannah, sahel and semi-desert conditions today. At Napta and Bir Kiseiba the Early Neolithic is also accompanied by species of sheep (Ammotragus lervia barbary sheep - and Ovis ammon f.aries - domesticated sheep) and goat (Capra aegagrus f. hircus - domestic goat) (Gautier 2001). However, it has become clear from studies in both southern Egypt (e.g. at Napta Playa, a sequence recently revised by Schild and Wendorf 2002) and in northern Egypt (e.g. the Faiyum Lake Qarun sequence most recently revised by Hassan 1986) that the climate was by no means consistent throughout the Holocene and is marked by alternating periods of humidity and aridity, which had a considerable impact on human occupation, settlement patterns and subsistence practices. Wendorf and Schild also investigated the Faiyum Depression (Wendorf and Schild 1976) and proposed a sequence for the Faiyum’s Lake Qarun which attempted to measure water levels and in so doing identify periods of humidity and aridity. A more recent proposal by Hassan (1986 p.492), based on his work in the Western Faiyum and the Biyahmu area. Both pieces of work demonstrated vast differences in lake levels throughout the Holocene, showing a period of apparent abandonment for around 200 years at the end of the Epipalaeolithic when it reached a level of less than 10m below sea level. In Farafra Oasis, Hassan (pre-publication) says that play lake sediments reveal that the period 7800-6800BP reveal considerable environmental instability, with at least four episodes of climatic activity beginning with cold climatic events at 7800BP, marked by increased aeolian activity, and followed by a cold and hyperarid phase at c.6800BP, which he suggests forced populations to move from the Eastern Sahara into the Nile Valley and a spread of some Western Desert populations further west into the Sahara. Hassan suggests that in response to these environmental upheavals, two waves of human spread into the highland areas further west in the Sahara would have taken place at 8200-7800 and then c.6900-6800BP, both coinciding with hyperarid phases. There is no sign that human groups showed any inclination to occupy the Nile valley in either phase. He also suggests that increasing contact between different groups of people would have taken place c. 7300 as mobile populations would have spread to meet requirements of both people and herds in increasingly challenging climatic conditions. While in the Nile floodplain farming activities could be adopted, in the western Sahara, pastoral activities were more suitable for the conditions. Sheep and goat were present in Egypt for the first time at this time. Farafra is in the Mediterranean climatic zone and will only have experienced winter rains. Early Holocene occupation in Farafra was based on ephemeral hunting and gathering with no sign of herding (Barich and Lucarini 2002). Dakhleh may have experienced both winter and summer rains, located as it was during the earlier part of the Holocene on the border between Mediterranean and the tropical monsoon zones, which may have provided it with an additional and more dependable year-round water supply, an advantage not shared by other oases to the north or south (Hassan, pre-publication). In the case of the southern Western Desert, Schild and Wendorf initially proposed three phases of wet episodes - Play I, Playa II and Playa III (e.g. Schild and Wendorf 1984, Wendorf and Close 1992). However, in 2002 they revised this sequence, making use of new geomorphic, stratigraphic, biological and radiochronological data as well as nearly 150 radiocarbon dates of different sedimentary units to propose a new more complex sequence (Schild and Wendorf 2002, p.21). These phases are described as follows, with humid periods described as “interphases” and arid periods described as “phases” (Schild and Wendorf 2000, p.21-27). As already mentioned above, the earliest stage was the Pre-Adam Humid Interphase, which it has been impossible to date but is assumed to be contemporary with the Allerod Chronozone (p.21). This was followed by a dry phase, probably coinciding with the Younger Dryas before 9500bp. The El Adam Interphase dates to c.9500-8850, occurs with Early Neolithic artefacts at a number of sites, and coincides with “either local rainfall and/or the rise of the water table, heralding the northward movement of the monsoon belt” (p.22). Tamarix was present during this interphase, and animal species suggest patchy grass cover and seasonal rainfall (p.26). The Post El Adam Arid Phase, dating to c.8850bp- 8560 is marked by wind-blown sands in a playa where water had formerly gathered. This is followed by the El Ghorab Humid Interphase, c.8500-8200bp when more lacustrine deposits gathered, and are associated with the El Ghorab variant of Early Neolithic. This is followed by the Post El Horab Arid Phase, from c.8200-c.8000 and is marked by “clear influx of aeolian sands in the deposits after El Ghorab archaeology and before the large settlement at El Nabta” (p.23). The climatic optimum for the Western Desert during the Holocene is the El Nabta/Al Jerar Humid Interphase dating from c.8000-7300bp. At this time, hundreds of Early Neolithic settlements appear at El Nabta and Al Jerar, along the lake shore, and there is a marked increase in vegetation. From the 128 taxa produced by site E-75-6, there were nine tree taxa and a number of desert and water species suggesting semi-arid or Sahelian conditions. The end of this interphase is marked by aeolian deposition at Al Jerar. The Post-Al Jerar Ard Phase, c.7300-7200bp is marked by massive deflation at Napta Playa, high winds and heavy sandstorms. The Middle Neolithic Humid Interphase, c.7200-6600bp showed signs of local rains but no lacustrine deposits. Human occupation is attested to at E-75-8. A Post Middle Neolithic Arid Phase, c.6600-6550bp is marked by deflation and aeolian erosion. This is followed by the Late Neolithic Interphase, c.6550-5800bp: “a perched water table in the deflational basin at site E-75-8 is indicated by consecutive wells in the centre” (p.24). Another deflational stage is called the Post Late Neolithic Arid Phase and dates c.5800-5500bp. See below for the remaining Mid Holocene sequence. In general in Egypt conditions after 7000bp are marked by increasing aridity, an expansion of areas under desert conditions, and a reduction in the number of habitats available for animal, plant and human occupation. Playa lakes dried up and in the northern oases as early as 7000bp, and by 6000bp Egypt and Nubia had returned to an arid phase. The Selima lake began to evaporate between 7000 and 6000bp. When formerly occupied areas in the eastern Sahara were no longer available for settlement, a number of writers believe that conditions forced groups to migrate elsewhere, including towards the Nile - as Garcea puts it, these poor conditions “caused a ‘wave’ of immigration into the Nile Valley” (Garcea 1004, p.33). The Highland regions of central and western Africa still had summer rains and reliable water availability, and in feeding the Blue and White Nile rivers, some of those benefits were passed on to the Nile Valley area of Egypt. Nile occupation begins at around 7800BP. A date of 6800BP from Merimde Beni Salama to the north west of Cairo was obtained from the earliest level of the site, which is associated with the earliest cultivation of wheat and barley known from Egypt, and the presence of sheep and/or goat and cattle (Hassan 1988). Settled farming communities were not established in the south of Egypt until around 1000 years later - groups in the Badarian certainly had aspects of the agricultural package, but were tended towards a semi-nomadic existence (Wilkinson 2002). A number of writers see similarities between the early Neolithic sites of the Nile Valley and those of the Eastern Sahara (McDonald 1996, Kuper 1996). Lake Rudolf supplies some independent data that helps to confirm the picture suggested by other areas of Egypt (Hassan 1986). The lake receives most of its water from the West Ethiopian highlands via the Omo River, and could be expected to experience similar periods of humidity and aridity as a result of climatic changes that impacted Ethiopia. The lake rose rapidly after 10,000bp, reaching a maximum at around 7000bp. Similarly, the study of the Libyan Tadrart Acacus (Cremaschi and di Lernia 1999) confirm that fluctuations existed throughout the early Holocene elsewhere in the Sahara, with the availability of abundantly available resources during humid periods being punctuated by arid periods - for example, the authors point to an arid phase c.8100-7200BP, wetter conditions until 5000BP, reaching a humid maximum at between c.6600 and 6000BP, and then increasing aridity until at least 3800BP and possibly 2800BP (p.233). Periods of aridity do not always agree precisely with those elsewhere in the Sahara, and this in itself provides confirmation that localized conditions could apply.
During the semi-arid conditions established in southern Egypt and northern Sudan there were isolated concentrations of water supplies, like springs, where life could still be maintained. In the south of Egypt, the desert had dried out completely by 6000bp except in the immediate Nile fringe, the oases, some wadis and the Gilf Kebir which was habitable for pastoralists until around 5000bp, with playas and sahelian vegetation persisting, which agrees with data from Tibesti and Hoggar (Nicol 2003). The Selima lake began to evaporate between 7000 and 6000bp but appears to have dried completely c.4000bp. The Middle Holocene is dated earlier by Creaschi and Di Lernia (1999, p.225) for the Tadrat Acacus in Libya, with dates of 7400-3500BP. Wendorf and Schild (2002) described the Holocene sequence of the southern Western Desert in some detail, tracking alternating humid and arid stages from the Late Pleistocene through the Early Holocene (see above). The final occupation follows a deflational arid phase called the Post Late Neolithic Arid Phase dating to approximately c.5800-5500bp. The final occupation of the southern Western Desert is called the Final Neolithic Humid Interphase, which appears to have been accompanied by local rainfall and dates from c.5500 to possibly as late as 4500bp. This is the most remarkable occupation phase of the area, with occupants building megalithic monuments and burying both humans and cattle. At Farafra Oasis during the mid Holocene, settlements show signs of considerable stability, with permanent or semi permanent occupation sites along lake edges, with an economy based on wild cereals, hunting and the herding of sheep and goat (Barich and Lucarini 2002). In the north of Egypt, in the Faiyum Depression the Middle Holocene corresponds to the Faiyum Neolithic (Caton-Thompson and Gardner’s 1934 Faiyum A) and is represented by sites like Kom W/E29H2, FS1 and QSV/79. The Faiyum was a Nile-fed depression, and lake levels reflect the Nile’s river levels and give some idea of rainfall both in Lower Egypt and in the south, in Africa, the Sudan and Upper Egypt from where the rain-fed waters were transported. The levels of Lake Qarun had previously fallen at c.6500bp. However, levels rose again to 15-20m asl before dropping again to c.12m asl. Dates associated with the sites found during this humid phase are 5810+/-17m asl and 5860+/-115bp at 15m asl at Kom W, 6075+/-50bp and 5990+/60bp at 20m asl at QSV/79. The Early Neolithic lake probably began to rise as early as 6500bp, and was still high at c.5160bp at sites like FS1, but began to shrink with levels of 10m and 4m asl, as demonstrated by strandlines at Quta (Hassan 1986). Again, however, there are interphases of humidity when Egyptian and Nubian areas beyond the Nile Valley and modern occupied oases could be settled. Hassan (pre-publication) puts the establishment of the hyperarid Sahara at around 5200-4100BP. This is in keeping with other evidence. Again, Lake Rudolf is a useful point of comparison. Between 6200 and 4800bp it reached a second high lake, which corresponds to the high Faiyum Neolithic levels, before reducing between 4800 - 3700bp, which again corresponds more or less to a fall in the Faiyum lake levels between 5100 and 3700bp. Research by a glaciologist (Thompson 2004) found significant evidence for a global cold dry phase at around 5200bp from sites all over the planet, including the Peruvian Andes, the Alps, the United Kingdom, Mount Kilimanjaro, South America, the Sahara , Greenland and Antarctica. He puts the event down to dramatic fluctuation in solar energy, leading to a decrease in the amount of sunlight reaching earth, a similar situation to the so-called Little Ice Age that lasted from 1450-1850AD.
Moisture was decreasing steadily throughout the Middle and Late Holocene. Nicol (2003) says that “pollen studies suggest that aridification progressed rapidly after the Middle Holocene . . . . Over much of the region flora and fauna were eventually extirpated or confined to refugia in areas of higher relief . . . and/or sustained groundwater discharge” (Nicol 2003, p.569). In the Gilf Kebir, and Gebel Uweinat life continued for a time, and the springs of Kharga and Dakhleh continued to support human settlement. Humid episodes are short. By 2075BP the Wadi Howar, which once fed the Nile as a tributary, was completely dry. In the Faiyum Depression the Late Holocene corresponds to the historical period, with a quay established during the Old Kingdom to transport stone quarried from the hills to the north of the lake. In Farafra Oasis, the previous semi-sedentary communities were replaced by nomadic groups who were apparently related to those occupying the Napta Playa area (Barich and Lucarini 2002). Lake Rudolf once again provides corroborating information for a comparatively humid period during the Old Kingdom, with high levels reached between 3720 and 2560bp, which corresponds to the high Old Kingdom levels when the quay and temple were built at Qasr El Sagha in the Faiyum Depression. In the Tadrat Acacus, increasing aridity from around 5000BP saw the abandonment of lowland areas by 3500BP in some places at by 2300 at nearly all locations. A number of writers have concluded that climatic fluctuations in Egypt have had an interesting impact on human occupation in Egypt: “Rapid hydroclimatic changes have played a key role in shaping human activities in Egypt and the northern Sudan. Environmental change may be one of the driving forces of late Prehistoric cultural innovation, settlement and immigration” (Nicol 2003, p.575). Schild and Wendorf conclude that “The geomporhic and biologic record of the Final Pleistocene and Holocene south Western Desert paints a spectre of an austere desert and semi-desert environment throughout the entire period. Even in the relatively ‘lush’ climatic optimum of the El Nabta/Al Jerar Interphase, the best that one may envision is the northern margin of the Sahelian zone” (Schild and Wendorf 2002, p.26). Climatic phases were erratic and short-lived. Water availability in mid and early Holocene was confined to summer rains in southern Egypt where the monsoonal zone extended much further north than it does today, winter rainfall in the north, tributaries south of Aswan, some wadi activity in the Eastern Desert and the African-fed river itself. But throughout the Holocene there were periods of alternate aridity and humidity. Garcea points out (1994, p.23) that while in northern Egypt rains fell in the winter with only a brief dry season occurring between April and June with floods between July and October, in the Sudan rains occur at the same time as the Nile inundation: “Consequently, the dry interval last longer, occupying the whole winter and spring. These differences must have affected the cultural dynamics of local populations” (Garcea 1994, p.24). Additionally, it will have impacted the different economic development of north and south. Near Eastern cereals like emmer wheat and barley need winter rainfall, and could therefore not have been cultivated in the south while summer rainfall persisted. Although Near Eastern herding practices penetrated into the desert regions of the Eastern and Western Deserts, cereal cultivation was only established in those areas that could sustain it, first in northern Egypt at Merimde and in the Faiyum Depression at around 5500bp, then 1000 years later, with the Badarian, in Upper Egypt at around 4400bp, and was only adopted by the Nubian A-People at around 4000bp. I’ll leave the final world with Fagan, who paints a very graphic picture of the impact of the Sahara on human life: “The desert breathes like a giant set of lungs, expanding and contracting with tiny changes in rainfall patterns . . . . The lungs draw in animals and people during periods of higher rainfall, then expel them to the margins when greater aridity returns . . . The pump operates tirelessly, decade by decade, making the Sahara’s frontiers advance and retreat as unpredictably as waves on a seashore” (Fagan 2004, p.150).
|
||||||
|
All text and images on this site are the copyright of Andrea Byrnes andie@easynet.co.uk 2003, 2004, 2005 unless otherwise stated |
||||||
