The Prehistory of the

Nile Valley

AAAS Symposium * 26 December 1968

Dallas, Texas

The prehistory of the Nile Valleyfrom its headwaters in the highlandsof central Africa to the Mediterraneanwill be discussed in a half-day sympo-sium on the afternoon of 26 December1968, during the Annual Meeting ofthe American Association for the Ad-vancement of Science in Dallas, Texas.Until the recent international campaignof archeological salvage in Nubia verylittle was known concerning the devel-opment of those human societies thatlived along the N'ile during prehistorictimes.

It was generally believed that few Pale-olithic sites would be found in this areabecause they would have been eitherdeeply buried in the more recent siltsof the Nile or destroyed by the inten-sive cultivation of these silts during thepast several thousand years. It wasfurther believed, on the basis of a fewscattered finds, that the Nile Valley wasa culturally conservative and backwardcul-de-sac throughout most of the LatePaleolithic and the subsequent periodsprior to the Dynastic era. These viewsare now known to be incorrect. RichPaleolithic sites are very common alongthe Nile, and these sites have shownthat most of the technological develop-ments which characterize the laterstages of human development in Europe

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and the Near East occur at least asearly along the Nile as elsewhere.The field research in Nubia is now

completed; the rising waters of LakeNasser have covered almost all the re-cently discovered archeological sites inan area of over 300 miles along theriver in southern Egypt and northernSudan. The discoveries in Nubia, how-ever, have focused attention on the NileValley as an important locus of humandevelopment and many of those pre-historians who were working in Nubiahave continued their studies in severalregions both above and below the reser-voir. This symposium will summarizethe data from these most recent excava-tions and consider the possible rolewhich the Nilotic area may have playedin the development of the Paleolithic inboth North Africa and the Levant. Thepanel of speakers will present a seriesof papers on sites ranging in age fromEarly Paleolithic to Neolithic.Roy L. Carlson (Department of Po-

litical Science, Sociology and Anthro-pology, Simon Fraser University, Bur-naby, British Columbia), "Excavationsat Khor Abu Anga, Sudan." This im-portant locality near Khartoum hasyielded a stratified sequence of Earlyand Middle Paleolithic industries witha strong central African flavor. Three

industries are represented. From earlyto late, they are Acheulean, Sangoan,and Lupemban.

Joel L. Shiner (Department of An-thropology, Southern Methodist Uni-versity, Dallas, Texas), "Early Paleo-lithic and Neolithic Materials fromKhashm el Girba, Sudan." Surveysalong the headwaters of the AtbaraRiver near the Ethiopian frontier havedisclosed a series of Lower Paleolithicsites containing hand axes and pebbletools in association with a well pre-served fauna. A second group of siteswas of ceramic age. Some of these ce-ramic sites were similar to the sitesknown near Khartoum; others weremuch larger and contained more evolvedceramics. This last complex has not beenknown previously and seems to have noevident relationship to contemporarymaterials from Nubia or farther northin Egypt. It has been radiocarbon-datedat 2460 B.C. A third group of sites,dated at 1100 B.C., was found witheven more sophisticated ceramics.

James L. Phillips (Department ofAnthropology, Southern Methodist Uni-

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versity, Dallas, Texas), "The Nile Val-ley and the Levant During the LatePaleolithic." This paper deals with thematerial from a Late Paleolithic sitenear Isna in central Egypt. The site hasyielded a very high frequency of backedbladelets, many of which have retouchedtips. In the Levant these pieces wouldbe termed "Epi-Gravette" or "Font-Yves" points. The total assemblageshows numerous resemblances to UpperPaleolithic VI in the Levant, especiallyfrom the recent work at Hayonim Caveand Ein Gev, Israel. The Isna site isestimated to date around 16,000 B.C.,on geological evidence. Another sitenearby, and of about the same age, hasunmistakable typological and technolog-ical resemblances with early Ibero-Maurusian sites of Lalla and Sidi Man-sour in Tunisia.

Joe Ben Wheat (Department of An-thropology, University of Colorado,Boulder, Colorado) and Henry T. Irwin(Department of Anthropology, Wash-ington State University, Pullman, Wash-ington), "Late Paleolithic Sites NearWadi Halfa, Sudan." Although, manty

of the Paleolithic sites excavated inNubia have been published this doesnot include the important group studiesby the University of Colorado teamnear Wadi Halfa. This paper by Wheatand Irwin will summarize the data fromthese sites, most of which are of LatePaleolithic age, and compare the ma-terial with that already published fromNubia.Anthony E. Marks (Department of

Anthropology, Southern Methodist Uni-versity, Dallas, Texas), "Early CeramicGroups Near the Fourth Cataract, Su-dan." Four distinct groups of early ce-ramic-using peoples have been definedin the vicinity of Dongola, Sudan. Allfour groups appear to date in the 4thmillennium B.C. Two of them appear tohave some resemblances to the contem-porary groups known near Khartoumand Wadi Halfa. The other two, how-ever, show no obvious connections withany previously known Nilotic group.These finds have shown that a uniformculture area clearly did not exist at thistime along the Nile.Some of the key problems which will

be discussed during this symposium are:To what causes can we attribute the

similarities which are evident betweensome widely separated- industries inAfrica?What is the significance of the large

communities on the upper Atbara at acomparatively early date?Did they later combine to form the

empire of Axum?What is the nature of the origin of

the "Neolithic" in Africa?If the traditional view of Nilotic pre-

historic development is not valid, howshould the Nile be viewed within thecontext of North African and Mediter-ranean 'prehistory? -

Was the Nile the source of the earlyIbero-Maurusian industries of the Ma-ghreb, or is the similarity due to con-vergence?An examination of these problems

will provide fresh insight into the roleof Africa as a source of cultural devel-opments in prehistoric time.

FRED WENDORFSouthern Methodist University,Dallas, Texas

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The Prehistory of the Nile ValleyFred Wendorf

DOI: 10.1126/science.162.3857.1032 (3857), 1032-1033.162Science 

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