Palaeoenvironmental evolution of the blue Nile (Central Sudan) during the early and mid-holocene (Mesolithic-Neolithic transition)

Lario, Javier; Sánchez‐Moral, Sergio; Fernández, Vı́ctor M.; Jimeno, Alfredo; Menéndez, Mario

doi:10.1016/s0277-3791(96)00053-4

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The biomolecular reflection of the environment suggests it becomes increasingly arid from pre-Mesolithic to Meroitic. This mirrors the previous stable isotope and palaeoenvironmental climate studies [12] [30] [31] , with the prevailing humid/wet environment during the pre-Mesolithic. This correlates with the absence of the environmentally determined terpenoid during the pre-Mesolithic period.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan

et al. 2014

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Accessing information on plant consumption before the adoption of agriculture is challenging. However, there is growing evidence for use of locally available wild plants from an increasing number of pre-agrarian sites, suggesting broad ecological knowledge. The extraction of chemical compounds and microfossils from dental calculus removed from ancient teeth offers an entirely new perspective on dietary reconstruction, as it provides empirical results on material that is already in the mouth. Here we present a suite of results from the multi-period Central Sudanese site of Al Khiday. We demonstrate the ingestion in both pre-agricultural and agricultural periods of Cyperus rotundus tubers. This plant is a good source of carbohydrates and has many useful medicinal and aromatic qualities, though today it is considered to be the world's most costly weed. Its ability to inhibit Streptococcus mutans may have contributed to the unexpectedly low level of caries found in the agricultural population. Other evidence extracted from the dental calculus includes smoke inhalation, dry (roasting) and wet (heating in water) cooking, a second plant possibly from the Triticaceae tribe and plant fibres suggestive of raw material preparation through chewing.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan

et al. 2014

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“…Sandy levees formed at the interface between the desert area and the River bed channel. The development of small mounds (also called "turtle backs"; Ismaël and Delaune-Mayère, 1987), similar to the ones observed in the delta (Tristant, 2004) probably facilitated the installation of the first settlers from the Sahara Desert, when arid and warm conditions affected the whole area between the mid 6th and the 4th millennium BC (Lario et al, 1997;Midant-Reynes, 2003;Kuper and Krö-pelin, 2006;Kröpelin et al, 2008). The sandy levees, formed by a mixture of Nile sediments and aeolian deposits, are called gezirah in Arabic and have been archaeologically (Tristant, 2004) and geologically (Dufton and Branton, 2010) investigated in the delta area.…”

Section: Landscape Evolution Around the Archaeological Site Of Karnakmentioning

confidence: 88%

Reconstructing the holocene depositional environments in the western part of Ancient Karnak temples complex (Egypt): a geoarchaeological approach

Ghilardi¹,

Boraik²

2011

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…Changes in orbital insolation during the late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene caused an "African Humid Period" (AHP; ∼15-5 ka BP;deMenocal et al, 2000;Barker et al, 2004), when increased precipitation triggered changes in vegetation (Lamb et al, 2004), dust dynamics (Zielhofer et al, 2017), lake expansion and increased river flow (Barker et al, 2004;Costa et al, 2014;Revel et al, 2014;Bloszies et al, 2015). In the wider region, these environmental changes during the AHP have been associated with multiple migration dynamics, such as the reoccupation of the Sahara ∼10.5 ka BP (Kuper and Kröpelin, 2006;Drake et al, 2013;Larrasoaña et al, 2013;Manning and Timpson, 2014), cultural innovation (Lario et al, 1997) and overlapped with a demographic transition to the Neolithic age (Manning and Timpson, 2014;Honegger and Williams, 2015). An increase in arid conditions has been documented during the termination of the AHP ∼5 ka BP in eastern Africa (e.g., deMenocal et al, 2000;Barker et al, 2004;Foerster et al, 2012;Junginger et al, 2014;Bloszies et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining the Pace and Magnitude of Lake Level Changes in Southern Ethiopia Over the Last 20,000 Years Using Lake Balance Modeling and SEBAL

et al. 2020

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The Ethiopian rift is known for its diverse landscape, ranging from arid and semi-arid savannahs to high and humid mountainous regions. Lacustrine sediments and paleo-shorelines indicate water availability fluctuated dramatically from deep fresh water lakes, to shallow highly alkaline lakes, to completely desiccated lakes. To investigate the role lakes have played through time as readily available water sources to humans, an enhanced knowledge of the pace, character and magnitude of these changes is essential. Hydro-balance models are used to calculate paleo-precipitation rates and the potential pace of lake level changes. However, previous models did not consider changes in hydrological connectivity during humid periods in the rift system, which may have led to an overestimation of paleo-precipitation rates. Here we present a comprehensive hydro-balance modeling approach that simulates multiple rift lakes from the southern Ethiopian Rift (lakes Abaya, Chamo, and paleo-lake Chew Bahir) simultaneously, considering their temporal hydrological connectivity during high stands of the African Humid Period (AHP, ∼15-5 ka). We further used the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) to calculate the evaporation of paleo-lake Chew Bahir's catchment. We also considered the possibility of an additional rainy season during the AHP as previously suggested by numerous studies. The results suggest that an increase in precipitation of 20-30% throughout the southern Ethiopian Rift is necessary to fill paleo-lake Chew Bahir to its overflow level. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that paleo-lake Chew Bahir was highly dependent on the water supply from the upper lakes Abaya and Chamo and dries out within ∼40 years if the hydrological connection is cut off and the precipitation amount decreases to present day conditions. Several of such rapid lake level fluctuations, from a freshwater to a saline lake, might have occurred during the termination of the AHP, when humid conditions were less stable. Fast changes in fresh water availability requires high adaptability for humans living in the area and might have exerted severe environmental stress on humans in a sub-generational timescale.

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Palaeoenvironmental evolution of the blue Nile (Central Sudan) during the early and mid-holocene (Mesolithic-Neolithic transition)

Cited by 17 publications

References 13 publications

Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan

Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan

Reconstructing the holocene depositional environments in the western part of Ancient Karnak temples complex (Egypt): a geoarchaeological approach

Determining the Pace and Magnitude of Lake Level Changes in Southern Ethiopia Over the Last 20,000 Years Using Lake Balance Modeling and SEBAL

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