Holocene environment and subsistence patterns near the Tree Shelter, Red Sea Mountains, Egypt

Abstract

The Tree Shelter site dates to the Early to Mid-Holocene (8000 to 4900 14 C yr BP). Present conditions around the site are hyperarid, but charcoal remains indicate less severe aridity at the time of its occupation. The environment around the site then supported a rich wadi vegetation, which allowed hunting during the Epipaleolithic and herding during the Neolithic occupation. Although more favorable than today, the environmental conditions also displayed a desert character and seem to have limited the range of domestic herbivores introduced in the area.

Early and Middle Holocene Human Occupation of the Egyptian Eastern Desert: Sodmein Cave

“…The leaves, wood fragments and the seeds of Acacia found in the pellets indicate browsing of the tree vegetation by the bovids that produced the dung. As wood charcoal analysis of the Tree Shelter site (Marinova 2008;Marinova et al 2008) and of Sodmein (Fig. 21) has shown, S. persica was also used by the prehistoric visitors of the area.…”

“…The fauna from the Tree Shelter site is very comparable to that of the Sodmein Cave. However, microbats, typical cave fauna, are missing and remains of marine fish have been identified, whereas no fish were recorded from Holocene Sodmein (Linseele and Van Neer 2008;Marinova et al 2008).…”

“…The presence of domestic sheep or goat in the Elkabian levels of Tree Shelter is very unlikely (Linseele and Van Neer 2008;Marinova et al 2008). Sodmein Cave does not provide more information regarding the economic activity of the Elkabian visitors.…”

Sites with Holocene dung deposits in the Eastern Desert of Egypt: Visited by herders?

“…Environmental circumstances at that time would have been more favourable than today, with rainfall more frequent and regular than nowadays . This allowed a well-developed wadi vegetation with a predominance of Acacia and Salvadora persica (Marinova, 2008;Marinova et al, 2008).…”

The local forms of Zootecus (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Subulinidae) of Pakistan: an archaeomalacological case study

“…is known as a Holocene fossil in the deserts of Libya, Egypt, Sudan (Mienis, 1979(Mienis, , 1992Marinova et al, 2008;Girod, 2008Girod, , 2010 and in the lacustrine deposits of Lake Assal, Djibuti (Van Damme & Gautier, 1994). The local populations of Zootecus in the region east of Iran are known by many names (Gude, 1914) These taxa were identified and described solely on the basis of morphological characteristics of the shells but their anatomy is still unknown.…”