Recent Archaeological Research in Southeastern Ethiopia. 1974 - 1975

The Origin of African Sheep: Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives

“…Domestic sheep entered the continent through two main entry points: the northeastern part of Africa and the Horn of Africa, with the latter a further illustration of the importance of that region in the history of African livestock pastoralism (Hanotte et al 2002;Boivin and Fuller 2009). However, despite rock painting evidence that fat-tailed sheep might have been present in the Horn of Africa prior the arrival and dispersion of humped cattle along the Sahelian belt into West Africa (Clark and Williams 1978), fat-tailed sheep did not reach the western part of the continent along the same route. Depictions of thin-tailed and fat-tailed sheep at different periods in Dynastic Egyptian art reveal several waves of introduction in the northeastern part of the continent.…”

“…The first East African sheep could therefore have been introduced directly from the Arabian Peninsula. Undated rock paintings from Serkama Cave (Harar Province) in the eastern Ethiopian highlands (Clark and Williams 1978) portray fat-tailed sheep and humpless cows, suggesting that fat-tailed sheep were present in East Africa prior the arrival of humped cattle, for which there is undisputed archaeological evidence dated to around the mid-first millennium AD (Gifford-Gonzalez and Hanotte 2011). It remains unknown if the arrival of fat-tailed sheep in East Africa and in the northeastern part of the continent occurred in the same time period.…”

Domesticating Animals in Africa: Implications of Genetic and Archaeological Findings

“…Rowley-Conwy (1988) reports camel dung from the Predynastic Napatan site of Qsar Ibrim in the early first millennium BC, but the species is not ubiquitous in the Nile Valley until a thousand years later. Dromedaries dated to 1300-1600 AD were found at Laga Oda, in the Horn of Africa (Clark and Williams 1978). The genetics of the species in sub-Saharan Africa remains poorly studied, with the exception of Kenya (Mburu et al 2003).…”

Stable isotopic analysis of human and animal diets from two pre-Aksumite/Proto-Aksumite archaeological sites in northern Ethiopia

“…Both crop complexes are well-established in the Ethiopian/Eritrean highlands by the early to mid-first millennium BC, when the region was occupied by sedentary farming communities (Boardman, 2000;Bard et al, 1997;D'Andrea, 2008;D'Andrea et al, 2008b;. There is a longer history of livestock husbandry in the Horn, with the earliest documented cattle dating to the third millennium BC (Clark and Prince, 1978;Clark and Williams, 1978;Brandt, 1984Brandt, , 1986Brandt and Carder, 1987;Clark, 1988). Given these circumstances, stable isotopic analyses have great potential to demonstrate not only the dietary significance of African vs. Near Eastern crop complexes in the highlands, but also to estimate the proportions of plant vs. meat sources in pre-/Proto-Aksumite diets.…”