Nile behaviour and Late Palaeolithic humans in Upper Egypt during the Late Pleistocene

Vermeersch, Pierre; Neer, Wim Van

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.03.025

Cited by 70 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…To date, there is little consensus on the behavior of the late Pleistocene Nile, particularly for the main Nile during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Several models have been proposed, including a highly braided river with a much‐reduced discharge, a suspended‐load river, and that sand dunes dammed the Nile at specific places during the LGM, creating large lakes . Further south, in Sudan, correlation between Nile flows and sapropel S2 suggests a time of high water influx to the main Nile at ~55 ka, while during the LGM, both the White and the Blue Nile exhibit very low water discharge and high seasonality .…”

Section: Discussion Topicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only scarce evidence for human presence across the Abydos High Desert landscape dates to the last 70 ka . Conversely, the Nile Valley in Upper and Middle Egypt shows an exceptional increase in the number of sites during the LP . The LP lithic assemblages portray great variability, and some even retain several MP/MSA characteristics, such as the Levallois method .…”

Section: Discussion Topicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several models have been proposed, including a highly braided river with a much-reduced discharge, 1,2 a suspended-load river, 3 and that sand dunes dammed the Nile at specific places during the LGM, creating large lakes. 4 Further south, in Sudan, correlation between Nile flows and sapropel S2 suggests a time of high water influx to the main Nile at~55 ka, while during the LGM, both the White and the Blue Nile exhibit very low water discharge and high seasonality. 5 In addition, oases in the Eastern Sahara have yielded evidence for habitability in the late Pleistocene, building a more complex picture than an "empty Desert" at that time.…”

Section: Local and Regional Environmental Responses To Climatic Chamentioning

confidence: 97%

“…12 Conversely, the Nile Valley in Upper and Middle Egypt shows an exceptional increase in the number of sites during the LP. 4 The LP lithic assemblages portray great variability, and some even retain several MP/MSA characteristics, such as the Levallois method. 2 Further south, a recently excavated site in Sudan, Affad 23, has yielded an occupation level dated to~15-16 ka, associated with a faunal assemblage dominated by medium to large-size mammals and a lithic assemblage with MSA characteristics.…”

Section: Local and Regional Environmental Responses To Climatic Chamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One main discussion point of the workshop was how to reconcile results from different fields. Most evidence for modern human Affiliations of participants: 1 University of Toronto (Canada), 2 University of Adelaide (Australia), 3 KU Leuven (Belgium), 4 University of Cassino (Italy), 5 Estonian Biocentre, Tartu (Estonia) and University of Padova (Italy), 6 Ronin Institute, 7 Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva (Israel) and University of Oxford (UK), 8 UMR CNRS 7194, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (France), 9 Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP), Rabat (Morocco), 10 UMR 5199 PACEA, University of Bordeaux (France), 11 Polish Academy of Science (Poland), 12 University of Cambridge (UK), 13 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), and 14 In particular, three main research avenues to enable new insights regarding population connectivity and dispersal within the region were pointed out, and these include the necessity to continue and organize new fieldwork in the Nile Valley and adjacent deserts, to refine the chronological resolution of human occupation and paleoenvironmental data in this area, and to conduct systematic comparisons of the archeological record between the different regions.…”

Section: The Nile Valley: Corridor or Refugium?mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

International workshop on human occupations of the Nile Valley and neighboring regions between 75,000 and 15,000 years ago

Leplongeon

Goder‐Goldberger

Pleurdeau

2018

Evolutionary Anthropology

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Section: Discussion Topicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussion Topicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Local and Regional Environmental Responses To Climatic Chamentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Local and Regional Environmental Responses To Climatic Chamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Nile Valley: Corridor or Refugium?mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

International workshop on human occupations of the Nile Valley and neighboring regions between 75,000 and 15,000 years ago

Leplongeon

Goder‐Goldberger

Pleurdeau

2018

Evolutionary Anthropology

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Sediment micromorphology and site formation processes during the Middle to Later Stone Ages at the Haua Fteah Cave, Cyrenaica, Libya

Inglis

French

Farr³

et al. 2017

Geoarchaeology

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Understanding the timing, conditions, and characteristics of the Middle to Later Stone Age (MSA/LSA) transition in North Africa is critical for debates regarding the evolution and past population dynamics of Homo sapiens, especially their dispersals within, out of, and back into, Africa. As with many cultural transitions during the Palaeolithic, our understanding is based predominantly on archaeological and paleoenvironmental records preserved within a small number of deep cave sediment sequences. To use such sequences as chronological cornerstones we must develop a robust understanding of the formation processes that created them. This paper utilizes geoarchaeological analyses (field observations, sediment micromorphology, bulk sedimentology) to examine site formation processes and stratigraphic integrity during the MSA/LSA at the Haua Fteah cave, Libya, one of North Africa's longest cultural sequences. The depositional processes identified vary in mode and energy, from eolian deposition/reworking to mass colluvial mudflows. These changing processes impact greatly on the interpretation of the paleoenvironmental and archaeological records, not least in identifying potential colluvial sediment deposition and reworking in layers identified as containing the MSA/LSA transition. This study highlights the importance of developing geoarchaeological analyses of cultural sequences to fully unravel the limitations and potential of their contained archaeological and paleoenvironmental records.

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A fluid past: Socio‐hydrological systems of the West African Sahel across the long durée

Coutros

2019

WIREs Water

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Since the end of the last glacial period (~12.4 ka bp) the African continent has undergone no less than 30 dramatic climate transitions. West Africa in particular witnessed abrupt climate oscillations-between humid optima and hyper-aridity-which lasted anywhere between 10 and 15 years and a millennium. Such unpredictable shifts forced local communities to develop a suite of risk-buffering strategies that could withstand climate change on various scales. Both archeological and palaeoclimatic research has begun to reveal how these societies engaged with their erratic environment over the span of the Holocene. The adoption of pastoral lifeways, the domestication of cereal crops, and the emergence of monumentality or urbanism may indeed be viewed through the lens of environmental risk-buffering strategies. Yet, these developments proceeded along trajectories that belie traditional narratives rooted in environmental determinism and underscore the unique cultural processes at play, which do not conform to presumptions imported from outside regions. Revised narratives, therefore, must take into account cultural perceptions of climate change, and the localized nature of landscape.

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Nile behaviour and Late Palaeolithic humans in Upper Egypt during the Late Pleistocene

Cited by 70 publications

References 37 publications

International workshop on human occupations of the Nile Valley and neighboring regions between 75,000 and 15,000 years ago

International workshop on human occupations of the Nile Valley and neighboring regions between 75,000 and 15,000 years ago

Sediment micromorphology and site formation processes during the Middle to Later Stone Ages at the Haua Fteah Cave, Cyrenaica, Libya

A fluid past: Socio‐hydrological systems of the West African Sahel across the long durée

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