Reconnaissance of Prehistoric Sites in the Red Sea Coastal Region of the Sudan, NE Africa

Geomorphology and (palaeo-)hydrography of the Southern Atbai plain and western Eritrean Highlands (Eastern Sudan/Western Eritrea)

“…The Sahel of eastern Sudan, for instance, is a region crossed by large riversthe Atbara and Gash Rivers -that have been scarcely investigated from the geomorphological point of view. Notwithstanding this, the region with its rivers played a crucial role in the Pleistocene and Holocene human peopling of northeastern Africa, because it represents a bridge between the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa (and beyond) (Beyin, 2013;Beyin et al, 2019;Gatto & Zerboni, 2015). Today, the area is sparsely inhabited, but huge human modifications altered the pristine hydrographic network with the main aim of increasing the extension of cultivable patches.…”

Shellfish resilience to prehistoric human consumption in the southern Red Sea: Variability in Conomurex fasciatus across time and space

“…The Farasan shell midden dataset derived from a more than 2500 year long occupation represents a Holocene reference point of what was possible given the arid environmental conditions overall. Importantly, whilst research of southern Red Sea coastal subsistence has been heavily biased towards the Farasan shell middens, similar sites have also been found on the other side of the Red Sea, showing similar clustering and preservation (Meredith- Williams et al, 2014;Beyin et al, 2019). Coastal sites dating further back into the Pleistocene are not uncommon and the use of shellfish dates back to 164,000 BP (Marean et al, 2007).…”

“…These sites were occupied during a similarly arid period (Arz et al, 2003), as was the case for the main period of human dispersal out of Africa (Tierney et al, 2017). Work on both sides of the Red Sea has documented important archaeological sites that illustrate some of the activities and commonalities that both shores have shared (Khalidi, 2007(Khalidi, , 2010Mayer and Beyin, 2009;Meredith-Williams et al, 2014;Hausmann et al, 2019a;Beyin et al, 2019). Archaeological surveys show that marine resources were an important component of coastal subsistence, evidenced by over 4000 sites spread along both sides of the Red Sea (Meredith- Williams et al, 2014).…”

Raw-material exploitation in the Earlier and Middle Stone Age in the Eastern Desert of Egypt: evidence from Wadi Abu Subeira

“…A growing body of palaeoenvironmental evidence suggests that the Eastern Desert of Egypt—in addition to the Nile Valley—may have acted as a dispersal corridor for human populations during interglacial periods, particularly during MIS5 (Henselowsky et al 2022). However, little is known about Stone Age human occupation of this area (Vermeersch 2012; Kindermann et al 2018; Beyin et al 2019). Here, we report on several Earlier Stone Age and Middle Stone Age findspots in the Wadi Abu Subeira (Eastern Desert of Egypt, Aswan region).…”