On the Periphery of Kerma - The Handessi Horizon in Wadi Hariq, Northwestern Sudan

Abstract

Wadi Hariq is a complex valley system in the Northwest Sudan about 400 km west of the Nile. Stratigraphic investigations provide new data on the environmental and climatic history of the present-day hyperarid centre of the southeastern Sahara. Archaeological work there only started at the end of the 1990s, with a survey and excavations carried out as part of the multidisciplinary research project ACACIA of the University of Cologne. To date, 104 sites are known in the Wadi Hariq. Based on the pottery found at these sites, most can be attributed to the Handessi Horizon, the former Geometric Pottery Horizon, of the eastern Sahara. Geometric patterns, and also mat impressions, are characteristic of the Handessi Horizon (ca 2200 . 1100 BC). The subsistence of these prehistoric inhabitants was based on the herding of cattle and small livestock. Transhumance cycles included areas further north (Laqiya region) and south (Wadi Howar), and perhaps even the Nile Valley has to be considered. Similar decorative patterns have been found in all these areas. Evidence of an even earlier human presence in the Wadi Hariq during the Holocene is provided by several sherds decorated with Dotted Wavy Line and Laqiya-type patterns as well as some fragments of rippled-ware pottery.

Ancient Egypt in its African Context

“…In this phase the Lower Nubian Egyptian fortresses established during the Middle Kingdom were under the political control of the king of Kush, as shown by several inscriptions (Török 2009: 103-17). In the meantime, in both the Western (Jesse et al 2004) and Eastern Deserts, as well as in Eastern Sudan (Manzo 2012: 77, 81), material traces of contact with the Kerma culture of Upper Nubia are visible. A so far unique hieroglyphic inscription of a king of Kush was also recorded in the Eastern Desert, which suggests the extension of the kingdom's sphere of influence into the area (Davies 2014: 35-6) (Figure 5).…”

Why the Donkey Did Not Go South: Disease as a Constraint on the Spread of Equus asinus into Southern Africa

“…Several finds document their presence at Kerma from the third millennium BC (Chaix 1993), and a complete skeleton has been directly dated to 3560 ± 150 BP (KN-5318, 2340(KN-5318, -1527 cal. BC at 95 % probability using IntCal13) from a pastoralist (Handessi Horizon) context at Wadi Hariq, 400 km west of the Nile (Jesse et al 2004). Still further into the Sahara, donkeys were present in southwestern Libya by 1000 BC Fig.…”