Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Plants and People in the African Past pp 215–245Cite as

Multiscalar Perspectives on Holocene Climatic and Environmental Changes in the Sahara and Nile Corridor, with Special Consideration of Archaeological Sites on Sai Island, Sudan

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

This multiscalar study explores Holocene environmental changes across the Sahara, within the eastern Sahara , and along the Nile in northern Sudan . The Early Holocene saw increased moisture across most parts of northern Africa after c. 10,000 BC, with peak humid conditions 7800–7000 BC. A short but significant dry interval after c. 7000 BC was followed by wetter conditions around 6000 BC, and then a gradual aridification from 5000 BC. The latter dry phase has continued until present times. The exceptional environments near the Nile are known to have seen impressive variations as climate oscillations and flora left traces in the palaeobotanical record. Multidisciplinary archaeological studies in this area—including analysis of plant macroremains—have focused on the transitions from hunting-fishing-gathering (Khartoum Variant) to pastoralism (Abkan) and later to agro-pastoralism (Pre-Kerma). The palynological data from four Sai Island sites (8-B-10C, 8-B-76, 8-B-81, and 8-B-10A) and the nearby mainland site of Amara West (2-R-66) provide new perspectives on local environmental shifts during this time of profound economic and social change. Despite poor pollen preservation, the high number of samples enables comparisons that show both diachronic changes and synchronic variation. Since the earliest phases, pollen spectra reflect mixed flora from various habitats and some seasonal variability. During the Early Holocene and the initial part of the Middle Holocene , dramatic floods on Sai’s east side and seasonal desiccation on Sai’s west side together created an ecological mosaic that exposed people to several different habitat types within a short distance. These included swamps and marshes, wooded savannas, grasslands and desert savanna, providing access to plants used for food, medicine, and other purposes. Documenting localized patterns of vegetation variation and change can lay important groundwork for explaining changes in subsistence and social organization.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    All dates are given in cal BC. In cases where dates were originally published in uncalibrated form, we have calibrated them using Calpal (www.calpal-online.de). Please note that authors of some dates kept them uncalibrated in recognition of potential reservoir effects that may have varied over time, making calibration less accurate.

References

  • Abdelkreem MIM, Ibrahim DA (2016) Check list of Flora and vegetation of an archeological habitat in North Sudan. P J B C 1:1–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Abuswar AO (2007) Range management. UNESCO chair on desertification. University of Khartoum, Sudan

    Google Scholar 

  • Ali MM (2006) Shoreline vegetation of Lake Nubia, Sudan. Hydrobiol 570:101–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aritzegui D, Asioli A, Lowe JJ et al (2000) Paleoclimate and the formation of sapropel S1: inferences from Late Quaternary lacustrine and marine sequences in the central Mediterranean region. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 158:215–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barakat HN (1995) Middle Holocene vegetation and human impact in central Sudan: charcoal from the Neolithic site at Kadero. Veg Hist Archaeobot 4:101–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnet C (1992) Excavations at the Nubian royal town of Kerma: 1975–91. Antiquity 66:611–625

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnet C (2006) Les établisments des cultures Kerma. In: Caneva I, Roccati A (eds) Acta Nubica: proceedings of the X international conference of Nubian studies. Istituto Polygrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Roma, pp 15–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Briois F, Midant-Reynes B, Marchand S et al (2012) Neolithic occupation of an artesian spring: KS043 in the Kharga Oasis. Egypt J Field Archaeol 37(3):178–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brook AJ (1956) A note on the ecology of the terrestrial alga Fritschiella tuberosa in the Sudan. New Phytol 55:130–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buckley S, Usai D, Jakob T et al (2014) Dental calculus reveals unique insights into food items, cooking and plant processing in prehistoric Central Sudan. PLoS ONE 9(7):e100808

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cancellieri E, Cremaschi M, Zerboni A et al (2016) Climate, environment, and population dynamics in Pleistocene Sahara. In: Jones S, Stewart B (eds) Africa from 6-2: population dynamics and palaeoenvironments. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 123–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaix L (2011) Contribution à l’étude de l’économie de la période Pré-Kerma. Premiers résultats sur la faune du site 8-B-10A sur l’Ile de Saï (nord Soudan). In: Rondot V, Alpi F, Villeneuve F (eds) La pioche et la plume–Autour du Soudan, du Liban et de la Jordanie: Hommages archéologiques à Patrice Lenoble. Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, pp 207–223

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaix L, Grant A (1993) Palaeoenvironment and economy at Kerma, Northern Sudan, suring the third millennium B.C.: archaeozoological and botanical evidence. In: Krzyżaniak L, Kobusiewicz M, Alexander J (eds) Environmental change and human culture in the Nile Basin and Northern Africa. Poznan, Poznan Archaeological Museum, pp 399–404

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole JM, Goldstein SL, deMenocal PB et al (2009) Contrasting compositions of Saharan dust in the eastern Atlantic Ocean during the last deglaciation and African Humid Period. Earth Planet Sci Lett 278:257–266

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Costa K, Russell J, Konecky B et al (2014) Isotopic reconstruction of the African Humid Period and Congo Air Boundary migration at Lake Tana, Ethiopia. Quat Sci Rev 83:58–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M (1998) Late Quaternary geological evidence for environmental changes in south-western Fezzan (Libyan Sahara). In: Cremaschi M, di Lernia S (eds) Wadi Teshuinat—palaeoenvironment and prehistory in South-western Fezzan (Libyan Sahara). Quaderni di Geodinamica Alpina e Quaternaria, vol 7. CNR, Roma-Milano, pp 13–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M (2002) Late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic changes in the central Sahara: the case study of the southwestern Fezzan Libya. In: Hassan, FA (ed) Droughts. Food and culture. Kluwer Academic, New York, pp 65–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M, di Lernia S (1998) Thegeoarchaeological survey in central Tadrart Acacus and surroundings (Libyan Sahara): environment and cultures. In: Cremaschi M, di Lernia S (eds) Wadi Teshuinat—palaeoenvironment and prehistory in South-western Fezzan (Libyan Sahara). Quaderni di Geodinamica Alpina e Quaternaria, vol 7. CNR, Roma-Milano, pp 243–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M, di Lernia S (1999) Holocene climatic changes and cultural dynamics in the Libyan Sahara. Afr Archaeol Rev 16:211–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M, di Lernia S (2001) Environment and settlements in the Mid-Holocene palaeo-oasis of Wadi Tanezzuft (Libyan Sahara). Antiquity 75:815–825

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M, Trombino L (1998) The palaeoclimatic significance of paleosols in Southern Fezzan (Libyan Sahara): morphological and micromorphological aspects. CATENA 34:131–156

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M, Zerboni A (2009) Early to Middle Holocene landscape exploitation in a drying environment: two case studies compared from the central Sahara (SW Fezzan, Libya). C R Géosci 341:689–702

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M, Pelfini M, Santilli M (2006) Cupressus dupreziana: a dendroclimatic record for the middle-late Holocene in the central Sahara. Holocene 16(2):293–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M, Zerboni A, Spötl C et al (2010) The calcareous tufa in the Tadrart Acacus Mt. (SW Fezzan, Libya): An early Holocene palaeoclimate archive in the central Sahara. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclim Palaeoecol 287:81–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cremaschi M, Zerboni A, Mercuri AM, Olmi L, Biagetti S, di Lernia S (2014) Takarkori rock shelter (SW Libya): an archive of Holocene climate and environmental changes in the central Sahara. Quat Sci Rev 101:36–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damnati B (2000) Holocene lake records in the Northern Hemisphere of Africa. J Afr Earth Sci 31:253–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • deMenocal PB, Tierney JE (2012) Green Sahara: African humid periods paced by Earth’s orbital changes. Nat Educ Knowl 3(10):12

    Google Scholar 

  • deMenocal P, Ortiz J, Guilderson T et al (2000) Abrupt onset and termination of the African humid period: rapid climate response to gradual insolation forcing. Quat Sci Rev 19:347–361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denham T, Haberle S (2004) Agricultural emergence and transformation in the Upper Wahgi valley, Papua New Guinea, during the Holocene: theory, method and practice. Holocene 2008; 18:481–496

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Ercole G, Budka J, Sterba JH et al (2017a) The successful ‘recipe’ for a long-lasting tradition: Nubian ceramic assemblages from Sai Island (northern Sudan) from prehistoric times to the New Kingdom period. Antiquity 91:24–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Ercole G, Garcea EAA, Eramo G et al. (2017b) Variability and continuity of ceramic manufacturing of ethnographic productions since prehistory in Upper Nubia, Sudan. J Archaeol Sci Rep 16:553–563. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.04.012

  • D’Ercole G, Eramo G, Garcea EAA et al (2015) Raw material and technological changes in ceramic productions at Sai Island, Northern Sudan from the 7th to the 3rd Millennium BC. Archaeometry 57(4):597–616

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Despagne R (nd) Topographic data files for Sai Island. Geus archives, Lille

    Google Scholar 

  • Drake NA, Blench RM, Armitage SJ et al (2011) Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert. Proc Nat Acad Sci 108:458–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fahmy AG (2003) Palaeoethnobotanical studies of Egyptian Predynastic cemeteries: new dimensions and contributions. In: Neumann K, Butler A, Kahlheber S (eds) Food, fuel and fields: progress in African archaeobotany. Heinrich-Barth-Institut, Köln, pp 95–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Florenzano A, Mercuri AM, Altunoz M et al (2016) Palynological evidence of cultural and environmental connections in Sudanese Nubia during the Early and Middle Holocene. Quatern Int 412B:65–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quatint.2016.01.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Florenzano A, Mercuri AM, Fornaciari R et al (2018) Plants, water and humans: pollen analysis from Holocene archaeological sites on Sai Island, northern Sudan. Palynology (online). https://doi.org/10.1080/01916122.2017.1384411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fontes JCh, Gasse F, Callot Y et al (1985) Freshwater to marine-like environments from Holocene lakes in northern Sahara. Nature 317:608–610

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller DQ, Smith L (2004) The prehistory of the Bayuda: new evidence from the Wadi Muqaddam. In: T Kendall (ed) Nubian studies 1998: proceedings of the ninth conference of the international society of Nubian Studies Northwestern University, Boston, pp 265–281

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA (2006a) Semi-permanent foragers in semi-arid environments of North Africa. World Archaeol 38(2):197–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA (2006–2007) The Holocene prehistory at Sai Island, Sudan. In: Gratien, B (ed) Mélanges offerts à Francis Geus. Cahiers de Recherches de l’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Egyptologie de Lille 26:107–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA (2011–2012) Revisiting the Khartoum Variant in its landscape. Cahiers de Recherches de l’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Egyptologie de Lille 29:139–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA (2016a) Multi-stage dispersal of Southwest Asian domestic livestock and the path of pastoralism in the Middle Nile Valley. Quatern Int 412B:54–64

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA (2016b) Semi-permanent foragers in North Africa–An archaeological perspective. In: Tvedt T, Oestigaard T (eds) A history of water, Series 3. Water and Food From Hunter-Gatherers to Global Production in Africa, vol 3. I.B. Tauris, London, pp 29–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA (in press) The Southern periphery of Egypt in the Predynastic period: Nubia in the 5th and 4th Millennium BC. In: Knabb K, Boswell A (eds) Life at the margins of the state: comparative landscapes from the Old and New World. University Press of Colorado, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA, Hildebrand EA (2009) Shifting social networks along the Nile: middle Holocene ceramic assemblages from Sai Island, Sudan. J Anthropol Archaeol 28:304–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA, Karul N, D’Ercole G (2016a) Southwest Asian domestic animals and plants in Africa: routes, timing and cultural implications. Quatern Int 412B:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA, Mercuri AM, Giraudi C (2013) Archaeological and environmental changes between 9500 BP and 4500 BP: a contribution from the Sahara for the understanding of expanding droughts in the “Great Mediterranean”. Annali di Botanica (Roma) 3:115–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcea EAA, Wang H, Chaix L (2016b) High-precision radiocarbon dating application to multi-proxy organic materials from late foraging to early pastoral sites in Upper Nubia. Sudan J Afr Archaeol 14(1):83–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garzanti E, Andò S, Padoan M et al (2015) The modern Nile sediment system: processes and products. Quat Sci Rev 130:9–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasse F (2000) Hydrological changes in the African tropics since the last glacial maximum. Quat Sci Rev 19:189–211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasse F (2002) Diatom-inferred salinity and carbonate oxygen isotopes in Holocene waterbodies of the western Sahara and Sahel. Quat Sci Revi 21:737–767

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasse F, Roberts CN (2004) Late Quaternary hydrologic changes in the arid and semiarid belt of Northern Africa. Implications for past atmospheric circulation. In: Diaz HF, Bradley RS (eds) The Hadley circulation: present, past and future. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp 313–345

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gatto MC (2006) The Nubian A-Group: a reassessment. Archéo-Nil 16:61–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Gatto MC, Zerboni A (2015) Holocene supra-regional environmental changes as trigger for major socio-cultural processes in northeastern Africa and the Sahara. Afr Archaeol Rev 32:301–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geus F (1998) Saï 1996-1997. Archéologie du Nil Moyen 8:85–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Geus F (2002) Saï 1998–1999. Archéologie du Nil Moyen 9:95–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Giraudi C, Mercuri AM, Esu D (2013) Holocene palaeoclimate in the northern Sahara margin (Jefara Plain, Northwestern Libya). Holocene 23:339–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haynes CV, Eyles CH, Pavlish LA et al (1989) Holocene palaeoecology of the Eastern Sahara; Selima Oasis. Quat Sci Rev 8:109–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hely C, Lézine A-M, APD contributors (2014) Holocene changes in African vegetation: tradeoff between climate and water availability. Climate of the Past 10:681–686

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hennekam R, Jilbert T, Schnetger B et al (2014) Solar forcing of Nile discharge and sapropel S1 formation in the early to middle Holocene eastern Mediterranean. Paleoceanography 29:343–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hesse A (1996) Reconnaissance archéologique sur les rives du Nil: le cas du site SKP1 de l’île de Saï. Préhistoire Archéologie Méditerranéennes 5:105–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Hildebrand EA (2006–2007) The significance of Sai Island for early food production in Sudan. Cahiers de Recherches de L’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Egyptologie de Lille 26:173–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Hildebrand EA, Schilling TM (2016) Storage amidst early agriculture along the Nile: perspectives from Sai Island, Sudan. Quatern Int 412B:81–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoelzman P, Keding B, Berke H et al (2001) Environmental change and archaeology: lake evolution and human occupation in the Eastern Sahara during the Holocene. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 169:193–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoelzman P, Schwald A, Roberts N et al (2010) Hydrological response of an east-Saharan palaeolake (NW Sudan) to early-Holocene climate. Holocene 20:537–549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Honegger M (2004a) The Pre-Kerma: a cultural group from Upper Nubia prior to the Kerma civilisation. Sudan Nubia 8:38–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Honegger M (2007) Aux origines de Kerma. Genava, n.s. 55:201–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Honegger M, Williams M (2015) Human occupations and environmental changes in the Nile valley during the Holocene: the case of Kerma in Upper Nubia (northern Sudan). Quat Sci Rev 130:141–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz A (1992) Palynology of Arid Lands. Elsevier, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Iacumin P, Bocherens H, Chaix L et al (1998) Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes as dietary indicators of ancient Nubian populations (Northern Sudan). J Archaeol Sci 25:293–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jahns S (1995) A Holocene pollen diagram from El Atrun, northern Sudan. Veg Hist Archaeobot 4:23–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kröpelin S, Verschuren D, Lézine A-M et al (2008) Climate-driven ecosystem succession in the Sahara: the past 6000 years. Science 320:765–768

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kuper R, Kröpelin S (2006) Climate-controlled holocene occupation in the Sahara: motor of Africa’s evolution. Science 313:803–807

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lal BB (1967) Indian archaeological expedition to Nubia, 1962: a preliminary report. Fouilles en Nubie 1961–1963:99–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb HF, Bates CR, Coombes PV et al (2007) Late Pleistocene desiccation of Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile. Quat Sci Rev 26:187–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lange M (2007) Development of pottery production in the Laqiya region, Eastern Sahara. CRIPEL (Cahiers de Recherches de L’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Egyptologie de Lille) 26:243–251

    Google Scholar 

  • Lario J, Sanchez-Moral S, Fernandez V et al (1997) Palaeoenvironmental evolution of the blue Nile (Central Sudan) during the early and mid-Holocene (Mesolithic-Neolithic transition). Quat Sci Rev 16:583–588

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lézine A-M (1989) Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of the Sahel. Quat Res 32:317–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lézine A-M (2007) Pollen records, postglacial. In Scott, EA (ed) Encyclopaedia Quaternary Science, vol. 4, pp 2682–2698

    Google Scholar 

  • Lézine A-M (2009) Timing of vegetation changes at the end of the Holocene humid period in desert areas at the northern edge of the Atlantic and Indian monsoon systems. CR Geosci 341:750–759

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lézine A-M, Hely C, Grenier C et al (2011) Sahara and Sahel vulnerability to climate changes, lessons from Holocene hydrological data. Quat Sci Rev 30:3001–3012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • López-Sáez JA, López-Garcia P (2003) Pollen analysis from Early and Middle Holocene archaeological sites in the Blue Nile area, Central Sudan. Complutum 14:397–400

    Google Scholar 

  • Macklin MG, Lewin J (2015) The rivers of civilization. Quat Sci Rev 114:228–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macklin MG, Toonen WHJ, Woodward JC et al (2015) A new model of river dynamics, hydroclimatic change and human settlement in the Nile Valley derived from meta-analysis of the Holocene fluvial archive. Quat Sci Rev 130:109–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macklin MG, Woodward JC, Welsby DA et al (2013) Reach-scale river dynamics moderate the impact of rapid Holocene climate change on floodwater farming in the desert Nile. Geology 41:695–698

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madani I, Tahir IF, Hamdeen HM et al (2015) Vegetation ecology and taxonomy of El-Ga’ab area, north-western Sudan. Europ Acad Res 3:2927–2943

    Google Scholar 

  • Madella M, García-Granero JJ, Out WAD et al (2014) Microbotanical evidence of domestic cereals in Africa 7000 years ago. PLoS ONE 9:e110177

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Magid AA (2003) Exploitation of food-plants in the Early and Middle Holocene Blue Nile area, Sudan and neighbouring areas. Complutum 14:345–372

    Google Scholar 

  • Maley J (1981) Etudes palynologiques dans le bassin du Tchad et paléoclimatologie de l’Afrique nord-tropicale de 30 000 ans à l’époque actuelle. Travaux et documents de l’ORSTOM 129, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Maley J (2010) Climate and Palaeoenvironment evolution in north tropical Africa from the end of the Tertiary to the Upper Quaternary. Palaeoecol Afr 30:227–278

    Google Scholar 

  • Maley J, Vernet R (2015) Populations and climatic evolution in north tropical Africa from the end of the Neolithic to the dawn of the modern era. Afr Archaeol Rev 32:179–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manning K, Timpson A (2014) The demographic response to Holocene climate change in the Sahara. Quat Sci Rev 101:28–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mercuri AM (2008) Human influence, plant landscape, evolution and climate inferences from the archaeobotanical records of the Wadi Teshuinat area (Libyan Sahara). J Arid Environ 72:1950–1967

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mercuri AM, Florenzano A, Giraudi C et al (2015) Humans and water in desert ‘refugium’ areas: palynological evidence of climate oscillations and cultural developments in early and mid-Holocene Saharan edges. IANSA–Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica 6:151–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mercuri AM, Sadori L, Uzquiano Ollero P (2011) Mediterranean and north-African cultural adaptations to mid-Holocene environmental and climatic change. Holocene 21:189–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mustafa MA (2007) Desertification processes. UNESCO chair on desertification. University of Khartoum, Sudan

    Google Scholar 

  • Neumann K (1989) Holocene vegetation of eastern the Sahara: Charcoal from prehistoric sites. Afr Archaeol Rev 7:97–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicoll K (2004) Recent environmental change and prehistoric human activity in Egypt and Northern Sudan. Quat Sci Rev 23:561–580

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordström H-A (1972) Neolithic and A group sites. Scandinavian University, Uppsala

    Google Scholar 

  • Nourelbait M, Rhoujjati A, Benkaddour A et al (2015) Climate changes since the mid-Holocene in the Middle Atlas, Morocco. Clim Past Discuss 11:4097–4121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Out WA, Ryan P, García-Granero JJ et al (2016) Plant exploitation in Neolithic Sudan: a review in the light of new data from the cemeteries R12 and Ghaba. Quatern Int 412B:36–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pachur HJ, Hoelzmann P (2000) Paleoclimatic implications of late Quaternary lacustrine sediments in Western Nubia, Sudan. Quat Res 36:257–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinold J (2001) Kadruka and the Neolithic in the northern Dongola Reach. Sudan & Nubia 5:2–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinold J (2006) Les cimetières préhistoriques au Soudan – cotoumes funéraires et systemes sociaux. In: Caneva I, Roccati A (eds) Acta Nubica: proceedings of the X international conference of Nubian Studies. Istituto Polygrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Roma, pp 139–162

    Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie JC (1994) Holocene pollen spectra from Oyo, northwestern Sudan: problems of interpretation in a hyperarid environment. Holocene 4:9–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie JC, Haynes CV (1987) Holocene vegetation zonation in the eastern Sahara. Nature 330:645–647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie JC, Eyles CH, Haynes CV (1985) Sediment and pollen evidence for an Early to Mid-Holocene humid period in the Eastern Sahara. Nature 314:352–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowley-Conwy P (1989) Nubia AD 0–550 and the “Islamic” agricultural revolution: preliminary botanical evidence from Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia. Archéologie du Nil Moyen 3:131–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Salvatori S, Usai D (eds) (2008) A Neolithic cemetery in the Northern Dongola Reach (Sudan): Excavation at Site R12. Sudan Archaeological Research Society, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Salvatori S, Usai D, Zerboni A (2011) Mesolithic site formation and palaeoenvironment along the White Nile (Central Sudan). Afr Archaeol Rev 28(3):177–211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schild R, Wendorf F (2010) Late Palaeolithic Hunter-Gatherers in the Nile Valley of Nubia and Upper Egypt. In: Garcea EAA (ed) South-Eastern Mediterranean peoples between 130,000 and 10,000 years ago. Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp 89–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulz E (1991) Holocene environments in the central Sahara. Hydrobiol 214:359–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stemler ABL (1990) A Scanning Electron Microscopic Analysis of Plant Impressions in Pottery from the Sites of Kadero, El Zakiab, Um Direiwa and El Kadada. Archéologie du Nil Moyen 4:87–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Tierney JE, deMenocal PB (2013) Abrupt shirts in the Horn of Africa hydroclimate since the last glacial maximum. Science 342:843–846

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Watrin J, Lézine A-M, Hély C et al (2009) Plant migration and ecosystems at the time of the “green Sahara”. CR Geosci 341:656–670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wendrich W, Taylor RE, Southon J (2010) Dating stratified sites at Kom K and Kom W: fifth millennium BCE radiocarbon ages for the Fayum Neolithic. Nucl Instrum Methods 268(7–8):999–1002

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wetterstrom W (1993) Foraging and farming in Egypt. In: Shaw T, Sinclair PJJ, Andah B, Okpoko A (eds) The archaeology of Africa: food, metals and towns. Routledge, London, pp 165–226

    Google Scholar 

  • White F (1986) La végétation de l’Afrique. UNESCO, ORSTOM

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams MAJ (2009) Late Pleistocene and Holocene environments in the Nile basin. Global Planet Change 69:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams MAJ, Talbot M, Aharon P et al (2006) Abrupt return of the summer monsoon 15,000 years ago: new supporting evidence from the lowe White Nile valley and Lake Albert. Quat Sci Rev 25:2651–2665

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams MAJ, Williams FM, Duller GAT et al (2010) Late Quaternary floods and droughts in the Nile valley, Sudan: new evidence from optically stimulated luminescence and AMS radiocarbon dating. Quat Sci Rev 29:1116–1137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams MAJ, Usai D, Salvatori S et al (2015a) Late Quaternary environments and prehistoric occupation in the lower White Nile valley, central Sudan. Quat Sci Rev 130:72–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams MAJ, Duller GAT, Williams FM et al (2015b) Causal links between Nile floods and eastern Mediterranean sapropel formation during the past 125 kyr confirmed by OSL and radiocarbon dating of Blue and White Nile sediments. Quat Sci Rev 130:89–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodward J, Macklin M, Fielding L et al (2015) Shifting sediment sources in the world’s longest river: a strontium isotope record for the Holocene Nile. Quat Sci Rev 130:124–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wuttmann M, Briois F, Midant-Reynes B et al (2012) Dating the end of the Neolithic in an Eastern Sahara Oasis: modeling absolute chronology. Radiocarbon 54(3–4):305–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zerboni A, Trombino L, Cremaschi M (2011) Micromorphological approach to polycyclic pedogenesis on the Messak Settafet plateau (central Sahara): Formative processes and palaeoenvironmental significance. Geomorphol 125:319–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zerboni A, Biagetti S, Lancelotti C, Madella M (2016) The end of the Holocene Humid Period in the central Sahara and Thar deserts: Societal collapses or new opportunities? PAGES Mag 24(2):60–61. https://doi.org/10.22498/pages.24.2.60

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Archaeological excavations at Sai Island and Amara West were supported by the National Geographic Society, Committee for Research and Exploration under Grant # 9201-12 and by the University of Cassino and Southern Latium, Italy (grants to EAAG), and the US National Science Foundation (NSF BCS-0519434 to EH). EAAG and EH wish to thank the Sai Island Archaeological Mission (successively directed by Francis Geus, Didier Devauchelle, and Vincent Francigny), and Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, formerly directed by Hassan Hussein Idris and currently directed by Abdelrahman Ali Mohamed, for having granted permissions to conduct fieldwork. In addition, EAAG thanks the Amara West Research Project (directed by Neal Spencer). We thank Martin Williams and an anonymous reviewer for their insights, which were extremely thoughtful and helpful. Lastly, we are grateful to the people of Sai Island and Amara West for their continuous interest and involvement in our field research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anthropology Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Elisabeth Hildebrand

  2. Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia, Unversità di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Cassino, Italy

    Elena A. A. Garcea

  3. Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Assunta Florenzano & Anna Maria Mercuri

Authors
  1. Elisabeth Hildebrand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Elena A. A. Garcea
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Assunta Florenzano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Anna Maria Mercuri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elisabeth Hildebrand .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Anna Maria Mercuri

  2. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

    A. Catherine D'Andrea

  3. Laboratorio di Palinologia e Paleobotanica, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Rita Fornaciari

  4. Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany

    Alexa Höhn

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Hildebrand, E., Garcea, E.A.A., Florenzano, A., Mercuri, A.M. (2018). Multiscalar Perspectives on Holocene Climatic and Environmental Changes in the Sahara and Nile Corridor, with Special Consideration of Archaeological Sites on Sai Island, Sudan. In: Mercuri, A., D'Andrea, A., Fornaciari, R., Höhn, A. (eds) Plants and People in the African Past. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89839-1_12

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation