Socio-Economic Differentiation in the Neolithic Sudan 9780860544531, 9781407346243

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Copyright
Series List
Title Page
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE GENERAL PROBLEM COMPLEXES
3. STATE OF RESEARCH
4. HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION AND EXCAVATION AND EXCAVATION STRATEGY
5. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
6. RADICARBON DATES
7. LITHIC MATERIAL
8. POTTERY MATERIAL
9. FLORAL REMAINS
10. FAUNAL REMAINS
11. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
12. EVOLUTION OF FOOD-PRODUCING ACTIVITIES IN THE KHARTOUM NILE ENVIRONMENT
13. CONCLUSION
APPENDIX 1
APPENDIX 2
APPENDIX 3
APPENDIX 4
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Citation preview

Socio-Economic Differentiation in the Neolithic Sudan

Randi Haaland

Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 20

BAR International Series 350 19-87

B.A.R.

5, Centremead, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 ODQ, England.

GENERAL EDITORS A.R. Hands, B.Sc., M.A., D.Phil. D.R. Walker, M.A.

BAR -S350, 1987: 'Socio-Economic Differentiation in the Neolithic Sudan'

©

Randi Haaland, 1987

The author’s moral rights under the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act are hereby expressly asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, stored, sold, distributed, scanned, saved in any form of digital format or transmitted in any form digitally, without the written permission of the Publisher. ISBN 9780860544531 paperback ISBN 9781407346243 e-book DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9780860544531 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This book is available at www.barpublishing.com

CAMBRIDGE IDNOGRAP HS IN A FRICAN ARCHAEOLOGY G eneral Editor John Alexander, M.A., Ph.D., F.S.A. St. John's College Cambridge C B2 lTP, England Manuscripts should be submitted to Dr. Alexander in the first instance. Titles already published: 1.

'The Niger Delta: Aspects of its Prehistoric Economy and Culture' by Nwanna Nzewunwa. BAR-S75.

2.

'Prehistoric Investigations in the Region of Jenne, Mali' by Susan Keech McIntosh and Roderick J. McIntosh. BAR-S89.

3.

'Off-Site Archaeology and Human Adaptation in Eastern Africa: An Analysis of Regional Artefact Density in the Amboseli, Southern Kenya' by Robert Foley. BAR-S97.

4.

'Later Pleistocene Cultural Adaptations in Sudanese Nubia' by Yousif Mukhtar el Amin. BAR-Sll4.

5.

'Settlement Patterns in the Iron Age of Zululand: Interpretation ' by Martin Hall. BAR-Sll9.

6.

'The Neolithic Period in the Sudan, c. 6000 - 2500 B.C.' by Abbas S. Mohammed-Ali. BAR-Sl39.

7.

'History and Ethnoarchaeology in Eastern Nigeria: A Study of Igbo-Igala relations with special reference to the Anambra Valley' by Philip Adigwe Oguagha and Alex Ikechukwu Okpoko. BAR-Sl95.

8.

'Meroitic Settlement in the Central Sudan: An Analysis of Sites in the Nile Valley and the Western Butana' by Khidir Abdelkarim Ahmed. BAR­ Sl97.

9.

'Economy and Technology in the Late Stone Age Charles Cable. BAR-S201.

An Ecological

of Southern Natal' by

10. 'Frontiers: Southern African Archaeology Today' ed. M. Hall, G. Avery, D.M. Avery, M.L. Wilso11. and A.J.B. Humphreys. B AR-S207. 11. 'Archaeology and History in Southern Nigeria: The ancient linear earthworks of Benin and Ishan' by P.J. Darling. BAR-S215. 12. 'The Latest Stone Age of Southernmost Africa' by Janette Deacon. S213.

BAR­

13. 'Fisher-Hunters and Neolithic Pastoralists in East Turkana, Kenya' by John Webster Barthelme. BAR-S2S4-•

1 4.

' The A rchaeology

o f

C entral D arfur

b y I brahim M usa M ohammed . 1 5.

( Sudan ) i n t he i st M illennium A .D . '

B AR-S285 .

' Stable C arbon I sotopes a nd P rehistoric D iets i n t he S outh-Western C ape P rovince, S outh A frica ' b y J udith S ealy.

1 6.

' Va n

r upestre p rghistorique d es m assifs c entraux s ahariens ' b y A lfred

Muzzolini . 1 7.

' Spheroids

B AR-S318 . a nd B attered S tones

A ge' b y P amela R . W illoughby . 1 8. 1 9.

' The L ater S tone A ge o f

a nd M iddle S tone

B AR-S338

t he D rakensberg R ange a nd

£ 12.00 p ost f ree . i ts

f oothills '

b y H .

B AR-S339.

' Socio-Economic H aaland .

2 1.

i n t he A frican E arly B AR-S321.

' The R oyal C rowns o f K ush ' b y L . T örök .

O pperman . 2 0 .

B AR -S293.

D ifferentiation

i n

t he

N eolithic

S udan '

b y R andi

B AR-S350.

' Later S tone A ge S ettlement P atterns i n t he S andveld o f t he S outhWestern C ape P rovince, S outh A frica ' b y A nthony Manhire .

B AR-S351.

ANTHROPOLOG ICAL P ERSPECT IVES ON SOC IO-ECONOM IC I N T HE

NEOL ITH IC

D IFFERENT IAT ION P ER IOD , S UDAN

R and i H aa land

CHAPTER

1 . I NTRODUCTION

CHAPTER

1

2 .

2 .

THE GENERAL

PROBLEM COMPLEXES

2 .1.

Transition

2 .2.

Introduction

to

5

foodproduction of

animal

5

husbandry

in

the

6

Sudan Nile Valley 2 .3.

Interaction between

different

subsistence

6

a ctivities 2 .4.

I nnovation, espansion

2 .5.

diffusion

as

and territorial

mechanisms

The connection between l anguage

families

evidence

for

and

cultural

of

cultural

the

7

charge

distribution of

8

archaeological evolution

in the

Nile Valley CHAPTER

3 .

3 .

STATE

OF RESEARCH

1 6

3 .1.

Early Khartoum

1 6

3 .2.

Esh

1 7

3 .3.

Arhell' s

culture

3 .4.

Sulton's

hypothesis

Shaheinab historical about

interpretation

"aguatic

1 9 1 9

civilization" 3 .5.

Later work

3 .6.

Archaeological work

CHAPTER

in

the

Khartoum area in the

2 0

Butana

2 3

4 .

4 .

HYPOTHESIS

FORMULATION AND EXCAVATION

4 .1.

Kadero

4 .1.1.

Z akiab

4 .1.2.

Kadero

4 .1.3.

Hatab

4 .1.4.

Survey of Neolithic

sites

3 0

4 .1.5.

Comparison with Esh

Shaheinab

31

4 .1.6.

Excavation

4 .1.7.

Archaeological

4 .2.

Summary

I

STRATEGY

2 5 2 5 2 7

I I

3 0 3 0

of

Um Direiva work

I

at Rabak

3 2 3 4 3 6

CHAPTER

5

5 .

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

5 .1.

Natural

5 .2.

Archaeological

5 .2.1.

Zakiab

5 .2.2.

Um Direiva

5 .2.3.

Kadero

I I

4 1

5 .2.4.

Kadero

I

4 2

5 .2.4.1.

Area

2

4 2

5 .2.4.2.

Area

2a

4 3

5 .2.4.3.

Area

la

4 3

5 .3

Sites

5 .3.1.

Um Direiwa

5 .3.2.

Hatab

5 .4.

Archaeological

5 .4.1.

Esh

5 .5.

Rabak

4 5

5 .

RADIOCARBON DATES

5 9

6 .1.

Radiocarbon

dates

f rom the East

bank

of Nile

5 9

6 .1.1.

Radiocarbon

dates

from the West

bank

of Nile

6 0

6 .1.2.

Radiocarbon

dates

from Rabak

6 0

6 .2

Correction

dates

6 1

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

RECORD

feature

of

3 9

the

s ites

3 9

excavations

4 0 4 0

I

4 0

surveyed

4 4

I I

4 4 4 4 record,

west

bank

of

the Nile

Shaheinab

4 4 4 5

6

of

the

7 .

7 .

LITHIC MATERIAL

6 3

7 .1.

Raw-material

6 3

7 .2.

Flaked

7 .2.1.

The

7 .2.1.1.

Primary techniques

6 4

7 .2.1.2.

Secondary

6 5

7 .2.2.

Spatial

distribution of

and

implication

l ithic

chipped

i ts

a ctivity 7 .2.2.1.

artefacts

s tone

6 4

i ndustry

6 4

techniques f laked

l ithic waste

6 5

for reconstruction of

types

Ethnographic

analogy,

production

of

tools

6 6

and d isposal waste 7 .2.3.

Function

7 .2.3.1.

S crapers

of

tools

6 9 6 9

7 .2.3.1.1.

Reflections

on the

material

f ormulating

i n

u se

of

ethnographic

f ruitful

7 0

a rtefact

classification 7 .2.3.2.

Flaked tools

7 2

7 .2.3.2.1.

Engraving tools

7 2

7 .2.3.2.2.

Lunates/backed tools

7 4

7 .2.3.2.3.

Gouges

7 6

7 .2.3.2.4.

Concave

7 .2.3.2.5.

Notches

7 7

7 .2.3.2.6.

Denticulats

7 7

7 .2.3.2.7.

Knives

7 7

7 .2.3.2.8.

Tanged a rrows

7 8

7 .3.

Grinding tools

7 8

7 .3.1.

Comments

7 .3.1.1.

Ethnographic u se

o f

s crapers

on the

7 .3.3.

Ethnographic

7 .3.4.

the

7 8

s econdary

7 9

grinders

Quantaitative

o f

classification

a nalogy on

7 .3.2.

use

7 7

e stimates

of

upper grinders

a nalogy on th production

and

7 9 8 0

grinders

Implications

for

the

i nterpretation of

8 1

grinders 7 .3.4.1.

Function

8 1

7 .3.4.2.

Production

8 1

7 .3.4.3.

The

7 .3.4.4.

An e stimate

n umber of

using the

o f

the

number

of

8 2

household

8 2

grinders

7 .3.5.

Miscellaneous

7 .3.6.

Summary of

CHAPTER

grinders per household

ground tools

8 3

a ctivities

8 4

8 .

8 .

POTTERY MATERIAL

1 44

8 .1.

Sampling

1 44

8 .2.

Classification

1 45

8 .3.

Decorative

8 .3.1.

Ethnographic

8 .3.2.

Implication

t echniques

and

s urface

treatment

analogy of pottery-making f or

1 48 1 49

i nterpretation of Neolithic

1 51

pottery 8 .4.

Distribution pattern of pottery on

the

s ites

1 52

CHAPTER

9 .

9 .

FLORAL

9 .1.

Plant

CHAPTER

REMAINS

1 81

impressions

on pottery

1 81

1 0.

1 0.

FAUNAL

1 0.1.

Zakiab

1 0.2.

Um Direiwa

1 0.3.

Esh

1 0.4.

Kadero

1 0.5.

Um Direiwa

1 0.6.

Kadero

1 0.7.

Conclusion

1 89

1 1.

NATURAL

ENVIRONMENT

1 91

1 1.1

Present

environment

1 91

1 1.1.1.

The

river Nile

1 91

1 1.1.2.

The

a lluvial

1 92

1 1.1.3.

Butana

1 1.2

The

natural

1 1.2.1.

The

f loodlevel

1 1.2.2.

Faunal

CHAPTER

REMAINS

1 85

Change

I I

1 88 I I

1 88

plain

grassland

and

1 93

environment

during Neolithic

of

the Nile

f loral

evidence

time

1 94 1 94

indicating

1 96

conditions

in

the paleo-climate

1 97

Division

of

plants

and game

1 2.3.

Consequenses

of

subsistence

role

1 98

among hunters/gatherers;

i n

the Nile

s edentarization

environment

and

2 00 2 01

growth of

intention

domestication: and

Cultivation without a rchaeological Neolithic

and the

communities

concept

form,

1 98

ethnographic material

Mesolithic

population

IN

ENVIRONMENT

labour

1 2.2.

The

FOOD-PRODUCING ACTIVITIES

KHARTOUM NILE

comparative

1 2.4.1.

1 88

I

EVOLUTION OF

of

1 2.4.

1 87

1 2.

THE 1 2.1.

1 86

1 1.

1 1.3.

1 2.

I

Shaheinab

climatic

CHAPTER

1 85

s ites

process

and

2 02

implication domestication.

evidence

f rom the

The

Khartoum

2 04

1 2.5.

Socio-economic

implications

of

animal

2 06

husbandry 1 2.6.

Animal

husbandry

Central 1 2.7. CHAPTER

and cultural

traditions

in

2 08

Sudan

Division

of

labour

2 11

1 3.

1 3.

CONCLUSION

1 3.1.

The

2 20

temporal

- spatial

context

of

the

2 20

Khartoum-Neolithic 1 3.2.

The

social

organization of

the

Khartoum

2 22

of

2 44

Neolithic 1 3.3.

The

gap

in

the

Khartoum Nile 1 3.4.

Appendix

Culture

no.

1

Report

culture-history environment

history

on

the

the

and

language

radiocarbon

2 27

dates

by

2 33

S teinar Gulliksen Appendix

no.

2

Miscellaneous

Appendix

no.

3

Fabric

lithic

analysis

artefacts

of potshers

from Sudan

2 36 2 41

by Hans-Ake NordstrOm Appendix

no.

4

The

archaeological material

Esh Shaheinab

References

from 2 42

2 43

1 . I NTRODUCTION

The t ension between the particularistic and the general - between d etailed d escription o f the material i nventory o f s pecific s ites and daring i nterpretation of i t's culture h istorical s ignificance - i s a f undamental characteristic of a rchaeological i nvestigations. The concern in this study is with the particular d escription a nd a nalysis of material f rom a f ew s ites i n the Nile valley; s ix l ocated j ust north o f Khartoum, a nd one l ocated 2 30 km s outh of Khartoum, a long the white Nile n ear Rabak ( Fig. 1 .). However, the work with this particular material has been g reatly influenced by my interest in more general culture historical problems; the transition to f oodproduction i n Africa; the i nteraction between f ishing, cultivation and pastoralism; innovation, d iffusion and territorial expansion as mechanisms of culture change; possible a rchaeological evidence of the early distribution of the two main cultural traditions i n the a rea - one a ssociated with the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic l anguage family, and the other with the Chari-Nile branch of the NibSaharan l anguage f amily. The i nvestigations i n the Nile valley has progressed i n a d ialectic f ashion; f ieldexcavation - description of material - hypothesis formulation - selection of new sites to evaluate hypothesis - modification, rejection and reformulation of hypothesis - s election of new s ites a nd s o on. I t i s not expected that we ever reach the f inal truth about the prehistoric people who produced and used the particular material discussed here, I do, however, expect that this d ialectical procedure has the potential of bringing us closer to this truth. This study represent the s tate of my understanding a t present. I hope that I have managed to make my hypothesis sufficiently precise in order to s timulate colleagues to challenge them on the basis of their material and thereby improve our understanding of the culture history i n the Nile valley a nd the wider regions a ffecting i t. At present my Sudanese colleagues a nd I a re pursuing f ieldexcavations i n the Atbara a rea a nd i t i s expected that the results o f these most l ikely will modify the view presented i n this s tudy. Since the archaeologist's material even f rom the most carefully excavated s ites contains only the most minute fragments of i nformation a bout t he problems we are here addressing, we have to rely strongly on comparative perspectives when we are evaluating i t's s ignificance. Comparison is however, a very complex undertaking i nvolving formidable methodological problems. Comparison i s not just to take the material i nventory f rom one s ite and mechanically compare i t with material f rom o ther s ites with r eference to the f requency d istribution o f d ifferent a rtefact a ttributes.

1

Such comparison i s a f irst s tep, but i s by i tself rather uninteresting. I f one a sks the question how much d ifferences in frequency d istribution makes a d ifference with reference to interpretation of socio-cultural processes, the a nswer i s that i t d epends on the circumstances; c ircumstances the a rchaeologist cannot observe. However, s ome archaeologists ( Wendorf 1 968, Newell 1 978) have tried to e stablish " objective" criteria of frequ ency d ifferences on the basis of which we can conclude t hat the d ifferences ( whether i t i s between different s ites or between d ifferent chronological horizons on the s ame s ite) s ignifies a socio-cultural difference, in this case the ethnic identity o f the s ite occupants. This i s pure wishful thinking, Barth and h is a ssociates have on the basis of analysis of comparative e thnographic material clearly d emonstrated that there i s no one to one relationship between e thnic boundaries a nd material i nventory i .e. i t is not possible to decide from first principle whether typological variations i n t ime a nd s pace i s anchored i n organization of contrasting ethnic groups or not. The e thnographic material s hows that there may be just as much material differences between different subunits belonging to one group a s there i s between different groups. The material i nventory of an ethnic group may change rapidly both a s a consequence of i novation, a nd a s a consequence of d iffusion a cross ethnic boundaries. There i s no quantitative t hreshold which a llows us to conclude automatically that t he typological d ifferences between chronological horizons necessarily implies ethnic succesion. I am afraid there i s no s imple s olution to our problems i n this f ield. The only hope we have of getting closer to the truth i s to f ormulate hypothesis which make ecological and sociol ogical s ense i n relation to the widest possible range of contextual evidence. Even i n case of ethnic s uccesion t his may not s how up i n a brupt d iscontinuities i n material inventory, because quite f requently i t i s a ccompanied by both a ssimilation of previous i nhabitants a nd adoption of a significant amount o f their cultural traditions. On the other hand differences between sites may just a s well be related to differences i n ecological adaptation a s to the function they may have served as idioms of ethnic identity. We know that material d ifferences may s erve this idiomatic function, but we also know that this is subject to a high level of a rbitrariness, i t d epends on what the g roups i n question a t any time claim to be s ignificant in this respect ( Barth 1 969). Unfortunately s ociological c ircumstances producing continuities and discontinuities in artefact distribution a re not open to i nspection by the a rchaeologists.

2

I nstead of d espair i n the f ace of these difficulties we should as archaeologist confront them and not seek escape in fanciful technical solutions based on a blatantly wrong ontology. I suggest that we should confront the difficulties by attempting to place our s ites i n the " picture" of the culture-history of l arger regions. In order to build up such a " picture", comparison i s a necessary procedure, we have to a nalyse material from different s ites in the regions a nd to e valuate the reconstruction a rchaeologists of the other s ites have presented. Thus my work has been s ignificantly i nfluenced by the framework archaeologists have presented of the history of the Nile valley on the basis of their s pecific s ites. The comparison i n this s tudy i s thus not d irectly between material f rom out s ites and material f rom s ites excavated by other archaeologist, it is rather ind irectly with t he i nterpretations these archaeologists have given their material. The ongoing confrontation of r econstructions of prehistoric processes with specific material i s thus i n my view e ssential f or d evelopment of our discipline. Just as essential is it that we struggle to get our ontology right regarding the possible relationship between our material and the society they belong to. I n this s truggle i t r equires t hat we place our d iscipline within a broad anthropol ogical tradition. The better we are able to f ormulate r econstructions which make s ociological and ecological s ense the more we are able to give direction to our hypothesis development which gets us closer to the prehistoric reality. This also will put us in a position to better evaluate which one of several alternative processes ( e. g. innovation, migration, d iffusion, ethnic boundaries, a ctivity s pecialization) which have a ffected the continuities and d iscontinuities our material exhibit i n t ime and s pace. I am convinced that those archaeologists who want to make our d iscip line s elfcontained by d isregarding the implications of f indings a nd i nsight f rom other d isciplines a re on the wrong track. All experience s hows that i t i s exactly by working on the borderlines to other d isciplines, that s ignificant d evelopment within a discipline i s brought about. I would here l ike to quote from Stephen Jay Gould' s d iscussion of t he conditions which s timulated Darwin to d evelope the theory of natural s election: " The theory of natural selection arose neither as a workmanlike i nduction f rom natures facts, nor a s a mysterious bolt from Darwins subconcious, triggered by an a ccidental reading of Malthus. I t emerged i nstead a s the result of conscious and productive search, proceeding in a ramifying but o rdered manner, and utilizing both the facts of natural history and an astonishingly broad range o f i nsights f rom d isparate d iscipline far f rom his own" ( Gould S .J. 1 980:56).

3

Darwins brilliant idea of natural selection a s the mechanism which produced variations i n the d istribution of l ifeforms in time and s r pace thus arose out of a constant intellectual s truggle with problem of how to make s ense of particular observations. His solution to the problem was however not only affected by his observation, i t was a lso s ignificantly s timulated by a broad reading of contributions of s cholars in other d isciplines. " The immidiate precipitators were a social s cientist, an e conomist and a s tatistician. I f genius has any common d enominator, I would propose breadth of interest and the a bility t o construct f ruitful analogies between f ields" ( Gould S . J.1980).

F ig . 1

M AP

OF

M AJ O R

S ITES

4

ME NTI O NE D

I N

T HE

T EXT

2 .

THE

GENERAL

PROBLEM COMPLEXES

Although the concern here i s with material from s pecific s ites one s hould mention that the material may be of comparative i nterest for better understanding of some g eneral problems i n African prehistory. Interest in these general problems clearly influence d the development of my hypothesis about the s ignificance of this s pecific material. I thus find it necessary to outline these problemhomplexes a lthough my concern here i s not primarly with their general solutions but with their implications for i nterpretation of our specific s ites.

2 .1.

Transition

to

foodproduction.

Evidence from botany shows that a wide variety of important foodcrops have been domesticated in Africa, because i t i s here we f ind their wild cultigens ( see map F ig. 2 ). There are however s till many unresolved problems in our understanding of the processes of plantdomestication in Africa. The differences between wild and domes ticated plants i s fundamental, wild plants exist by themselves while domesticated plants depend on man's planned a ctivities for their reproduction. The time i nvolved i n the process which brought about the genetic c hanges which s eparated the wild f rom the domesticated varieties was long, may be a f ew thousand years. I t i s t hus very unlikely that plantdomestication was brought a bout a s an i ntended consequence, because i t i s highly improbable that man had any understanding of the processes i nvolved i n this transformation. I f i t came a bout a s a n unintended consequence of man's a ctivities i n nature, what were these a ctivities which changed the s election pressures operating on the wild plants in such a way that the genetic material of a plantpopulation gradually changed and resulted in the evolution of domesticates? This we can only infer, but we can evaluate our inferences by confronting them with archaeological material showing gradual morphological changes connecting wild and domesticated plants in phylogenetic l ines. Connected with this problem of the processes i nvolved i n plantdomestication, i s the question of the t imespan i nvolved and the question of wether i ts origin i s i n a confined l ocality or wether i t took place on the broad f ront of ecologically s imilar conditions. I t i s our hope that this material may be of some value for those who are seeking an answer to these complicated problems.

5

2 .2.

Introduction Valley.

of

animal

husbandry

i n

the

Sudan Nile

The earliest evidence f or domesticated animals i .e. cattle, s heep/goats o ccur i n the western d esert of Egypt c . 8 000 B .P. f rom the s ite o f Napta Playa i n the Western Desert ( Wendorf, F . a nd F . Hassan 1 980). It i s commonly agreed by most osteologists t hat s heep a nd goats were i ntroduced f rom the Middle East. Concerning cattle there i s some disagreement: most maintaining that these were also introduced from the Middle East, while o thers claim that they may have been d omesticated f rom wild cattle s pecies in North Africa ( Camps 1 982:571-2). Wendorf and S child s uggest t hat domestication of cattle may have emerged 1 0 0 00 BP, i ndependent of the Near East ( Wendorf and S child 1 984). The problem of animal domestication will not be d iscussed h ere s ince i t i s nothing i n t he Khartoum material which c an throw l ight on the process. However, s ince the o steological material on these s ites exhibit s ome of t he earliest f inds of domesticated l ivestock south of Egypt, the place o f origin o f animal domestication has implications f or an understanding of the position of t hese s ites i n relation to the l arger regional histori cal picture. Evaluation of the significance of remains of domesticated l ivestock on these s ites l eads u s to t he next problem f ield.

2 .3.

Interaction vites.

between

different

subsistence

a cti-

A central problem in reconstructing the e cologic adaptations of early f oodproducers i s the i nterrelations hip between d ifferent s ubsistence a ctivities. We know t hat hunting, gathering, f ishing cultivation and a nimal husbandry have been important subsistence a ctivities i n Africa up to the present t ime. However, ethnographic material d emonstrate that there i s enormous variation i n t he i nteraction between these a ctivites; i n some regions e .g. i nterior Delta of Niger we f ind extreme s pecializ ation i n the practice of the activities, frequently along ethnic l ines while elsewhere e .g. Sudd a rea of s outhern Sudan we f ind g roups basing their adapation on a broad multi-resource e cploitation. In the a rchaeol ogical remains i t may be v ery d ifficult to d istinguish such s ituations because s pecialized groups f requently barter the products they s pecialize i n, and because they s easonally may occupy the same s ite. Concerning the r elationship between f ishing and cultivation among early farmers in Africa i t s eems that t hese a ctivities were practised by members o f the s ame g roup. Our material from the Nile valley i s directly r elevant f or j udging this hypothesis. Concerning the relationship farming/fishing, to a nimal husbandry the

6

problem i s f ar more complex. The environmental condit ions i n t he N ile valley a pparently favoured seasonal migrations between the Nile valley i n the d ry s eason and the drier inland areas in the rainy season. The question i s, was animal husbandry practised by s pecial ized g roups possibly of d ifferent ethnic identity or was i t based on a d ivision of l abour within f ishing/f arming communities where some members stayed in the basecamps a nd cultivated during the rainy s eason, while o thers i n that s eason brought the animals i nland.

2 .4.

Innovation, d iffusion and territorial mechanisms o f cultural change.

expansion

a s

Archaeological discussions on this issue have s uffered f rom misunderstandings a bout processes i nvolved a nd has u sually taken the f orm of confrontation between different " schools", some s eeking explanations in d iffusion, others in migration and still others in innovations, the latter sometimes calling themselves " evolutionists" To make my position clear I maintain that i t i s meaningsless to contrast evolution with any o f the o ther three processes. I nnovation, d iffusion a nd migration a re a ll d ifferent evolutionary processes. We cannot a ssertain f rom first principles which of them took place but have to try t o identify them by evaluat ing which of them i s s ociologically and ecologically p lausible g iven the available evidence. One can l earn a lot from evolutionary biology, and by analogy see evidence for cultural evolution in the reproductive s uccess o f the population which i s the carrier of a specific cultural inventory. The cultural i nnventory can be s een a s a t echnique i n adaptation either i n terms of exploition of specific resources or in terms of military e fficiency vis-a-vis g roups competing for the same resources. With man' s capacity for biological r eproduction a population with a g iven technology for f ood aqusition will s ooner o r l ater f ace the problem o f food shortage and increased mortality if they were confined to a g iven l ocality. The easiest s olution to t his problem i s t erritorial expanison to a reas suitable for adaptations based on the technology the groups command. As l ong a s s uch a reas a re not a lready o ccupied by g roups i n s imilar adaptations, the high productivity o f a previously unexploited n iche may s erve to maintain a high population growth rate, l eading to very rapid t erritorial expansion. Sooner or later however, the territorial limit to expansion based on specific t echniques i s r eached a nd pressure will build up. This constitute a selection pressure for technological i nnovations which i ntensify production i .e. increased foodavailability per a rea unit. Wether these i nnovat ions l ead to n ew t erritorial expansion f rom the g roup which i nvented t hem, or wether i t l eads to d iffusion of t echnology to o ther groups faced with s imilar adaptative problems i s impossible to say from f irst principles.

7

Both processes o ccur a nd judgement of which one a ctually happened i n prehistory can only be made a fter carefull analysis of the material. Expansion i nto a n a rea a lready occupied by a nother group i n a s imilar adaptation bring the groups into competition. The outcome of this competition does not only depend on the technical efficiency by which competing groups exploit the s ame r esources, but a lso on the e fficiency of their military t echnology and organization. We have a s imilar problem in evaluating the a rchaeological material i n this f ield; does the s pread of military technology reflect the expansion of a s pecific g roup or does i t reflect d iffusion? Even i f i t reflect expansion we have s till t he problem of evaluating the fate of the original occupants. Were they e liminated, were they f orced i nto a new environment unsuitable f or t he i nvaders e cologic adaptations, o r were they l argly a ssimilated i n the expanding g roup l ike the expanding Nuer have a ssimilated Dinkas i n S outhern S udan ( Newcomer 1 972). The pressures which i n some p laces have s timulated to innovations which improved the technology u sed for exploitation o f known r esources, may a lternativly l ead to innovations of technologis for exploitation of new resources a nd thereby provide the basis for completely n ew adaptations. Such i nnovations is a fundamental process in the evolution of s ocial complexity l eading to d ifferentiation between g roups i n d ifferent e cological n iches and t hus not competing with each other for territory. Thus pastoralists and cultivatiors f requently coexsist i n a s ymbiotic f ashion within an a rea, to a l arge externt d epending on barter of their respective products. Development of t echnologies allowing for new adaptations is generally accompanied by rapid territorial expansion e . g. as exemplified i n the rapid expansion of the Bantus when they had developled an agricultural complex which a llowed them to exploit the equatorial rainforest. An important point to keep i n mind i n this connection i s that the rapid t erritorial expansion which accompany s uch i nnovations may bring carriers of vastly d ifferent cultural traditions i nto peaceful coexistence in the s ame r egion. I n our s tudy o f the Nile valley the critical question i n this connection i s: Was cultivation and l ivestock brought to the Sudan Nile environment by groups being carriers of d ifferent cultural traditions but s pecializing i n cultivation/fishing a nd i n pastoral ism respectivly? or did cultivation and livestock diffuse to groups already inhabiting the area? The analysis of t he material f rom these s ites i s relevant for those concerned with this problems.

2 .5.

The connection between the d istribution of l anguage families and a rchaeological evidence for cultural evolution i n the Nile valley. Most

of

the

people

living

8

in

Sudan

today

s peak

languages which belong either to the Nilo-Saharan l anguage family or the Afro-Asiatic language family. When groups speak related l anguages this reflect some kind of culture historical connections. Although linguists on the basis of comparison o f r elated l anguages can give some indications about the time span involved i n the process of differentiation betweed branches of a l anguage family t hey can say very l ittle about the a ctual process. A most important challenge for culture historians i s to relate the linguistic inferences to archaeological and historical material. In connection with the present s tudy the critical i ssue i s whether our material f rom the Khartoum Nile environment can be c onnected to the expansion of speakers of Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan l anguages into the Nile valley. The Nilo-Saharan language family i s s poken by people s pread a cross the Sudan S avannah f rom Mali to the Nile and f rom Nubia to Tanzania ( Fig. 3 ). The l anguages fall i nto the following branches a nd s ubbranches d epicted i n Diagram ( No.1). According to S uttons hypothesis which I shall discuss more f ully l ater, the expansion o f Nilo-Saharan l anguges a cross t he S udan Savannah a nd s outhern Sahara was f irst carried by people i n adaptations which to a l arge extent d epended on exploitation of aquatic resources s ee Fig. 3a ( Sutton, J .E.G. 1 974). Many o f the people s peaking l anguages o f Nilo-Saharan f amily s till live along the rivers a nd l akes. Except among the pastoral N ilotes of east Africa, f ish play an important role i n t he d iet of most Nilo-Saharan people. The Afro-Asiatic language family consists of the f ollowing branches and s ub-branches d epicted i n ( Diagram No. 2 ). Speakers o f t his language f amily a re s pread over an a rea covering most of North Africa, a l arge part of Northeast Africa with a f ew g roups a s f ar s outh a s Tanzania, and most of the Middle-East ( Map. P ig. 4 ). The l inguist, S tevenson has f ormulated an i nteresting hypothesis a bout the culture h istorical connection between the branches of this family. His argument can be summarized as follows: Four of the five main branches of the Afro-Asiatic l anguage family are found in Africa. While a ll the semitic languages are closely related the Chadic and Cushitic branches consist of sub-branches which are relatively d istantly related. This i ndicates that these branches have a l ong evolutionary history in Africa, while t he s emittic branch most probably expanded to the Middle-East sometimes t owards the end of the sixth millenium B C ( Stevenson, R .C. 1 977). I t i s tempting to put the expansion of the s peakers of the Afro-Asiatic language family in connection with development of s pecialized nomadic pastoralism i n North Africa a bout 5 6 000 years a go.

view

The most interesting question from our point i s whether the expansion of groups carrying

9

of

cultural traditions a ssociated with the two l anguage families may have been based on different ecological adaptations; the Afro-Asiatic, on pastoralism a nd the Nilo-Saharan on f ishing/farming. For i nterpretation of material f rom our s ites this i s a n extremely d ifficult problem. Did animal husbandry come i n with expanding Cushitic ( of the Afro-Asiatic l anguage f amily) s peaking groups s pecializing i n pastoralism a nd i n the d ry s eason inhabiting the r iverbanks o f the Nile valley virtually on the same s ites a s Nilo-Saharan fishermen farmers, more or l ess l ike what the s ituation i s with the Fulani pastoralists and the Bozo fishermen in the interior Delta of Niger? Or d id Nilo-Saharan s peaking f ishermen/farmers expand the basis of their adaptation in the Nile environment, by taking up livestock ( possibly a cquired by Cushitic s peaking g roups i n the d rier i nland areas) more o r l ess l ike the Nilo-Saharan s peaking Nuer and Dinka has done i n the Sudd a rea.

1G u inea c o rn 2B u lrush m i l le t 3 F inge rm i l le t 4 A f r ican r i ce 5T e f f 6 D ig i ta r ia

4 ' 4

6

5

F ig.

2 .

Areas the

of domestication of

principal African cerals

area of Middle African Aquatic

that guinea corn Shaw,

i s

in the

1 977).

1 0

article

Civilization. named

s orghum.

int Note ( After

r°

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Map t o

S : 1

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main g roupings

only named

1 1

( after G reenberg,

l anguages,

1 963).

ANTIQUITY

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F ig.

3 a

( After Sutton

1 974).

1 2

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F ig.

4 .

Africa G eographical

distribution

of

the

f amily. I .

Afro-Asiatic

I .

1 . A.

Berber

I .

1 .B.

Egyptian

I .

2 . A.

Arabic

I .

2 .B.

Cushitic

I .

3 .

( after

and Coptic

Chad. Spencer

and Johnson

1 3

1 960).

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language

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3 STATE

OF RESEARCH

Previous research on the development of the early f ood-producing communities i n the Khartoum Nile environment provides the background of my own research. The f irst a rchaeologist to work on prehistoric s ites i n the Central Sudan, was Arkell. He s tarted to excavate the famous Khartoum Hospital site also called the Early Khartoum S ite just after the war i n 1 946. This was a s ite with pottery but with no evidence for foodproduct ion. Later in 1 949 he excavated the Esh Shaheinab s ite, whos i nhabitants he saw a s t he descendants of the Early Khartoum people and at this site he found the oldest evidence for foodproduction. In the following t he s ite of Early Khartoum and Esh Shaheinab will be d iscussed.

3 .1.

Early Khartoum.

The Early Khartoum site is situated on the west s ide of the Blue Nile on a sand bank surrounded by the a lluvial f lood plain. I t i s a large settlement s ite c . 5 600m 2 . When Arkell excavated the s ite in 1 946 he d id not have any possibility of getting radiocarbon dates, he d id however, suggest a date for the s ite of c . 7 000 B . C. ( Arkell, A .J. 1 972:222). Later radiocarbon dates f rom material found on other s ites a ssociated with the Early Khartoum culture have to l a l arge extent confirmed this date. Arkell sees the s ite a s more or l ess permanently occupied, the people derived their livelihood from hunting, fishing and gathering with no evidence of domestic animals or plants ( Arkell, A . J. 1949: 107). There was a heavy emphasis on aquatic resources, with immense quantities of fish remains, shell as well as r iver turtle and hippopotomus. The fauna i ndicated the hunting of large mammals: elephant, buffalo and rhinocoros. Furthermore the presence of animals l ike the Nile l echwe ( an antelope), the water mongoose and the reed rat, indicated that the river was bordered by swamps a nd that the rainfall was at least 3-4 times higher than today ( Arkell, A . J. 1 949:27). Later he e stimated that the r iver f lowed 1 0 metres higher a t the time of occupation than it does today ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:8). There were no plant remains, except the f inds of s eeds f rom the hackberry tree ( Celtis integrefolia). I n terms of l ithic artefacts the lunates were the most numerous of the f laked tools. These were larger i n s ize than those found a t the Esh S haheinab s ite. This was also the case with the engraving tools although these were much more numerous a t the later Neolithic site. Grinders were present, these were mostly small a nd d iscoid of shape. The blade-technique was used, 1 6

mostly for backed tools and various other types of geometric tools. Most of the tools were made on f lakes, s imilar to the l ithic tools at Esh Shaheinab. However, it i s clear that the blade-technique was used more frequently at the o lder Early Khartoum s ite. The scrapers found at Early Khartoum were less abundant and more irregularly worked on than those recovered at later sites like Esh Shaheinab ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:25-26). The bone harpoons, often regarded a s the hallmark f or the Early Khartoum s ites, were grooved for the attachment of the line ( fish-hooks were not f ound ). The other diagnostic artefact f ound at Early Khartoum i s the Wavy Line type of decorated pottery. Contrary to the pots found at the later Neolithic Esh Shaheinab, s ites the pots were never burnished. The shape o f the pots, are open mouthed bowls with rounded bottoms, a nd there were mostly decorated a ll over the body. From the Early Khartoum site there were remains of wattle and daub, f rom house remains. There were burials where the body of the dead was buried within the settlement i n a c ontracted position, l ater when Arkell excavated Esh Shaheinab, he found no evidence f or burial. However Arkell s tates explicitly that he s ees the Esh Shaheinab people as descendants of the Early Khartoum people ( Arkell, A . J. 1 953:103). There i s a large timespan between the habitation of the Early Khartoum types of sites and the settlement of Esh Shaheinab. There i s, however,evidence of occupation o f the area in the between. This i s reflected on s ites having a s pecial type of pottery termed the Dotted Wavy L ine pottery. This type o f pottery makes i ts appearance i n the l ater swequence of the Early Khartoum s ite and i t i s always burnished which i s never the case with the Wavy L ine pottery. Arkell excavated one s ettlement ( the Qoz s ite) f urther to the s outh on the east bank of the White Nile. Here i t appeared very c learly that s tratigraphically the Dotted Wavy L ine pottery was l ater than the Wavy L ine and e arlier than the pottery of the E sh Shaheinab type. There were, however, no r adiocarbon dates f rom Dotted Wavy L ine types of s ites.

3 .2.

Esh Shaheinab.

The Esh Shaheinab s ite was the f irst s ettlement to be excavated in the Khartoum Nile environment which showed evidence o f a f ood-producing economy. The s ite is situated on the west bank of the Nile c . 5 0 kilometres north o f Omdurman ( see F ig. 5 b). It i s l ocated on an old river bank of the Nile, extending c . 2 00 metres a long the r idge bordered to the east by a narrow a lluvial plain. There were two r adiocarbon dates f rom the s ite, one on shell; 5 060±450 B . P. and one on charcoal; 5 446±380 B . P. ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:107). These two dates were s ome of the e arliest dates run by L ibby. The s tandard deviations were very high. Arkell argued

1 7

that the s ite was much older than what i s evident f rom the radiocarbon dates ( Arkell, A .J. 1 961:33), but i n his latest publication he accepted a date of around 5 300 B .P. ( Arkell, A .J. 1 975:28). Arkell interpreted the site as being inhabited permanently throughout the year, s ince he could not f ind any similar sites further away from the Nile. The o steological material recovered primarily came f rom wild species, with a very high frequency of f ish-remains. The importance of the aquatic resources were further i ndicated by the very numerous s hell remains found. The s pecies of wild fauna identified by Miss Bate ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:10-19), were predominantly from l arge animals, such as giraffe, kudu antelope, hippopotomus and buffalo. Two per cent of the osteological material came f rom domestic animals, that is from a small type of dwarf goat and possibly sheep, suggesting the minor importance of these domesticates. There are, however, no remains of domestic plants. In fact the plant remains found were very l imited, the only evidence comes f rom the oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis) and s eeds f rom the hackberry tree ( Celtis i ntegrefolia). These plants need much higher rainfall i n örder to ' grow than exists i n the areas today, i . e. at least 5 00 millimetres of yearly rain ( the rainfall today i s c . 1 65 millimetres). Based on the presence of these plant s pecies, the faunal and s hell material found, Arkell argued that the precipitation must be at least 5 00 millimetres during the t ime of occupation. Not only does Arkell suggest that the rainfall was actually higher, he a lso maintained that the Nile flowed c . 5 metres higher than today ( Arkell, A. J. 1 953:8), i .e. i n his view the Nile had f allen c . 5 metres between the o ccupation of the Early Khartoum and when the Esh Shaheinab s ite was i nhabited. The importance of the aquatic resources were also reflected in the composition of the tools i .e. tools l ike shell fishhooks and bone harpoons were very numerous ( the harpoon s howed perforation for the a ttachment of the f ish l ine). The most f requent of the l ithic tools were the lunates. Aside from engraving tools ( borers) there were f ew s tandardized tools, primarily scrapers. One type of tool which was both f laked and polished, usually only partly on one side, was the gouge. This tool has been used a s the hallmark of the Neolithic sites in the area ( Arkell, A. J. 1 949:93). ( Fig. 5b shows the Neolithic s ites in the Khartoum environment). He i nterpreted the function of the tools to have mainly been for boat making. In terms of polished tools, grinders were f requent, but these were mostly small grinders, the large s addle querns were f ew ( only 3 6 fragments were recovered Arkell 1 953:31). Arkell first interpreted their function to have been s olely for the grinding of red and yellow ochre ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:42), later however he admitted that they were

1 8

probably 1 975:28).

also

used

for

grinding

grain

( Arkell,

A .J.

The pottery found on the s ite had the same s hape a s those f ound at Early Khartoum i . e., open bowls with rounded bottoms, some of them very large and a ll s howing traces of burnishing. Most of them are decorated, f requently with the s errated edge of a shell or with the s pine of f ish. Arkell a rgues that Esh Shaheinab pottery represents a development from the local tradition a s manifested on the Early Khartoum s ite.

3 .3.

Arkell's

culture

historical

i nterpretation.

The cultural s equence i n the Nile environment is thus seen by Arkell mainly as a local development ( Arkell, A .J . 1953: 104-5), although considerably i nfluenced f rom the west, immigration of people f rom the northern part of Tibesti. The data he used to support the theory of a migration f rom the west i s the presence a t Esh Shaheinab of amazonite s tone, a material primar ily used for beadmaking. The amazonite rawmaterial i s f ound i n the Eghei Z umma mountain of Tibesti. Arkell furthermore suggests that the dwarf goat found a t Esh S haheinab i s s imilar to the dwarf goat l iving i n Algeria today. He i ndicates that the dwarf goat found a t Esh Shaheinab might have come to the Nile valley from Algeria via Tibesti ( Arkell, A . J. 1 953: 104.5). The movement of people he tries to relate to the changes towards a drier climate, a change which forced the people to move towards the Nile. He also relates certain f eatures i n the Esh Shaheinab to the Fayum s ite i n northern part of Egypt dated to c . 6 100 B .P. ( Arkell, A . J. 1 953:104). Despite these possible connections to s ites i n a wider continental context Arkell sees the Khartoum Neolithic s ites a s being l imited to the Nile valley only, mainly between the s ixth Cataract in the north and the Jebel Aulia dam i n the south ( see map i n Arkell, J .J. 1 953:Fig. 5 7). The Early Khartoum types of s ites have a much wider distribution not only i n the Nile valley but a cross the Sahara and Sub-Saharan Africa a s well ( Arkell, A .J. 1 949:101).

3 .4.

Sutton's

hypothesies

a bout

" aquatic

civilization".

The wide d istribution of the Early Khartoum type of s ites has been further d iscussed by Sutton who argues that the diagnostic types; Wavy Line pottery and bone harpoons are f ound s pread a cross Middle-Africa f rom the Rift valley to west Africa ( usually the two traits a ppear together but not a lways). These s ites are quite uniform i n material i nventory and generally a ssociated with exploitation of aquatic resources ( Fig. 3a). This i s the background for labeling these s ites the " aquatic

1 9

civilization". This aquatic way of life, with an emphasise on f ishing was well established by the s eventh millenium B . C. By the late s ixth and f ifth millenia B . C. the cultural i nventory associated with this aquatic civilization becomes e laborated at the same time as a wider range of cultural differentiation emerges between sites located within this wide geografphical area. According to Sutton this was due to climatic deterioration and the spread of pastoralisme as a new basis of subsistence ( Sutton, J .E. G. 1 974:527-547). Many aspects of the argument put f orward by Sutton can be criticized, especially the term " aquatic c ivilization" and his underlining of the uniformity of the material cultures, spread geographically over s uch a wide area. It was probably much more diversified both in term of adaptation and material culture, than the picture he presents. However the most interesting point of view that Sutton makes is that the prehistoric distribution of the culture pattern associated with the aquatic civilization' correlates with the present day distribution of a group of related languages, the socalled Nilo-Saharan l anguage group. Since these related languages must necessarily have a culture-history connection, he suggests that this goes back to the expansion of people in this aquatic adaptation. He does not, however, have any opinion about the core area this population expanded from ( Sutton 1 974). These works by Arkell and Sutton were most i mportant in terms of influencing the picture I had of the Nile valley and the culture history of the savannahbelt when I started my work in 1 975 and joined the Polish expedition at Kadero.

3 .5.

Later work

in the Khartoum area.

After Arkell excavated the Esh Shaheinab s ite i n 1 949, no archaeological f ieldwork was carried out on prehistoric sites in the Khartoum Nile environment before 1 970. Since then several archaeological expeditions have undertaken excavations which have increased our knowledge of the Mesolithic period. Archaeologists f rom the University of Rome excavated the Saggai s ite, located on the east bank of the Nile just north of Khartoum. The findings and interpretations are published by I sabella Caneva ( Caneva 1 983). For the f irst time radiocarbon dates became available from a mesolithic settlement. They were as follows: 7 230±100 B . P. ( T-5024), 7 410±100 B . P. ( T-5025), 7 250±110 B . P. ( T-5026), and 7 230±110 B . P. ( T-5027), ( Caneva, I . 1 983:152). On the basis of the material Caneva suggests that the Early Khartoum cultural tradition l asted f or C . 2 000 years. It should be mentioned that one date of Nile Oyster gave a date to 1 0060±150 B . P. Caneva however, thinks this i s f ar too early and that the shell dated was an o ld intrusive,

2 0

probably later used as a pottery comb ( Caneva, I . 1 983:140). Gautier who has analyzed the f auna material, e stimates the r ainfall to have been 5 00 millimetres yearly, which i s much l ess than e stimated by Arkell, but still higher than today. The main economic a ctivity was the s ame a s f or Khartoum Hospital S ite, exploitation of aquatic r esources. hunting, especially of antelope, and some gathering. He s ees the S aggai s ite a s e ither permanently occupied or only s easonally i nhabited during the dry season, with people dispersing i n the hinterland during the wet s eason. The f inds of marine shells f rom the Red Sea C oast i s f or him an i ndicator to the groups being mobile ( Gautier, A : 1 983:110-111). The cultural material f ound a t S aggai i s very s imilar t o what was found at the Khartoum Hospital s ite. Alltogether 6 burials were recovered with the body i n a contracted position and with no grave goods ( except s ome shells). The pottery i s very s imilar, a llthough Wavy L ine type of decoration s eems l ess f requent at S aggai. Based on the differences in frequency distribution Caneva suggests that the Saggai site was probably slightly older ( Caneva, I . 1 983:189). The lithic material a lso c onfirms the s imilarities, and the higher index for microlithic tools i s seen as a further support for Saggai being older ( Caneva and Z arratini 1 983:209-233). Abbas Mohamed Al 's excavation of the Sorourab I s ite o n the west bank o f the Nile yielded material which s eems to be consistent with this picture. Caneva i s however very cautious when discussing the wide geographical distribution of the Early Khartoum type of artefacts. such as the pottery and harpoons. She thinks these artefacts show great varieties within the different geographical r egions. Based on these observations she will only suggest that there has been contact but s tates " That the nature, the s hape and the i ntensity of these contact have yet to be defined ( Caneva, 1 . 1 983:269). Another i mportant contribution to our understanding of Early Khartoum types of s ite, was made by Desmond Clark which excavated the Shabona s ite l ocated c . 8 0 kilometres s outh of Khartoum, on the e ast bank of the White Nile. The material f rom this s ite i s consistent with the picture which we have f rom the Khartoum area i .e. l arge r iverside s ettlement, where the people l ived by hunting, f ishing and collecting plants and one 1 4Cdate of 7050±120 B . P. indicate very c learly the s ame time of occupation ( Clark, J . D. 1 984). In this context Clark discusses the absence o f s ites during the l ate P leistocene period i n C entral Sudan and s uggests that this might have been due to unfavorable settlement conditions, l ike swamps. During the early Holocene, he claims that the paleoenvironment changed to f orest and open grassland s avannah. I t i s during this period that the Early Khartoum types of s ettlements occur. He thus argues that the Early Khartoum complex appears to have

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no imidiate archaeological antecendents i n Central S udan and must have arrived f rom the outside. Allthough he discusses the wide geographical d istribution o f these types of s ites f rom Hoggar i n the west to Lake Turkana in the south-east, he does not suggest any a rea o f origin ( Clark, J .D. 1 984:115-119). More recent archaeological i nvestigations on Neolithic s ites s tarted i n 1 971 by Lech Krzyzaniak f rom the P olish Centre Mediterranean archaeology in Cairo. In this context only a brief discussion on Krzyzaniak 's main view i n relating the Kadero I s ite to the Esh Shaheinab site will be discussed. Krzyzaniak s ees the K adero I s ite a s contemporary with the E sh Shaheinab s ite, even though the material evidence i ndicated that the K adero I i nhabitants had a more developed f ood-producing e conomy, with the main emphasis on domestic animals l ike c attle. When comparing the two sites Krzyzaniak s ees them a s exemplifying contemporaneous groups with different ecological adaptations ( Krzyzaniak, L . 1 978:158:171). Another Neolithic s ite l ocated f urhter to the n orth on the east bank of the Nile i s Geili which has been excavated by S . M. Puglizi f rom University of Rome s ince 1 978. I t appears that the pottery f ound a t E l G eili i s of the Khartoum Neolithic tradition. The l ithic material consists of gouges, l unates, engraving t ools, s crapers and various types of ground and polished tools ( Caneva, I . 1 984). In terms o f economic adaptations, the excavator sees fishing as the most important resource, supplemented by s ome hunting and the k eeping of domestic animals, such as sheep/goat and cattle. The grinding equipment i s i nterpreted a s used f or grinding pigment and probably wild s eeds. There i s no evidence of domesticated plants. Unfortunately, there a re no radiocarbon dates from the s ite. North of the S ixth Cataract area, archaeological f ieldwork has been c arried out at Kadada i n the Shendi area by the French Archaeological Research unit since 1 976. There are two 1 4C dates f rom the s ite on s hell material: 4 630±80 B .P. and 4 790±110 B . P. This site thus s eems younger than the Khartoum Neolithic s ites discussed above. The pottery material recovered supports this impression. The excavator, F . Geus, suggests that the pottery i s r elated to the A-group and Kerma cultures of Nubia ( Geus, F . 1 979 and 1 985). There seems to be s ome s imilarities between the pottery recovered at Kadada and the Khartoum Neolithic pottery. The l ithic material however, i s more or l ess the s ame except f or the a bsence of gouges. I t should also be mentioned that amazonite beads were f ound, s imilar to those f ound a t E sh Shaheinab ( Geus, F . 1 980:44). Shell f ish-hooks and harpoons were recovered. The late date o f the s ite i s r ather i nteresting s ince the latest date f or any of the Neolithic s ites i n the Khartoum area i s c . 5 000 B .P. There i s a lso o ne data f rom the s ixth millenium B .P. ( 5170±110 B . P.) ( Geus, F . 1 985). The next o ccupation period s eems to be f rom the Meroitic period about 2000 years later. Another Neolithic site i s surveyed just south of Kadada ( el

Ghaba). The pottery i ndicated greater affinities with the Khartoum Neolithic tradition ( Geus, F . 1 979:20).

3 .6.

Archaeological work i n the Butana.

The excavations i n the Khartoum area i n the 1 970 i es had made us aware of new problem complexes i the Nile valley ( Haaland 1 981 and Marks et a l. 1 985). F irst o f a ll the Khartoum Neolithic tradition did not s eem to last more than 600 years. According to Marks e t a l. this implied an almost 2000 years hiatus between the Khartoum Neolithic tradition and the Mesolithic. I f s uch a l ong chronlogical gap existed i t would have been surprising that there was s o many s imilarities i n the ceramic. A similar problem which emerged was another hiatus i n the archaeological material between the Khartoum Neolithic and the manifistation of the next archaeol ogical tradition, which occur with Meroitic occupation c . 2500 B . P. ( The Kadada site mentioned above may however indicate that further excavation could yield material which may bridge this gap). Marks et a l argues that this apparent occupational gap in the l ate Neolithic, may in part be the result of traditional geographic f ocus o f archaeologcial i nvestigations which was l imited to the Nile valley. The latest work i n the Butana area, expecially the excavation of the Shagadud site complex has to s ome extent confirmed this i nterpretation. The Shagadud s ite i s l ocated c . 5 0 kilometres east of the Nile c lose to a dried out wadi ( Marks et a l. 1 985:fig.3:264). The complex consits of a cave with an outside midden. The cultural debris i s i n s ome areas more than 3 metres deep and the archaeological material shows a sequence of Early Khartoum type o f artefacts dated to 7 369±393 B . P. which very gradually changed i nto Khartoum Neolithic a ssemblages. I t i s very interesting to note that the Early Khartoum like assemblages lasted to 5 770 B . P. which indicate that there may not be a significant occupational hiatus between Early Khartoum and Khartoum Neolithic ( Marks e t a l. 1 985:262). The adaptation of the people occupying Shagadud was a pparently based on hunting and gathering. Even during Neolithic phase there does not s eem to be evidence for domestic animals untill the end o f the o ccupation c .4000±3600 B . P. ( Marks et a l. 1 985). They f ind this very puzzeling, s ince herding i s well e stabli shed i n the central Nile valley of Sudan at s ites s uch as Kadero I where c . 80 per cent of the o steological material identified, i s f rom l ivestock. They suggest that domestic animals might have been kept f or o ther purposes than meat e . g. milk and that the i nhabitants mainly c onsumed meat f rom the animals they hunted ( Marks e t a l. 1 985:272). A main point i n their discussion o f the Shagadud material, i s that i t i ndicate cultural d iff ernces between the Nile valley and the Butana, during the Khartoum Neolithic and l ater periods. The argument

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for this i s the absence of gouge, adzes, bonecelts and larger lunats, these are claimed to be the characteri stic tools i n the central Nile valley of Sudan ( Mark, et al. 1985). However they classify the pottery material to be part of the Khartoum Neolithic tradition. As s tated earlier the gouges was by Arkell s een a s the type artefact for the Khartoum Neolithic tradition, he sometimes called i t the gouge culture ( Arkell 1 953:) I t s hould be mentioned here that these tools are a ctually not characteristic for the Central Nile valley of Sudan, but only for a geographically, very l imited a rea; that i s between Sabaloka ( Sixth Cataract area) and the Jebel Aulia. These points will be d iscussed i n Chapter 1 3. Marks et a l. underline very strongly the differences between the Shagadud and the Nile valley, for the later periods i .e. the end of the 5 th to the beginning of the 4 th millenium B .P., a s regards the pottery ( Marks e t al. 1 985). They s ee the Shagadud s ite, a s basically part of an eastern Sudanese cultural tradition and argue that there i s an ecological unity of the grassland which s tretches a cross the Butana east to the Eritrean hills a t t he Ethiopian border. The picture they present is thus that from the mid-Holocene we f ind people i n two d ifferent ecological niches, one based on exploitation of the resources of the riveraine environment and one based on the resources of the savannah grassland. I t i s also claimed that the archaeological material i ndicate that the people in the two niches, belonged to two different cultural traditions. In the a rchaeological record f rom the later Neolithic period, Marks et al. consi der the Nile valley as marginal to cultural development ( Marks et al. 1 985:272), in the Butana during this period.

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4 . HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION AND EXCAVATION AND EXCAVATION STRATEGY.

The work av the different archaeologists which have done f ieldwork in the Nile Valley i llustrate i n many respects the i nterdependence between the detailed s ite analysis and broad inferences which I have argued i s essential in archaeological i nvestigations. I t was o n the background on s uch a perspective that I designed my own excavation strategy. Instead of s electing s ites r andomly I have tried to choose s ites f or excavation wh ere I had good r eason to believe that they might yield material of s ignificance f or testing general hypothesis or " pictures" presented by other archaeologists a s well as by myself. I consider this purposeful s earch for evidence which may challenge such general f ormulations, the most efficient way of s timulating development of gradually more realistic understanding of the prehistoric processes. During the excavations i n the Nile valley we have thus been confronted with material which have f orced u s to review our i nterpretation of cultural development i n the region. I t should be emphasized, however, that a lthough the sites were selected in relation to a hypothesis about human adaptions i n the Nile environment, the excavations yeilded material important for our understanding o f other a spects of prehistoric activities. These a spects will a lso be discussed, but s ince the main f ocus of the i nvestigations has been directed towards human adaptations, I find i t necessary to explain more c losely the relationship between my development of hypothesis f ormulations and the s election of s ites.

4 .1.

Kadero I .

The excavation o f this s ite began i n 1 971 under the direction of L ech Krzyzaniak ( from the P olish C enter o f Mediterranean achaeology i n Cairo). I participated a s a member of the Polish expedition f or the two s easons o f 1 975-76. Osteological material from the site provided evidence of the i mportance of domestic animals ( mainly cattle) i n the adaptation of the Kadero people. So f ar this i s the earliest evidence from the central Nile valley containing remains of domestic cattle ( the two r adiocarbon dates f rom Kadero I were a s f ollows: 5 700± 1 00,5470±70 B .P., corrected f or i sotopic f ractination 1 3 C , the dates published e arlier have not been corrected ( Haaland 1 980, 1 981 a , 1 981 b ). Hunting s eems to

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have played a minor role i n their subsistence. There were hardly any f ish remains to i ndicate that aquatic resources in the Nile had been exploited. This was a lso reflected i n the absence of tools s uch a s f ishhooks and harpoons ( see Krzyzaniak, L . 1 978:165). The material remains a lso i ndicated that the people made extensive u se of ground grain. I hypothezised that the people had s tarted to cultivate sorghum ( Haaland, R . 1981 a , b). The site was s ituated within the area where one would expect domestication to have s tarted ( wild varieties of s orghum grow i n this area) and a lso roughly within the t ime-period one would expect this to have taken place. This interpretation based on the presence of the f ollowing material: a ) 2 s eed-imprints on pottery of sorghum, b ) the grinding-equipment which was extre mely plentiful on the s ite. Furthermore, the plain around the Kadero s ite would have been s uitable for the cultivation of sorghum in the rainy s eason. The occupation of the s ite during the rainy s eason was a lso i ndicated by the many f inds of Celtis i ntegrefolia ( hackberry) which ripens during the rainy s eason i n August - S eptember. From the data available i t thus seemed that cultivation and animal husbandry were important in the subsistence of the Kadero I people. However, while the location of the s ite on the a lluvial silt and clay plain was excellent for agriculture, i t was probably not the best locality for animal husbandry in the dry season, since the Nile would then have r eceeded to i ts main course c . 3 kilometres away. Dry s eason s ites would therefore probably be l imited to the banks of the low Nile. I thus expected that the availability of both pasture and water would favour movements of cattle f rom Kadero I , to camps closer to the dry season course of the Nile. Accordingly, I i nterpreted Kadero I , a s a base s ite, occupied during the rainy s eason where they kept the main cattle herds a nd cultivated. In the dry season I expected the people to split up into different smaller herding camps and moved closer to the Nile. I also hypothesized that these herding camps were used for f ishing activities, since I found i t rather surprising that there were hardly any i ndications that f ish had been exploited a t Kadero I . Working on the a ssumption that plant-domestication i n this environment had s tarted because of pressure on the resources ( Clark, J .D. 1 976:85), and on the basis of evidence for a bundant aquatic resources ( Arkell, A. J. 1949: 16), I formulated the hypothesis that people o ccupying dry s eason herding camps on the Nile must a lso have practised fishing. If this interpretation was right, one would expect that the people who inhabitied the Kadero I s ite i n the rainy s eason, occupied another s ite i n an e cological zone closer to the Nile i n the dry s eason.

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4 .1.1.Zakiab. On the basis of this interpretation the Z akiab s ite was s elected for excavation ( Fig. 5 shows the sites excavated and surveyed). The s ite was located on an old r iverbank and closer to the Nile. From the surface material i t s eemed to be f rom the same period s ince the pottery f rom the two s ites was s imilar. The hypothesis was thus that the material which reflected seasonally specific activities woul d be d ifferent on the two s ites e .g. cultivation of sorghum a t Kadero reflected in the numerous grindstones, and the exploitation of aquatic resources a t Zakiab reflected i n the f ishing tools. I expected the s ites to be s imilar with regard to material which related to activities performed during the whole year, such as animal husbandry and different with regard to material which related to s easonal s pecific a ctivities. On the basis of comparative ethnographical material I argued that convex s crapers could be a ssociated with pastoral production ( Haaland, R . 1 981 a , b ). One should therefore expect the same d istribution of scrapers on both the Kadero I site and the Zakiab site. On the other hand, I expected that material indicating the exploitation of aquatic resources would be high, and that t he f requency of material a ssociated with plantexploitation l ike grindstones would be much smaller than a t Kadero I . The excavation of the Zakiab site yielded the following material and results: The s ite was small, c . 2 000 square metres compared with Kadero I which is c . 30.000 square metres. It was s ituated on an old bank of the r iver Nile. The distance to the river i s today about 3 kilometres. When the s ite was o ccupied, however, the river was f lowing near by the s ite. An analysis of the osteological material was done by Ali Tigani el Mahi. According to his information, i t showe d that bones from fish were dominant ( mainly l ungfish) a nd molluscs, such a s Pila and Nile Oyster. The importance of aquatic resources was a lso reflected in s everal f inds of fish-hooks ( both finishe d and unfinished) besides fragments of boneharpoons ( of a s imilar type to those found a t Esh Shaheinab). There were also bones from domesticated animals, mainly cattle, but a lso sheep and goats, plus a wide range of various bones of wild animals. This material supported the hypothesis that Zakiab was a small f ishing and herding camp, probably i nhabited during the d ry s eason. The dry s eason would have been the optimal period for the exploitation of the aquatic resources when the water i n the Nile s tarted to fall and l eft small l agoons and pools s urrounding the site, in which the f ish would have been easy to catch. The l ithic tools a t Zakiab were of the same type a s those found a t Kadero I . There were, however, noticable

2 7

d ifferences i n the f requency distribution of grind stones, which are very scarce at Zakiab. The low f requency of grindstones was consistent with my e xpectations that cultivation would not have taken p lace around the s ite. The s crapers f ound at Kadero I and Z akiab were of a similar type, both as regards form and utility wear. This type i s s till used among the Wollamo tribe of Ethiopia for scraping animal hides. Based on ethnographical observations of this tribe, I made the tentative conclusion that the scrapers at these two sites were also used for scraping hides. While the presence of s crapers a llows us to i dentify the a ctivity of hide preparation, different frequencies of this artefact type may point to further differences in activities. I n a pastoral economy where people have to move long distances away f rom permanent water s upply, hide containers made for transport of water l ike the containers ( girba i n Arabic) used i n the northern Sudan today, would have had obvious advantages compared with breakable containers. One would thus expect that the migratory movements of pastoral groups i n this environment and the increased need for hide containers f or water to human and animal comsuption, would imply more use of s crapers f or hide preparation than the case would have been i f animal husbandry had been absent. My hypothesis was thus that the high f requency o f s crapers actually reflected the i mportance o f a pastoral production. The pottery on the Z akiab s ite was s imilar to the material found at Kadero I both in terms of s urface treatment ( all sherds being burnished) and decoration ( vees/dots being dominant). Samples of s herds f rom the two sites were analysed by Hans Ake Nordstrom in Stockholm, and according to this report, the c lay, temper and f iring were s imilar. He r elated both s amples to the Khartoum Neolithic tradition ( as represented by the type s ite Esh Shaheinab). A preliminary analysis of part of the Z akiab material did not show any sherds of the Dotted Wavy L ine decoration and I took this a s an indication that these s ites were younger than the E sh Shaheinab s ite. I a lso suggested that tools related to pottery-maing, such a s burnishers, equipment used f or decoration ( shells with s errated edges) and red ochre f or colouring o f the pots were a bsent at Z akiab, while there was c lear evidence f or these types of artefacts a t Kadero I . I thus suggested that the pots were made a t the base s ite Kadero I and brought to the Z akiab s ite when needed i n the dry s eason. Another indication of Kadero I being a base s ite were the many burials surrounding the s ite, while no burials contemporary with the Neolithic s ettlement were f ound a t Z akiab. Two samples of shells from Nile oyster were processed by Laboratoriet f or Radiologisk Datering i n Trondheim, Norway, and yielded the f ollowing dates: 5 660±80 ( T-2818), 5 970±80 ( T-3050) B . P. With the two dates a lso on s hell f rom Kadero I i n mind: 5 700±100 ( T-

28

2 188) and 5 460±70 ( T-2189) B . P., i t thus appeared that the two s ites were more or l ess contemporary. The s ignificance of the material produced f rom the excavation a t Z akiab, was that i t had to a l arge extent supported the preliminary hypothesis put forward regarding the site as a dry season spesial activity site, occupied for f ishing and herding activities and related to the base s ite Kadero I . However, the Z akiab material had made me aware o f the importance of animal husbandry i n the adaptation of the populations i n the Nile environment. Reflections on the requirements of animals i n the Nile environment made i t necessary partially to modify the original hyothesis that Kadero I was the rainy season base site. The general adaptive pattern was thus reconstructed as f ollows: 5 s ets o f resources were regarded a s i mportant i n the adaptation of the Kadero people ( the i nhabitants of Z akiab were i nterpreted a s belonging to the s ame group of people): animal husbandry gathering cultivation f ishing hunting When choosing the s ites the optimal o pportunities f or the exploitation of these s ets of resources had to be taken into consideration. Kadero I would have been optimal for cultivation in the r ainy s eason when the plain surrounding the s ite was partly i nundated by the f looded Nile. In this s eason one would expect the s ite to have been s warming with i nsects due to the surrounding water. The original hypothesis was therefore modified and i t was suggested that part of the group took the animal herds to smaller camps on the higher plateau further to the east in order to avoid the insects. Furthermore, I expected that these animals were taken back to the Kadero I site for butchering ( this was i ndicated by the numerous bones f rom cattle a t Kadero I ). Only a new survey i n the area c ould test this proposition c oncerning the rainy s eason c amps i n the east. The majority of the Kadero I people was expected to have stayed at Kadero I f or cultivation; these activities required the most heavy l abour i nput s pecially i n t erms of weeding. Herding o f the animals would have been a relatively easy task during this part of the year when both pasture and water were abundant. I further more assumed that only part of the population inhabited the Kadero I s ite during the dry season. This was i ndicated by the many potters tools f ound at this s ite. I a ssumed that pots were mainly made during the dry s eason. The f ollowing e thnographic observations were used to support this hypothesis: Among the Fur tribe i n north-west Darfur ( an area which has about the s ame amount of yearly r ain a s the Khartoum

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area had c . 5 000 years ago) pot-making i s still maintained as a traditional task for women. Pot-making i s mainly limited to the dry season a ) because it i s difficult to dry and f ire the pots during the r ains, and b ) the women are a lso cultivating, and consequently this l abour demanding task does not l eave much spare t ime to make pots during this s eason. In the dry s eason I thus expected the group to have s plit up and moved to camps c loser to the Nile ( Zakiab was such a s ite, bur more s ites o f a s imilar type were probably located in this area). Although the main determinants for their movements would have been the availability of pasture and water, but in choosing camps, the opportunities f or f ishing were probably a lso taken into consideration. I s ummarized this adaptive pattern as f ollows i n D iagram 3 below.

4 .1.2.

Kadero

I I.

I n order to test my hypothesis about the s easonal activities at Kadero I , another s ite, Kadero I I i n the s ame microenvironment 6 00 metres s outh-east of the f irst s ite, was excavated. The dating 5 670±60 B . P. ( T-3260) and the f requency d istribution o f artefacts ( especially the high numbers of grinders), g ave the s ame results a s Kadero I . The s ite was, however, too eroded to make i t worthwhile to excavate more than the one square, 2 x2 metres, i t was therefore difficult to test the wider r ange of activities performed on the s ite. Taking the l imited s cale of the excavation i nto account, the s ite f urther s ubstantiated my hypothesis.

4 .1.3.

Hatab.

The critical e lement i n the argument was, however, the r ainy s eason migrations to the eastern plateau. I n order to test this hypothesis, a s urvey was undertaken i n 1 979 on the higher plateau to the east of the p lain. It should be emphazised that the chances of f inding remains of prehistoric migratory settlements were extremely small, a s any one f amiliar with contemporary nomadic people i n this type o f e nvironment can t estify. One such site however was found. I t was only a f ew square metres i n extent and c onsisted of a f ew f lakes and one convex s craper, a s e arlier mentioned a tool type sees as diagnostic f or s ites with herding activities. No material was f ound which could date the s ite. I t c an therefore only be used a s i ndicative evidence f or such act ivites . The hypothesis about the rainy season migration i s thus not contradicted a lthough i t i s onnly weakly s upported by the evidence f ound. 4 .1.4. In

Survey of Neolithic s ites. order

to

f urther

test

3 0

the hypothesis

about base

s ites being l ocated i n a s pesific micro-environment, two s ites on the p lain s outh of Kadero I and I I i n a pproximately the s ame distance were surveyed. Um D ireiwa I and I I ( see F ig. 5 ). Material indicating that both sites actually had been used a s base s ites s imilar to Kadero I and I I, were a s f ollows: a ) the extent o f the s ites were l arge. b ) numerous grinders were f ound on the surface. Another s ite, Z akiab I I, was f ound north of Kadero I , but seemed to have had a mixed settlement debris consisting of both Neolithic s ites and l ater Meroitic r emains. The s ite was a lso badly deflated, the material i s therefore difficult to use either to support or f alsify my argument, but i t does show that the s ite was i nhabited during the period concerned. As regards excavations o f f urther dry s eason s ites near the Nile, I expected that the chances of f inding such camps were very small f or the f ollowing reasons: a ) frequent movements would leave very little cultural debris, except for Zakiab which had a favourable position on an o ld r iverbank of the Nile ( similar to the debbas in the s outhern Sudan), b ) the Nile would have f looded the area i n the rainy s eason and thus eroded the s ites. Z akiab was the only dry s eason camp s ite f ound and was thus seen as a type site as regards dry season a ctivities related to herding and f ishing. I would not postulate that the Kadero I people necesarily moved to the Zakiab site, but rather that they and the people from the micro-environment of the rainy season base s ites moved i n a micro-environment s imilar to Z akiab.

4 .1.5.

Comparison with Esh Shaheinab.

This reconstruction o f human adaptation based on material from the s ites mentioned here, posed a problem i n relationship to material f rom the Esh Shaheinab s ite, excavated by A .J. Arkell i n 1 949. The s ite i s r eferred to as the c lassical Neolithic s ite i n the area. I t i s located on the west bank of the Nile, i n a r iveraine environment s imilar to Zakiab. The material f ound indicated, however, that the economic activites were different from those of Zakiab. Near absence of domesticated animals indicated that animal husbandry played virtually no r ole i n the adaptation of the E sh Shaheinab people. Osteological material showed that both big game and remains from large f ishes, were i mportant in the economy of the i nhabitants. The radiocarbon dates f rom the s ite 5 060±450 and 5 446±380 B . P. ( Libby 7 53, 7 54) showed a high s tandard deviation, and had been subject to much controversy. The f irst hypothesis was that given the high s tandard deviation, the Esh Shaheinab s ite represented an e arlier phase of Neolithic cultural development in the Nile valley.

3 1

This interpretation was based on the f ollowing material: the pottery ( even i f there was great s imilarities between the eastern and western bank ), s howed a f ew elements of older types. Furthermore, the small percentage of domestic animals i ndicated that the people had just s tarted on the r oad to domestication. To test this, one square 2 x2 metres was excavated on the Esh Shaheinab s ite to collect material to r edate the site. Material f or two r adiocarbon dates yielded the f ollowing results: Layer I : 5 650±60 B .P. ( T-3222) Layer V : 5 720±80 B .P. ( T-3223) These dates more or l ess c onfirmed Arkell's dates and weakened my hypothesis that the sites reflected different historical periods and different evolutionary phases. However, the material inventory f rom the excavated square was partially different from what Arkell found during his excavation, and this might indicate that the s ample taken f or dating came f rom a later phase than the material r epresented i n Arkell's investigations. However, the new excavated material from Esh Shaheinab had thus raised s everal new questions. D id i t represent a group o f people i n a d ifferent adaptation, contemporary with the Kadero I people, or had the s ite been occupied over a long period o f t ime, where Arkell' s excavation and my own represented different s ettlement phases? What was the importance o f animal husbandry at E sh Shaheinab? New f ieldwork was done i n 1 980 to obtain material f rom different parts of the Esh Shaheinab s ite i n order to get material which could c larify these problems. A third 1 4C date of 5 550±90 B . P. ( T-3699) i ndicated very clearly the same time of occupation f or the Esh Shaheinab and the Kadero I sites. The analysis of the additional faunal remains recovered, showed that a larger emphasise than earlier assumed, was put on domestic animals ( Tigani e l Mahi 1 982). I t s eems that Bate wrongly had i dentified bones of domestic c attle a s wild buffalo ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953). The i dentification o f domestic cattle at Esh Shaheinab has l ater been c onf irmed by Gautier ( Gautier A . 1 983).

4 .1.6.

Excavation of Um D ireiwa I .

Um D ireiwa I was l ater s elected f or excavation to test the interpretation of the s ite being a base s ite and a lso to get more material to map the different types of activities performed on the s ite. ( The r eason f or choosing Um D ireiwa I and not Um D ireiwa I I, was that the l ast s ite was very badly eroded). This exavation s eemed necessary s ince only l ithic material f rom the base s ite Kadero I was available to me, while the remaining

3 2

material, ceramics, osteological material and plant r emains were a nalysed i n Poland. Furthermore a detailed analysis of the material from Zakiab had shown that there was material which i ndicated pottery to have been produced a t the dry s eason camp ( Zakiab). My a ssumption that pottery production was restricted to the base s ite only, was thus fallsified. Pottery had been produced on both s ides, but with the main emphasis on pottery-making at Kadero I . The analysis of the l ithic material gave evidence which showed that flaking debris was extremely numerous a t Zakiab compared with the Kadero I s ite. The preliminary hypothesis which then n eeded to be t ested were a s follows: The d ry s eason herding and f ishing camps were a lso the sites on which the main production of l ithic material took place. The dry s eason when the Nile was l ow would have been the optimal time of the year to move by boat on the Nile to collect raw-material from the Sixth Cataract area, where a large part of the raw-material f or production of l ithic material was located. Consequently, I expected the material f rom Um Direiwa I to contain a ) l arge amounts of pottery material, b ) high f requency of g rinding equipment, c ) a low frequency of d ebris f rom f laking, d ) remains of animal husbandry, e ) while the remains of aquatic resources were expected to have been l ow. Material which had been collected for radiocarbon dating during the 1 979 survey showed that the Um Direiwa s ite was more or l ess contemporary with the Zakiab and Kadero I and I I s ites 5 280±/80 B .P. ( T-3261). The excavation of the Um Direiwa s ite yielded the following material and results: The site was large, c . 9 000 square metres, it was l ocated c . 7 kilometres away f rom the present flow of the Nile. The grinding equipment was extremely numerous ( one s quare 2 x2 metres contained more than 5000 fragments), showing the importance of ground grain i n the e conomy of the i nhabitants. Noticeable was the absence on this s ite a s well a s on the other Neolithic s ites i n the a rea, of s ickles or tools which could have been used for cutting grass/grain. Debris from l ithic f laking, such a s cores and f lakes, were i nfrequent, the l ithic tools present were of the s ame types a s f ound i n Zakiab and Kadero I , with a high f requency of convex s crapers. The f laked a rtefacts thus s eemed to confirm that the main bulk of these a ctivities took place on the dry s eason camps and not on the base sites. Furthermore, the correlation between s crapers and a pastoral production seemed substantiated, the o steological material showing the importance of domestic animals, mainly cattle, but a lso with some sheep/goats. ( Ali Tigani el Mahi personal communication). Some fish remains were found, but the aquatic resources seemed to have been of minor importance for the i nhabitants. This was a lso reflected i n the absence of tools for f ishing ( no f ish-hooks and only one broken harpoon were f ound). The pottery material was extremely

3 3

abundant ( belonging to the same tradition a s Kadero I , I I and Zakiab), thus confirming that even if some pottery making was maintained a t the dry season camp, the major part of the production was performed on the base s ite. No burials or graves were found which could have been contemporary with the s ettlement. This was surprising, s ince i t was expected that burials were to be found in a ssociation with the base s ite. This could, however, also be explained by the people in the area using the Kadero I location, a s the common burial ground ( Ali Tigani el Mahi personal communication). Thus the excavation of Um D ireiwa I supported the interpretation of seasonal movements between sites located in different micro-environment. It also indicated that the different activities performed on these s ites had a d ivision of labour based on s ex as the main criteria.

4 .1.7.

Archaeological

Work

a t

Rabak.

A picture of people i n a multi-resource adaptation in the Khartoum Nile environment semmed to be most consistent with the available a rchaeological evidence. However, this evidence posed s everal new problems. When placing the s ites i n the context of material f rom other s ites i n the Nile environment we have so far found no evidence f or human occupation between the end of the Khartoum Neolithic 5 000 B .P. and the Meroitic occupation c . two thousand years l ater. I t i s d ifficult to imagine a more clearcut d iscontinuity. It certainly is a discontinuity in site occupation, but this does not necessarily imply that the groups who carried the cultural tradition of Khartoum Neolithic d id not reproduce themselves. One may think of d ifferent ways i n which this cultural tradition could have been maintained and d eveloped despite absence of archaeological traces i n the Khartoum Nile area, e . g. change in settlement pattern associated with the development of n ew s ubsistence a ctivities, or migration to other areas sti mulated by climatic change, or pressure f rom competing groups. I f we l ook a t i t f rom this perspective, our s earch for continuity cannot be confined to the s tudy of the d istribution of archaeological inventory on a single s ite or within a local area, but one has to take into consideratiopn the d istribution of the material in a much larger f ramework of time and s pace. The original hypothesis ( Haaland, R . 1 981b: 5 3, 5 6) was that climatic d eterioration ( less rainfall altered the Khartoum area f rom a lush type of svannah vegetation to the semi-desert prevailing today. Since agropastoral a ctivities had been increasing during the 6 th millennium B .P., this change favoured migrations to the presumably wetter a reas further s outh. One d ifficulty with the hypothesis that climatic change was the major factor in the apparent depopulation of the Khartoum

3 4

a rea, was that the a rea was reoccupied almost 2 000 years l ater, during the s o-called Meroitic period. At the time there i s no botanical evidence s howing climatic improvement. Recent s tudies of paleo-botanical material also suggests that climatic deterioration took place 1 000 years later than I had assumed, i . e. c. 4000 B. P. ( Wickens, G . 1 982: 47). In that case my hypotheses a bout c limatic change a s a factor i n southwards movements was weakened. First, however, i t was necessary to s ee i f there was any evidence of such a movement a t a ll, no matter what factor caused i t. I n January/February 1 983 Ali Tigani el Mahi, Anwar M .Osman, and I , undertook s urvey and excavations i n the a rea between J ebel Tomat and Rabak ( Kosti) ( see map Fig. 1 ) in order to see if traces of a cultural tradition similar to what was found in the Khartoum area was maintained there after 5 000 B .P. The area s elected for fieldwork was located 2 35-185 kilometres south of Khartoum, an a rea which has s ubstantially more rainfall ( the amount of yearly rainfall today i s plotted on Fig. 6 ) The paleo-botanical material recovered from the Khartoum area indicated that the amount of yearly rainfall would have been ca. 5 00 millimetres in the 6 th millennium B .P. This i s more or l ess the same a s one f inds today i n the southern a rea of Kosti-Rabak, which was s elected f or archaeological excavation. Altogether 5 s ites were l ocated, but the arcaheological excavations were concentrated on the Rabak site, since the other s ites were badly disturbed by l ater agricultural a ctivities a nd roadbuilding. A preliminary analysis of the inventory of the Rabak s ite yielded the following material and results: The s ite i s l ocated on an old bank of the river Nile, and was o ccupied from 6 000 to 4500 B .P. The pottery material f rom the oldest l evels i s very s imilar to the Khartoum Neolithic a ssemblage, while the ceramics from the upper levels show affinities both to the older Khartoum tradition and s imilarities to the Jebel Moya tradition. The Jebel Moya site is located c . 40 kilometres east of Rabak and was excavated by Sir Henry Welcome i n the period 1 910-14. Lithic a rtefacts recoveres from the s ite are of the s ame type as found on the Khartoum Neolithic sites, except that gouges are lacking. The material f rom the s ite r eflects a ctivities s imilar to those that we have identified on s ites l ike Zakiab in the Khartoum area, i .e. exploitation of aquatic resources and hunting. There a re i ndication of domestic cattle at l evels dated to c .6000 B . P. ( Ali Tigani el Mahi personal communication). The excavation of Rabak seems to support the o riginal hypothesis that this a rea was o ccupied during part of the period when there was no s ettlements i n the Khartoum area.

3 5

4 .2.

Summary.

I have h ere tried to g ive a s ketchy outline o f the consideration which i nfluenced o ur excavation s trategy. These considerations basically g rew out of an a ttempt to reconstruct the ecological niche or niches, which supported the Neolithic people o f t he Nile valley a s well a s the conditions which over time affected the productivity o f this n iche ( niches). These i nvestigations reflect a continous p rocess of hypothesis f ormulation a nd a ccumulation of evidence. I have a ttempted to f ormulate s ome hypotheses which i n my opinion represent the most s atisfactory reconstruction of t he prehistoric reality of t he Nile valley which the present available material a llows. It is, however, expected t hat n ew evidence will s erve to draw a ttention to evidence which will not only s upport this i nterpretation, but a lso to evidence which may falsify i t, a nd thereby s timulate development o f more adequate recons tructions. In the following I shall describe and analyse the material inventory which this e xcavation s trategy produced.

D RY S EASON CAMPS

R i yer N ILE

R A I N Y5 S E A S Ö N D R Y E A S Ö N b a s e

Ird ng n 9

F ish

C Z A ( I A B 2

A n i m a l 1 t u s b a n c i ts c u l t i v a t i o n P a t -m a k . i n9o c t i v i t i e s R i t u a la c t i v i t i e s

D iagram

3

R A I N YS 5 o N C A M P S f t e r d i ng 2 0

> 2 0 zo

g .

5

K hartoum Neolithic

s ites

excavated and

s urveyed between

1 975-1980.

Mil es 1 4 —4 - —4— 1 2

2 3

3 4

5

4 6

5 4 7 8

Kil o m etr es

t i )

/

/

/•

/

. /

. / . . /

\ N. l .'` . . \ •

\

/

•

•

\

-) • , • \ • \ ' , . .• \ . \ \

.

• \

• / *

/• /

•

\

. \

•

/ •

/

• \ •

• -e \•\ . . . . . . . \ \ \• . i . . _ ..: •• , • . . . ( -, j — . 5 _ . ) \. ' ( e . • 1. , .

no

T

' 1

6(

0

x

F ig.12. Esh Shaheinab ( Map based on Arkell 1 953). The s haded squares excavated by author 1 9791 980.

;

0

0

0

«1 2

0

0 X 3

14 :

j u l

a

. -x 1. 0

J __

P J

. 0 _ L - 1- 1 -

-

0 0

C O

c o

t E S IM 79 6

c o

8

•

-

A .- 3g

z

0

-A

-c o

5 ,

5 4 d VW l i f lOINOD 7 0

r n

SN IVld 000 1A

Fig.

1 4.

a

g e f lOs e eeeeeee • • " .•

m e. S ee

3 cm

2 .

1 4 c

RA8 ,4 K

T EGN . L . 748eFox iz

/ 98` .

/ i / . 570 , 7/5/e A iusfak e ße7 eQe-W .

5 5

c m

5 6

T ec fr i ir 19-: E I I i ov

H o i c r

er

1

0

2 4

3 cm

5 - cm 4 3 2 10

0

1

gc m

2

5 7

I .

1

4 7 , a 2 ( ) n oun \ f i o0

•.. a, • • -; • 11 •

e i

r » .e ;& " . .' . : • ;:j . . . . 1 • :, : • • • • • e . 3 7:

"

• •

••

Al • 1 7 . •

J r . , • •

•• d i

• •

• .

r n

9

? I Te _gn EI h nor H of f1 9 67

H ist or isk M useum

58

6 .

From

the

sites

RADICARBON DATES

excavated

in

the

Khartoum

samples have been radiocarbon dated.

6 .1.

Radiocarbon dates

Nile

environment

The dates were as

1 3

f ollows:

from the East Bank of the Nile.

Zakiab 5 660±80

B . P.

( T-2818,

MASCA calibrated to

obtained

from

square

4530±70

1 02x/98y

c .

B . C.) 1 5

( sample

centimetres

below surface.

5 970±80

B . P.

( T-3050, ( sample

MASCA

calibrated

obtained

from

to

4850±160

square

102x/102y

B . C.) c .

3 5

centimetres below surface).

Kadero I 5 460±70

B . P.

( T-2189, obtained

MASCA calibrated to from

square

C-15

4 380±50 c .

B .C.)

8-10

( sample

centimetres

below surface).

5 700±100

B . P.

( T-2188, obtained

MASCA calibrated to from

square

C-12

4 555±85 c .

B .C.)

8-10

( sample

centimeters

below surface).

Kadero I I 5 670±60

B . P.

( T-3260, taken

Um Direiwa 5 280+80

MASCA

calibrated

4 535±55

B .C.)

( samle

from test pit.

I

B . P.

( T-3261,

MASCA

( Sample obtained

5 600±110

to

B . P.

( T-4045, obtained

calibrated

4165+165

B . C.)

from test pit.

MASCA calibrated to from

to

square

below surface).

5 9

4 485±85

1 04x/100y

c .

B . C.) 1 5

( sample

centimetres

6 010±90

B . P.

( T-3697, ( sample

MASCA

calibrated

obtained

from

to

square

4920±130

B . C.)

104x/168y

C .

45

centimetres below surface).

Um Direiwa 5 000±300

I I

B . P.

( T-3698, ( sample

MASCA

calibrated

obtained

from

to

testpit

3800±390

c .

5 -10

B . C.)

centimetres

below surface). The

reason

small

6 .1.1.

5 650±60

the

sample of

Radiocarbon dates

Esh Shaheinab

f or

high

shell

c .

standard 0 ,7

deviation

i s

the

gram.

from the west bank of the Nile.

site

B . P.

( T-3222, obtained

MASCA calibrated to from

square

P-87

4 520±60

c .

B .C.)

( sample

5 centimetres

below

surface).

5 720±80

B . P.

( T-3223, ( sample

MASCA

calibrated

obtained

from

to

square

4560±80 P-87

c .

B . C.) 47-50

centimetres below surface).

5 550±90

B . P.

( T-3699, obtained

MASCA calibrated to from

square

G-61

4 440±60

c .

1 0

B .C.)

( sample

centimetres

e low

surface).

As

already

this

mentioned

there

site processed by Libby

5 060±450

B . P.

( Charcoal material

5 446±380

B . P.

( Shell material

6 .1.2.

were

Radiocarbon dates

two

radiocarbon

dates

from

in the early 1 950'ies.

Libby:753).

Libby:754).

from Rabak.

Rabak. 4 490±100

B . P.

( T-5132, ( sample

MASCA

calibrated

obtained

from

square

centimetres below surface.

6 0

to

3270±100 1 07x/100y

B . C.) c .

1 8

6050±100

B . P.(T-5133

obtained

from

MASCA

calibrated

to

square

107x/90y,

c .

4 490±110 56

B . C.)

( sample

centimetres

below

surface).

6 020±130

B . P.

( T-5134

MASCA calibrated to

obtained

from

square

4 890±120

1 07x1100y

c .

B . C.)

1 45

( sample

centimetres

below surface).

5 860±80

B . P.

( T-5726 MASCA calibrated to obtained

from

square

4 750±150

1 07x/100y

c .

B .C.) 3 0

( sample

centimetres

below sufrace).

6 .2.

C_rrection of dates.

These dates are and corrected. Tabel

1 .

corrected

1 4C dates

for

obtained

the

i sotopic

from the

Site and level

T . T . T . T . T . T . T . T . T . T . T . T . T . T .

Kadero I level 1 Kadero I level 1 Zakiab level 1 Zakiab level 2 Shaheinab level 1 Shaheinab level 5 Shaheinab Kadero I I test pit Um Direiwa I test pit Um Direiwa I level 1 Rabak level 2 Rabak level 6 Rabak level 1 5 Rabak level 3

These

dates

C-13)

and

1 981)

these

3 699,

are

all

corrected

corrected. have

not

In

been

for

earlier

corrected

( S

1 3C)

sites

Years b . p. Libby half-line corrected for isotopic fractination B . P.

Laboratory reference

2188 2189 2 818 3 050 3 222 3 223 3 699 3 260 3 261 3 297 5 132 5 133 5 134 5 726

fractination

5 700±100 5 460±70 5660±80 5 970±80 5650±60 5 720±80 5550±90 5670±60 5 280±80 6 010±90 4 490±100 6 050±100 6 020±130 5 860±80

the

isotopic

MASCA calibra ted B .0

4.5 -5.1 -5.6 -5.6 -5.6 5.6 -6.0 5.6 5.6 -5.6 -1.9 2.3 -5.0 4.1

4 555±85 4 380±50 4 530±70 4 850±16 4 520±60 4 560±80 4 440±60 4 535±55 4165±16 4 920±13 3 270±10 4 490±11 4 890±20 4 750±15

fractionation

publications except

1 3C 0 /00

Haaland

T - 3 697,

T-

( S

( 1980-

3 698,

T-

T - 4 045.

A discussion of the dates. Radiocarbon on

the

dates

diagram

from

below.

standard deviation,

the

Khartoum Neolithic

All

the

and a half

dates

life of

6 1

are 5568

sites

are

uncalibrated years

B . P.

plotted with

one

' 1 4Cy e e r 5 B .P .0 95o ) Z e tk iab

Um Um E sh , ede rol K a c ier c la D hah e inab ir al Dre i ma l l .S

R aba t z,

6 500

6 000

11

1

T

1 1

5 500 •

5 000

f I 1

.

1

1

1

4 500

6 2

I

_ II

7 .

L ITHIC MATERIAL

The evidence for the argument presented i n this chapter is primarily lithic artefacts from 4 s ites l ocated on the e ast bank of the Nile: Kadero I and I I, Z akiab and Um D ireiwa I . The material f rom Kadero I I i s very limited since only one square 2 x 2 meters was excavated. From Um D ireiwa I I only surface material was c ollected. The material f rom Kadero I i s divided i nto three s eparate areas: 2 , 2 a and l a which were analysed by the author. L ithic material f rom Kadero I excavated prior to 1975 and after 1977 is not available in publications and will therefore not be discussed. However, this material i s potential evidence which may modify or f alsify the hypothesis presented here. I shall f irst characterize the lithic artefact inventory with reference to raw-material, production techniques and f ormal types.

7 .1.

Raw-Material.

The principal raw-material used was quartz. The frequency in the waste varies between 8 1,0% ( Kadero I area la) and 9 2,4% at Z akiab ( see Table no. 1 ). The proportion of quartz i n the waste was very much h igher than among worked tools. The quartz i s rough-grained and seems to be of a bad quality. This observation, correlated with the high frequency of quartz i n the waste, indicates that it was difficult to control f laking and that a l arge amount o f f lakes were discarded because they were not f ound s uitable to be manufactured into f inished tools. Quartz pebbles are, however, available in large quantities locally on the gravel banks i t weathers out of the Nubian s andstone a s s mall pebbles not more than 3 0 millimetres in s ize). The small s ize of the quartz pebbles does, however, l imit its use to small tools only, such as groovers and lunates. Nile pebble is available locally, in a limited amount, on the gravel banks ( transported by the B lue Nile from Ethiopia). The material is chertlike and mostly of a f ine grained quality, which allows for better control o f f laking. Consistent with this, the frequency of Nile pebble i n the waste i s much lower than i n the tool i nventory ( see Table no. 2 ). Also available l ocally i s the f ossil wood appearing as large petrified tree trunks or a s small f ossilized branches. The quality of the raw-material i s uneven. Part of i t i s f inely textured, a lmost chertlike, while other parts are very rough grained. No consistent frequency of petrified material i n the waste and the tools i s however, observable. Volcanic tuff occurs i n small rocky out-crops i n the areas at a d istance of only a f ew kilometres f rom the sites. This raw-material occurs in quite l arge pieces, and i t i s used mainly for larger tools and

6 3

hammerstones. Both rhyolite and basalt occur i n l arge outcrops and blocks in the Sixth Cataract area. The distance from sites as Z akiab to the area i s c . 6 0 kilometres. On a ll s ites there i s a higher frequency of rhyolite a nd basalt i n the tool i nventory than there i s i n the waste ( see Tables nos. 1 , 2 ). Furthermore the tools based on these raw-materials are f requently r eworked again, i .e. gouges are worked i nto s crapers. This i ndicates that rhyolite and basalt were more s carce resources probably because they had to be brought f rom a distance f urhter away than any of the other raw-materials used. The quality of the rhyolite and basalt are both good. The material utilized f or the ground s tone tools was sandstone and f erricrete s andstone. Both occur i n the Nubian s andstone f ormations to the east of the s ites and I have not attempted to distinguish between them. Haematite i s f ound i n a ssociation with s andstone having a high f errigonuous content, and this occurs f requently on the sites. Silicified sandstone i s found i n the Jebels on the west bank of the Nile, c lose to Omdurman and in the Sixth Cataract area. It i s, however, d ifficult to make a c lear distinction between s ilicified and ordinary sandstone. My impression i s that the s ilicified material s eems to have been used to a l imited extent and mostly for smaller ground tools, such a s upper grinders, pallets and a lso f or hammerstones. S oda granite was used f or making mace-heads and f or smaller grinders. This material i s available at Jebel S ileitat c . 20 kilometres north of Zakiab ( see F ig. 5 ). The material i s e asy to i dentify because o f i ts f ine grained texture and dark spots. Z eolite pebbles manufactures into small lip or nose plugs were used for personal decoration. These occur l ocally i n small quantities a s t iny water-rolled pebbles i n the gravel. The l ocation o f the known s ources of raw-material are s hown on F ig. 5 . The way the materials were brought from their l ocalities to the s ites would have varied according to the location of the material. I expect that basalt a nd rhyolite were brought f rom the S ixth C ataract areas with boats on the Nile when the r iver was l ow and easy to navigate; while soda granite from Jebel S ileitat was probably brought on the back of the domestic animals.

7 .2. F laked l ithic artefacts. 7 .2.1. The chipped-stone i ndustry. 7 .2.1.1. Primary techniques. Characteristic for the Neolithic sites i n the eastern area i s that only f laking was employed a s a primary technique. Neither blade- nor bipolar techniques were used ( one or two blades and a f ew bipolar c ores occur), but these are i nterpreted a s produced accidentally and not intentionally since they are quantitatively i nsignificant. For r aw-material l ike the frequently used quartz pebbles, use for the f laking technique c an be understood a s due to the r ough quality

6 4

o f the r aw-material which does not a llow f or the kind o f control necessary to practise the blade technique used on better quality material s uch a s Nile pebble, rhyolite a nd basalt.

7 .2.1.2.

S econdary techniques.

The s econdary techniques i nclude the shaping o f a f lake or a core i nto a tool. The three techniques used were retouching, pecking and polishing. Most of the tools were shaped by retouch. The only tools which were polished were the gouges, axes and mace-heads. Most o ften the gouges were only partly polished on one s ide. This i s a characteristic technological f eature occurring on a ll the Neolithic s ites i n the Khartoum Nile environment. Generally, t here i s a high frequency of i rregularly s haped or retouched tools on a ll the s ites. These are not included i n the l ist of tools, but are put at the bottom o f the l ist of the s tandardized tools due to the d ifficulty of d istinguishing between i ntentional retouch and utility wear. The f irst s tep in polishing the tools was most probably done on the sandstone rubbers f ound, s ince s ome o f these have grooved s triation marks. These marks are interpreted as being the result of rubbing the tools ( more or less l ike sandpaper). It is difficult to believe that the f inal s tage of polishing was done with the rubbers s ince some of the polishing i s very smooth, a lthough s ome tools c learly s how striation marks. Some o f the pieces o f haematite were a lso partly polished i n the same manner a s the f laked l ithic tools. Flaking and r etouching was probably done by use o f s ome of the hammerstones which were f ound on the s ites. These were made of hard material such as quartz, rhyolite, basalt and petrified wood, but also from softer material such a s s andstone. The hammerstones, were most frequently found in association with the grinding-equipment. The implication of this will be d iscussed l ater.

7 .2.2.

S patial d istribution of f laked l ithic waste and i ts implication f or r econstruction of activity types

On all four sites most of the l ithic debris was f ound in the f orm of waste, f lakes and cores. Thus there can be no d oubt that l ithic production took p lace a t the s ites. The s ites differ however, with reference to the f requency o f f lakes and cores ( see Tables nos. 3 8 ). The r elative proportion i s the s ame within the d ifferent areas o f Kadero I and Um D ireiwa I while there i s a very marked difference i n the f requency of f laked debris at Zakiab. The sum total f or 1 00 excavated square metres i s 3 8.052 pieces, while the numbers f ound a t Um D ireiwa I , f or example, i s 1 2.228 pieces f or 1 28

6 5

excavated square metres. The r elative numbers of f inished chipped tools are, however, the s ame f or a ll the s ites and areas ( see Tables nos. 9 -15). This description of l ithic manufacturing technology i s the f irst s tep in reconstructing e conomic activities. The next s tep i s to map spatial distribution of artefact types and debris on the s ites. As previously mentioned, the proportion of f laked l ithic debris was extremely numerous at the Z akiab s ite, compared with the other s ites. However, there was no difference found i n terms of concentrations of l ithic waste. While at Kadero I ( as the o nly s ite) there are c lear concentrations within the area of 2 , 2 a and l a a s r egards l ithic waste. There are a lso differences i n the type of archaeological material found within these areas: in area 2 and 2a large quantities of broken grinders were f ound, while the material recovered f rom area l a, was mostly pot-sherds. Is it possible based on these differences in concentration to assume that they reflect activity d ifferences? L ithic waste i s important for the analysis of prehistoric activities because i t reveals that the chippping took place at the s ite, while the tools ( such a s arrow-heads) might be f ound e lsewhere. I t may s eem plausible to assume that the area where the lithic debris is found is also the l ocality where the t ools were produced. However, unless s uch an a ssumption i s s upported by additional material evidence, i t should be used with extreme caution s ince comparative e thnographic material shows that i t i s not generally valid. I shall here present my own ethnographic f ieldmaterial from Wollamo Soddo in Ethiopia in order to demonstrate empirical relations i n the manufacturing and utilization of l ithic artefacts as well a s the s patial distribution of these activities. This presentation will then be used as a basis f or a n analogical i nterpretation of my archaeological material. The l imitations of argument by analogy must, however, be c lear: f rom the f act that one thing, a specific artefact type f ound on the Neolithic s ites i s s imilar to another thing ( an artefact type i n Wollamo Soddo ) I i nfer that they may a lso be s imilar i n other, yet unexamined, respects. I t i s obvious that such analogies c annot s erve as proof f or any argument. They do, however, posses a scientific value, s ince the i nferences drawn a re testable against new evidence.

7 .2.2.1.

Ethnographic analogy, disposal of waste.

production

o f

tools

a nd

Among the Wollamo tribe there are s till people who make and use chipped l ithic artefacts of a form similar to the scrapers found on the Neolithic s ites, although the raw-material i s different.

6 6

I shall try to describe as closely a s possible the c ontext within which these artefacts are produced and then d iscuss which part of this context one may i nfer as being si milar to the Neolithic situation. C learly, i nferences i n this f ield may differ with reference to their validity. Inferences i n f ield o f tool production techniques and tool use, may be rather strongly corroborated, while inferences in the field of social organization are usually much weaker i n their actual s upport. My f ieldwork was done i n a small village c lose to Wollamo Soddo in the central highlands of Ethiopia i n August 1 976 and January 1 977. In this village there were only men who c ould s till produce and use l ithic tools. The tradition has been maintained among a group of specialized tanners who are regarded as a low caste pariah group. The onl y raw-material utilized is obsidian, which i s readily available. I t appears in blocks and lumps which are brought down f rom the quarry on the back of a donkey. The trip takes about 3 -4 hours. The raw-material i s f ree s ince the quarry i s not owned by anybody. The f laking i s done on a piece of hide. I f f lakes or chips fall outside the hide, they are carefully collected again. The pieces are very s harp and are a potential hazard to the barefoot population. The block of obsidian i s not trimmed i n any s pecial way except f or the removal o f a few f lakes before the f laking s tarts. Only flakes are produced. The blade technique i s not known among the knappers, a lthough i t s eems that previously i t was known i n the area s ince blades are f ound on several localities in the neighbourhood. The obsidian core i s held i n the l eft hand above the ground, the f lakes are knocked off with a pointed i ron bar held in the right hand ( see Pl. 1 ). No hammerstones of l ithic material were used. Most often when one blow i s struck more than one f lake and s everal smaller chips are detached f rom the core. The only tool produced is the convex scraper. The f lakes suitable to be shaped i nto tools are put aside. Usually 2 0-30 are made before the seconda ry trimming into scrapers s tarts ( see P l. 2 ). The f lakes regarded as suitable are always longer than 4 ,5 centimetres usually between 5 to 6 centimetres long and more than 2

centimetres wide. The number of f lakes detached f rom the core and discarded among the waste, i s 2 -3 t imes a s numerous a s the f lakes selected for secondary trimming. The are d iscarded e ither because they a re too small or because the shape i s s uch that it i s difficult to trim them i nto tools. It is, a s f ar as I o bserve o nly the d istal end ( the e nd opposite the bulb of percussion ) which i s retouched i nto a convex scraper edge. If this edge i s naturally s haped i nto a convex f orm, then only part of the edge i s l ightly trimmed. When the shape of the f lake, which i s more or less longovaloide, i s uneven, it i s a lso necessary to trim other parts o f the f lake. The trimming i s a lways done f rom the bulbar f ace. I have not observed inverse retouch being practised. The f lake i s held in the l eft hand with the bulbar face up and the trimming i s d one lightly with the iron bar held in the r ight hand ( see P l. 3 ). The t ime s pent i n producing the 2 0-30 f lakes suitable to be made i nto tools i s not more than a bout 2 0 minutes. The secondary trimming of shaping one f lake i nto a tool, takes a bout 2 -3 minutes. When the process of f laking and trimming the s crapers i s completed, a ll the d ebris is carefully taken to a place on the outskirts of the s ettlement to be dumped. This dump i s usually between the house a nd the f ields, i n an area of weeds where i t i s not l ikely that people will be walking. It should be noted that the worn-out s crapers are a lways l eft i n the s ame a rea as the other lithic waste. Very often other types of debris, f or example bones, are dumped i n the s ame area. From a sking people, it was also obvious that waste would not be left lying around. I t i s always collected and dumped i n a s pecial area. Broken pots, however, c an be s een littered around the houses and the homestead. Drawing on an analogy with Wollamo Soddo, I i nterpret areas 2 , 2a and la at Kadero I a s being r efuse areas - dumping places f or waste - r ather than l ocations f or manufacturing activities. The presence o f d ebris s hows that the production of artefacts took p lace a t the site, but the specific location o f debris within the settlement does not necessarily i ndicate the s pecific l ocation of manufacturing a ctivities. Etnographical

observations

6 8

showed

that

the

most

t imeconsuming activity i n the l ithic production was the transport of raw-material. There i s no reason to expect that the production of f lakes and the s econdary trimming o f these i nto tools, was more t imeconsuming i n Neolithic times than what was observed i n Wollamo Soodo. G iven the distance between the s ources f or raw-material i n the Nile environment and the Neolithic sites, I will c onsequently a ssume that t ime i nvolved i n transport was a more servere constraint than time involved i n the manufacturing. The ethnographic observations also showed that even using high quality material, a l arge part of the f lakes were never made into tools. F or material of poor quality, such a s the quartz used on the Neolithic s ites, i t i s therefore not surprising to f ind a l arge proportion of waste.

7 .2.3.

Function o f tools.

7 .2.3.1.

S crapers.

As can be seen from Table 9 , one of the most f requent tools occuring on a ll the s ites and within the d ifferent areas o f Kadero I , i s the convex scraper. I t has been assumed by archaeologists that s crapers were used, a s i ndicated by the name, f or scraping ( primarily hides). This a ssumption i s based on different types o f experiments producing various types of utility wear, according to the type of material scraped. ( Broadbent, N . D. and Knutson, K . 1975: 117-123). Ethnographic o bservations among the Wollamo tanners can give us more i nsight, not only of the f unction of these tools, but i nto problems such a s hafting of the tools, the l ength o f time they were used, e tc. As mentioned aboved, the only tools produced from the flakes are convex scrapers, these were used only f or one purpose, the scraping of hides. To do this the s crapers are i nserted i nto holes i n the handle and f ixed with resin. The skin which has been prepared and moistened are put up vertically on a wooden f rame. The scraping of the skin is done with l ong downwards s trokes and short chopping strokes near the edged of the hide with the wooden handle of the s craper being held with both hands ( see P ls. 4 and 5 ). After about 5 0-60 s trokes the s craper has to be r esharpened. This i s done because the edge has become uneven, s ince small chips will be splintered off the edge. The resharpening i s done by the tanner who will hold the wooden handle with the right hand and very l ightly retouch the

6 9

s craper f rom the bulbar f ace to make the edge even ( see P l. 6 ). The frequent resharpenings will shorten the s craper until i t becomes too short to be u sed f or further work. The scraper i nserted i n the o ther s ide of the wooden handle will then be used. When both scrapers are worn-out, the wooden handle i s put c lose to a f ire to heat up and soften the r esin so that new s crapers c an be i nserted ( see P l. 7 ). This process of heating the resin and then waiting f or i t to c ool, before the scrapers can be used a gain, takes about one hour. Usually the t anner owns two such wooden handles. These handles are handed over f rom f ather to s on, both of whom belong to a s pecialized group of tanners, which i s r egard a s a l ow c aste pariah-group. Four s crapers will be needed to c omplete the scraping of one ox hide, while two scrapers would be required to scrape hides from smaller l ivestock. The t ime s pent i n this process i s about s ix hours f or the skin f rom c attle and c . two hours f or the smaller hides. The worn-out s crapers have a very d ifferent working edge compared with t he new ones, s ince the retouch gets s teeper and the scraper s horter due to the f requent resharpening ( see F ig. 1 5). Thus the ethnographical evidence supports the conventional i nterpretation that the artefacts c lassif ied as scrapers actually have been used a s s uch. A microscopic analysis of the working edges of worn-out s crapers f rom Wollamo Soddo show a s imilar wear pattern to those f ound on the Khartoum Neolithic s ites. I n both cases there were traces of crushing and small chips having splintered off. The r aw-material, obsidian, used f or the Wollamo s crapers and the r hyolite, basalt which were the main raw-material used on the Khartoum Neolithic sites have, however, different qualities. On obsidian the working edge gets damaged quite e asily, s ince the material i s r ather brittle. For rhyolite and basalt the material i s s tronger and i t would probably take longer to damage the working edge ( Fig. 1 6 s hows the Neolithic s crapers).

7 .2.3.1.1.

s ome

Reflections on the use o f e thnographic material i n f ormulating f ruitful artefact c lassifications.

The ethnographical material does however, throw l ight on the f ruitfulness of r ecent more u sophisti-

70

cated" c lassification, which I have used to s ome extent myself ( Haaland, R . 1 972:98). These classification schemes have grown out of a rather extreme empiricist tradition, emphasizing the importance of e liminating propositions which were not based on objective, measurable feature in the archaeological material. More attention i s paid to possibilities of f inding f eatures which, when measured, would a llow f iner and f iner subc lassifications, than to justification of criteria with reference to their fruitfulness. Consequently the l evel of arbitrariness in selection of criteria i s usually high. I thus defined s crapers according to the f ollowing criteria: a ) b ) c )

The r etouch 1 ,5 centimetres or more i n l ength The height o f the retouch 0 ,2 centimetres or more The angle between the retouch and the f ace 4 5° or more ( Haaland, R . 1 972:98).

I t i s apparent that this c lassification had been a pplied to the Wollamo material new scrapers and those i n an early stage of use would not have been c lassified a s s crapers. The r etouch would not have been s teep enough and most often they were not retouched continuously along the edge, but only occasionally a long the edge when it was necessary to smooth off uneven parts. Similarily my archaeological material also contains artefacts which would be discarded a s s crapers according to the c lassification above. There i s l ittle reason to doubt that these tools a lso reflect artefacts which have been left when they were still new, rather than a different artefact type. From the a bove d iscussion i t should be obvious that ethnographical material c an be used as an important source f or e stablishing f ruitful criteria. Fruitful i n the s ense that when artefacts are classified according to these criteria they will f all into logical classes corresponding closer to real artefacttypes employed by the prehistoric populations. Although the establishement of cultural historical relationships depends on the comparison of archaeological material from different s ites, and although comparison requires measurements and c lassifications, different types o f mearsurement and c lassifications are not equally interesting in this respect. The better r eason we have to a ssume that the f eatures s elected a s a basis for classification are s ignificantly related to the prehistoric r eality, the better i s the chance that the classification and comparison are more relevant f or the prehistoric r eality. Ethnographical material ( and the results derived f rom experimental archaeology) c an be used to justified a ssumptions i n this f ield. I will argue that there i s a need f or developing s ophistication in the methodology of justifying a ssumptions on which the criteria are f ounded a s well a s sophistication i n techniques of measuring and s tatistical operations. I f we concentrate only on the l atter, there i s a danger

7 1

that we will create a statistical l anguage s erving the archaeologist's need to communicate among themselves i n a way that gives the impression o f " Science", r ather than the need to e lucidate our r eal scientific problem which i s to understand prehistoric r eality.

7 .2.3.2.

F laked tools.

In the following I shall discuss the other main s tandardized tools f ound on the s ites: engraving t ools, l unates/backed tools and gouges/adzes, with r eference t o their f unction. F inally I shall briefly comment o n the following tools: concave scrapers, notches, denticulates, tanged arrows and knives. This l ast group o f tools appear to be f ew i n number a nd they show a very l ow degree of s tandardization. I t i s therefore d ifficult to reconstruct their f unction. A characteristic f eature f or most of the above mentioned tools i s their microlithic s ize, i .e. they are g enerally l ess than 3 centimetres i n l ength ( except f or the gouges/adzes and s crapers). The s ize of the quartz a nd Nile pebbles may have contributed to this tendency f or microlithic tools. These main tool types are presented on table 9 . Tables nos. 10-15 present a c lassification of the total tool i nventory at the s ites.

7 .2.3.2.1.

Engraving tools.

This category i ncludes tools which are c lassified into three types: groovers, borers and micropoicons ( Fig. 1 7). ( Of these the groovers are f ar the most numerous). The general s imilarities of the wear pattern and the width of the point of the tools do, however, strongly indicate that they probably had the same f unction, i .e. they were used f or engraving. On Table 9 i s l isted the f requency distribution of these tools, a s c an be s een the engraving tools and the convex s crapers are the most f requently employed tools on a ll the s ites. To my knowledge no comparative e thnographical description exist which can indicate a f unction f or these tools. However, i t should be noted that engraving tools are much more abundant on the Neolithic s ites than on o lder s ites. Not only i s this the case for the Khartoum environment, i t i s l ikewise the case further to the north i n the Second Cataract area, where these tools can account f or 4 0-50 % o f a ll the tools ( Wendorf, F . et a l. 1 968:624). Wendorf e t a l. 1 968:627 s uggest the f ollowing f unction f or the groovers: "The great i ncrease i n the f requency of groovers, cannot be explained i n terms o f a known activity. Logically, we might expect a tool of s uch a high

7 2

frequency to be connected with a maj or economic pursuit: in this case probably f ishing. The groovers might be connected with f ishing, but i n what way?" If this suggestion i s correct, we should expect the groovers to be much more numerous at the Z akiab s ite, which has been i nterpreted a s a camp s ite o ccupied f or exploitation of f ish r esources, than at the Um D ireiwa I and Kadero I s ites, where hardly any f ish remains were f ound. However, this i s not the case. The groovers are equally numerous on a ll the s ites ( see Tables nos. 9 1 5). Marks et a l's i nterpretation i s possibly more to the point when he argues that the many groovers f ound i n the Dongola Reach had been used f or piercing hides and that they reflect pastoral activities ( Marks, A .J. e t a l. 1 968:190). A lthough we have no direct evidence f or this i nterpretation, such a f unction i s consistent with my argument f or the importance of hides i n the l ocal economy. In addition I will suggest that another f unction o f the engraving tools might have been to make repair-holes i n the pottery, s ince s everal sherds with repairholes were f ound. Furthermose, the diameter of these holes correlates more or l ess with the width o f the points of most of these tools. A further suuport f or this interpretation i s the correlation of a high frequency of such tools found on s ites where pottery occurs. I will however, discuss this i n more details i n next chapter. It i s likely that these tools were hafted, i .e. that they were part of a composite tool. Material to support this interpretation comes from Egypt where engraving or i ncising tools have been f ound mounted on a wooden handle. The pointed f lint tool f rom Egypt has a naturally curved back, i s 1 3 millimetres l ong and 6 ,5 millimetres broad. I t i s mounted against the squared top of a wooden handle and the l ower end i s s et i n mastic and covered with wrapping of some vegetable f ibres, arranged i n parallels. The wooden handle i s 1 99 millimetres long and has a rectangular to square crosss ection, o f which the maximum diameter i s 6 millimetres. No attempt has been made to round off or to smooth the surface of the wooden handle ( Clark, J . D. et a l. 1 975:371). This tools i s a lso i llustrated i n the s ame article p late XXII, l a, b . Unfortunately, the tool i s not f ound i n a dated context. Characteristic for the engraving tools f ound on these Khartoum Neolithic s ites i s their curved or beak l ike points and their small s ize. I t i s very l ikely that they were hafted i n a f ashion s imilar to the one described above. These engraving tools are smaller i n s ize than those f ound on the o lder Early Khartoum type of site ( Arkell, A . J. 1 953:26). This might i ndicate that the o lder ones were not hafted.

7 3

7 .2.3.2.2.

Lunates/backed tools

( Fig.

1 8).

The l ength ) f the lunates i s p lotted on Fig. 1 9-23. Most of the tools are l ess than 2 0 millimetres i n l ength and s ome are even l ess than 1 0 millimetres. Presumably these tools were hafted. Many f inds f rom Egypt, dated to from late predynastic time t o l ate dynastic t ime, show that these tools were used to t ip the end of a rrows as the cutting part ( Clark, J . D. 1 975:324). I n the f ollowing, I shall describe i n s ome detail f inds f rom Egypt described i n an article by C lark e t a l. s ince I believe that this material c an give us a good i ndication of how the lunates, a s well a s the backed f lakes f rom these Khartoum Neolithic s ites, were hafted and used. In Egypt the bow and arrow, where a microlithic tool i s mounted transversely at the tip o f the arrow, s eems to have been mainly used f or hunting a nd, to a l ess extent, f or warfare. It is depicted on a predynastic s late pallete ( dated to the s econd half of the 4 th millennium B .C.) and on bas reliefs from dynastic times. The most interesting f inds, however, are the actual bows and arrows. These come from burials in both dated and undated contexts. I t i s i nteresting to note that l ithic tools which have been mounted to t ip the arrows, were not only lunates/backed tools but a lso naturally backed f lakes and, i n s ome cases, small s harp f lakes which were untrimmed. Most of them were small sized lunates. Clark et al. point out the similarities between the microlithic lunates from Egypt a nd the l unates f ound f rom " pre-Neolithic" s ites of the " Early Khartoum" type from Sudan. I suggest that the s imilarities are even closer between the lunates found on the Khartoum Neolithic s ites d iscussed here, where a c ommon f eature i s the small s ize of the lunates, while the s ize o f the l unates f rom the o lder Khartoum type of s ites are much l arger. It is a noticeable feature in the Khartoum Nile environment that these tools decrease i n s ize over t ime. Most of the arrows found in Egypt consist of a r eed mainshaft some 6 00 millimetres o r more i n l ength and with a f oreshaft o f hardwood, very often e bony, u sually less that half the length of the mainshaft. It is furthermore interesting to note that these shafts are smoothed. C lark et a l. suggest that the rubbing down and smoothing was done f irstly, with a s craper or r asp used parallel to the l ength o f the f oreshaft and l eaving long, parallel striations, next a l ess c oarse r ubber, perhaps of s andstone, was used that l eft f iner parallel striations running obliquely to the long axis. The f inal process was to polish the wood, which they s uggest might have been done with beeswax a nd burnishing s tones ( Clark, J . D. et a l. 1 975:333). I n s ome c ases red paint i s l eft on the f oreshaft, which has been i dentified a s red ochre ( Clark, J . D. et a l. 1 975:352). The microl ithics are usually mounted transversely a t the e nd o f the f oreshafts and s ome are not more than 5 millimetres i n length. I n s ome c ases the l ithic tools are mounted

7 4

a s s ide barbs, i mportance.

this

type

s eems

however,

to

be

of

minor

"The l ithic t ools are f astened with mastic, which i s a ssumed t o have been o btained l ocally, and has i n a f ew c ases been i dentified as gum f rom Acacia spp. A cushion of mastic separates the stone, i nset from the end of the f oreshaft - or f rom the s ides i f mounted as barbs. Foreshafts i ntended f or mounting a l unate have the t ip purposely blunted or squared off. Insets are pressed only l ightly i nto the mastic and so were easily displaced on s triking the quarry". ( Cark, J .D. et a l. 1 975:375). Egyptian chisel ended arrows do not s eem to have been poisoned l ike those of the Bushmen of today. As C lark, J . D. et a l. point out, even though there a re variations, the basic technology seems to have been the same for more than 5 000 years. It should also be mentioned that l unate arrow tips have been f ound f rom the Nubian royal t ombs o f e l Kurru dated to c . 8 60 a nd 6 43 B .C. ( Clark e t a l. 1 975:358). In this context I have discussed only the arrows and not the bows. The material f rom Egypt i ndicates that i t was more o r l ess the s ame type of bow - the half s egmented s elf bow - which was i n use f rom predynastic times to l ate dynastic times. Even i f we do not have a ny remains of the actual arrow-shafts or the bow f rom these Khartoum Neolithic s ites, I think we can suggest that the l unates a nd backed tools were hafted and used i n a f ashion s imilar to that described above. L ikewise, i t is plausible that s ome of the ordinary f lakes were u sed to t ip arrow heads a s the evidence i ndicates f rom Egypt. I n this c ontext, i t s hould be mentioned that a t Jebel Shahaba i n Nubia, a graveyard was f ound which i s assumed to have a date between 1 2 0 00 - 1 0 0 00 B .C. I mbedded i n the bones of s everal of the skeletons were unretouched ordinary f lakes which would not have been c lassified as tools. This clearly shows that these artefacts had been used a s weapons i .e. to t ip arrowheads ( Wendorf e t a l. 1 968:989-992). The l unates a nd backed tools are f ew i n number on these Neolithic s ites ( as can be s een on Tables nos. 9 1 5) and there i s a c lear decrease i n f requency of these t ools compared to the o lder s ites. A very i nteresting aspect of the information we get from the Egyptian material is the mention of the f oreshafts which were s moothed and some were painted with red ochre. Among the ground l ithic tools f rom these Neolithic s ites ( which will be discussed more i n detail l ater ) there a re numerous sandstone rubbers, which might very possibly have been used f or smoothing arrow.shafts ( as one o f many other f unctions). Furthermore pieces of red o chre with c lear striation marks and traces of polishing were f ound at Um Direiwa I ( 7 pieces) and Z akiab ( 5 pieces). These might have been used to rub and colour arrow-shaf ts a s was f ound o n the material f rom Egypt. I have only d iscussed the f unction of lunates a nd

7 5

backed tools for tipping the end of arrow-heads. I t should be mentioned that f inds of l unates f rom the F ayum s ite in Egypt and from Natufian sites show lustrous edges, interpreted as sickle gloss ( Wendorf e t a l. 1 968:943). I will, however, suggest that these microliths were not used as sickles on the Khartoum Neolithic s ites f or the f ollowing r easons: 1 )

There are no r emains the artefacts.

2 )

Another i mportant a spect i s the very l ow f requency of the tools. One would have expected an i ncrease i n the numbers on the Neolilthic s ites i nstead o f a decrease, especially i f we c orrelate i t with the very high f requency of grinders f ound on Kadero I and Um D ireiwa I s ites which i ndicate the i ncreased i mportance of c ereals f or f ood.

3

The remains of cereal f ound i s primarily s orghum. The stem of this cereal i s very thick and the l unates seem too small to f unction a s a cutting or reaping tool f or this p lant.

7 .2.3.2.3.

Gouges

( Fig.

of

s ickle

- g loss

on

a ny

o f

2 4).

As pointed out by Arkell this is both the most numerous and the most characteristic tool f ound a t the Esh Shaheinab site, which was why he l abelled the culture the "Gouge Culture" ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:31). Gouges are found on a ll the Neolithic sites in the Khartoum area. The tools are subdivided i nto a ) gouges which are partly polished on one f ace only, b ) gouges which are partly polished o n both s ides, c ) gouges which are unpolished ( see Tables nos. 9 -15). They are discussed together since there are general s imilarities between the different s ub-types. They a ll have a hollow working edge ( except i n c ases were the edge i s broken, which i s quite f requent). The working edge shows heavy utility wear, with traces of chips or f lakes splintered o ff. The tools have o bviously been f requently reworked a nd retouched, s ince most tools are l ess than 5 centimetres i n l ength a nd s ome are a s s hort a s 2 -3 centimetres. One gouge was f ound a t Kadero I i n a grave, which was unused and had n o traces of utility wear, the l ength of this tool was 1 1 centimetres. I t seems likely that this is the original l ength o f t he gouges. The gouges which are polished show very s mooth polishing, with remains of a f ew s triation marks. I n the f irst s tage o f polishing, s andstone rubbers were probably used ( as Fig. 3 1d). At the final s tage o f polishing another type of rubbing t ools must have been applied otherwise the s triation marks would have b een more pronounced. Arkell s uggests that the tools were used f or woodworking, s uch a s hollowing out tree trunks to make dug-

7 6

out canoes. Arkell s ees the use of boats a s e ssential f or hunting water animals and f etching raw-material f rom the Sixth Cataract area ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:31). The heavy utility wear on the gouges confirms that these artefacts were used to work on hard material, and this could have been wood f or boat making. I will suggest that they had o ther s econdary f unctions as well, such a s hoes for tilling the soil. If one looks at the f requency distribution of the gouges on these s ites i n the Khartoum environment, it i s apparent that the Um D ireiwa I s ite has by f ar the highest numbers of gouges. This, correlated with the highest numbers of grinders o ccuring on this s ite, supports my i nterpretation of the gouges being used i n agriculture.

7 .2.3.2.4.

Concave s crapers.

( Fig.

2 5a).

These tools occur in a low f requency on a ll the s ites. One o f their f unctions micht have been to trim arrow- s hafts, which I have briefly discussed previously i n connection with the use of lunates to tip the end of arrow-shafts. The l ow number of concave s crapers s eem to correlate well with the l ow f requency of lunates/ backed tools. Support for this i nference comes f rom ethnographical material f rom the Baktaman tribe of New Guinea, where c oncave s crapers only had one f unction; to trim arrow-shafts ( Fredrik Barth personal communicat ion).

7 .2.3.2.5.

Notches.

These are numerically few and atypical i n their manufacture. The retouch i s s teep on s ome, and l ight on others. These tools probably had different f unctions, a lthough it i s not possible to determine what those f unctions were.

7 .2.3.2.6.

Denticulates.

Like the notches, i t i s f unction to the denticsulates.

7 .2.3.2.7.

Knives.

_ gig.

2 5b,

not

c ,

possible

to

a ssign

a

d ).

A characteristic feature for these s ites i s the near absence o f artefacts which could have been used f or cutting. On Um D ireiwa I , two tools were f ound which were classified as knives, showing a s teeply trimmed edge opposite a thin cutting edge. From Z akiab we have 1 2 flakes, untrimmed, which are c lassified a s doubtful knives. These do, however, have a thin edge with traces of utility wear which could have been the result of

7 7

cutting activities. Very f ew f lakes f ound i n the debris ( or among the nonstandardized tools) seem to have the size or the shape to have been used as tools f or cutting: the artefacts made on quartz or Nile pebbles are l ess than 3 centimetres i n l ength and those made on rhyolite or basalt appear to be too i rregular and thick. The only possible, a lthough unsatisfactory explanation i s thus that they used other material, such a s bones f or cutting.

7 .2.3.2.8.

Tanged arrows.

This tool type occurs only on Um Direiwa I and Kadero I . To my knowledge these s pecimens are the o nly ones f ound on Neolithic s ites i n the area. The shape o f the tools i s i rregular, the t ip i s most o ften broken. The retouch of the s tem i s e ither d one f rom the bulbar or dorsal f ace or a lternatively f rom both f aces. Tanged arrow-heads ( these are bifacially retouched, probably by pressure f laking) have been f ound i n the Nile valley o f Egypt, the provenance of the tools are unknovwn, a nd f rom the royal tomb o f e l Kurru i n Nubia dated to c . 8 60 and 6 43 BC. Unfortunately, none o f these were f ound hafted, C lark et a l. do however suggest that they much have been hafted to t ip the end of arrows ( Clark, J .D. e t a l. 1 975:358-364).

7 .3.

Grinding tools.

Table 1 6 g ives the l ist of d ifferent types of tools which are interpreted as associated with grinding acitivities.

7 .3.1.

Comments on the c lassification.

The tools c lassified within the l ist needs s ome more comments. The l ower grinders are a ll broken a nd most appear as in fragments a s s een on F ig. 2 6, a ,b. One s ingle half f ragment was r ecovered at K adero I a rea 2 , this half s pecimen was of the s addle quern type, s ome 2 0 centimetres l ong, s o that originally i t was probably between 4 0-50 c entimetres i n l ength. I a ssume that the l ower grinders were mostly o f the s addle-quern type. This a ssumption i s based on the many f ragments l ike those on F ig. 2 6, r imsherds and one half grindstone recovered. The l ower s tones of the s addlequern type have a concave working f ace, which i s pecked all around the circumference, the underface can be unworked or pecked a ll over into shape. The upper grinders have an ovaloide or r ound s hape and both f aces are f lat ( Fig. 2 7). The smaller grinding-equipment or palletes are rounded retangular or c ircular i n f orm. They have a ll been worn thin before d iscarded, however, the reason for these grinders to have been i n s uch a fragmentary condition i s not only due to heavy and

7 8

prolonged use, but a very l arge f requency o f these tools are f irecraced, i .e. they s how a reddish craced s urface.

7 .3.1.1.

Ethnographic grinders.

analogy

on the

s econdary use

o f

Ethnographic observations of the Manasir pastoral ists, who i nhabit a s imilar type of environment f urther to the north i n the Shendi area, may throw s ome l ight on the reason f or this. When the Manasir make f irehearths they will use 4 -5 l arge wornout f ragments of grinders, most often l ower grinders. Also the upper grinders are a ll broken. They are, however, l ess f ragmentary than the l ower grinders, most o f these have broken i nto 2 -3 f ragments. On the basis of this analogy I suggest that the high frequency of broken and f irecraced grinders have been caused by this s econdary use to make hearths. The ethnographic material may a lso s erve to explain the great discrepancy between the number of upper to lower grinders. Based on the averarge size of the fragments of the lower grinders, one can roughly e stimate that 1 0-15 pieces would equal one s addle-quern, whereas 2-3 pieces of upper grinders would make a complete handstone. One s hould therefore expect that the numbers o f l ower grinders would be much higher than the upper, even when taking i nto consideration that the lower grinders were heavier and thicker and probably l asted l onger. As can be s een on Table 1 6, there i s a very clear, consistent pattern on all sites of a predominance o f upper compared to l ower f ragments. How c an we explain this distribution pattern? The Manasir material showed that the lower grinders were the artefact which were most often reused to make f irehearths. Consequently the remains from the lower grinders would be more fragmentary and difficult to identify due to the assumption of a similar use in Neolithic time. I thus expect that the unidentifiable fragments classified as polished fragments or f lakes f rom grinders c onsisted mainly of l ower grinders.

7 .3.2.

Quantitative e stimates

of upper grinders.

It is obviously not possible to try to e stimate f rom the fragments o f l ower grinders how many c omplete tools these equal. Based on the f ragments of the upper grinders i t s hould, however, be possible to make a r ough estimate of how many complete grinders occur on the d ifferent s ites. I f one a ssumes that 3 pieces are the r emains of the handstone one gets the f ollowing numbers:

7 9

Um D ireiwa I Kadero I area 2 Kadero I area 2 a Kadero I area l a Kadero I I Z akiab

9 044 2 019 2 258 1 81 1 48 3 24

f ragments:

3 = C .

I f

I f

I f

I f

I f

I f

t i

t

I f

I

3 012 handstones 6 73 I 7 53 I f 6 0 l e 5 0 t 1 07 I

As c an be seen ( on Table no. 1 6) the numbers o f grinds tone f ragments f ound at Um D ireiwa, more than 3 0000 are quite a substantial number, i n r elation to f or example Z akiab. We do not know the length of time the grinders could have l asted before broken. This would d epend o n the hardness of the raw-material u sed, most of them are made of rather soft s andstone while a minor part were made on hard silcrete s andstone. The duration before being broken would a lso have depended on f or what the grinders were used.

7 .3.3.

Ethnographic analogy on the production and use o f grinders.

For a possible interpretation of different f unctions, the l ength of t ime they were i n use and a lso f or the production of these tools, I w ill make use o f ethnographic data. I will mainly draw on the ethnographical observations I made among the Fur tribe in Darfur, Western Sudan. In this area the people are still making and using the s ame type of grinding equipment a s we f ind on these Neolithic s ites. I will f irst discuss how they produce these tools. In the area of D or north of K uttum, only women make grinders, but i t i s not a s pecialized occupation. Every woman in the area makes her own grinders. Suitable raw-material i s to be f ound only i n o ne area, and this i s a r ather hard type of s andstone. Every woman from the villages i n the surrounding area has her own quarry, f rom which she takes the r aw-material. The grinders a re produced during the dry s eason when there i s l ess agricultural work t o do. Each woman produces c . 1 5-20 upper grindstones or c . 1 0 l ower per day. ( Pl. 8 shows a s ample o f upper and l ower grinders). S he will use a r ather large hammerstone made of quartz to peck the grinders roughly i nto shape ( Pl. 9 ). Back i n the village she will spend about two more days to f inish the pecking of the grinders, and she will use the s ame type of hammerstone. The grinders are used for a variety of purposes, the primary function of the upper and l ower grindstone i s to grind grain. For the Fur people this means primarily grinding s orghum a nd millet. This i s a very time consuming task. Women or young girls will spend 1 1/2 - 2 hours every morning and afternoon grinding grain f or porridge. When the grinding faces become too s mooth a fter prolonged

8 0

grinding, they need to be resharpened. The working f aces are then carefully pecked a ll over with the same hammerstone which was used for making the tools, this process of resharpening has to be repeated every 3 -4 weeks. After prolonged use the l ower grinder gets a deep oval depression and the upper gets thinner and f inally breaks. The women e stimate that the upper grinder will l ast f or c . 3 years. Besides being used i n the grinding of grain ( Pl. 1 0) the grinder c an a lso be used f or grinding roots and dried meat ( Ali Tigani e l Mahi 1 980). Among the Fur people, the grinding equipment a lso s erved a s a s econdary function in pottery-making, for pounding and grinding clay/ochre ( Pl. 1 1). It was noticeable, however, that the women mainly used worn-out or partly broken lower grinders, s ince the c lay and ochre would s tick to the grinding f ace and they would be unsuitable f or grinding f ood. In pounding they would however, use the same hammerstone as used in resharpening of the grinding faces. The Fur people did not have smaller grinders or palettes which they used i n the process o f pottery-making. Most households would have two s ets of grinders, one r ather rough grained type f or the f irst stage and a f iner grained with smoother f aces f or the f inal stage. In households where women made pottery, there would be 3 s ets o f grinders. Among the Fur people the work of making pots was however l imited to a small group o f s tigmatized s pecialists of women only.

7 .3.4.

Implications

7 .3.4.1.

f or the

i nterpretation of grinders.

Function.

Based on these ethnographical observation and the archaeological data I hypothesize that the grinding equipment had two main f unctions, the primary f unction f or the grinding of grain and l ess i mportant f or o chre. Furthermore I suggest that there might have been a t endency f or s eparating the f unctions according to s ize: the smaller ones being most f requently used f or o chre grinding and the l arger ones f or the grinding og grain.

7 .3.4.2.

Production.

When making grinders, I suggest that the f irst r ough s tages i n the production were done at the quarry, s ince the pieces needed were l arge and bulky to transport. As already mentioned the r aw-material used to make grinders of soda granite was taken from Jegbel Sileitat c . 2 0 kilometres north of Zakiab, which i s quite a d istance away ( see F ig. 5 ). The f inal s tage i n the preparation o f the girnders most probably took p lace a t the d ifferent s ettlement s ites. This i s why I have

8 1

included the hammerstones among the grinding equipment as well as their use i n the resharpening of the grinders. ( I do not suggest that this was the only f unction of the grinders, I expect that they were a lso u sed i n the production of f laked lithic tools). The hammerstones f ound were of two types. S ome were made o f hard material, of which the use of quartz, rhyolite and petrified wood are the most predominant. The s hape o f these are oval and very often they have traces o f heavy crushing in both ends. The other type is made of sandstone, most often hard material l ike s illcrete sandstone, and the shape i s more rounded. I would expect that the f irst type of hammerstone was u sed f or pecking and repecking of grinders besides f laking o f lithic tools; the s econd type might have had the s ame f unctions, a lthough this i s more uncertain.

7 .3.4.3.

The number of grinders per household.

I would e stimate that e ach h ousehold had two s ets of larger grinders for grinding grain a nd one s et o f smaller tools ( palletes) f or pottery-making. This l ast interpretation is supported by the fact that o n the Neolithic s ites, f inds of o chre s teins s eem to be f ound most often on smaller grinders and palletes. P ieces of red ochre found in the settlement debris have been identified to be of the same type as found on the palletes ( Kr. Michelsen personal communication ). I t therefore seems that the Neolithic inhabitants used smaller more specialized equipment f or grinding o chre and clay, which besides being u sed f or pottery-making a lso have been used f or personal d ecoration.

7 .3.4.4.

An e stimate o f the grindres.

the numbers

of households

u sing

Based on the material f rom Um D ireiwa I , I will try to estimate how many households could have used the grinders recovered. The numbers o f f ragments o f upper grinders found were 3 012, from 8 8 square metres excavated. The s ize o f the s ettlement was e stimated to have been c . 9 000 square metres. This represents 0 ,98 % of the total s ite. I f three f ragments equal one complete upper grindstone this would give a total o f 1 02 6 81 upper grinders f or the total s ite i f the s ample recovered was r epresentative f or the s ite a s a whole. I will estimate the grinders were used for two years before broken. This e stimate i s based on a comparison with the D arfur material where the girnders l asted f or three years. These grinders were however, made on harder raw-material and would therefore probably have l asted l onger than the Neolithic grinders. I f one a ssumes a use period o f two years this would represent 2 05 3 62 use years. I f o ne f urthermore o n the basis of ethnographic analogy a ssumes 3 grinders per household this would give 2 05 3 62 = 6 8 4 54 household

8 2

years. If one a ssumes a s table population during the period of s ite o ccupation this would give us a minimum number of 6 0 4 54 = 7 7 households per year or a maximum of 68 454 = 1 14 households per year. If one then a ssumes that on the average every household c onsisted o f 5 persons this would i ndicate a maximum of 1 14 x 5 = 5 70 persons or a minimum o 7 7 x 5 = 3 85 persons. Obviously these f igures are f ar too high. The discrepancy between this deducation and our evidence i ndicating s ettlement s ize and human adaptation may be the consequence o f s everal conditions. The most plausible one i s that the excavated area i s not a representative s ample. This c an be easily tested by f urther excavations. One might a lso think that the numbers of fragments per complete upper grinder could be higher. This c ould be tested by a rather time consuming puzzle work of a ttempting to f it the f ragments together.

7 .3.5.

Miscellaneous ground tools.

I have discussed the predominance of grinders f ound at Um Direiwa. It should a lso be mentioned that the d ifferent types o f ground tools f ound at this s ite are much more varied than what i s f ound on the other s ites. Noticeable i s the different types of pittings f ound on the grinding equipment. At Um Direiwa pittings are f ound not only on the underface of the l ower grinders ( such a s F ig. 2 6a), and on one f ace or both f aces of the handstone, which o ccur on a ll s ites ( such a s F ig. 2 7), but they are a lso f ound to a l arge degree on the smaller grinder/palletes. I t can be shallow, or i t i s deep l ike FIg. 28a. Some of the smaller grinders have one depression only i n the center of the tool, which in s ome cases penetrates into a hole, see Fig. 2 8b. The functions of the pitting and these depressions are unknown. It should be mentioned, however, that one r ubber of soft s andstone has a pointed tip and diameter which f its the width of the hole f ound on one of these tools such as F ig. 2 9a, while another type o f rubber i s shown on Fig. 2 9b. These tools might be f unctionally r elated a lthough o f what kind we do not know. On a ll s ites s andstone r ings are f ound, l arge unf inished ones l ike the one f ound at Z akiab ( Fig. 3 0a), l arge f inished ones, or smaller s andstone-rings. The numbers of sandstone-rings found at Um Direiwa I i s again much higher than what was found on any of the o ther s ites, the smallest numbers come f rom Z akiab. C an we say anything a bout the f unction of these tools? The l arger ones, could have been used a s weights f or digging s ticks. This i s how they are used among the Bushmen o f the Kalahari ( Shapera, 1 934: Pl. 4 2) or they could have been used a s weights on hoes used f or breaking up ground f or cultivation, which i s s till the use of bored stones smong the Harrar o f Ethiopia ( Clark, J .D. 1 944:31-32). The smaller ones would, however, have been too l ight for this function. Among the Harrar smaller s tones with bored holes are f ound attached to the end o f

8 3

a small pestle used a s a weight f or pounding plants and herbs in a small wooden mortar. We do not f ind any wooden implements on the s ites, however, i t i s l ikely that they were i n use and that the smaller stone-rings could have been used as described a bove. Other types of ground lithic tools which occur infrequently on the sites will be discussed in the Appendix no. 2 a s notes on l ithic t ools ( Fig. 3 1).

7 .3.6.

Summary of a ctivities.

If this reconstruction of a ctivities i s correct, based on the numbers of grinders f ound on the different s ites i t i s thus quite c lear that the grinding of grain and pottery-making must have been very important economic activities at Um Direiwa I , also but to a lesser extent at Kadero I , area 2 , 2 a and Kadero I I, while at Zakiab these activities p layed a very minor role i n the e conomy. From the above discussion on the l ithic artefacts it was apparent that the s ame types of artefacts were present on a ll s ites. There was however, great variation in the frequency distribution for some of the artefacts on the different sites. This can be s ummarized i n the f ollowing diagram:

F laked l ithic waste

Zakiab Um D ireiwa I Kadero I Kadero I I

xxxx xxx xxx xxx

Grinders

x xxxxx xxxx xxxx

Convex s crapers

xxx xxx xxx xxx

EnBacked graytools/ i ng l unates tools xxx xxx xxx xxx

x x x x

Gouges

x xxx xxx xxx

The frequency of each type has been indicated gradings f rom -xxxxx- very common, t o -x- r are.

by

I i nterpret the variation i n f requency distribution of l ithic waste between Z akiab and the three other s ites to indicate that the main bulk of the f laked l ithic production took place at Zakiab, the dry season c amp s ite. The most noticeable variation i s, however, i n the occurrence of grinders, these being most numerous a t Um D ireiwa I and the two Kadero s ites, while they are very f ew at Z akiab. This variation i s i nterpreted to r eflect that cultivation was a maj or rainy season activity around these s ettlements which are understood to be base sites. The similar frequency distribution of c onvex scrapers and engraving tools on a ll s ites would i ndicate the equal importance of hide working, while the f ew lunates/backed tools on the s ite i ndicate that hunting was a minor activity. Gouges are most f requent a t Um Direwia I and s parce at Z akiab. I f the i nterpretation

8 4

that these tools were mainly used a s hoes f or cultivating i s r ight, then this s eems to correlate well with f requency distribution o f the grinders.

8 5

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e iquI

N otches

1

M ultiple

L unates

B acked

s ide polished

Partially Backed t ools

i

Gouges o ne

polished

I

r etouched

Gouges polished on both s ides

f ragments,

Gouges u npolished

N C D ( I )

I I I

E dge

O D Z

> Q ,

Fragments polished

IT ools i rregularly

c n a p

v

' I

Quartz

G . . ,

) -'

CD

N

I - '

. r,

( . ., ,

G .)

LJ

. 1,

L .)

U . . )

. 1

L C )

N J

N

I ‚

I -‚

L . ) . H '

C 5.

. A

. -

F -, L O

Wood

, . _ )

.

i

H .,

f -,

N . )

t -, 0

r -, , A

' , 0

R hyolite

N . ) O D O D

N. ) . A C S

u . , 0

l 0

. P

F -, . A

I -, 0

, A L n

O D

i

1

C O

. A L . )

w

I -

N

B asalt

N C O

Fossile

O D

O D ,

P ebble

-. )

N ile

OD

L . )

C O

1

T uff

N ( . . )

. A L O 0

,

f ' 0

. A

. . ..

( . , ,

1 ' l i i

1 ' 0

. A L n

. A

. 0

t ' ( . , . ,

I ' I \. )

i . 1

( . _ , , A

0

t v

t v

w

G,

O D

. 1

. A

L n

L O

,

F 0 C D

1 -, 0 0

0

N

0

w

N

i -

0

C O

0

C S,

1 . -‚

0

N

SUM

) u n ( : ) '

Volcanic

N L n

0 H C ) 0

N J

( 2

e Tc uel ,

I

• ou

F l 0 ' C I

Borers

Scrapers

Scrapers

i n • , )

Z H 0

Groovers

P i ' C I ( 1 ) F l

Convex

Concave

Notches

multiple

f lakes

Notches,

I I I

D entic

Backed

Partially backed

c r ) 0 I

t n

f lakes N

C D

J = .

1

L r i

1 ‚

U . ,

1 .

L . J

O . ,

U l

and

. A

t ypes

1 ' C )

t ool

( . . . ,

Fossile

N J

J,

Wood

) '

C.)

t abulation of

N . )

4 . l i r )

Cross

U i

. A

P ebble

1 -‚

N ile

. A

[Quartz

N J

C O

C ).

N J

' s < 0

C r,

H • r t( D

c n

1 -

t v

N J

Y '

( 5 1

CO

M — '

4 2,

N J

C O A ., c n A )

I — .

r t

c y-

L . .,

( A L O

1 . 0-)

. A .

I ' U l

C D . C o

. . C,

C S ) U-1

. )

U i 1

F ' U-1

l O

0 1 '

L o C O

C D .

L o .

. ) .

C S,

NJ

N

,

G . c n

( — ) . 0

N J

' N

. a ,

I h '

. w

1 05

c ) . L O

N

i . . C D,

f -.

d P

raw material

F —‚

t ools

e iqpI

f ace

. panuTquo3

• ou

L unates

. N )

D ouble backed t ools

Tanged

r .

a rrows

S caled P iece

1 1 I

IC oncave/convex ,

P ointed t ools

Gouges polished o n one

U npolished g ouges

f aces

r etouched

Gouges polished on both

irregularly

F ragments of polished gouges

I I I I 1

Tools

I

c r ) c

c h .

, N. ) C O NJ

01 l . , ) -

I ' L.,

6 \

Quartz

( . _ , 1 Cu

, . _ ,

. 1

i f r i ( I ) ( . . ) ( . . _ ,

0 1 l . 0

1 . . i ' .

Ul

N J

0 3

Z H.

b .' a > I I ( D

Ni

,

N. )

h ' N J

N J .

: 2 0 0 C 1,

( . )

U . )

,

1

L X ) U1

I . C O

( . 1 1

l . , /

. A

I ' C O

N O

4

U-I

N J

R hyolite

LO C O

N J

I '

,

i

I

I '

6\ L. )

f . N J

N3

Ni

( . . )

N. )

1 '

' 1 0 W W H. H . C D

I •

N J

CC Di C n PJ i - '

0

N J C I I

1 ' , t,

Ni

N J

h '

1 •

. 1

4

( . 2 N. ) 0 1

6\

. r

I

J

C 3

. lo

N J U . ,

N J ( . . ,

U . ) .

4 : . .

, . P .

( : 5

4 ,

. 4 .

H .

, A

( . . . 4

0

0 .

O D

C S\

C O

u ) C Z

,

H' 0 0 . 0

1 ' 0 0 .

I . . ' .

F ' .

0

l A 1

( . . )

I ' . 1 .

0 . N J

_

1 06

I ' . U 1

c l .

• ou e TquI

B orers

Groovers

B eaked t ools

s ide

I '

Groovers one

H

S crapers

C onvex

S crapers

S crapers?

C oncave

N otch

D entics

r etouched O D

( . . ,

f . .

O D

l i l

N il

P eb

f -

C r ( D f . ( 1 3,

N D

a nd

1

( 5-

F . '

‘ C 0

. -

1 . h ' -

r t ( D

,

f . '

Si

G I P i i n Z u

N . )

r t

Volcanic

f '

,

N J

1 --‚ 0 .

0.

. C ) .

I ' .

03

C O

H .‚

l 0, .

0

. 1

1

C D .

4, .

0 . 6\

6 \

• A .

f '

C j i

t '

N J

1 -‚ L . 0

O D

6\

f -

e . . )

1 '

l . .

1 07

I -‚

C

0 \0

r aw m aterial

R I

N J

t ypes

Fossile

Wood

l i i

t ool

1

' 1 o Hsev. ) 1

f . )

i

,

Peq P A 2D X2

f ' C D

t abulation of

, 0 "

9 L6T

f . '0

C ross

I . .

Quartz

t • J

J

0

e TquI

l i i

edges

.o u

I — ' ( . i

s ide

c ompletely p olished

r etouched

panuTquoo

Lunates

f -‚ C ` '

u npolished

B acked t ools

Gouges polished one

Gouges

I I I I

Gouges polished both s ides

Fragments Gouges

C '. C D

i rregularly i

( . . i 4 .

Quartz

I

.

N J } — ' 0

1 1

1 Gouges,

I T ools

C T ) o r

7 ., J

r

N ile

N J U l

P ebble

I C . ` -

U-1

.

0

1 -‚

f ‘

6,

Lo l f,

C 3N J

( 5,

( . . . 1

O D

U i

NJ 0

Rhyolite

C, 6,

N J

N J

!

4

, A

,

4

O ‘.

Basalt

C O

,

Fossile

Wood

t '

I '

0

4

1

Tuff

0 C )

,

,

1

c s -

)

L a

6,

Volcanic

G o

•

O `.

C O

C .,

J

N J 0

N J ( . 7

N J U . ,

L . , . ,

. A . U i

t -‚ .

. I . .

1 -‚ H .

F — ' . A .

1 — ' L . ) .

. 1

0

4 A

OD

( T i C X

I '

L D . l i D

0 0

. A

1 08

H -,

c g)

o ne

C l )

• ou o qP

C ) 0

0

Borers

0 h,-

N 0 0
'f l it _ 12 . 1 1 911• 1bg r

lb

. •

' I N

IN I I II

211 i i,

I l l b , . .. . ,

1 1. 1 b4 2 11 b 7 1: 4 •• •• S

•

i : s herd with s aw-tooth dec oration, p attern no. 8 , f rom Z akiab

Z e

l og " A an al' 1 1 1 1be •ii ii, g ,

•*

bb

%

, b 1 I %

I l e 0

%S •,

6 I I "‚

• • .•...,, o

l i er v; _%

1

U .D . / 10 x /00 y.

3

2 -

o -

./ 02 x / ozy .

7gg /V . L . 74 /V E Z ) .4z _ . / 98/ . / 71/ . 57. 9 ,e/sÄ - 4o .c EY ,W BER9e-A . r .

1 66

j : c ombed r ims herd, pattern no. 9 , f rom Z akiab

„

k : r imsherds with curvilinear d ecoration, pattern no. 1 1, f rom Um D ireiwa 1 : r imsherd with c urvilinea r d ecoration, pattern no. 1 1, f rom Z akiab

- -

7

7 7 1 .

,s 7 ,i17 .Tre e 7 :

/ o2 . x 98y .

3 C

2 .

D .

/04 /x 7 2y .

1

Z .T , INGEDAz . / 98/ . h i /SToR/SK i s easev Ai .

^ 1 67

m , n : r imsherd , 7 9 .11 burnished r ed ware, pattern no. 1 3, f rom Z akiab

2 "

x/ 025 .

3

cm

2

0

Z

/ 02 x /02 y •

7E "qW .

744 4E 1c4 Z . / 98 /

/ 7 / 7 . 57 2 2 5eis .ede isev/0 .4 gee7&xr , 1 1 . 1

1 68

F ig. 3 3 D ifferent types of r ims ( no. 9 i ncludes those types t hat can not be c lassif ied i nto 1 -8.

R I M- TYPES

i n s ide

1

6

2

3

7

8

5

•

1 69

Plate

1 2.

The potter

i s

kneading the

1 70

c lay

i nto

a ball.

Plate 13. vessel.

The clay-ball is shaped into a globular type of

1 71

a , b , c , d , e : s herds with d ecoration of vees/dots, pattern no. 1 , f rom Z akiab

1 72

Plate 1.4. Continued.

C

d

173

P late 1 4. Continued

f , g : r imsherds with decoratior of vees, pattern no. 2 , f rom Z akiab

1 74

Plate 14. Continued.

g h: rimsherds with decoratio of dots, pattern no. 3, from Zakiab

....

••••••••••• , ,,,,, ' .

\

,.

'

.

' .. ·t

)'

�

.

"' t

h

175

Plate 14. Continued

i: sherd with catfish deco­ ration, pattern no. 4, from Zakiab

i

j: rimsherd with dotted saw-tooth de .,.. coration, pattern no. 7, from Zakiab

j

176

0....

l,-

q

p

I'

lg

I

q

q

q

I

p

q

q

11111111 111111111 1111111111111111111 ! 111111111111111111 111111111 1111111 11111111 111111111\11111 11111 11111 1111 1111121111 111131111 1111111 1 1 114 113 112 1h 110 lg la 1 a Is l4

1Me TR. 1

9

1£

e?;

ll

I

h�NI

111111il11il111 11il111 1111111 1·1111111 I 1111111 11 11111 I 1111111 l 1111111 I 1111111 1 111 1 11 1111111

I

Plate 15. a: reconstructed impressed dotted lines, made with the barb of a catfish on a piece of clay, the sherd to the left is from Zakiab and is used for comparison. b: reconstructed im­ pressed dotted lines made with the serrated edge of a shell found at Kadero I site, the sherd to the left is from Zakiab.

177

I

p 11111111 I1111\1111IIIII 11111111111111 q 111111111 I' 11111111 II 1111111 q 11111111 lj 11111111 q 111111111 II 11111111 I' 11111111 p 1111111 q 11111111 q 111111111 , 1 u 3 1 112 11 o 1 9 la 1 e Is ,. 3 2 IMel"R. 1

Plate 15. c: dotted saw-tooth pattern is reconstructed on a piece of clay made with the barb of a catfish, used with the

rocker stamp technique, the sherd to the left is from Um Direiwa I. d: saw-tooth pattern is reconstructed on a piece of clay made

with a bibal ve shell us.ed with the rocker stamp technique, the sherd to the left is from Um Direiwa I. 178

P late

P late

1 6.

1 7.

The

pot

Pots

i s

are

burnished

s tacked

l ined with

s traw

with

i n and

the

a water

kiln,

grass.

1 79

rolled

which

i s

quartz

a small

pebble.

depression

... . ,

n� , ·.• ,¾Jf �&�

� . .., ... �.*'is&,

,+&,

".w/J

I�I��111111111111111111111111111111111111 I'III 11111 I'I1111111 I'I111IIII I'II11111 q1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111) �TR 1

2

3

4

s

s

1

Is

g

1l0

11,

1

112

1

113

1

114

1

1

Plate 18. Neolit�ic groovers used experimentally to engrave holes on a piece of clay. Neolithic potsherds with repair holes of similar width have been arranged beneath the groovers.

180

9 FLORAL REMAINS The only plant r emains f ound were s eeds f rom the hackberry tree C eltis i ntegrefolia. This type of s eeds were found on a ll the excavated s ites ( except Kadero I I). The i nner s eed i s l eft and probably the outer part o f the berries were eaten. I t r ipens i n August, but c an be picked and e aten i n a dry s tate at any time o f the year. I t i s d ifficult to e stimate how many s eeds were present s ince the core of the berry disintegrates q uite e asily and many were crushed during the excavation. This is the only plant remains found in the occupation debris, however, none of the debris was s ieved with froth-flotation. The reason f or this was that a lmost a ll squares were d isturbed by l ater burials. It would therefore be difficult to decide f rom which period the plant r emains recovered came. However, s ince the Celtis requires at least 5 00 millimetres of r ain yearly to grow, i t was a ssumed that the plant could not have been growing in the area when the l ater burials were dug. They could therefore be expected to be c ontemporary with the Neolithic s ettlement.

9 .1.

P lant

impressions on pottery.

Support f or the i nterpretation that Celtis i ntegref olia was growing in the area during the Neolithic period comes from impressions on pottery of s eeds of Celtis found at the Esh Shaheinab site ( personal c ommunication Anwar M .Osman). Impressions were f ound on the pottery of Sorghum verticilliflorum at Zakiab ( 5 impressions), at UM D ireiwa ( 4 impressions), and at Kadero I , ( 2 i mpress ions) ( Pl. 1 9). From Z akiab i s f ound one i mpression of what appears to be a grain of Pennisetum violaceum, the wild progenitor o f domesticated pennisetum ( Stemler, A , B ,et a l. 1 981). According to Ann Stemler, who is working on i dentification o f plant impressions on the pottery, the s orghum f ound does not s eem to be morphologically d ifferent from the wild growing. She relates the l ack of morphological d ifferantiation f rom wild-type grain and the virtual absence of branches that supported the grain, to the harvesting methods. Both these l ines of botanical evidence s uggest the grain was harvested i n baskets or swept f rom the ground, a harvesting method which i s still practised among the Tuaregs ( Nicolaisen, J . 1963: 173-177) and the Zaghawa of western Sudan ( personal communication Sherif Abdulla Harir ). I f this harvesting method i s practised, it will not l ead to g enetical changes i n the plant, the changes occur only when the stalk of the sorghum is cut ( Stemler, A . 1 980:521:23). Ann Stemler's hypothesis i s supported by the archaeological material. I t should be noted that one

1 81

impression of Sorghum f rom the s ite of Um Direiwa has retained the base of the s pikelet ( Plate 2 0) a nd thus some of the characteristic features of domesticated f orms. However, Ann Stemler has pointed out, that the s hape of the grain i s s omewhat d ifferent from what one would expect the e arly domesticated f orm to have been ( too rounded). The presence of d omesticated s orghum i s thus s till very uncertain. The i nteresting point i s that this impression was f ound on the s ite where the f ragments of grinders were s o very numerous. P lant i mpress ions have earlier been i dentified by M . K lichowska f rom Kadero I . Several of these were s aid to be remains o f Sorghun vulgare ( domesticated s orghun) ( Klichowska, M . 1 978:43-43). This material has been transferred to Ann Stemler who i s now working on the material. She disagrees with the i dentifications done by K lichowska, s ome of the impressions which were i dentified a s impressions of Sorghum vulgare are probably of unripe seeds of Celtic integrefolia ( personal c ommunication Ann S teml er). Sorghum verticilliflorum would have required a minimum of 500 millimetres of yearly rain, which correlates well with the evidence of Celtis r equiring the s ame rainfall. I t would have been growing i n the wet season from around July to around November and then harvested. The best type of s oil f or sorghum i s the c lay type of a lluvial s oil. The first clear evidence of fully domesticated sorghum comes from the old city of Meroe, dated to 1 970±127 B . P. ( Stemler, A , B , 1 981) and f rom the s ite o f Jebel Tomat, dated to 2 45±60 A . D. ( Clark, J . D. 1 984 and A . B. Stemler 1975). From the period between these Neolithic sites and the Meroitic sites there a re no evidence. Althoug sorghum is morphologically wild, I will argue that the i nhabitants were cultivating i t. Material I will use to support this theory with i s the enormous amount of grinders and the a bsence of s ickles. This will be discussed i n greater detail i n c hapter 1 2.

1 82

Plate 19.

3 impressions of Sorghum verticilliflorum photo­ graphed through scanning microscope by Ann Stemler. a .c from Zakiab b: from Um Direiwa I

d: sample of wild sorghum from Sudan

Impression .sorghumtdomest1oated? 2fJ:z:

1 h

Plate 20

�t '"?

1 0.

FAUNAL

REMAINS

I n the f ollowing i s presented the list of osteological material identified from Zakiab, Um Direiwa I a nd Esh Shaheinab ( from Kadero I I and Um Direiwa I I only a f ew f ragments of bones and molluscs were recovered). The identification of the material i s done by Ali Tigani e l Mahi, who has d iscussed i n detail the faunal remains i n his Ph. d. thesis ( Tigani el Mahi 1 982). I shall therefore only d iscuss that part of the material which i s relevant f or my a rgument that herding and f ishing are activities which favour s easonal o ccupations of s ites. As r egards Kadero I , only the faunal material which i s a nalysed and a vailable i n publications, will be d iscuss ed.

1 0.1

Z akiab The

s ite.

following mammals

Unidentified carnivores Orycteropus afer Equus s p. Hippopotamus amphibius Phacochoerus aethiopicus Kobus kob Damaliscus l unatus Hippotragus equinus Large unidentified a ntelope Bos primigenius f . taurus Ovis ammon f . aries(Capra Aegagrus f . hircus

s pecies

Quantity 1 4 2 2 2 8 3 1 1 1 2 1 72 3 7

have

been

identified: Percentage 0 ,88% 0 ,88% 0 ,88% 3 ,52% 1 ,32% 0 ,44% 0 ,44% 7 5,77% 1 6,30%

As can be s een f rom the above l ist domestic a nimals were predominant over the wild animals with cattle, s heep and goat 9 2,07% of the domestic animals. Cattle were the most numerous. F ish remains were extremely abundant with l ungfish ( protopterus s p.) being dominant, a s can be s een from the f ollowing l ist: Identified Protopterus a ethiopicus Heterotis s p. Clarias s p. Synodontis s p. Lates n iloticus Tilapia s p. Unidentified f ish

f ish

s pecies Quantity 6 98 9 8 6 5 8 2 2 9 7 8 2

1 85

Percentage 7 1,95% 0 ,93% 8 ,87% 5 ,98% 2 ,27% 1 0,00% 1 0,00%

Reptiles

were

represented by

Varanus n iloticus Crocodylus niloticus Python s p. Unidentified reptile

the following Quantity 1 4 5 6 0 1 43

s pecies: Percentage 1 7,92% 6 ,33% 7 5,95%

Mollusc shells were extremely abundant on the s ite of which the swamp snail Pila was dominant. The following list gives an indication of the relative importance of the d ifferent s pecies of molluscs identical: Name of s pecies Pila werrnei Lanistus carinates Cleopatra bulimoides E theria elliptica Unio s p. Z ootecus i nsularis Limicoioria flammata Legend: R= Rare f requent

1 0.2 The

Um Direiwa

R

P

F

FF X

X X X X X X / P = Present

/ F = Frequent

/ FF

= Very

I

following mammal

s pecies have been Quantity 3 2 1

Rodentia F elis caracal Canis s p. or Canis lupus f . familiaris 1 0 Equus s p. 2 Phacochoerus aethiopicus 5 5 Sylvicapra grimmia or Ourebia ourebia 1 1 Antelope of the s ize Kobus kob 1 Large unidentitied antelope 1 Small unidentified antelope 5 3 Bos primigenius f . taurus 1 06 Ovis ammon f . aries/Capra a egagrus f . hirCus 2 3

identified: Percentage 1 3,28% 0 ,41% 4 ,15% 0 ,83% 2 2,82% 4 ,56% 0 ,41%

4 3,98% 9 ,54%

Domestic animals a re l ess important on this site than at Zakiab, cattle, s heep a nd goat counting 5 3,52%, and again with an emphasis on cattle. Fish remains were very f ew, but following Zakiab the lungfish ( protopterus sp.) was the most numerous which can be s een f rom the following l ist: Quantity Percentage Protopterus aethiopicus 1 5 6 5,22% Clarias s p. 3 1 3,04% Synodontis sp. 2 8 ,70% Lates n iloticus 3 1 3,04% Unidentified f ish 5

1 86

Reptiles

were

represented

with

the

following

identified

s pecies:

1 0.3 The

Esh

Percentage 4 4,23% 5 5,77%

Quantity 2 3 2 9 4 7

Varanus n iloticus Python s p. Unidentified reptile

Shaheinab.

f ollowing mammal

s pecies have been Quantity 1

Millivora capensis Diceros bicornis or Cerathotherium s imum H ippopotamus ampahibius Phacochoerus aethiopicus Giraffe camelopardalis Sylvicapra grimmia or Qurebia ourebia Antelope of the s ize Kobus kob Antelope of the s ize Redunca r edunca Large antelope of the s ize H ippotragus euinus Large unidentified antelope Bos primigenius f . ta i lrus Ovis ammon f . aries/ Capra a egagrus f . hircus

identified: Percentage 1 ,56%

2 1 1 3 4

3 ,13% 1 7,19% 4 ,69% 6 ,25%

3

1 7,19%

2

3 ,13%

3

4 ,69%

2 1 3 2

3 ,13%

1

5 0,00% 1 ,56%

Domestic animals are important on this site, especially cattle which count for 5 1,56%. The identification previously done by Bate was not correct, she s eems to have identified domestic cattle a s wild buffalo ( Arkell, A. J. 1 953: 12). This identification of the mamal remains done by Ali Tigani el Mahi 1 982, has later been confirmed by Gautier ( Gautier, A . 1 983). The

f ollowing

f ish

Protopterus a ethiopicus Clarias s p. Synodontissp. Lates niloticus Tilapia s p. Unidentified f ish Reptiles

remains were present: Quantity 1 1 95 5 7 7 9 3 1 3 47

were

represented by the following Quantity Varanus n iloticus 1 7 Crocodylus niloticus 1 Python s p. 9 Snake 6 Unidentified reptile 7 8

1 87

Percentage 0 ,28% 5 3,72% 1 5,70% 2 1,76% 8 ,54%

species: Percentage 5 1,22% 3 ,03% 2 7,27% 1 8,18%

Mollusc s hells were abundant P ila wernei Lanistes carinatus Cleopatra bulimoides Etheria elliptica Mutela nilotica Aspathria rubens Unidentified large bivalve Z ootecus i nsularis Limicolaria cailliaudi

1 0.4

Kadero

on

the

s ite.

I I.

The site was very baddly eroded, and the faunal remains recovered f rom the 4 square metres excavated were few and fragmented. According to Ali Tigani el Mahi one f ragment identified came f rom domestic cattle. There were i n addition a f ew l and molluscs but no river molluscs or f ish remains.

1 0.5

Um Direiwa

I I.

The faunal remains from this s ite were recovered f rom surface collections only. The identified f ragments consisted of one specimen probably f rom domesticated cattle and one f rom sheep or goat. A f ew molluscs both of r iver and land molluscs were found, but no f ishbones.

1 0.6

Kadero

I .

Krzyzaniak published i n 1 978 a l ist of the identif ied faunal remains based on the material excavated until the 1 976 season. The mammalian remains were identified by M . Sobocinski, and show the follwing breakdown:

Domestic animals Wild animals Total 1 257 ( Krzyzaniak, L . 1 978:168).

Number of identified% s keletal f ragments Quantity Precentage 1 108 8 8,14 1 49 1 1,85 9 9,99

Only 1 0 f ishbones were recovered. ( This was based on material recovered f rom 3 84 square metres excavated). A . Gautier has identified the material excavated after the 1 976 season and based on a preli minary analysis of the material ( presented in a paper d elivered i n Poznan S eptember 1 980 on " Origin and Early Development of Food-Producing Cultures in North-Eastern Africa") he s tates that l ivestock makes up a t l east 3 0% of the mammalian remains, with cattle 3 to 4 t imes more

1 88

frequent than smaller livestock among which sheep predominate ( 2:1). Fishbones are s till very rare but are more numerous than the 1 0 bones recovered until 1 976. They i nclude the following l ist: Latus n iloticus ( rare) Protopterus a ethiopicus ( rare) Clarias s p. ( r 'are) ' ( rare, l ess than 3 0 f ragments)

1 0.7

Conclusion.

The osteological material identified on the various s ites, s hows some s triking s imilarities and differences. All sites are, however, characterized by a large percentage of domesticated animals: Zakiab: Um Direiwa I : Esh Shaheinab:

9 7,07% 5 3,52% 5 1,56%

( From Kadero I I and Um Direiwa I I one can only state that domestic animals were present s ince the material i s small a nd f ragmentary). On Kadero I Krzyzaniak s tates that domestic animals counted 8 8,14% out of the mammalian remains ( Krzyzaniak, L . 1 978:164). This estimation may be too high s ince Gautier s tates that l ivestock makes up at l east 3 0% of the mammalian a ssemblage. These percentage variations i n terms of precence of l ivestock does not alter the interpretation that the domesticated animals are important on a ll the s ites. The d ifferences between the s ites located on the east bank are, however, striking when it comes to the presence of identified f ish remains: Z akiab: Um Direiwa: Kadero I : Kadero I I: Um Direiwa I I:

c . 1 000 fragments c . 2 0 fragmetns l ess than 1 00 f ragments none none

Compared with the d ifferences i n the frequency d istribution of livestock, the different frequencies of f ish remains on the various s ites represent a different order of magnitude. Thus I find it safe to conclude that there are d ifferences between Zakiab and the other eastern s ites with r eference to comsumption of aquatic resources. On the basis of our meager knowledge of Neolithic adaptat ions i n the Khartoum Nile environment and on the basis of probable sampling biases i n my i nvestigation s trategy I find it unwarranted to infer that the statistical d ifferences of l ivestock on the various s ites represent a real difference with reference to consumption of

1 89

domestic animals. This interpretation i s consistent with a high f requency d istribution on a ll the s ites of lithic tools convex scrapers related to a pastoral adaptation. This has, however, been discussed in chapter 7 . Similarly there is a s triking d ifference among sites with reference to tools associated with exploitation of fish resources. These tools are primarily shell f ish-hooks and bone fishing harpoons. Ali Tigani el Mahi will discuss these tools more in detail. I s hall therefore only very briefly mention that f ish-hooks both complete and i n d ifferent s tages of preparation were found a t Zakiab, while these were found to be completely absent a t the other s ite ( for Kadero I neither f ish-hooks nor bone harpoons were found i n the material excavated between 1 971 and 1 976, my information i s, however, i ncomplete for the material excavated a fter 1 976). As regards bone harpoons, four fragments of these were found a t Z akiab, one fragment a t Um Direiwa I and none on the other s ites. Thus the d istribution of these tools supports the i nterpretation of the importance of aquatic resources a t the Z akiab s ite.

1 90

1 1.

NATURAL

ENVIRONMENT

The a rchaeological i nventory of the sites in the Khartoum area indicates that the people who inhabited them exploited s everal resoures. In order to get a more c lear understanding of this resource exploitation i t i s n ecessary to try to characterize relevant opportunities a nd constraints imposed by the natural environment. In this chapter the environmental conditions relevant for the exercise of the following a ctivities will be d iscussed: production and use of lithic artefacts, the production a nd u se of pottery, cultivation, l ivestock, hunting and t he utilization of aquatic resources. This provides the setting for identification of various microenvironments i n terms of how they support the specific subsistence activities. In order to specify the prehistoric environmental constraints I s hall s tart with a short d escription of the situation today. On the basis of additional data ( mainly circums tantial evidence) relating to prehistoric natural features, I shall discuss what difference this indicates between the environmental constraints today and in prehistoric times.

1 1.1

Present

environment.

The dominant features of Khartoum are a s follows: The river Nile The a lluvial plain The gravel plateau with the

1 1.1.1

the

environment

Butana

savannah

north

to

the

of

east.

The River Nile.

The river Nile is the central feature in the environment. At Khartoum the two rivers, the Blue and the White Nile, merge into the Main Nile, also called the Saharan Nile ( Butzer et a l. 1 968:3). The Blue Nile originates in the Ethiopian highlands ( from Lake Tana) and the White Nile f rom Lake Victoria i n the highlands of Uganda. Both lakes are large shallow water reservoirs. But most of the water i n the Main Nile originates f rom the Ethiopian highlands which contribute with a s much a s 8 0 per cent of the water. The Nile varies greatly between July - October. The rise and the fall of the Nile i s dependant on the amount of rain falling a t the headwaters. The rivers are f ed by the monsoonal rains ( June - through October) and it is these rains which give rise to the f lood, inundating the alluvial plain every year. ( Butzer et al. 1 968:8).

1 91

1 1.1.2

The

a lluvial

plain.

The a lluvial plain i s part of the Gezira formation of which the main a rea is to the s outh of the Khartoum between the Blue and the White Nile. The alluvial soils have been deposited every year by the rivers i n f lood. When they are receding the waters f irst deposit sand and then s ilts and clays when they are more shallow. At their best these deposits of sandy or clayey s ilts are easily worked and extremely fertile when used for cultivation ( Barbour, K . M. 1 961:57). When the water retreats after the inundation by summer flood the farmers start to prepare the soil for cultivation. Generally the alluvial plain is flatter and more monotonous on the east bank of the Nile, especially the a rea between Khartoum and Jebel S ileitat. The west bank s lopes more s teeply and i s more rugged consisting of old gravel terraces of the river Nile and of deep Khors, i .e. wet s eason erosional channels ( see Fig. 5 ). ( This i s a lso clearly marked on the map fig. 48 p . 113 in Whiteman, A .J. 1 971, where the watershed and Khors are demarcated). On the east bank the a lluvial plain s lopes very slightly eastwards, which allows the river to i ncrease greatly i n width i n this a rea during the f lood. The a lluvium s tretches continuously along both s ides of the Nile to the Sixth Cataract a rea where i t i s broken by the Basement Complex ( Whiteman, A .J. 1 971:60). The Sixth Cataract or Sabaloka consists of a central hill mass cut through by the Nile in a gorge s ome 1 00 metres deep and in places s ome 4 00 metres wide. According to Whiteman the top consists of a " cake" of rhyolite lava, ignimbrite tuffs etc., resting on a metamorphosed Basement Complex, gneisses, granites etc., and i n places metamorphosed sandstone and mudstone ( Whiteman, A .J. 1 971:57). The quartz pebbles which have weathered out of the sandstone occur in old gravel terraces of pebbles ( agate, chert and carnelian) and z eolite pebbles which have been transportet by the Blue Nile from the Ethiopian highlands. On the eastern plain, some 2 0 kilometres north of the Zakiab-Kadero I s ites, i s Jebel Sileitat which consists of soda granite. On both s ides of the Nile small outcrops of volcanic tuff occur occasionally. The vegetation i s sparse s ince the area today l ies within the dry tropics with low average rainfall of around 1 65 millimetres per year. The rains are erratic and come i n s howers, mostly i n July - August. The most dominant vegetation f eatures on the alluvial plain are the different types of thorny and s pare leafed shrubs and bushes, belonging to the Acacia family. Most of these grow in open stands along the alluvial plain. Their principal value i s a s browse for sheep, camels and goats. The dominant s pecies in a reas of overgraze, i s the Acacia nubica which cannot be browsed. Besides the Acacia bushes, the vegetation cover i s a varying mixture

1 92

of grasses and herbs. Annual and perennial grasses s eem to o ccur in equal amounts. The growing s eason i s short and i n years when rainfall i s l ow, the grass may s tand only a f ew centimetres high. As rains cease in September, the g rass dries and yellows. In hollows some grasses may stay green until the end of September. Throughout the d ry s eason - the next s ix-seven monthsthe grasses and herbs are dried and of much lower nutritional value.

1 1.1.3

Butana grassland.

To the east the alluvial plain gives way to the s lightly higher Butana grassland ( the main Butana is situated between the two rivers, The Blue Nile and Atbara). The Butana i s classified a s grassland ( Lebon, J .H.G. 1 965:115) i n the sense that trees and bushes are a lmost a bsent, except for s tands a long the rare water courses. The grasses and herbs are the same a s those growing a long the a lluvial plain, except for species occurring on the inundated flood-plain. Today this Butana vegetation provides the best pasture for domestic animals kept by the pastoral tribes i n the area. There a re two patterns of pastoral production: s hort east-west movement between the Nile environment and long movements between the drier areas of northern Butana and the wetter areas of the south. The former type i s charac terized by movements towards the Nile when the river recedes. The flush of green pasture on the moist riverbank provides an important f odder a t the time when the g rasses away from the river are dried up ( Barbour, K . M. 1 961:182). As the dry weather continues a ccess to water a nd grazing in the inland areas becomes more and more d ifficult. Increasingly the herds have to fall back on r iverine pasture. Thus by the middle of the dry s eason the domestic animals, especially cattle, become wholly d ependant on the riverine areas. The latter type of migrations i s characerized by north-south movements between areas o f heavier rainfall i n the southern part of Butana and the drier parts of norther Butana. The basis for these two types of migrations are that the northern Butana can best be exploited for a pastoral production in the rainy season. In the dry s eason s hortage of pasture and water f orces the pastoralists to move to other a reas of the Butana, i .e. towards the Nile or towards the wetter parts of the s outhern Butana. I n the r ainy s eason these wetter areas are heavily i nfested by various types of i nsects tormenting both men and animals. Consequently pastoralists tend to avoid these a reas i n t he rainy season. I n this s hort survey of the s ituation today, I have only referred to those subsistence activities which I consider important for prehistoric reconstruction and have not d iscussed the dominant cultivation activities, namely pump-irrigation and mechanized farming.

1 93

1 1.2

The

natural

environment

during the Neolithic

time.

For an understanding of the environmental constra ints on Neolithic adaptations, the main problem i s to identify the maj or conditions which differ from the s ituation today and infer the i nvironmental implications of these changes. The two main s ets of conditions are the climate and the f lood l evel of the Nile. Both of these conditions s ignificantly a ffect both the f lora and the fauna of the region and are therefore fundamental d eterminants f or human adaptation.

1 1.2.1

The

f lood

l evel

of

the Nile.

As mentioned earlier during Neolithic time there are s trong i ndications that the conditions were d ifferent f rom the present day situation. Thus the flood level of the Nile was probably much higher. Arkell suggests that the high flood level during Neolithic time when the Esh Shaheinab s ite was o ccupied, was a round 5 metres above the present high water l evel ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:7-8). This corresponds to the 3 77 metres contour l ine ( above s ea l evel). To quote Arkell: "Assuming that the Neolithic inhabitants s ettled above normal high water l evel, as primitive people a lways do when making a permanent ( all the year round) s ettlement, this gives a corresponding value to the Neolithic highflood level of 5 metres above present days levels" ( Arkell, A . J. 1 953:8). Arkell assumed that the Esh Shaheinab s ite must have been a permanent s ite s ince he d id not f ind any s imilar Neolithic s ites further to the west. The average slope of the river upstream is, estimated to be relatively constant, the mean value being c . 1 0 centimetres per kilometre. The Kadero I , I I s ites a re s ituated a round 32 kilometres south of Esh Shaheinab. Conxequently one would expect the high water l evel a t the Kadero I , I I s ites to be a round 3 ,2 metres higher than the Esh Shaheinab s ite i .e. 3 80,2 metres. However, the plain surrounding the two sites reaches between the 3 78 to 3 79 contour l ines ( see Fig. 5 . ) . I f Arkell's estimate of the Nile being 5 meters higher during this time was correct, this would imply that both these s ites were covered by water while the Um Direiwa I , II sites, situated between the 379-380 contour l ines a nd further to the s outh, would have been partly covered by water. I t i s therefore suggested that the Nile must have been l ess than 5 metres above the present high water l evel of the Nile, not higher than to reach up to the 4 eastern s ites i .e. Kadero I , I I and Um Direiwa I , I I, during the rainy s eason, that i s between 3 to 4 metres higher than today. While I a ssume that the area around the s ites was l aid bare when the Nile retreated during the dry season which probably then f lowed by the Z akiab s ite, which i s s ituated c . 3

1 94

k ilometres closer to the present course o f the Nile a nd a long the 3 77 to 3 78 contour l ines ( see F ig. 5 ). If the Nile was higher during the flood, that i mplies t hat the f lood-plain was wider in the eastern area ( the plain s lopes slightly higher eastwards). Therefore the part of the a lluvial plain suitable for human habitation must have been smaller i n Neolithic t imes than today. When the Nile receded i n the d ry s eason, an a rea between Kadero I , I I a nd Um Direiwa I , I I would have been l aid bare which, i n turn, provided good pasture f or d omestic s tocks. The volume of the Nile could have i ncreased either by a h igher amount of rainfall i n the h eadwaters of t he White Nile or the Ethiopian highlands. High lake levels have been attested from the East African l akes b etween the n inth to the t hird millennia b c, with a peak a bout 7 000 bc ( Zindern Bakker 1 972:152 7), ( Butzer e t a l. 1 972:1969-1075). I t has a lso been mentioned that there s eems to be a r emarkable concurrence i n t he f luctuations i n the l evels o f t he East African l akes and i n those o f the s outhern Sahara ( Phillipson, D . 1977). The data from the Khartoum environment s upports the i nterpretation o f a moister climate in the eastern part of sub-Saharan Africa. Thus n ot only was the environment d ifferent i n prehistoric t imes because of a higher f lood l evel o f the Nile, but there a re s trong i ndications that the climate i n the Khartoum environment was wetter. Arkell argues that the rainfall a t the t ime when the Esh S haheinab s ite was occupied was at least 5 00 millimetres yearly. These paleo-climatic conclusions were based on t he presence of the f ollowing material: Limicolaria f lammata ( landsnail) and s eeds of the Celtis i ntegrefolia tree ( both requiring this minimum amount of rain) ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:9). Furthermore the presence at Esh Shaheinab of the following faunal remains: g iraffe, kudu a ntelope a nd buffalo would i ndicate partly forest conditions. Finds of Limicolaria kambeul ( landsnail), bush duiker a nd g rivet monkey s uggested the presence of forest conditions and not the dry s emid esert c onditions prevailing today. Arkell compares the s ituation of t he Esh Shaheinab s ite with those of the Malakal a rea today ( Arkell, A .J. 1 953:7-9), a view l ater adopted also by Butzer who suggests a 3 00 kilometres northward s hift o f the z onal vegetation belts ( Butzer et a l. 1 968:335-26). The paleo-climatic conclusions d rawn by Arkell have been f urther corroborated by the f aunal and botanical remains from Kadero I , Zakiab and Um Direiwa I ( Kadero I I d id not y ield any plant remains and the faunal remains were few and f ragmented s ince the s ite was g reatly d eflated a s was a lso the case with Um Direiwa I I).

1 95

1 1.2.2

Faunal a nd conditions.

f loral

evidence

i ndicating

c limatic

The following list shows the faunal remains at Z akiab and the rainfall-range tolerable for various s pecies ( based on work done by Ali Tigani el Mahi). Warthog r equirering mm rain roan a ntelope t iang

a ntelope

a min.

of

"

3 00

mm

a nd

a max.

o f

7 00

5 00

9 00

5 00

9 00

5 00

9 00

5 00

9 00

2 50

9 00

I t

white kob

eared

waterbuk cattle

I t

Based on the above mentioned d ata Ali T igani e l Mahi s uggests that the rainfall would have been between 5 00-900 millimetres per year. On the basis o f plant r emains of Celtis we may furthermore infer that the precipitation was probably a bove 5 00 millimetres. The paleo-botanical evidence also showed the presence of Sorghum verticilliflorum, morphologically not d omesticated ( Ann Stemler personal communication) f rom both Z akiab a nd Kadero I . This plant requires above 5 00 millimetres of rain yearly. The paleo-botanical and o steological material identified f rom the Kadero I s ite s trongly s uggests the s ame c limatological conditions a s was f ound a t Z akiab. The material y ielded evidence o f Celtis ( Krzyzaniak, L . 1 978: 166) and the remains of swamp snails like Ampultania and Limicolaria f lamata ( Krzyzaniak, L . 1 978:177-78). The moister climate i n Neolithic t imes would have implied a l onger rainy season, i .e. a longer growing s eason. The vegetation cover could probably be characterized a s a woodland savannah rather s imilar to the conditions prevailing i n the s outhern Butana today. A vegetation composed of trees a nd bushes with a richer foliage, and with different types of Acacia species dominant a s e . g. Acacia melliforia and Acacia s eyal which provide good f ooder f or browsing. Annual g rasses would probably then have predominated over the perennial grasses of better grazing value which would have been l onger than the grasses of the s emi-desert a t presentday. As mentioned remains of Sorghum verticilliflorum were found. The exploitation of this summer cereal would a lso i ndicate a moister c limate. But even i f the amount of precipitation was higher than today, there was certainly a marked d ry s eason w ith a consequent r educt ion i n vegetation cover a nd l imited availability to

1 96

water, requiering seasonal adjustments. Except for the few plant species mentioned there was no other evidence of the flora which the land supported during this wetter phase. However, since the soil conditions in this part of the Butana are similar to those prevailing in the southern Butana, it seems reasonable to infer that the area d uring the N e o l i t h i c habitation supported a woodland savannah vegetation as in the southern Butana which has above 500 millimetres of yearly precipitation. The overall v e g e ta t ional pattern w o u l d then probably have been of the woodland savannah type as reconstructed above. However, the interesting aspects would be to identify the different micro-environments, but in order to do this one has to identify the various activities performed during the Neolithic occupation. In the following chapters I shall therefore discuss what types of activities were performed and then return to a discussion of the prevailing environmental conditions. 11.3

Change in the paleo-climate.

Before I proceed, it will be necessary to discuss when the climatic changes took place which altered the Khartoum Nile environment from a lush type of savannah vegetation to the semi-desert prevailing today. My earlier hypothesis was that climatic deteriora­ tion favoured migrations of the people from the Khartoum area to the presumably better areas further to the south c. 5000 BP since no Neolithic sites are recorded in the Khartoum area later than 5000 BP (Haaland, R. 198la,b). However, Wickens has most recently reviewed the botanical and faunal evidence from the Central Sudan, and he summarizes some of the most important conclusions in terms of climatic changes as follows: By mid-Holocene times (c. 4000-2000 BP) climatic desiccation had set in. Allthough still somewhat wetter than today the vegetation was retreating southwards. Pastoralism and agriculture, hitherto made difficult by the presence of biting flies and associated diseases, became more common. The influence of man upon the flora and fauna became increasingly pronounced (Wickens, G. 1982). This study indicates that the climatic deterior­ ation took place 1000 years later than I assumed, and climatic change does not seem to be a factor influencing the settlement hiatus.

197

12.

EVOLUTION OF FOOD-PRODUCING ACTIVITIES IN THE KHARTOUM NILE ENVIRONMENT

The archaeological material indicated that fishing, hunting, animal husbandry, and exploitation of plant­ resources by gathering and cultivation,,,were all subsis­ tence activities practised by the people inhabiting the sites excavated. The evolution of such a complex multi-resource adaptations have several critical aspects which require f urther discussion, and these I shall examine with reference to the organizational prerequistes for the development of the new food producing activities, as well as with reference to wider culture-histor i c al connections. 12.1 Division of labour and the subsistence role of plants and game among hunters/gatherers; compara­ tive ethnographic material. Adaptations involving a multitude of productive tasks will have required some kind of division of labour either within units of production or between such units. My thesis is that gender was the basic principle for division of labour in these early Neolithic adaptations. Although the archaeological material provides no direct evidence for the structuring of production units by a division of labour based on gender modern ethnographic material from people who engage in foraging, primitive cultivation, an.d pastoralism in tropical areas shows some striking regularities in the organization of these activities which invite comparison with the archaeo­ logical material discussed here. Among hunters/ gatherers it is women who gather plants, while the men do the hunting. There are obvious reasons for this arrangement: most activities involved in child-rearing, e.g. carrying infants, are universally female tasks which are incompatible with the long distance tracking involved in hD:nting. J .re. Brown has argued that the rearing of children is nowhere primarily the respon­ sibility of ·cien, women can therefore only participate in subsistence v·.rhich are compatible with child care.· 'rhe subsistence activities performed by women thus have the following characteristics: "They do not require rapt concentration and are relatively dull and repetitive; they are easily interruptible and easily resumed once interrup�ed: they do not place the child in potential danger; and they do not require the participant to range very far from home". (Brown, J.K. 1970:1075-1077). Another characteristic feature of the hunting/gath­ ering societies is the long intervals between births, 198

and this appears to be a biological response to the physical strains involved i n mobile gathering a ctivities. To quote R .E. L eakey " Very young children must be carried while gathering and on migrations f rom an o ld camp to a new l ocation. Transporting two children and gathering f ood would be extremely arduous. Richard Lee has calculated the amount of work which would be i nvolved i n carrying i nfants and f ood-loads i f the birth intervals were one year, two years, three years and s o on. At the shorter i ntervals the work load is enormous and decreases rapidly when the birth interval i s about f our years, but does not drop significantly as the birth interval gets longer than f our years. The world's hunters/gatherers therefore appear to have hit upon the optimum spacing entirely independant of each other". ( Leakey, R .E. 1 981:105). This i s probably a major f actor i n the l ow growthr ate characteristic o f hunter/gatherer populations. In c onnection with this d ivision of l abour one f inds that gathering i s a highly s ocial activity i n which s everal mothers and their children participate, while hunting i n tropical environments i s usually undertaken by a f ew men. Under tropical c onditions, the plants gathered are usually of much higher subsistence importance than the game products. R . Lee has on the basis of material f rom Bushmen c ommunities c alculated that 6 0-80% of the total calorie intake consists of vegetable food. A mixed animal - plant d iet with an emphasis on plant products seems to be the characteristic feature of typical hunters/gatherers; and I think that there are reasons to a ssume that maintenance of this balanced diet has been a major motivation in the subsistence activities they pursue. The following description of hunter/gatherers i s based on R .E. L ee and I . Devore 1 968, 1 976, E . R. Service 1 966 and L . Marshall 1 976. C onsumption i s i nstantaneous a nd mechanisms f or the c irculation of goods are l imited and characteristically i nvolve i nstitutions f or f ood s haring among members o f the l ocal group. Every f amily of the group has access to the basic f ood r esources: game and wild plants. Political leadership is not institutionalized in s pecific positions, but i s exercised ad hoc by i ndividuals who at any given time may i nfluence other members o f the community. Under s uch c onditions continuous provision of supplies i s required to satisfy f ood consumption needs. The amount of f ood required i s l imited, and the possibility of converting hunting and gathering products i nto other f orms of value i s severely restricted by the development of exchange i nstitutions. C onsequently the amount of time people are interested i n spending on f ood-provision i s l imited

1 99

to what is needed in order to satisfy these l imited consumption needs. I t i s consistent with this argument that information from contemporary Bushman society indicates that, on the average, only between 2 and 3 hours per day are spent i n f ood-provision activities. To quote Lee and Devore. "Hunting is a high risk, low return activity; while gathering i s a low return subsistence activity". ( Lee, R . B. and Devore 1 968:40).

subsistence risk, high

As long as the environment i s relatively rich, l ittle time i s required to s atisfy the l imited c onsumption needs by hunting and gathering; and there i s n o reasons to assume that people would be i nterested i n adopting more labour-requiring and more undersirable activities such a s cultivation.

1 2.2 Mesolitic communities

i n the Nile environment.

A characteristic f eature of the Mesolithic c ommunities i s that exploitation o f aquatic resources becomes a dominant subsistence activity. Information about the evolution o f such communities i n the Khartoum Nile environment i s scarce. C lark has pointed out the absence of sites during the late P leistocene. The f ew s ites recovered are f rom the e arly Holocene period, dated to the 8 th millenium B .P. C lark relates the presence of s ites during this period to a change in the paleo-environment f rom swamps to f orest and open grassland s avannah ( Clark, J . D. 1 984). The two main sites from which material has been analysed and published are the Khartoum Hospital and Saggai s ites, i .e. Early Khartoum types o f Mesolithic s ites, characterized by cultural e lements l ike Wavy L ine and Dotted Wavy L ine pottery and bone harpoons. These s ites s eem to be typical of the hunting/gathering communities preceeding the Khartoum Neolithic. The adaptation of the people was based on f our main resources: hunting, f ishing, shell collection a nd plant gathering. Material r evealing the utilization o f plant resources i s very s carce, and only a f ew s eeds o f Celtis i ntegrefolia were f ound. However, I will take the many f ragments of grinders and querns r ecovered at the s ites, to indicate that plant food was processed, although Arkell argued that their main f unction had been to grind ochre. The fauna indicates that large animals l ike e lephant, buffalo and rhinoceros, a nd small animals l ike the reed rat were hunted. A most important f eature of the Early Khartoum types of s ites i s evidence which s hows a great r eliance upon aquatic resources for the subsistence of the population i nhabiting the s ites.

2 00

South of Khartoum the site of Shabona indicates the same kind of material (Clark, J .D: 1984). North of Khartoum in the Atbara region, 3 large Mesolithic sites were surveyed, and test-excavations were carried out on two of these in 1984-85, by Anwar M. Osman, Ali Tigani el Mahi and myself. The material recovered from these two sites, Abu Darbein and Aneibis, is consistent with the picture we have from the Khartoum area. Allthogh the dates from Abu Darbein ranged from the 8th to the 9th millenium P. B. ( 8 50 o± 10 BP, 7860± 190 BP.

The dat�i from Aneibis were all younger (7730 ±110 B.P., 7290± 150 B.P., 7450 ±100 B.P. The changes one- seems .to be able to observe during the c. 1000 years of occupa­ tions, are that the settlements increase in size and cultural debris like pottery is becoming very abundant. The exploitation of aquatic resources is getting more divers i f i ed, a nd there is a greater reliance upon aquatic resources for the subsistence of the people inhabiting the sites. It thus seems that what is happening in the Central Nile area during the 9th millenium BP, is a population built-up of the bigger and more sedentary communities with heavy emphasis on aquatic resources are charact­ erized by diagnostic cultural features such as Wavy Line, Dotted Wavy Line pottery a nd bone h a rpoons. Sutton has pointed out that these features are distri­ buted 6ver a wide region stretching from the western part of Sahara, across the middle Nile to the East African lakes (Fig. 3a) (Sutton, J.E.G. 1974). It is not unlikely that development of techniques for exploi­ tation of aquatic resources was accompanied by higher population growth and expanision of people into geograp­ hical regions favouring such adaptations. If we assume a growth rate of 1% pr. year (the Bushmen today have a growth rate of 0,5 % while in Kenya it is 4,7 %), a group of 100 people would in a timespan of a 1000 years have increased to 2,5 mill. people. Where was the area this population expended from? The Central Nile vally does not appear to be the area, as Desmond Clark pointed out in 1984. These aquatic sites do no seem to have any predecessors in the area, and it should probably be s o u g h t in the North in the area around the second Cataract where very r i c h f ishing communities a nd evidence for plant exploit ation occured already 12000 B.C. (Wendorf, F. 1968:1051). 12.

3

Consequences of sedentarization and population growth.

The population build-up in bigger and more seden­ tary communities along the Nile which exploitation of f ish resources permitted (Shaw, T. 1977) must have increased the pressure on both plant and game resources in the area. One would except this to have lead to a 201

gradually decreasing role for hunting and a decreasing importance of meat in the diet of the people. The animal food component in the diet would, however, have been maintained by an increasing reliance upon aquatic resources. When it comes to plants, the situation is more complicated. I assume that people are motivated to maintain the plant component in their diet. The immediate consequence of a growing sedentary population is that plants become scarcer and that consequently more time has to be spent in searching for them in order to maintain a mixed diet. I shall argue that this inc­ reasing scarcity stimulates people to adopt new activi­ ties in the exploitation of plants and that these activities in turn lead to the evolution of domestic plants (see diagram no. 4). 12.4 The concept of domestication: process and form, intention and implication. One of the most important steps in socio-cultural evolution is the emergence of cultivation. In trying to understand and identify this phenomen in archaeological materials we are, however, confronted with great difficulties. The first requirement is a clarification of our concept of domestication. This is not as simple as it may seem today when the distinction between domesticated and non-domesticated plants is rahter straight-forward. Some forms of plants are clearly recognized as domesticated, and the question of the origin of domestication seems to be a problem of tracing in the archaeological record the forms they are evolu­ tinary derived from, until one reaches a point of time when no distinction between domesticated and non-dome­ sticated forms appears in the archaeological material. The origin of domestication is from this perspective defined according to criteria of plant morphology. From this perspective a critical problem is to establish criteria whereby one can judge whether the forms manifested in the archaeological material are domesti­ cated or not. Development of adequate criteria is clearly of great importance since this allows us to use material remains as direct evidence of domestication. However, the importance of establishing such criteria for the analysis of domesticated plants should not obscure the fact that domestication is a process, that the forms we identify as domesticated are the outcome of long, on-going human activities in the natural environ­ ment. If we want to increase our understanding of domestication, we have to clarify the nature of these activities and their relation to deomesticated forms. A critical problem here is to distinguish between those results of human activities which were intended and thus operated as factors directly structuring activity and those results which were unintended and only indirectly structured human activities after these consequences had become manifest and recognized. In the 202

concrete case we are discussing here, this distinction between intended and unintended results is rather important. Because the results of domestication were farreaching and since purposeful creation of new domesticated f orms through techniques of modern plant breeding has a l ong historical record i n our part of the world, it i s a lmost unavoidable that we tend to think about emergence of domesticated plants as intended r esults. Thus we i magine that people had the concept o f domesticated forms in their minds and used their c ognitive capacity to think out activities whereby they c ould a ttain s uch results. I t i s probably very unlikely that this was a ctually the c ase. In my opinion i t i s much more likely that domesticated forms were the unintended consequences of human activities. I f this i s the case, it i s important to understand the i ntended r esults people tried to realize i n the activities which produced such r evolutionary, though unintended results. The intended results they tried to achieve were, I assume, the maintenance of the vegetal component i n their diet. With i ncreasing pressure on plant resources, the amount of labour required to satisfy the requirments of the vegetal component a lso i ncreased. I a ssume that s ooner or l ater this would here l ead to new activities involving increased attention to s pecific plants. These activities can probably best be described as weeding and probably l ater a lso sowing and r elated activities l ike harvesting, winnowing, threshing and storing ( the processing of cereals, e .g. grinding, which was one of the most labour demanding tasks, s tarted at a much earlier s tage within a gathering type o f economy). These new activities must have changed the selection pressure in the natural environment, i n a direction which favoured the reproduction of plants which were more s atisfactory f or man, i .e. had a higher y ield. The unintended outcome of the changed s election pressure would have been the emergence of domesticated plants, i . e. species which were dependant on human a ctivities f or their reproduction. The s ocial i mplication of cultivation must have been f ar reaching, most i mportantly, with reference to the evolution of systems of property when labour i s invested in a process o f production where the results are harvested 4 -6 months later, one generally f inds s ome kind of i nstitutional ized r ights i n the s tanding crop. Ownership of plots of land usually arises at a l ater s tage i n evolution with cultivation systems based on higher l abour i ntens ity and permanent cropping. I t i s reasonable to expect that early property s ystems were s imilar. The typical pattern i n African shifting agriculture today ( Goody, J . 1 971:44 and Boserup, E . 1 965:12) can be described a s communal rights in land and individual r ights i n the crops cultivated.

The ethnographic material shows that gathering i s mainly a f emale a ctivity and that women play a dominant

2 03

role in primitive shifting cultivation ( Boserup, E . 1 974:10-14). I f this was the case i n the past, i t would have been the increased attention of females to the plant-tending which caused a change in the s election pressure which resulted i n f ully domesticated p lants. The Neolithic revolution would thus most probably be a revolution brought about through the activities of women.

1 2.4.1

Cultivation without domestication. The archaeol ogical evidence f rom the Khartoum Neolithic s ites.

I tried to show i n chapter 9 that cultivation o f morphologically wild sorghum was practised. I will f urther argue that the most l ikely l ocation of agricultural a ctivities was on the a lluvial plain surrounding the 3 s ites Kadero I , I I and Um D ireiwa I i nterpreted a s base sites ( for Um Direiwa I I the material i s very l imited. Only surface material was collected, and i ts interpretation is more uncertain). The argument i s based on the f ollowinig material: The l arge s ize of the s ettlements. The l arge number of grinders f ound. The grinders do not r eflect a new technology i ntroduced to the area, f or they were f ound to be numerous on the older Early Khartoum type of s ites and were used both for processing of wild plants which were gathered and for cultivated cereals. Thus grinders i n themselves cannot be used as direct evidence f or agriculture. The only evidence we have f or the adoption of a new technology on the sited, i s the gouges. As I suggested i n chapter 7 these might have been u sed as hoes f or tilling the soil. The important feature on the s ites i s however, the near absence of tools used for cutting grain, i . e. s ickles. I have argued in chapter 7 that lunates were not used as sickles, and I based my argument both on their l ow f requency on the s ited ( one would expect that they would have i ncreased in number a s did the grinders i f they were used f or harvesting plants) and on their small s ize. I do maintain however that since such large quantities of grinders were recovered on these s ites, i t must indicate very i ntensive exploitation of plant resources, i ncluding deliberate planting of seeds and weeding for a later harvest. When one examined the i dentified p lant i mpression f ound on the pottery ( 11 a ll together), i t was evident that they belonged to Sorghum verticilliflorum, i .e. wild s orghum. How then can one justify the hypothesis that sorghum was cultivated, when the ceral was not morphologically domestic? I will here refer to A . Stemler who points out:

" Sowing of wild grain i s a n i mportant domestication process but will not i n

2 04

s tep i n the i tself l ead

to domestication i f the grain s own i s gathered by stripping the grain off the p lants or by sweeping up the grain after i t has f allen to the ground .. I f domestication of cereals i s to be achieved, two things must be done. First, people must begin regularly s owing and harvesting wild grain. I t i s important that the s eed s tock that i s sown must be taken f rom the harvest o f the previous year. When this is done a new population of the cereal i s established that i s subject to human s election a s well a s natural s election. The s econd thing that i s i mportant in s election f or a domesticated c ereal is the manner of harvesting. If the grain is harvested by stripping grain off the plants by sweeping fallen grain off the ground no genetic change occure i n the cereal population. The human harvester i s affecting the cereal population i n no way d ifferent f rom the f orces o f natural selection, so there i s no change in selection f rom natural dispersal mechanisms. In order for the cereal population to be changed genetically, the human harvesters must set up a situation in which naturally dispersing plants are not selectively f avoured. This i s exactly what happens when whole stalks of grain are harvested and sheaves of grain are c arried away f rom the f ield to a s torage area. In this method of harvesting and handling the harvest, the plants that contribute the most grain to the harvest and the seed stock for the next seasons planting are those that do not readily disperse their grain ( Stemler, A .B. 1 980, pp. 5 155 16). " Sorghum ( and pennisetum ) have s talks much thicker and s tronger than wheat and barley. Harvesting of these cereals would thus require a good cutting instrument". ( Stemler, A .B. 1 980:521). The f irst evidence f or domesticated African c erals i s as late as c . 1 000 B . P. ( pennisetum f rom Dar T ichitt). Stemler relates this delayed domestication process to the a bsence of proper s ickles ( Stemler, A .B. 1 980). It is thus possible that the sickles used for cutting these cereals were developed when iron was i ntroduced, more than three thousend years l ater. The near a bsence of artefacts which could have been used to cut grain in combination with the extremely numerous grinders found on these Khartoum Neolithic s ites i s c onsistent with my hypothesis that agricultural acitivities would not however, i mply changes i n s election pressures s ufficient to l ead to domesticated f orms s ince the cereal was not harvested by cutting the s talk. The alluvial clay s oil would have been i deal f or rainfed s hifting cultivation of s orghum. The amount of rain would have been above 500 millimetres which i s within the requirements for sorghum growing. The planting would probably have started with the f irst

2 05

reliable rains around June. I have a lready hypothesized that these a ctivities were performed by women. I t i s a lso expected that weeding was done at regular i ntervals during the growing s eason. The harvesting most probably took place by the end of the rainy s eason i n October. The harvesting was performed e ither by sweeping the grain off the ground or by s tripping the s talk. This method of harvesting i s s till practised by the Z aghawa tribe i n North Western Darfur. I t i s a lso described a s a method used by the Tuareg ( Nicolaisen, J . 1 963:2732 83).

1 2.5

Socio-economic

i mplications o f animal husbandry.

I have argued that the population build-up a long the Nile would l ead to decreased i mportance f or meat i n the subsistence of a foraging economy. I have no archaeological or comparative ethnographic material which a llow me to adopt the hypothesis that an i ncreased scarcity of game would have stimulated the Khartoum poulation to adopt new activities vis-a-vis wild animals, which at a later stage would lead to the evolution of domesticated animals. However, on the Khartoum Neolithic s ites there i s c lear evidence f or the exploitation of domesticated animals ( see chapter 1 0). This would again have i ncreased the i mportance of the meat component and possibility of milk in the d iet. From where and by whom domesticated animals were i ntroduced i nto Central Sudan i s a major problem i n the culture history of the region. Several archaeologists have s uggested that deteriorating c limatic conditions might have f orced people with a pastoral adaptation to move out the Sahara, southwards towards the Savannah and Nile regions, which again would have created further pressure on resources ( Shaw, T . 1 977:68, Phillipson, D . 1 977:64-65). Overgrazing by domestic animals near riverside settlements has been mentioned a s another f actor which might have i ncreased attention to p lant tending ( Phillipson, D . 1 977:64). No matter how the l ivestock was i ntroduced, i t i s l ikely to have had important i mplications. As a means of production livestock has several important characteristics which F . B arth describes i n the f ollowing way: " I shall f irst focus on the pastoral regime i n terms of the nature of pastoral c apital a nd the options it provides f or the person or group that makes management decisions. The notable f eatures are a ) that saving and i nvestment are necessary under a ll circumstances . .. the herd capital i s perishable and must be r eplaced .. and b ) s uch i nvestment i s possible without the benefit of any economic institutions, since one of the main products of the herd is lambs/calves, etc. Contrast this with the conditions o f production i n an agricultural regime where a ) l and i s e ssentially imperishable and cannot be c onsumed by the

2 06

management unit except by benefit of elaborate economic institutions that f acilitate i ts c onvers ion to f ood, and b ) land cannot be i ncreased by the i nvestment o f i ts product ( crops) except where economic i nstitutions exist to effect i ts conversion .. Enterprise i n the pastoral s ector i s a lways f aced with the possibility of rapid growth ( or decline) r egardless of what the public economic i nstitutions and f acilities may be because part of i ts product comes automatically i n the f orm of c apital gains, which only an active management decision to s laughter will remove f rom i nvestment. Enterprise i n the agricultural s ector, on the other hand, has no such r eady way of growth unless s pecial i nstitutional public f acilities f or conversion exist, i t will stagnate from lack o f i nvestment opportunit ies". ( Barth, F . 1 973:12-13). An important question here i s the organization o f the unit which takes the decision about the management of the livestock. Comparative ethnographic material i ndicates that this unit i s based typically on nuclear f amilies or small extended f amilies of l imited s pan and that i t i s thus a ssociated with private property. I t i s tempting to s ee the evolution of an earlier system of r ights i nvolving cultivation of the s tanding plant crop a s a precondition f or the emergence of animal husbandry, because the communal sharing i nstitutions characteristic of hunting/gahtering communities would work a s a break o n the growth o f domesticated herds. " There i s a major contradiction i n the transition through which the ! Kung are now passing, and this is between sharing, which is central to the hunter/gatherer way of life and saving, or the husbandry o f resources which i s equally central to the f arming and herding way of l ife. The f ood of the ! Kung camp i s shared i mmediately with residents and visitors alike, for herders to do the same with the livestock or farmers with their grain, would quickly put them out of business". ( Leakey, R .E. 1 981:206). It is reasonable to assume that an increased importance of domesticated animals i s a ssociated with the emergence o f more i ndividualized r ights and respons ibilities i n e conomic management and that this produced i ncreased differentiation within the communities. An i ndiation of this i n archaeological material has been pointed out by L . Krzyzaniak. He suggests that the presence of a macehead i n a male grave a ssociated with o ther types of outstanding grave good f ound at Kadero I , i s a symbol of power ( Krzyzaniak, L . 1 978:169).

2 07

1 2.6 Animal husbandry and cultural Sudan.

traditions

i n C entral

Introduction of domesticated animals i nto the Khartoum Nile environment must have had e ffects upon the settlement patterns. The productivity of animals depended on their access to pasture and water throughout the year and on the r isk o f desease to which they were exposed. In the Khartoum Nile environment there are s everal z ones which differ s ignificantly f rom s eason to s eason i n these r espects. F rom an animal husbandry point of view the area can be divided i nto 3 microenvironments: the i nundated a lluvial p lain, the unflooded a lluvial plain and the Butana s avannah. a ) The a lluvial p lain a long the Nile The area which was laid bare when the N ile retreated to i ts l ow course i n the dry s eason. The archaeological remains from these zones are exemplified by the Zakiab site, where domestic animals were kept f or grazing and water. b )

The alluvial p lain east of the 4 base s ites ( the area around and east of Kadero I , I I and Um D ireiwa I , II) where the immature animals were k ept and mature animals were brought f or consumption during more or l ess the whole year.

C )

The Butana s avannah This i s the area east o f the a lluvial plain. I would expect that the resources i n the Butana s avannah would be exploited s easonally. E specially the pasture available i n the area would have been ideal f or grazing domestic s tock during the rainy season when the alluvial plain was humid and swarmed with insects. One would thus expect the risk of disease to animals to have been minimal here during the rains, while one would expect pasture and water to have been s carce during the dry s eason.

L imited archaeological work has been done i n the area. As described i n chapter 5 a brief s urvey was done by Ali Tigani el Mahi and myself in 1 979 just east of the a lluvial plain. A small s ite, Hatab, was recoreded with material interpreted to be the r emains of a probable herding camp. 5 0 k ilometres e ast of the Nile f urther to the north, a cave s ite, Shaqadud, was excavated in 1 981-82 by a group of archaeologists f rom the University of Khartoum a nd the Southern Methodist University, D allas. There i s however f ound surprisingly l ittle evidence f or herding a s l ate a s 3 600 B . P. ( Marks et a l 1 985:274-5). I t i s d ifficult to evaluate the material f rom the western Butana as represented only by the Shaqadud material. However, it should be underlined that the pottery material from the Shaqadud s ite dated to the Khartoum Neolithic period; 5 591±74 B . P. i s very s imilar

2 08

to the pottery f ound on the Neolithic s ites a long the Nile. ( Mohamed Ali et al 1 984:56). I see this to i ndicate a cultural connection between the Nile and the Butana svannah. Even if Marks et al underlines the differences between the Shaqadud site and the Nile settlements i n artefacts such a s the absence of gouges and bonecelts a t Shaqadud, i t should be emphasized that these artefacts are not present at settlements i n the Nile valley outside the Khartoum area. They are only typical f or the s ites l ocated between Sabaloka and Jebel Aulia. Further excavations are needed i n the Butana area to enable us to evaluate the role o f the e astern s avannah i n relation to the Nile valley. In the meantime we will have to put forward preliminary i nterpretations l ike those present by Marks et a l and myself. Marks et a l s eeing the Nile valley a s marginal to the cultural development i n the Butana a s opposed to my argument f or a c lose connection between the Nile valley and the Butana. My argument i s mainly based on connections which seems reasonable on the bakcground of the structure of the human adaptations, I have tried to reconstruct particularly with regard to the requirements of cattle-rearing. I have argued that the natural environment imposed constraints which f avoured migratory animal husbandry. The main movements would have been i n an east-west direction a s suggested here. I would i n addition expect that north-south movements along the Nile would have taken place, e specially during the end of the dry s eason when pasture was getting s carce. It is evident f rom the o steological material that domestic animals were important i n the Khartoum area. The problem i s to f ind support f or this i n the artefact material, i .e. i n technological i nnovations related to the importance of animal husbandry. I s howed e arlier that there is a great increase in the numbers of scrapers found on all these Neolithic sites when compared with the o lder Early Khartoum type of s ites. Furthermore I suggested that the scrapers were used mainly for hide-working. I will try to argue that increase i n the number of scrapers indicates i ncreased i mportance of animal husbandry. In a pastoral mode of production where people move s easonally there would be an increase need for water, especially f or the young animals. In addition the domestic animals c ould be used a s beasts f or burdens.

Water containers made of hide, girbas, are still used a s the main type of water container among pastoral groups in the northern Sudan ( Pls. 2 1, 2 2) and among other pastoral tribes such a s the Turareg i n north-west Africa ( Nicolaisen, J . 1 963:271). These girbas are practical, f irst o f a ll because they are unbreakable, and, secondly, because they keep

2 09

the water cool in a hot climate through evaporation. The f ollowing decription of how the Tuareg make g irbas i s based on Nicolaisen: " I have watched this, particulary i n Ahaggar, where a water-bag i s prepared i n the f ollowing way: The animal i s killed i n the normal way by cutting i ts throat, and i s then s o skinned that the hide c omes off almost entire. This i s done by making the f ollowing openings with the knife: the head i s cut, cuts are made around the lower part of a ll f our f eet, and on the i nner s ide o f the hind thighs over the anmials anus. This l atter opening i s made big enough for the skin to be drawn off the body f orwards over the neck. When the hide i s r emoved and has been c leaned by s craping with a knife i t i s ready for tanning, which i s done a s f ollows: the openings made on a ll f our l egs are c losed s imply by t ieing the l eg skin i nto knots, while the o pening made on the i nner s ide of the hind thighs i s s ewn together with s traw by means of the awl, the anus opening being c losed with a cord tied around i t. The hide i s now c losed except at the neck o pening. It is f illed with a mixture o f water and bark o f Acacia Seyal and the neck openings i s thereupon c losed with a cord tied around i t. The hide which now f orms a c losed bag f illed with bark and water i s p laced i n the shade of the tent f or s even t o ten days to be turned and shaken every day. The mixture of bark and water i s thereupon poured out, the cuts sewn together or tied with knots are r eopened, the i nner s ide of the skin i s c leaned and treated with butter, and the openings are c losed again in a more solid f ashion, the larger hind opening being c losed with s trips of cotton p laced over the incision and s ewn together with l eather thread by means of the awl .. Water bags are, with very rare exceptions, made f rom hairy skin because they keep the water c ool and f resh". ( Nicolaisen, J . 1 963:271-273). The use of girbas during the Neolithic time i s confirmed by rock-carvings from the Sahara; f rom the Tassili area there are, to my knowledge, two paintings which s how that girbas were used. One f rom the Sefar presents a s cene with f our goats and two animal heads, probably those of sheep, with a drawing of a girba i n the center ( see P l. 2 4). This girba appears to be made exactly as described by Nicolaisen in the foregoing quotation, with the f our legs tied to make the girba water tight and with a s tring f or c arrying or transporting the girba. According to Lhote, this rock-carving dates to the " period bovidienne" or the pastoral period ( Lhote, H . 1 958: P late). The date of the pastoral period i s much

2 10

d ebated. 1 974:90).

Mori

s uggests

a d ate

o f

4 -5000

B .P.

( Mori,

F .

It is not of relevance to get involved in a discussion of the dates of t he rockcarvings. The important detail i s that g irbas were probably u sed s ome t ime during this period. Another d rawing, a lso f rom the Tassili a rea, s hows a s cene with two women riding bulls, with g irbas a ttached to the s ides o f the animals ( Pl. 2 3). The evidence from the Sahara thus i ndicates that g irbas were used for transport during the Neolithic period. The i nterpretation of the high f requency of. s crapers a s being mainly due to their having been u sed for making hides to produce girbas for transport of water t hus s eems corroborated. In addition I expect that they were made into l eather sacks f or s toring g rain. The i ntroduction of a nimal husbandry must have been followed by changes in settlement patterns, with a multitude of s easonal camps being a ssociated with s ome larger and more permanent base sites. Comparative e thnographic material shows that h erding i s typically a male activity ( Murdock, G .P. et al. 1 973:209). By analogy I will a ssume this was the case f or the early Neolithic populations a s well. Thus I will a rgue that the rainy s eason herding camps would have been o ccupied primarily by males s ince the women a t that t ime would to a large extent be t ied to a gricultural tasks. During d ry seasons there would have been no agricultural tasks and I a ssume t hat during this period most of the women would have j oined the men i n the d ry s eason camps a long the Nile where they would also probably have been involved in the exploitation of aquatic resources. ( This pattern s ummarized i n the f ollowing d iagram on no. 5 . If my a rgument i s correct the cultural traditions of people i nhabiting the Khartoum N ile environment would have extended into the Butana Savannah through the migratory movements d uring the rainy s eason. However, s ince t he a ctivities i n the s avannah are d ifferent f rom that performed in the Nile region one will expect differences i n distribution of artefacts which are a ctivity s pecific.

1 2.7

The

d ivision of

l abour.

On the basis of analogies f rom comparative e thnographic material I have here tried to reconstruct the d ivision of l abour i n the Khartoum Nile environment. I n my presentation I have focused on the association of d ifferent subsistence a ctivities with males and f emales. Hunting, f ishing, a nd animal husbandry were a ssumed to be male a ctivities, while gathering, cultivation, a nd

2 11

shell collection were a ssumed to be f emale a ctivities. This a ssumption has been s upported by t he presentation of arguments about evolutionary f orces which f avoured s uch a d ivision of l abour. Throughout this presentation I have tried to confront my hypothesis about the d ivision of l abour with a rchaeological material. The social organization of l abour i s obviously not observable f or an a rchaeologist. However, whatever this organization might have been, i t s hould have l eft some material manifestations of i ts s tructure, e . g. the localization of artefacts associated with spesific a ctivities within s ites or among d ifferent s ites. The problem i s t o e stablish a hypothesis which agrees with the a rchaeological evidence available a nd which can be supported with references to what i s ecological and s osiologically consistent. The emerging importance of cultivation during t his period i s the most critical element in my argument. Connected with this i s my hypothesis that women p layed a crucial role in the transition from gathering to cultivation. From this f ollow s everal o ther hypothesis: Cultivation i s confined to spesific ecological zones which are suitable for agriculture. The long term commitment of l abour implied i n a gricultureal production favours sedenterization within these zones. In my material from the Khartoum Nile environment I have identified s ome s ites which I have called base s ites on the a ssumotion t hat t hey constitute a more permanent residence, e specially f or the f emale population. The s econd important e lement i n my a rgument d ealt with implication of the i ntroduction of l ivestock i nto the N ile environment. From the point o f view of animal husbandry t he a rea can be l ooked upon a s three microenvironment, each providing d ifferent s easonal opportunities f or a nd constraints upon l ivestock production. S easonal migrations between t hese d ifferent ecological z ones i s a practical solution t o these natural l imitations, and I s hall try to demonstrate that available evidence s trongly supports the interpretation that Neolithic populations actually undertook such migrat ions. For a discussion of the adoption of a nimal husbandry ( see All Tigani el Mahi 1 982) I have a rgued that livestock production was basically a male-oriented a ctivity and t hat consequently a rtefacts a ssociated with male a ctivities s hould be concentrated on s ites i dentif ied a s s easonal h erding camps. Sites i n different micro-environments were thus expected to have a d ifferent d istribution of a rtefacts a ssociated with their d ifferent s ubsistence a ctivities. The confrontation of this hypothesis with a rchaeological material l argely confirmed i t. This confrontation with empirical material a lso i ncluded a ssumptions a bout the a ssociation o f s ex i dentify with a ctivities i nvolved i n the production of tools used for various subsistence a ctivities.

212

Comparative ethnographic material indicates that before t he i ntroduction of the wheel, making pottery was a lmost everywhere a f emale a ctivity. The identification o f pottery with f emale identity i s clearly expressed among the Fur people who a ctually put two small nipples on s ome pots, called nansou breasts. ( Haaland, G . 1 981 mimeo). Pots with female faces or figures are a lso f ound i n early Neolithic s ites i n s outh-east Asia and s outh-eastern Europe ( Oates, D . and J . Oates 1 976:42). Among primitive cultures there thus s eems to be a more or less universal a ssociation of f emale identity with a complex of a ctivities related to crop-production and food-preparation. These activities a lso i nvolve producing equipment used in food-preparation, e . g. grinders, pottery and f irewood collection ( Murdock et a l. 1 973:209). This i s i llustrated i n the diagram no. 6 . The analysis of the distributon of the pottery material a nd the ground l ithic tools shows that i n the base s ites there i s a correlation between high frequency of pottery and high f requency of g rindstones. In the ethnographic survey referred to a bove ( Murdock et a l. 1 973:207) s tone-tool production i s an a ctivity classif ied a s s trictly male. The e thnographic material f rom Darfur s howed t hat i t was not the men who produced the grinders, but women. This case illustrates another point made by Murdock namely that there i s a tendency f or tools to be produced by their users ( Murdock et a l. 1 973:207-213). On the analogic a ssumption that this was a lso the case among the Neolithic populations one s hould expect that my hypothesis about the relationship between sexual division of labour and settlement-specific a ctivities would be reflected i n the f requency d istribution of material which reflects these a ctivities on the s ite i n the d ifferent micro-environments. One would thus expect to find manifestations of such female a ssociated a ctivities a s the production of grinders at the base sites. On the dry season sites and rainy season camp-sites one would expect to find a lower frequency of material associated with hypothesized f emale activities. The archaeological evidence was largely consistent with these expectations. Material which i ndicates that cultivation and other activities associated with female identity was found with highest frequency on the 3 base sites: Kadero I , I I and Um Direiwa I ( for Um Direiwa I I the material i s too small to draw s uch a conclusion). The Zakiab s ite which was l ocated on the i nundated a lluvial plain had by far the most a bundant l ithic waste. The analysis i n chapter 7 i ndicated that this material was a ssociated with f ishing and herding a ctivities. This supports my hypothesis that this site was primarily a seasonal herding and f ishing camp a nd that male a ctivities were dominant there.

2 13

2 14

I nnundate.d

/

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river bonk:

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river Nile

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.......... female activities - _ - - ___ male activi-tiee,

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AlllM·ol plain base sites

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2 16

Plate

2 1.

Two g irbas

f illed with water

to be

transported on the

d onkey.

Plate

2 2.

Girbas,

transported back to

made

of

goatskin,

the village

( from

i s

f illed with water to be

( Darfur).

Plate

2 3.

Rock-paintings

transported on

cattle

from Tassili,

( from

Sahara,

which

Museen

2 18

der

shows

g irbas

Stadt Köln.

being

Plate

2 4.

Rock-paintings

Lhote

1 958).

of

girbas

2 19

f rom S efar,

Tassili

( after

1 3

1 3.1

The Temporal Neolithic.

Conclusion

- s patial

context

of

the

Khartoum

I have argued that reproduction of the cultural tradition characteristic of Khartoum Neolithic took place within social groups in a multi-resource adaption. I f we l ook at the time-space d istribution of some types of material manifestation of this tradition, some i nteresting patterns emerge. The Khartoum Neolithic ceramic with it' s chartaristic open bowls, well burni shed surfaces and impressed d esign ( mainly vees/dots and rocker s tamp) a lso appears i n earlier horizons dated to c . 9-8000 B .P. when the Early Khartoum type of pottery such as the Wavy Line is dominant. In the horizon dated to 6 000-5000 B .P. the pottery is of the Khartoum Neolithic type i .e. the Wavy Line i s totally l acking. After 5 000 B . P. there is in the Khartoum Nile environment a s trange gap of 2 000 years when we so far have found no evidence of human o ccupation. However, s ome of the Khartoum Neolithic types of pottery continue right up to 4000 B .P. at the Rabak site in horizons where Jebel Moya types of pottery is dominant. The Jebel Moya tradition is characterized by narrow and l onged necked pots, with thick or thin overted rims, d ecorated with impressed banded d ecoration or incision, the s urface i s very often wiped a nd not burnished. With minor s tylistic variations Khartoum Neolithic pottery i s s patially d istributed on s ites i n the Nile valley from Rabak ( further excavations will probably show that it also occurs further south) to Atbara ( evidence from preliminary survey 1 984-85) and to Nubia. Moving i nto the Butana, Mohammed Ali and others ( 1984) and Marks and others ( 1985) classify the pottery material from the Shaqadud site dated to the 6th millenium B .P., to be part of the Khartoum Neolithic tradition. However, i t is claimed that the ceramics f rom the later periods, i .e. the end of the 5 th to the beginning of the 4 th millenium B .P., have no parallels i n the Nile Valley ( Marks 1 986), but with close a ffinit ies to pottery found on sites in the east, what is called the Atbai tradition ( Mohammed Ali et al. 1 984, Marks et a l. 1 985). They interpret this as an indication that the people i n the Nile environment and the people of the eastern areas were a ssociated with two separate cultural traditions. However, if we compare the pottery from these eastern s ites with the Jebel Moya tradition a s i t i s s een a t the Rabak s ite, there s eem to be s ome close similarities ( see Fig. 1 4). The pottery has i n both a reas impressed banded decorations on the rim or c lose

2 20

t o t he r im of t he cots and t hick f inger-impressed r ims often with a wiped . surface ( Fig. 14, m , n , o , p ) ( Fattovitch e t a l. 1 984, F ig. 4 -5, P l. 2 5 a , b herein). This i ndicates t hat t he pottery traditions during the c j ap i n t he culture history o f the Khartoum Nile environment underwent similar changes both in the eastern a reas, f rom S hagaduC to Kassala a nd a long the Nile, i n t he a reas of Uabak a nd Jebel noya. Looking a t the l ithic material only a f ew types which a re considered important i n this context, will be d iscussed here namely gouges and grinders. According to Arkell gouges are the hallmark of the Khartoum Neolithic ( Arkell 1 953) the type i s confined i n t ime to t he period 6 -5000 B .P., a nd s patially d istributed i n a narrow belt of s ites along both s ides a long the Nile f rom Jebel Aulia to Sabaloka. Following Arkell' s argument i t was assumed that the gouges were primarily u sed f or woodcutting i n connection with construction of d ugout canoes more or l ess l ike the ones u sed by t he Nuer and Dinka i n the Sudd a rea today. S ources f or the rawmaterial ( rhyolite) i s confined to the Sixth cataract ( Sabaloka) where i t o ccurs i n the mountain and a s loose blocks. Many of the rhyolite a rtefacts found on the s ites s howed that they had been r eworked f rom wornout gouges to other a rtefacts s uch a s s crapers. This i ndicates that the material was i n s hort s uply on these s ites. This peculiar distribution of gouges poses an intriguing problem. I have found n othing which i ndicates that contemporary people a long t he Nile north o f Sabaloka a nd a long the Nile s outh of J ebel Aulia ( e.g. Rabak) had a different ecological adaptation from the people which i nhabited t he s ites w ithin t he a rea of d istribution of the gouges. Conseq uently i t i s n ot possible to explain this d istribution pattern with r eference to d ifferences i n a ctivity types. I t i s d ifficult to f ind a ny other explanation t han that i t must reflects s ome kind of s ocial boundaries s eparat ing the people within the d istribution a rea f rom people outside a nd that this s eparation was based on control over the rawmaterial ( rhyolite). Another artefact which Arkell maintained as characteristic o f Khartoum Neolithic i s the bone celt. This artefact shows the same spatial distribution a lthough i t s hould be underlined that i t has only been f ound on the b igger s ites l ike Esh Shaheinab and Kadero I . The sites within this area are also peculiar i n r elation to contemporary surrounding s ites. When we l ook at the i nventory of grinders, they a re f ound on most s ites i n t his period. However, the s ites in the Khartoum environment between Sabaloka and Jebel Aulia e xhibit a variety of types which i s unmatched outside this area. The most probable explanation to this i s t hat t he cultivating complex was further d eveloped h ere than elsewhere and it also s eem to correlates with a much h igher p opulation density ( indicated by i higher f requency of s ites).

2 21

1 3.2.

The

s ocial

organization o f t he

Khartoum Neolithic.

Looking a t the position of Khartoum Neolithic i n a temporal-spatial context I will d raw attention to t he following points i n my i nterpretation). A ) Between the s ixth to the f ifth millenium B .P. we f ind people i n a multi-resource a daptation f rom Atbara ( and possibly further to t he north) t o Rabak ( and possibly further to the south) involving a complex s ettlement pattern with big basecamps i n a reas of cultivation a nd with smaller dry season camps on the Nilebank for f ishing a nd animal husbandry. Looking a t the s patial distribution of the Khartoum Neolithic adaption within t his p eriod, one i s s truck with t he d ifference b etween s ites i nvestigated east a t tne N ile to those west of the river. Esh Shaheinab will be t aken a s a type s ite f or the western Nile bank. The most s ignificant difference i s that on Esh Shaheinab there is a relatively low frequency of grinding s tones. I have a rgued t hat a h igh f requency o f grindstones i ndicates cultivation, consequently a low frequency indicates absence of cultivation. The material evidence f rom this s ite i ndicates the importance of f ishing, hunting a nd a nimal husbandry. The new a nalysis of the f aunal remains found d uring our excavations i n 1 979-80 ( Ali T igani e l Mahi, Anwar M .Magid and Randi Haaland) s howed that domestic cattle was present a t the s ite. This i ndicated that a l arger emphasize than earlier assumed, was put on domestic animals ( Ali Tigani e l Mahi 1 982). Thus among t he s ites which a re identified a s Khartoum Neolithic there i s a difference i n e cological a daptations i n the s ense that the people on the western bank s eems to have r elied l ess on agriculture. This difference in the e cological adaptations of the populations on t he two banks of the Nile i s most probably related to differences in environmental constraints. As can be s een on F ig. 5 , the topography i s quite different on the two banks, the west bank r ising much more a bruptly a s a s teep rugged gravel bank. Today the alluvial plain i s very narrow. During the Neolithic period when the Nile was estimated t o have been 3-4 metres higher the a lluval plain on which to collect s tands of wild g rain or to cultivate, would thus have been non-existent. I have argued earlier that it was just this a lluvial l and on the east bank which was exploited for cultivation purposes. The s carcity of material which i ndicates cultivation on the west bank i s consistent with t he a bsence o f the a lluvial plain on the west s ide of the Nile.

2 22

Excavation o f the Nofalab s ite on the west bank of the Nile s outh o f Esh Shaheinab yielded material which s eems to be consistent with this picture ( Anwar M . Magid 1 982). B ) Among the people i nhabiting s ites between Sabaloka and Jebel Aulia a greater complexity in cultural t raditions evolved probaby i nvolving s tronger political organization. It is difficult to understand the stability of southern and northern l imits to the d istribution o f this cultural tradition. One possibility i s that t he political organization of the people carrying a ll the manifestations a t the Khartoum Neolithic tradition, required a certain surplus production which could not be realized outside the distribution a rea. ( F.Barth has i n his a nalysis o f e thnic boundaries i n Swat valley i n Pakistan d emonstrated how the d istribution o f such g roups a nd the cultural traditions a ssoc iated with i t, can be explained as a consequence of environmental constraints on the s urplus required f or maintaining the political organization of the dominant group ( Barth, F . 1 956). What these constraints could have been i n the Nile e nvironment, i s d ifficult to s ee. I t might have been l imitation on cultivation north of S abaloka caused by l ow rainfall while the a rea s outh of Jebel Aulia might have been rather unattractive f or a nimal husbandry due to muddy conditions on the clay plain during the rainy s eason. C ) The d ifficult question i s the relationship between the sites in the Butana and f urther east i n Khasm el Girba-Kassala; were they j ust s easonal camps u sed by the people o f the Nile valley i n the rainy s eason, or d id t hey belong to a d ifferent g roup of people which d id not a t a ll exploit t he Nile resources? I t has been a rgued h ere that the people of the Nile valley must have kept their l ivestock in Butana i n the rainy s eason. This does however not preclude that other people i n adaptation which did not include exploitation of aquatic r esources o ccupied this a rea. I t i s d ifficult on the basis of preliminary publications to j udge what this adaption was based on. I f l ivestock was not important their adaptation must have been based on hunting and most importantly exploitation of plant resources. Given the s ize of the settlements i t i s probable that this e xploitation i ncluded cultivation. Marks et al. also claims that d omesticated millet was present 2 500 B .C.MASCA callibrated ( Marks et al. 1 985). Although the Butana traditions seem to differ from the Neolithic traditions i n s ome r espects, this does not imply that i t i s d ifferent f rom a ll o ther traditions f ound a long the Nile e .g. Mabak. I t i s premature to try to answer the problem a bout t he cultural historical connection between people which o ccupied the s ites i n the Butana and those which l ived along the Nile. Only f urther excavations which a llow us to map the d istribution of d ifferent

variations in the cultural historical traditions over l arger regions. The correlation o f this d istribution to relevant environmental f eatures, will make i t possible to formulate a more well founded hypothesis i n this f ield.

1 3.3.

The gap i n the cultural e nvironment.

history of Khartoum N ile

It seems like a paradox that exactly i n t he a rea which we have reason to believe was most a ttractive for human o ccupation and where between 6 -5000 B .P. one f inds evidence f or the most advanced cultural d evelopment in the Sudan south of Nubia, the archaeological record l eaves no evidence of human occupation from c .5000c .2500 B .P. What happened to the people who carried the Khartoum Neolithic tradition? 1 ) Did the i nhabitants migrate to other a reas, i f s o where and why? 2 ) Did they change their adaptation i n a way t hat l eft l ess visible traces? 3 ) Were they extinguished? I have earlier argued that they migrated south because of climatic d eterioration ( Haaland R . 1 981 a ,b.) but this i s not s upported by more r ecent paleo-botanical i nvestigations ( Wickens G . 1 982) I f they mooved, we have to s earch for other causes but f irst we have to l ook f or any evidence f or s uch movements. I t was with t his i n mind that the excavations of Rabak located 2 30 kilometres s outh of Khartoum was undertaken. The excvation yielded the f ollowing material and r esults. The pottery recovered from the oldest level consisted of a few s herds of the Wavy Line type. The earliest Neolithic material is very s imilar to the Khartoum Neolithic pottery but does not i nclude the characteristic Khartoum Neolithic gouges. It also l acks the rich variety of grinders. The Khartoum Neolithic pottery i s gradually replaced by Jebel Moya type of pottery which we f ind c .4500 B .P. Thus the s ite was o ccupied a t the same t ime as the s ites in the Khartoum area but at Rabak the o ccupation continued during the period when we have no settlement remains i n the Khartoum a rea. Consequently we cannot see the Rabak material as evidence for migration to the s outh. Let us l ook a t the a lternative hypothesis, namely change i n adaptation, and d iscuss the possible reason for this. The starting point for d iscussion i s that the people i n the Khartoum Neolithic tradition had a multiresource adaptation and f rom t his we will try to discuss the conditions which might s timulate them to s pecialize i n e xploitation of a more l imited set of resources. Clearly in this context cultivation and animal husbandry a re most important. A most interesting question i s to explore the possible imnplications of a nimal husbandry. The g rowth

2 24

potential of l ivestock a lows and s timulates the households to i ncrease their holdings. Under the natural conditions of the s avannah, the most f avourable t echn ique i n l ivestock rearing i s migratory movements. The more a household relies on animal husbandry the more i t will be involved in migrations. Among sedent erty s avannah cultivators today i t has been observed that the people i f they manage to a ccumulate a herd big enough to support a household, leave the village and establish themselves as nomads ( Haaland G. 1968). If such economic nomadization processes were i n operation i n prehistory they may a ccount f or the s trange gap i n the r ecord o f human o ccupation i n the Khartoum Nile environment. One problem i s puzzeling if this nomadization process took place i n the Khartoum Nile environment: why d id i t not take place f urther s outh, a t the Rabak s ite, where we s ee continuity i n the s ettlement pattern? One possibility i s that the higher rainfall made the conditions less favourable for specialized l ivestock rearing, a nd this worked a s a constraint on the nomadiz ation processes i n t he s outhern a rea. So f ar t here i s hardly a ny a rchaeological evidence which can corraborate t his. I f the s etllements i n the Khartoum Nile e nvironment was d epopulated, because of a greater emphasis on animal husbandry, which under the environmental conditions at the time favoured migratory movements and mobile camps, t he question r emains where d id they move t o? The most probable d irection of movements would be into the Butana a nd Red S ea Hills on the east s ide of t he Nile a nd i nto Kordofan on the west s ide of the Nile. These are the areas most favourable for pastoral adaptations. However, the material recovered f rom the Butana is difficult to use at present since i t is unclear a s to t he role of animal husbandry. By s crutini zing evidence f rom the Nile environment a nd s urrounding areas, I am s till not able to make a satisfactory hypothesis which may a ccount f or the gap i n the a rchaeol ogical record. I t i s d ifficult to understand that this a rea s hould be l ess a ttractive for human s ettlements i n the period between 5 000-2500 B .P. than i t was in the preciding and following periods. Likewise i t is d ifficult to u nderstand why people during this period s hould s ettle i n the Butana and a reas to the s outh and not i n t he Khartoum Neolithic core a rea. So far we have found no evidence of human settlements in the area between Sabaloka a nd Jebel Aulia during this 2 500 year period. I t i s d ifficult on the basis of available environmental information to believe that the area was not utilized by man over such a long time. If i t was o ccupied, the gap i n the a rchaeological record i s most probably related to A ) people changed to new and less visible s ettlement f orms probably in connection with economic changes, possibly i ncreased emphasis on pastoralism. B ) a rchaeologists have concentrated their excavations on the more s pectacular earlier and later s ettlements a nd

2 25

they may not have d iscovered t he l ess visible remains left after migratory camps. If such a change in settlement pattern occured i t may in fact be very d ifficult to f ind remains l eft of dry s eason camps on the Nile banks because these remains would probably have been d estroyed by rainy s eason f loods a nd later cultivat ion. Let us finally see if we may f ind some clues to the puzzeling gap i f we l ook a t our material in a continental perspective. Let u s go back to the early Wavy Line pottery which o ccured both a t Rabak and Khartoum and l ook a t i t's t ime-space d istribution. This pottery s tyle i s found i n a broad belt s treching from t he east African lakes right through the Sudan Savannah to t he Atlantic. This Wavy Line pottery always occurs in a context that i ndicates t hat a quatic resources played a dominant role i n the adaptation o f that z one a s far back a s to the 8 th probably the 9 th millenium D .P. Over t ime the aquatic n iche i n this z one i s f illed, and pressure i ncreases on o ther r esources which a lso constitute part o f the populations d iet, e spacially wild cereals. S haw argues that the domestication o f African cereals ( Shaw T . 1 977) took place exactly i n this zone and was a d irect consequence of the i ncreased pressure. This i s consistent with our i nterpretation i n the Khartoum a rea ( Haaland R . 1 981 a . b.). It d oes not, however, throw more l ight on the problem, of t he s ettlement gap. Let us now l ook a t the d istribution of other patterns which may be a ssociated with the Khartoum Nile s ites. We observed that l ivestock was present a t 6 000 B .P. ( Tigani M . A. 1 982: 1 11-128) and we assumed that it may have i ncreased i n importance a nd l ed to a d ifferent s ettlement pattern. What i s the r egional context for domestication and expansion of cattle-holding? The earliest date s o far goes back to 8 000 B .P. ( Wendorf & Hassan 1 980) f rom the s ite Napta Playa i n the Western d esert i n Egypt, or even a s far back a s 1 0000 B .P. ( Wendorf F . 1 984: 4 21-422). Camps a rgues that there probably was a l ocal domestication of cattle i n the Sahara, north of the Sudan Savannah zone ( Camps, G . 1 982: 5 71-72), but this i s s till not generally a ccepted. However t he place of origin of cattle domestication i s not relevant f or the problem we a re concerned with here, namely possible direction of expansion of pastoral adaptations to African s avannah regions. Stevenson argues that the Afro-asiatic l anguage f amily came a bout a s a consequence of expansion of people out of the Sahara when the d esert was encroaching. That such expansion of pastoral people can be very rapid is supported by ethnographical evidence of the Fulanis' expansion f rom S enegal, i n west Africa, to Ethiopia. I f a nimal husbandry i n the central Sudan was i ntroduced by expanding groups f rom the north, this may have implications f or our understanding of t he gap in the settlement history of the Khartoum Nile environment. I t may not have come a bout a s a consequence of change i n s ettlement through t he l ocal processes of

2 26

nomadization, but through gradual expansion of people carrying an Afro-Asiatic language tradition, most probably the Cushitic branch, see Fig. 4 . ( Stevenson 1 977). Such a n expansion of s pecialized pastoralists woul d partly be in competition with the original, presumably Nilo-Saharan speaking, people in a multir esource adaptation. Allthough the original inhabitants of a presumably Nilo-Saharan tradition i n the Khartoum Nile environment may have aquired cattle f rom expanding pastoral Cushites, population growth among both groups would over t ime have i ncreased the competition between them, s ince their niches were overlapping. A possible explanation for the gap i n the archaeological record may be that the Cushitic s peaking people more efficiently exploited the pastoral niche and a lso had the politicalmilitary capacity to monopolize i t. In that case the options for the people i n the Khartoum Nile environment would be to reduce i nvolvement i n animal husbandry or to move to areas not attractive for s pecialized pastoral ists. I f they chose the last option, migration to wetter a reas f urther south a long the White Nile would be a possibility. According to Wickens the rainfall a round Rabak c . 5 000 B .P. would be c .3-400 millimetres higher than today. The combination of this amount of rain and the big Gezira clay soils, would not have been very a ttractive for s pecialized pastoralists, adapted to more arid conditions. The narrow clay a lluvial along the Nile north of Khartoum would however, have been a ttract ive f or them during the dry s eason because of pasture available along the river bed. From this way of reasoning it i s tempting to s ee the evolution of the Niloithic sub-branch of the Nilo-Saharan language tradition, as an adaptative response to the pressure f rom expanding Cushitic s peaking people i nto the drier areas. By moving i nto wetter areas further south they may have managed to develop a complex s et of techniques which a llowed t hem to carry their multiresource adaptat ion even i nto the Sudd swamps. The argument a long this l ine does however l end more s upport to the hypothesis that the Butana-Kashm el Girab tradition and the Khartoum Neolithic actually have s eparate cultural historical connections, the first to the Afro-Asiatic tradition and after the s econd to the Nilo-Saharan tradition. However the i nsignificance of l ivestock in the Butana material weakens this hypothesis

1 3.4.

Culture

h istory

and

l anguage

I t i s the tension between the search for general patterns in African prehistory and detailed description a nd analysis of particular material from the Khartoum a rea, which i s t he background for the development of the hypothesis which have been presented here. Many of them are weakly corraborated i n the archaeological material a nd will most probably have to be revised as future

2 27

evidence accumulates. But s ince material can only s erve a s evidence for or against our hypothesis i t i s important to make the hypothesis a s explicit a s possible. In this reconstruction of the ecologic adaptation a nd the division of labour among the populations inhabiting the Khartoum Nile environment 5 -6000 y ears ago I have tried to make the a ssumptions on which i t i s based a s explicit a s possible. These a ssumptions have been d erived mainly from comparative ethnographic material and f rom arguments based on ecological and anthropological perspectives. On the background of evidence indicating major relevant features of the natural environment in the period under discussion I have tried to work out the implications of my a ssumptions with reference to the localizations of subsistence a ctivities during d ifferent seasons. These implications have been confronted with archaeological evidence f rom a s et of excavated s ites. This confrontation has l ead to c ertain modification of the original hypothesis. The pattern which i s s ummari zed in this concluding chapter i s the one which, in my opinion, is most consistent with the information available a t present. I do expect, however, that a s new s ites a re excavated i n the region this reconstruction will have to be modified or even r ejected. Archaeological " facts" are thus uninteresting unless they are s een i n relation to a hypothesis, and culture h istorical hypothesis are unscientific unless they can be confronted with new observations. Popper's argument that " the criterion of the s cientific s tatus of a theory is it' s falsifiability or refutability or testability" ( Popper, K . 1 972: 3 7) has thus been the main methodological guideline in this work. This methodological perspective can best be summed up by a quotation f rom Popper: "The falsification or refutation of theories through the falsification or refutation of their deductive consequences was, clearly a d eductive i nference ( modus tollens). Thus the whole problem of scientific method cleared itself up, and with i t the problem of s cientifiiic progress. Progress consisted i n moving towards theories which tell u s more - theories of even greater content. But the more a theory says the more it excludes or forbids, and the greater a re the opportunities for falsifying i t. So a theory with greater content i s one which can be more s everly tested. This consideration l ed to a theory i n which s cientific progress turned out not to consist in the accumulation of observations but in the overthrow of less good theories and their replacement by better ones, in particular by theories of greater content. Thus there was competition between theories a kind of Darwinian s truggle for survival" ( Popper, K . 1 974: 6 2-63). If we now try to pull all the threads together and place our material f rom a f ew s ites i n the Khartoum Nile environment i n the framework of broad continental wide

2 28

processes,

the picture would

l ook

roughly

a s

f ollows:

I From the 9 th millenium B .P. people of the NibSaharan language affiliation expanded the hunter gatherer niche, by d eveloping techniques of exploiting aquatic resources i n the i nland waters of Sahara a nd the Sudan s avannah ( see Fig. 3 a). With high productivity of the newly developed n iche a nd population growth typically a ssociated with this, Nib -Sahara s peaking people, expanded along the inland water courses across the Southern Sahara and Sudan s avannah, from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea. I n the Khartoum Nib oenvironment the Nilo-Saharan Mesolithic expansion i s reflected in the early Khartoum tradition ( see Fig. 3 ). I I During the 6 th millenium population buildup in the broad z one o f the " aquatic c ivilization" i ncreased the pressure on plant r esources. This pressure s timulated d evelopment of t echniques which i ntensified exploitation of these resources e .g. weeding, s torage harvesting and sowing. However d evelopment of cultivation d id not l ead t o domestication of plants until development of the sickle. At the same time a s Nilo-Saharan speaking people developed more effective techniques ( e. g. cultivation) o f plant exploitation, they expanded t heir n iche by adopting husbandry based on sheep/goats and cattle. In the Khartoum Nile environment this is reflected in development of the Khartoum Neolithic tradition exemplified in the s ites of Esh Shaheinab, kadero 1 ,11, Z akiab and Um Direiwa. I II During the 7 th and 6 th millenium people of AfroAsiatic l anguage a ffilition d eveloped more s pecialized forms of pastoral production i n the northern belt of Sahara, people of the Cushitic branch of this family expanded southwards between the Nile and the Red S ea and later further to the Horn of Africa and into East Africa. In the Khartoum Nile environment the Cushitic s peaking pastoralists competed with the Nilo-Saharan speaking people for pasture r esources. As more s pecia lized pastoralists we a ssume t hat the Cushitic s peakers were a ble to exploit the pastures resources more e fficiently a nd that the Nilo-Saharan s peaking people therefore e xperienced a n iche contraction i n the s ense that pastoralism was g reatly r educed i n importance. S ince we expect that the Cushitic s peaking pastoralists l ived i n small migratory camps, i t is very difficult to find archaeological evidence f or the f irst migration a nd I do not know about any a rchaeological evidence which could corraborate my a rgument on this point. IV During the 5 th and 4th millenium people in the Khartoum Nile Environment f acing contraction o f their n iche under pressure f rom Cushitiic s peaking pastorali sts moved further south towards the Sudd. These a reas

2 29

are less attractive for s pecialized pastoralilsts but a llowed f or continuation of the Nilo-Saharan s peaking peoples multiresources adaption. Cushitic s peaking pastoralists thus come to o ccupy the Khartoum Neolithic environment. In the archaeological record we have, however s o far f ound no d irect evidence for this. have tentatively s uggested that there may be a connection between the But an a-Kh asm el Girba Neolithic tradition and Cushitic expansion but t he weak a ssociation of this material with animal husbandry i s i nconsis tent with the hypothesis that Cushitic expansion was based on s pecialized husbandry. I f Cushitic s peaking pastoralists replaced Nilo-Saharan s peaking p eople i n the Khartoum Nile environment one would a lso expect them to replace earlier N ilo-Saharan s peaking people i n the Butana-Kashm e l Girba savannah. The Butana-Kashm el Girba evidence i s puzzeling i n r elation to this perspective. A possible solution may be that as Cushitic speaking nomads filled the pastoral n iche population growth and pressure i n that n iche f orced an i ncreasing number of marginal pastoralists to supplement their i ncome with increased reliance on cultivation. The larger s ettlement which one f inds i n these areas i n the l ater Neolithic period may thus be r elated to e conomic d ifferentation among Cushitic s peakers with s ome groups being f orced to r ely i ncreasingly on cultivation. V Nilo-Saharan s peaking people d eveloped the pastoral component o f their n iche i n wetter Sudd a reas which were unattractive to the s pecialized pastoralists. As the Nilotic s ubbranch of the Nilo-Saharan language family developed the pastoral complex i n the S udd during the third millenium t hey d eveloped t echniques which a llowed them to expand out of the Sudd to t he d rier a reas i n East Africa. There t hey a gain got i nto competition with Cushitic speaking pastoralists and probably also cultivators. The i nteraction b etween Nilots a nd Cushits in East Africa resulted in the development of the s ocalled Cushitized N ilots, i .e. the Nilotic s peaking pastoral communities l ike the Masai a nd t he Turkana. This broad p icture i s h ighly t entative but a s far as I can judge the processes I have outlined are consistent with t he l inguistic evidence. It i s also consistent with the archaeological evidence for the Khartoum Nile e nvironment. The main difficulties are with the Butana-Khasm e l Girba material.

The only t hing I am quite s ure about, i s that this picture will have to be redrawn when we get more d etailed case s tudies f rom the l arger regions we here a re d ealing with. Most probably s uch a f uture r einterpretation of t he g eneral processes will a lso l ead to a r einterpretation o f our s pecific material. I t i s this tension between being a bsorbed i n t he particulars o f

2 30

s pecific s ites and thinking a bout the general picture which the particulars were a small part of, which makes a rchaeology such a fascinating s ubject and i t i s out of c onstantly maintaining the tension that we have some hope of g radually d eveloping more r ealistic reconstructi ons.

1

3

P late

2 5,a

K assala

s ites

i n

B utana

the

phase ( after

pottery

f rom

Fattovich et

a l.

1 984,

Fig.

4 ).

Plate

2 5,

s ites

i n

b Kassala the

Butana

phase ( after

pottery

f rom

Fattovich

et

a l.

1 984,

Fig.

5 ).

Appendix no.

Report

1

on the

radiocarbon

A major part of and the be

the

dates by S teinar Gulliksen.

r adiocarbon

s pecific problems

recognized.

r eservoir, i nherit

while

organisms

organisms

The biochemical

therefore have

an

l iving

i s

i sotopic

1 4C

i n

an

i s

which

t errestrial materials,

i s

s ensitive

aquatic

to mass

i nvolved.

i sotopic

dating,

The

e nvironment may

d ifferences

be

f ractionation e ffect

corrected for by mass

relatively

i s

f or

Organic materials will

s table carbon

of

- r anging

f rom marine mammals

a uniform

composition reflecting the pathways

This

t he

organisms

normally gain

r esponsible

metric measurement o f

aquatic

s hells,

o f material must

a nd physical processes

their carbon uptake.

correction,

type

consistent.

i sotopes

f or h igh precision

f resh water

l ess

i n nature

between the carbon

on

f rom the well mixed a tmospheric/biospheric

a radiocarbon content which

carbon exchange

i s

related to this

Terrestrial

radiocarbon content

dates

t o more

vital

small

( -080

importance

f rom c . than

i sotopes

1 30

4 00

s hould, s pectro-

a nd 1 2C.

years)

f or

years

years

1 3C

of

f or most

dates

on

for bone collagen

f or marine

s hell

carbonate. Radiocarbon dating corrections i s

now,

that

f or

i sotopic

however,

a ll

dates

s amples

f ractionation when

s trongly recommended

f or the

1 3C/12C

f rom S udan

( list below)

5 .1

per mu le below the

6 .4

were

Corrections

f or

5 .4

PDB,

This

i s

water

the o ther

t he

s hells

l aboratory

dates.

& Polach,

I t

1 977)

ratio.

corresponding

( 13C = 5.1

to

an

the

the

f resh water

ranging

f rom

s tandard PDB to 6.4

% o

l aboratory

& Temple,

fractionation correction because ( Delibrias

et

a ge correction of

e stimate

1 973).

i n Gif-sur-Yvette prefers

being variable".

a nd values

i nternational

S idney University

( Gillespie

F ive of

for

rel.

PDB).

s amples were based on the mean value

i n good agreement with

applied by

reporting

( Stuiver

analysed,

s uch measurements were obtained

% o rel.

i ncluded

dated by the Trondheim radiocarbon

l aboratory to

a lways

s hould be corrected - based on e ither measured or

e stimated values s hell

l aboratories have not

of

a l.

5.0

% o

" initial

1 974).

2 33

years.

PDB

f resh

radiocarbon

to n eglect the the

r el.

f or Frican

The

3 15

1 4C

-

i sotopic content

Aquatic

reservoirs

a nd other effects a tions

i n their

than

have

i sotopic

s pecific

to

the

admixture

s uch reservoirs 5 %

l ower

have

an

of

a ttain

reservoir

of

age

c . i s

4 00

practice

when

and thus f or

r eservoir

i ntroduced not

d eep

a lso through

be

calcareous

exchanged with

f ect").

For

whether

the

boundary

i s

o ld carbon I t voir 4 00

rocks

of

rapid enough

known that

( Butzer et

s urface

samples

a l.

s ome

f resh

of

Old a

I n areas

o ld carbon will

( "hard water

crucial point

i s

ef-

o bviously

t he water-atmosphere the

lakes

i s

d ilution effect of

s how a s ignificant

e stimated to have

1 972).

and normally

For

a major

r eservoir relevant i s

a precise

i n their

e stimate

far

s everal

i s

r ather

f raction

i s

One Gatropods on

be

a n

r easons small

a ny

a ge

reserof

c .

i t must be

f or river

i s

non-aged a nd

f or

o f known

s amples

and the

to

a ge.

make

s oft

i s

a re

f resh water

d ifferent

i t v ery

age,

The

large

s easonal

d ifficult to

obtain

Unfortunately,

i t

a pproach t his problem by mea-

A close

s hell

a re known to have s uch material

Sudan

any r eservoir e ffect.

z ero r eservoir

the

a ctual

and Blue N ile waters.

d ischarge,

a pplied to the of

the

r ivers

n ot been possible

samples

however,

to

t he combined White

variability

dates

For

l ayers

s ystem.

a re present,

suppress

the reservoir effect

d rainage basin of these

effect

i sotopic

runoff water.

The

s uring

this

o ften more complicated.

a cross

to

S treaming water exchanges more v igorously with the

a tmosphere,

s o

to

Lake Rudolf water

expected that

has

the

appear

s hells

effects.

f rom t he bottom

l imestone

carbon

therefore

i nflux.

age. years

t hese

adjacent water r eservoirs

exchange

a pproximately

a rather common

groundwater

a g iven reservoir

i s well

water.

a s

i s

only

the

o f

the

i n radiocarbon,

For marine

i t has b een

effect

i s

- compensated by the

either

carbon may be l ake but

dated.

devi-

l ayer of oceans.

d eficient

Coastal waters

- quite by chance

the

Typical

radiocarbon concentrations

not to correct

s hells

where

the mixed u pper

o ld d eep water,

y ears

f ractionation e ffect,

water

i n

than the biosphere. a ge

f ractionation may cause

radiocarbon c ontent.

growth of marine molluscs Due

indeed often complex charateristics,

f irst

a pproximation

s o no c orrection

should,

f or reservoir

dates.

a terrestrial

s nail

s hell

a very complex uptake often unreliable.

of

( T-3260). carbon,

Reservoir cor-

and

r ection

i s

n eglected a lso

Calibration of procedure

( Ralph et a l.

Pretreatment the o f

s urface. s hells,

dates

i s

d ates

o f

s amples

was

based on t he

a ccording to the

1

i s

this

date.

a ccording

to the MASCA calibration

1 973).

To eliminate

1 0-15%,

f or

i ncludes washing

s urface contamination,

r emoved by 5 568

and s crubbing of

a cid l eaching.

y ear half-life

criterion

( 68%

the outer part Calculation o f

and uncertainties

probability).

a re

Appendix no.

2

Miscelaneous

l ithic

Kadero

I .

a rea

2 ,

artefacts.

excavated 1 975.

1 - Disk-shaped macehead 2 - Macehead?,

polished pieces

3 - Retouchers? 1 - Ball-like

( 2

of

I ,

a rea

rhyolite

a rtefact

3 - Z eolite pebbles,

Kadero

( soda-granite)

2a,

volcanic

Kadero

I ,

( 3

excavated 1 976.

of

broken

rhyolite,

( soda-granite)

3 of

f ossilized wood,

tuff)

a rea

1 - Ball-like

l a.

a rtefact

4 - Polished pieces

of

- Unpolished pieces

1 - Z eolite pebble,

Kadero

and 1 of basalt)

unworked

1 - Disk-shaped macehead

2 0

s oda-granite

( sandstone)

1 - Disk-shaped macehead, 7 - Retouchers

of

( soda-granite)

( sandstone) red o chre of red o chre

unworked

I I.

1 - Macehead?,

polished fragment

( soda-granite)

Um D ireiwa I .

1 - Disk-shaped macehead, 2 - Retouchers?

( 1

of

rhyolite,

7 - Polished pieces

of

5 - Z eolite points,

l ip or

1 8

- Z eolite pebbles,

broken

( soda-granite) 1 of basalt)

red ochre nose-plugs?

unworked

1 of

Z akiab.

1 - Disk-shaped macehead, 3 - Maceheads?,

artefacts

1 - F ish-line

s inker?

5 - Polished pieces of

1 4

These

on

a re

red o chre

unworked

t he miscellaneous

l ithic

f laked or

( soda-granite)

red o chre

- Z eolite pebbles,

Comments

f or

o f

( soda-granite)

polished fragments

5 - Ball-like

7 - P ieces

broken

a rtefacts.

a rtefacts which

gr ound l ithic

a re

tools.

not

i ncluded i n

I will

d iscuss

the tables these briefly

below:

Disk-shaped macehead

As

can be

s een

f ound on

a ll

f rom t he

s oda-granite,

i s

maceheads ( Arkell, on t he

A .J.

s ites,

a ppear on the

smooth

of

t he

1 953,

F ig.

s urface

a lso

a re

of

( Anwar E .

Osman personal

The

s hape 4 9).

a s

those

These

S ileitat.

a rtefacts

These

the Neolithic

s ites

Besides

do,

for example,

They

a t

the

o lder

" Early Khartoum"

type

of

the 4 Neolithic

to the

north a t

a t Nofalab

s eem to make

t hese Neolithic

not have

Disk-shaped

these

the Nile

communication). a t

a t

further

the west bank of

f unction of

a s

f eature

o ccuring

Shaheinab,

d o

never numerous

a re very numerous.

a characteristic

s ites we

a re

reason why they do not

t ime

that

u sed,

f ound a t Esh Shaheinab

f irst

the

I I where

d isk-shaped

the

What was

raw-material

The

f or

" Dotted Wavy Line"

s uggests

f or Um Direiwa

f rom both ends.

found a t Esh a nd on

of macehead a re

The perforation o f

s ites.

s ite,

not present

( except

types

a nd even polishing.

g ouges which

the G eili

a ppearance

s ites

these

i s probably the

s eem to be

Khartoum Neolithic they

s ame

and t his

the c haracteristic

s ites

l ist,

was probably quarried a t Jebel

u sually d one

a re

maceheads

a bove

collection was made).

s how a very

the h ole

2 6a).

the Neolithic

only a s urface

tools

( Fig.

of

s ites. s ite.

s ite their

They

a re

For the

i nformation.

these tools?

they might have been u sed a s

2 37

L .

Krzyzaniak

a symbol

of power.

He

based this with

i nterpretation on one macehead found

a male burial which

i ncluding

a l ong

i n

necklace

This

grave was

which

carnelian beads

vessels

and pendants

( Krzyzaniak,

L .

outstanding when compared with the

u sually had pottery a s

Krzyzaniak's

gravegoods

i nterpretation might be

to transition to animal

a ssociation

addition c ontained other o bjects

of

f inely d ecorated pottery

i n

only,

or

r ight when

and

1 977:169). other graves none

s een

a t

a ll.

i n relation

husbandry and cultivation which was

probably followed by the

d evelopment o f private property and

i nequality. Artefacts

classified a s

polished pieces

of

uncertain maceheads

s oda-granite which a re

permit me to a certain

too

a re well

f ragmentary to

i f they were maceheads

( Fig.

2 6b,

c ).

Retouchers.

These

a re cores which have

traces

of

edges.

crushing

I t

i s

a nd of

l ikely

f rom their u se

to

s trike f lakes

graphic material

to

the Wollamo

d ifficult however have

chips

that

d ary trimming of

among

an oval

having

this

type

f lakes

off

i nto tools.

s upport

this

s how

o f wear pattern c ould s tem the cores,

or

i n t he

I have however,

i nterpretation d one with

to

types

s ee what other

They

s plintered o ff a long the

Soddo tanners was

of

an

s econ-

no ethno-

s ince knapping i ron bar.

I t

i s

a ctivities could

caused this wear pattern.

Ball-like

a rtefacts

These

round artefacts made

a re

pecked a ll

over

c entimeters.

g rinders

Only one f ish-line

a re

s urface. s how no

of The

t races

s andstone. d iameter of

A .J.1953:Plate

2 2

nos.

They a re carefully

ranges between

rubbing

a t Esh Shaheinab which he

( Arkell,

tools

F ish-line

the

They

f ound by Arkell

t hese

cross-section.

4 a nd 6

s imilar to those

i nterpreted to be o chre 1 -2).

The

f unction o f

unknown.

s inker

tool was

found

s inker.

This

( at i s

Z akiab)

which

consistent with 2 38

i s

i nterpreted a s

a

Zakiab being s een a s

a

s ite

o ccupied for

c lassified a s s hows

a s

i ts

doubtful

careful pecking

marks, o r

f ishing

a ctivities.

s ince

a small mortar.

type

to be

the broader

and polishing

which could i ndicate

that

any of

t his

i nterpreted a s

f ish-line

Khartoum";

a nd these

quite

r ounded,

with

a groove

( Arkell,

A .J.

1 949,

These

a re

traces

f lat pieces

4 0

of

nos.

s triation marks

o f polishing on the

1 ,

f lat

u sed for i s

the

the

s triation g rinding

Artefacts

found a t

s hape.

a nd

only tool of

s ites.

s inkers were

s een

f aces

the

average

s uggested earlier

" Early

They a re

circumference

2 a nd 4 ).

edges

s ize

i n chapter

Both

a s parallel

i s

a s well.

One piece

The maximum s ize

a round 4 centimeters.

6 that red o chre and/or

i s

7

I

could have been

f or colouring pottery

f unctions would probably l eave

s triation marks

l ines.

a lmost completely polished and

u sed f or colouring a rrow-shafts vessels.

end i s

i5

red ochre which have been ground or with

Z akiab has both

centimeters,

this

a d ifferent

tool

of r ed ochre

c lear polished f ound a t

e nd was

a long the middle of

Plate

the

s eem to be

the Neolithic

which were

have

l ower

a nd what

To my knowledge,

f ound on

Ptiished pieces

However,

these kinds

o f

o r polishing.

Z eolite pebbles

Z eolite pebbles were probably collected f rom the s urrounding the c entimeters.

has

Pendant

5 pieces

these pebbles of

end narrow and pointed a nd one

A .J.

( Fig.

1 953,

Plate

s late.

i s

4 0

no.

a round 3

Z eolite were

a ppear to have been nose

found which

or

l ip-plugs,

end broad and f lat found a t Esh

1 to the

( one

S haheinab)

l eft).

3 1)

i s probably a broken pendant.

kind of the

i nto what

s ize of

a marked head s imilar to what Arkell

( Arkell,

This

The

At Um Direiwa

had been worked with one

s ites.

sandstone gravel

The hole

only a rtefact of

i ts

i s

The material

bored through

kind f ound on

s eems

to be

f rom both

faces.

the Neolich

s ites.

s ome I t

i s

Small polished object

This

object

on both

i s made of

faces,

the

( Fig.

soft

function

3 1d)

sandstone. i s

unknown.

It

i s completely polished

Appendix no.

A f abric

3

a nalysis

I have made

o f

a brief

Randi Haaland's

s herds

f rom Sudan by Hans-Ake NordstrOm

a nalysis

of

1 3

i nvestigation of

s herds

o riginating

the Um Direiwa

I

( from

s ite

( area

1 00x/100y). As

regards

1 2

s herds

the

fabric

i s

Fabric

IA d escribed i n Nordstrom 1 972

f airly

s ilty but

These

adheres well

consist mainly of

The g rains

a re usually

b etween

micron to

1 000

6 0

micron)

g rains

a re

a ngular or

l arger

usually

4 8

and f eldspar

5 00 micron.

a bundant,

( pp.

s imilar close to f .).

to the non-olastic

quartz

and g rains

rather

The clay

i nclusions.

i n equal

amounts.

s ub-angular

and range

S ame

a re

than

grains

1 millimeter

f orming between

2 0

i s

i n

coarse are

s ize

( 500-

rare.

and 4 0

The

% of

the

paste. The ( common

colour of i s

the

7 .5YR or

brownish colours

4/4),

1 0YR

a t the

u sually homogeneous ( 10YR

f ractures 5 -3/1),

- the colour

( 10YR

5 YR

5 /12).

Some

s herds

Nordstrom 1 972, p lain

a re

and burnished.

l ines.

One

t he r im.

s urfaces

reddish

g rey

( 5YR

paste

i s

5 /2),

and

7 00-800°C.

2 5,

Group

One

s herd has

impressed z igzag

1 :16, a n

1 9,

2 0

d esigns

and 2 2),

others

( cf. a re

i ncised d esign of parallel

a row of black

dots

a pplied on

o ccur.

One burnished s herd with g reyish brown exterior c lay containing

are

f iring temperature may be

red polished s herd has

Milled r ims

s tronger reddish or

represented a re weak red to red

d ecorated with

Plate

i nto

The exterior

5 /4),

The

e stimated to the range of

g rey to very dark grey

fading

exterior.

reddish brown

g reyish brown

i s

a bundant

i nclusions

rather porous but

the

o f

fabric

dark mica i s

i s made of

( biotite).

otherwise

s imilar

a

The to the

type characterized a bove. The i s

s andy

s imilar

s ites

recorded i n the

i n most respects

f rom Z akiab. t hree

f abrics

There a s

i s

regards

of

to the

course

r im s hapes

and d ecorative

belong to the

group,

I

f rom Kadero and

s ome variation between

of view the

t ion.

f rom Um Direiwa

s herd material

f rom a ceramological point s ame culture

s ample

these

d esigns,

a ssemblages

but

i n question

the Khartoum Neolithic

tradi-

Appendix no.

The

4

a rchaeological material

From the

2 0

f ollowing can be

square meters

f laked l ithic

s een the

bank,

i .e.

excavated a t the

tools were

tools more

d istribution a s

the

from Esh S haheinab

tools

or

recorded

l ess

tools

s ites

a re the

s ame

As

f requency

l ocated on the east

convex

s crapers

engraving tools.

I t

s crapers

i rregularly r etouched than those

a re more

s hould however,

s ite the

( see Table 3 6).

f ollow the

f ound on the

the most numerous

E sh Shaheinab

a nd

be mentioned that the convex f ound on the

east bank. Table d ifferent

3 5

shows

squares

the percentage higher

the

f requency d istribution within t he

of the

l ilthic

of rhyolite

than what was

i s

t he

s horter

rhyolite was

i s

2 0

d istance

square meters

excavated.

the case

plain being a lmost

f or the

This

i s

S ixth Cataract

kilometers

a nd much

east bank.

c .

1 04

were

l ess

eastern

important

s ites

due

non-existent on the west bank

s uch

recovered f rom

d iscussed i n chapter

s een to reflect that cereals were

than what was

to the

that

i s much

a ssociated with these

f ew, As

which

l ocated on the

a nd tools

and rubbers were

noticeable

s ites.

only 2 5

s ites

i s

5 7.8,

eastern

quarried was

of g rinders

a s hammerstones the

the

than compared with the

Fragments

It

a s high a s

f ound on the

i nterpreted to reflect that where

d ebris.

1 0

i n the

to t he

this d iet

a lluvial

a round Esh

Shaheinab. Table ( material

3 7

shows

f rom only

the pottery material 2 square meters was

d ecoration).

The types

those

the

Arkell

used a t

f rom the

pottery material classified.

of

eastern

1 949

from s quare P-87 classified a ccording to

decoration employed i s s ites

excavation

f rom the other

s imilar to

a nd to t he pottery a nalysed by ( Arkell, 1 8

A .J.

1 953:70).

s quare meters

i s

The

not yet

Adamson,

D .,

J .D.

points

Clark

and M . A.J.

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