Studia Quaternaria, vol. 30, no. 2 (2013): 135–142. DOI: 10.2478/squa-2013-0014

WHAT FORCED THE PRE HIS TORIC CAT TLE-KEEP ERSTO EM I GRATE FROM THE RED SEA MOUN TAINS?

Przemys³aw Bobrowski1, Maciej Jórdeczka1, Micha³ Kobusiewicz1, Marek Ch³odnicki2,Jaros³aw Kusiak3

1 Group for Re search on Pre his tory and Early Civ i li za tion of Af rica, In sti tute of Ar chae ol ogy and Eth nol ogy, Pol ish Acad emy of Sci ences, ul. Rubie¿ 46, 61-612 Poznañ, Po land, e-mail: przemyslaw.bobrowski@iaepan.poznan.pl, maciej.jordeczka@iaepan.poznan.pl, michal.kobusiewicz@man.poznan.poznan.pl2 Poznañ Ar chae o log i cal Mu seum, De part ment of Gen eral Ar chae ol ogy, Unit of Ar chae ol ogy of Su dan, Wodna 27, 61-781 Poznañ, Po land; e-mail: mchlod@man.poznan.pl3 De part ment of Geoecology and Paleogeography, Maria Cu rie-Sk³odowska Uni ver sity, al. Kraœnicka 2cd, 20-718 Lublin, Poland

Ab stractTo day’s desert area of Red Sea Hills is now in hab ited by a Beja-Bisharin tribe, the camel breed ers. In pre his torictimes, this area was in hab ited or pen e trated by pas to ral com mu ni ties en gaged in cat tle breed ing. Their oc cu pa tion ispri mar ily marked by thou sands of en grav ings with rep re sen ta tions of long-horned cat tle, which were dis cov ered in arock art gal lery in Bir Nurayet, one of the larg est rock art gal ler ies in Af rica and the whole world. We still do not knowwhen the shep herds and their herds aban doned the area. This is sue can be ad dressed by geoarchaeology and in ves ti ga -tion of sed i ments dis cov ered in Wadi Diib, i.e. silts. As we be lieve, they re cord cli mate and en vi ron men tal changestak ing place in re cent mil len nia, which prob a bly to a large ex tent de ter mined the socio-cul tural pro cesses in the area.

Key words: cat tle-keep ers, Red Sea Hills, Su dan, chro nol ogy of rock art

IN TRO DUC TION

The aim of this pa per is to pres ent some is sues re gard ingthe chro nol ogy of the ar chae o log i cal site Bir Nurayet, dis -cov ered lately in Su dan which, as we be lieve, can be ad -dressed with the help of geoarchaeology.

Bir Nurayet is a name of a place lo cated in the Red SeaHills at the foot of a lonely moun tain Jebel Magardi. Thisbeau ti ful moun tain with a char ac ter is tic phal lic shape dom i -nates in the land scape of Wadi Diib. In the vi cin ity of theMagardi there is one of the larg est rock art gal ler ies on theAf ri can con ti nent, ac com pa nied by rel ics of camps, set tle -ment sites and cem e ter ies of com mu ni ties liv ing in the areafrom the early pre his tory un til mod ern times.

The con cen tra tion of rock art was dis cov ered at the turnof 1998/1999 by the Pol ish ar chae ol o gist Krzysztof Pluskotaand the Dutch writer and pho tog ra pher Arita Baaijens, whopen e trated the area while trav el ling with a camel car a vanalong the route of an cient gold mines (Pluskota, 2003, 2006).Dur ing three re search sea sons in 2010, 2011 and 2012, theGroup for Re search on Pre his tory and Early Civ i li za tion ofAf rica from the Poznañ Branch of the In sti tute of Ar chae ol -ogy and Eth nol ogy of the Pol ish Acad emy of Sci enceslaunched a new pro ject (Bir Nurayet) of sys tem atic stud ies ofrock art and the set tle ment in the area. The work was su per -vised by Przemys³aw Bobrowski, ac com pa nied by Maciej

Jórdeczka, Micha³ Kobusiewicz, Marek Ch³odnicki (sea sons 2010, 2011), Krzysztof Pluskota (sea son 2010), Pawe³Wiktorowicz (sea son 2011), the in spec tor of the Su dan An -tiq ui ties Ser vice Mo ham med Hassan Adam El Tayeb and our spon sors in 2013 sea son: Jacek Jurek, Maciej Korobacz andDominik Pijañski from Ad ver tis ing Agency JUST.

RE GIONAL SET TING

Bir Nurayet is lo cated in the Red Sea Hills (north-east ern Su dan), in the cen tral part of Wadi Diib (Val ley of Wolves),which con sti tutes an axis of an im mense drain age sys tem ofthis part of the moun tains that drains sea son ally its wa tersinto the Red Sea near Marsa Abu El Qasim (Egypt), ap prox i -mately 130 km north of Nurayet. It is the heart of the BejaBisharin tribe’s ter ri tory, circa 60 ki lo me ters south of theEgyp tian-Su da nese bor der, 100 ki lo me ters west of the RedSea Shore and 500 ki lo me ters east from Nile Val ley (Fig. 1).

MA TE RIAL AND METH ODS

In the vi cin ity of Bir Nurayet the east ern edge of WadiDiib is made of ex ten sively par ti tioned and eroded hills builtof sand stone (un pub lished petrographic anal y ses by M.Mrozek-Wysocka, In sti tute of Ge ol ogy, Adam MickiewiczUni ver sity, Poznañ, 2012). The west ern edge, on the other

hand, is made of a wide spread rock mas sif built of con sol i -dated Nubian sand stone, con sti tut ing ver ti cal walls from theside of the wadi (the east ern and par tially the south-east ernones). The east ern part of this mas sif is di vided by nu mer ous

ero sional cuts, which form a few hun dred me ters long val leys go ing in side, as well as rock cirques sur rounded by ver ti calwalls and rub ble of stone blocks. These very walls and blocks along ero sional val leys and the edges of wadi are cov eredwith thou sands of rock en grav ings.

The main mo tif was the rep re sen ta tion of long-horn cat -tle i.e. cows and bulls herd ing to gether or shown sep a rately,some times at tacked by beasts of pray, scenes of milk ingcows or fight ing bulls (Figs 2, 3). They are some times ac -com pa nied by men with bows and ar rows and by some wildan i mals like el e phants (Fig. 4), lions, ga zelles, an te lopes,warthogs and os triches. Al though cam els are also fre quentlyde picted on rocks (Fig. 5), it is cer tainly the cat tle that is byfar the most nu mer ous and most im por tant mo tif at the site.

The en grav ings of the Bir Nurayet re gion are of pa limp -sest na ture. Two gen eral pe ri ods of their for ma tion have been iden ti fied, namely the cow pe riod and the camel pe riod. Thepos si bil ity of their co-oc cur rence dur ing the first cen tu ries ofthe Com mon Era is still open to de bate. How ever, both var ied de gree of pati na tion and dif fer ent themes rep re sented bytheir au thors, point to dif fer ent chro nol ogy of the en grav ings. In case of the dom i nant rep re sen ta tions of cat tle at least threegen eral ar tis tic styles may be dis tin guished (re al is tic, de gen -er ated and sche matic). They may re flect chro no log i cal dif -fer en ti a tion of the rites. Sim i lar sty lis tic and chro no log i calva ri ety was also ob served in rep re sen ta tions of cam els andpeo ple.

The rea son why pre his toric peo ple cov ered the slopeswith so many de pic tions of cat tle is, we be lieve, the fer til itycult and the magic way of think ing in which mul ti ple im agesof herds of cat tle will cause the ap pear ance of herds of real,liv ing cows. The lo ca tion of nu mer ous im ages of cat tle waspro voked by the pres ence of the above men tioned phal licshaped Jebel Magardi. The long last ing fer til ity cult in this

136 P. BOBROWSKI et al.

Fig. 1. Map of Egypt and Su dan with re search places marked.

Fig. 2. Bir Nurayet: one of the big gest pan els with cat tle.

PRE HIS TORIC CAT TLE-KEEP ERS 137

Fig. 3. Bir Nurayet: ex am ple of a panel with cat tle, cam els and wild an i mals.

Fig. 4. Bir Nurayet: scene of hunt ing for an el e phant.

place has ad di tion ally been proven by other dis cov er ies suchas, for ex am ple, the de posit of al most a hun dred of phal licshaped terracotta fig u rines of hu mans and an i mals placed in a type of box con structed of flat sand stone slabs lo cated in thefront of Jebel Magardi tow er ing above its sur round ings. Thisde posit is dated by ra dio car bon anal y sis to the sixth cen turyA.D. An other proof is the rep re sen ta tions of the jebel it self,in cised deep in sand stone slopes, al ways apart from usualpic tures. They are also other finds prov ing the prac tice of fer -til ity cult but there is no space to pres ent them all here.

The age of rock art is al ways dif fi cult to de ter mine.Though we dis cov ered a num ber pre his toric and early his -toric sites which can be dated, start ing from Lower Paleoli-thic till the Is lamic pe riod, some of them ad join ing the im -ages, we are not able to con nect them to the rock art.

The in ves ti ga tion of the de gree of pati na tion or the stra -tig ra phy of im ages, which some times cover each other, mayonly help to es tab lish rel a tive chro nol ogy, while at tempts touse pic tures of wild an i mals, the pres ence of which couldsome times tell some thing about the age, also pro duced dis ap -point ing re sults. The oc cur rence of the el e phant or other spe -cies of the Ethi o pian fauna vis i ble on rocks sug gests that they must have been drawn dur ing the moist pe riod. Yet the se -quence of the cli mate in this area is still un rec og nized. Be -

sides, the Ethi o pian spe cies did not have to be pres ent in thearea dur ing the time of art cre ation. In stead, some of the art -ists could have trav elled south and hav ing seen the an i mals,de picted them on rocks.

In terms of chro nol ogy, it is only cer tain that the rep re -sen ta tions of herds of cat tle were drawn af ter the do mes ti ca -tion of these an i mals, which prob a bly hap pened in the now-adays Nile Val ley in the Late Pleis to cene/Early Ho lo cene.The bones of large bovid an i mals pres ent in sev eral ex ca -vated Early Ho lo cene sites have caused an i mated dis cus sionon the do mes ti ca tion of Bos primigenius in the east ern Sa -hara (e.g., Gautier, 1984, 1987, 2001, 2007; Smith, 1984,1986, 1992, 2005; Clutton-Brock, 1993; Muzzolini, 1993;Close, 1996; Wendorf et al., 1987; Schild & Wendorf, 2001,2010; Wendorf & Schild, 1994, 2003; Mar shall & Hil-debrand, 2002; Wengrow 2003; Jórdeczka et al., in print).The hy poth e sis of do mes ti ca tion was pub lished for the firsttime by Wendorf et al. (1976: p. 106). A more de tailed de -scrip tion of the finds ap peared a few years lat ter (Gautier,1980: p. 332). The re port con tained osteometric data im ply -ing do mes ti ca tion as well as the sug ges tion that the very lowcar ry ing ca pac ity of the area pre cluded the pos si bil ity that itwas in hab ited by large wild ungulates. No such as sem blagescon tain ing aurochs have ever been re ported from pre-Neo -lithic Af rica. Even the harte beest, a faith ful com pan ion ofauroch in the Nile Val ley, was not pres ent in the South-West -

138 P. BOBROWSKI et al.

Fig. 5. Bir Nurayet: scene with cam els and cat tle.

Fig. 6. Bir Nurayet: wadi with the re mains of silt lay ers.

Fig. 7. Bir Nurayet: sam pling of silt.

ern Desert (com pare Gautier, 2001: p. 629), al though its tol -er ance of arid ity is greater than that of cat tle (Kingdon,1982), as cat tle need to drink wa ter ev ery other day. This rea -son ing led to the prop o si tion that the early Neo lithic bovidsof Nabta could have been in tro duced to this in hos pi ta ble en -vi ron ment through hu man prac tice. Fur ther work at NabtaPlaya, es pe cially be tween 1990 and 2010, yielded ad di tionalma te rial per tain ing to large bovid re mains.

In more re cent pe ri ods, a num ber of new data pro videdby DNA stud ies sug gest an in de pend ent Af ri can cen ter ofearly cat tle do mes ti ca tion (e.g., Bradley et al., 1996; Hanotteet al., 2002; Ed wards et al., 2004; Beja-Pereira et al., 2006)on one hand; and/or sup port the idea of one Near East ern cen -ter of the taurine cat tle do mes ti ca tion, on the other. A pos si -bil ity of lo cal introgression from wild aurochs (com paresum mary in Achilli et al., 2008) has also been con sid ered.Stud ies in lin guis tic stra tig ra phy of Nilo-Sa ha ran lan guagesby Ehret (1993, 2001, 2006) in di cate a very early ap pear anceof words per tain ing to cat tle pastoralism in the east ern Sa -hara, per haps be fore 8500 BC. A pre cise dat ing of rootwords, how ever, can be de cep tive.

Re cently Chaix & Honegger (2011) and Linseele &Chaix (2011) re ported the dis cov ery of do mes tic cat tle inWadi el-Arab, Kerma Area, North ern Su dan. The site pres -ents a long se quence of ar chae o log i cal beds firmly placed be -tween about 8200 and 6500 cal years BC. In the se quence, the first do mes tic cat tle re mains ap pear about 7200 cal years BC.These dates would place the Kerma Area finds of the taurine

cat tle some where in the very end of the El Adam oc cu pa tionof the South-West ern Desert and/or in the sub se quent dryPost-El Adam Arid Phase, cer tainly be fore the ap pear ance ofthe El Ghorab set tlers in the same area (Schild & Wendorf,2001: p. 52).

Yet, it does not mean that the do mes ti ca tion of Bosprimigenius hap pened at the same time in the Red Sea Moun -tains. Of course, the cus tom to de pict cows did not have tostart with the mo ment of do mes ti ca tion. It must be men tioned here that most prob a bly the eco log i cal con di tions in the dis -cussed area at the time in ques tion were dif fer ent than those

PRE HIS TORIC CAT TLE-KEEP ERS 139

Fig. 8. Bir Nurayet: re mains of silt ly ing on a rock.

Fig. 9. Bir Nurayet: one of the pan els with rock art cov ered with silt.

in the West ern Desert. It is even more dif fi cult to de ter minethe time of the dis ap pear ance of cat tle draw ers from this area.

RE SULTS

Here, un usual geomorphological struc ture ob served inBir Nurayet re gion may help ad dress this is sue. The bot tomof Wadi Diib, in its deep est, west ern part, in clud ing the sur -round ing of Gebel Magardi, is filled with al lu vial sed i mentsin the form of lay ered silts, which thick ness reaches at someplaces up to 3–4 me ters. The side ero sional val leys in the rock mas sif are also to some ex tent filled with the same sed i ments(Figs 6, 7). In some places they cover rocks or rock blocs cov -ered with en grav ings (Figs 8, 9). The be gin ning of these de -pos its may be linked with the pro cess of dras tic cli ma ticchanges and de ser ti fi ca tion of this part of Af rica which tookplace af ter the cli ma tic op ti mum of the Ho lo cene. Sin gle ab -so lute TL, OSL and IRSL datings done dur ing the lat est re -search es ti mated the time of their or i gin to ap prox i mately4200–550 years ago.

The first re sults of TL dat ing for the Bir Nurayet sitewere ob tained us ing the Mikrolab RA’94 reader (to tal-bleach pro ce dure, pre heat AT 80°C for 24 hours, HA-3 op ti -cal fil ter). The sam ples taken from the depth of 40, 80 and120 cm (Fig.10) were dated to 2099±197, 2117 ± 201 and3763±357 years, re spec tively (TL mea sure ments were car -ried out, three months af ter ir ra di a tion). The re sults of lu mi -nes cence OSL and IRSL dat ing were ob tained us ing the Risø

DA-20 reader (SAR pro to col). The postIR OSL, 125°C pro -ce dure yielded the fol low ing re sults: 554±38, 1042±93, and4196±222 years be fore 2013. Two IRSL pro ce dures werealso used: post IR IRSL 225°C and postIR IRSL 290°C.Prob a bly be cause of too high tem per a ture of pre heat ing andlu mi nes cence read ing only one se ries one of re sults was ob -tained from four se ries of mea sure ments. We ex pected anal o -gous re sults for the sam ples from the other part of BirNurayet site (Wadi Diib).

Un doubt edly, these sed i ments con sti tute a spe cific reg -is ter of changes in nat u ral en vi ron ment which pro ceededover the last mil len nia. These changes must have in flu encedto a great ex tend the cul tural pro cesses in that re gion. Thepres ence of sa van nah an i mals and rais ing cat tle in the re gionof Bir Nurayet is bound to be con nected with the pres ence ofper ma nent or sea sonal plant cover, and con se quently the wetcli ma tic ep i sode.

DIS CUS SION AND CON CLU SIONS

On the ba sis of the TL dat ing of silts in some spots cov er -ing petroglyphs we can state that at least some of the rock artis older than 2200 years BC which cor re sponds with theNubian Kerma Cul ture (Gratien 1978). The time when artrep re sent ing cows def i nitely ceased to be prac ticed has notbeen de ter mined yet. It must have hap pened dur ing the mo -ment when cat tle dis ap peared from the Bir Nurayet area. To -day there is no sin gle cow in this area. Now a days, the lo cal

140 P. BOBROWSKI et al.

Fig. 10. Bir Nurayet: sam pling of silt in a test trench.

Beja peo ple in hab it ing this land are camel-keep ers only. Thenear est cows can be seen by Kassala, some seven hun dred ki -lo me ters south.

What caused this em i gra tion? We be lieve that the rea -sons can be sought in se ri ous en vi ron men tal changes, i.e. thedrought re sult ing in the dis ap pear ance of pas tures. The on setof the drought will be the ter mi nus post quem for all im agesrep re sent ing cat tle. Nev er the less, we still do not know whenit has hap pened.

The en vi ron ment of the Red Sea Moun tains is dif fer entthan the en vi ron ments of the to day’s East ern, all the moreWest ern Desert, or than the Nile Val ley where the cli mateevents are rel a tively well rec og nized and dated (e.g. Haynes1987; Haynes et al. 1989; Schild and Wendorf 2001, Kuperand Kröpelin 2006; Wendorf and Schild 2006, Pöllath andPe ters 2007). But un for tu nately, it is not the case when thearea in ques tion is con cerned, which is and has al ways beenstrongly in flu enced by the Red Sea. The his tor i cal changes of cli mate, the wet and desert pe ri ods which, with no doubt took place in the Red Sea Moun tains are not rec og nized and notdated. More in ten sive and multidisciplinary stud ies are thusneeded to an swer our ques tions. Their re sults will per mit usto de ter mine the date of the end of the cat tle-keeper pe riod ofthe rock art in Bir Nurayet. On the other hand, the ar chae o -log i cal re search of this, from the point of view of ar chae ol -ogy, al most terra nova ter ri tory, will cer tainly be help ful forany in ves ti ga tions car ried by other branches of geoarchaeo-log i cal sci ences.

The aim of this pa per is to show once more how muchcol lab o ra tion of geoarchaeological sci ences is needed to re -solve the prob lems trou bling ar chae ol o gists.

REF ER ENCES

Achilli, A., Olivieri, A., Pellecchia, M., Uboldi, C., Colli, L.,Al-Zahery, N. 2008. Mi to chon drial genomes of ex tinct au-rochs sur vive in do mes tic cat tle. Cur rent Bi ol ogy, 18: R157–R158.

Beja-Pereira, A., Caramelli, D., Lalueza-Fox, C., Vernesi, C.,Ferrand, N., Casoli, A. 2006. The or i gin of Eu ro pean cat tle:Ev i dence from mod ern and an cient DNA. Pro ceed ings of theNa tional Acad emy of Sci ences of the United States of Amer -ica, 103(21): 8113–8118.

Bradley, D.G., Machuhg, D.E., Cunningham, P., Lof tus, R.T. 1996. Mitachondrial di ver sity and the or i gin of Af ri can and Eu ro -pean cat tle. Pro ceed ings of the Na tional Acad emy of Sci encesUSA, 93: 5131–5135.

Chaix, L., Honegger, M. 2011. New data on the tran si tion fromMesolithic to pas to ral econ omy in the Su dan: The case of Wadi El-Arab. Or i gin and early de vel op ment of food pro duc ing cul -tures in North east ern Af rica – 30 years later. 3–7 July 2011.Ab stracts: 8–9. Poznañ: Poznañ Ar chae o log i cal Mu seum.

Close, A.E. 1996. Plus ça change. The Pleis to cene–Ho lo cene tran -si tion in North east ern Af rica. In: L.G. Straus, B.V. Eriksen,J.M. Erlandson, D.R. Yesner (Eds.), Hu mans at the end of theIce Age. The ar chae ol ogy of the Pleis to cene–Ho lo cene tran si -tion (pp. 43–60). Lon don: Ple num Press.

Clutton-Brock, J. 1993. The spread of do mes tic an i mals in Af rica.In T. Shaw, P. Sinclair, B. Andah, A. Okpoko (Eds.), The ar -chae ol ogy of Af rica: Food, met als and towns (pp. 61–70). Lon -don: Routledge.

Ed wards, C.J., McHugh, D.E., Dobney, K.M., Mar tin, L., Rus sell,N., Horwitz, L.K., et al. 2004. An cient DNA anal y sis of 101

cat tle re mains: Lim its and pros pects. Jour nal of Ar chae o log i -cal Sci ences, 31(6): 695–710.

Ehret, C. 1993. Nile-Saharans and the Saharo-Su da nese Neo lithic.In: T. Shaw, P. Sinclair, B. Andah, A. Okpoko (Eds.), The ar -chae ol ogy of Af rica: Food, met als and towns (pp. 104–125).Lon don: Routledge.

Ehret, C. 2001. A com par a tive his tor i cal re con struc tion of Proto-Nilo-Sa ha ran. Co logne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Ehret, C. 2006. Lin guis tic stratigraphies and Ho lo cene his tory innorth west ern Af rica. Ar chae ol ogy of early north east ern Af -rica. Stud ies in Af ri can Ar chae ol ogy, 9th ed., pp. 1019–1055).Poznañ: Poznañ Ar chae o log i cal Mu seum.

Gautier, A. 1980. Con tri bu tion to the archaeozoology of Egypt. InF. Wendorf & R. Schild (Eds.), Pre his tory of the East ern Sa -hara (pp. 317–344). New York: Ac a demic Press.

Gautier, A. 1984. Archaeozoology of the Bir Kiseiba re gion, East -ern Sa hara. In: F. Wendorf, R. Schild (Eds.), Cat tle-keep ers ofthe east ern Sa hara (pp. 49–75). Dal las: South ern Meth od istUni ver sity Press.

Gautier, A. 1987. Pre his toric men and cat tle in North Af rica: Adearth of data and a sur feit of mod els. In: A.E. Close (Ed.), Pre -his tory of arid North Af rica. Es says in honor of Fred Wendorf(pp. 163–188). Dal las: South ern Meth od ist Uni ver sity Press.

Gautier, A. 2001. The early to late Neo lithic archeofaunas fromNabta and Bir Kiseiba. In: R. Schild, F. Wendorf (Eds.), Ho lo -cene set tle ment of the Egyp tian Sa hara, 1, The Ar chae ol ogy ofNabta Playa (pp. 609–635). New York: Kluwer Ac a demic/Ple -num.

Gautier, A. 2007. An i mal do mes ti ca tion in North Af rica. In: M.Bollig, O. Bubenzer, R. Vogelsang, H.-P. Wotzka (Eds.), Arid -ity, change and con flict in Af rica (pp. 75–90). Köln: Hein richBarth Institut.

Gratien, B, 1978. Les cul tures Kerma, Essai de clas si fi ca tion, Lille.Hanotte, O., Bradley, D.G., Ochieng, J.W., Verijee, Y., Hill, E.W.,

Rege, J.E.O. 2002. Af ri can pastoralism: Ge netic im prints ofor i gins and mi gra tions. Sci ence, 296, 336–339.

Haynes, C.V. 1987. Ho lo cene mi gra tion rate of the Sudano-Sahelian wet ting front, Arba’in Desert, East ern Sa hara. In: A.E. Close (Ed.), Pre his tory of arid North Af rica. Es says in honor of Fred Wendorf (pp. 69–84). Dal las: South ern Meth od ist Uni -ver sity Press.

Haynes, C.V., Eyles, C.H., Pavlish, L.A., Richtie, J.C., Rybak, M.1989. Ho lo cene palaeo ec ol ogy of the east ern Sa hara: SelimaOasis. Qua ter nary Sci ence Re views, 8, 109–136.

Jórdeczka, M., Królik, H., Masojæ, M. & Schild, R. in print.Hunter–Gath erer Cat tle Keep ers of Early Neo lithic El AdamType from Nabta Playa: Lat est Dis cov er ies—Site E–06–1. Af -ri can Ar chae o log i cal Re view.

Kingdon, J. 1982. East Af ri can mam mals. An at las of evo lu tion inAf rica (Vol. III, Part D : Bovids). Lon don: Ac a demic Press.

Kuper, R., Kröpelin, S. 2006. Cli mate-con trolled Ho lo cene oc cu pa -tion in the Sa hara: Mo tor of Af rica’s evo lu tion. Sci ence, 313:803–807.

Linseele, V., Chaix, L. 2011. Re cent archaeozoological data onearly food pro duc tion in north east ern Af rica. Or i gin and earlyde vel op ment of food pro duc ing cul tures in North east ern Af -rica – 30 years later, 3-7 July 2011 Ab stracts, p. 17. Poznañ:Poznañ Ar chae o log i cal Mu seum.

Mar shall, F., Hildebrand, E. 2002. Cat tle be fore crops: The be gin -nings of food pro duc tion in Af rica. Jour nal of World Pre his -tory, 16: 99–143.

Muzzolini, A. 1993. The emer gence of a food-pro duc ing econ omyin the Sa hara. In: T. Shaw, P. Sinclar, B. Andah, A. Okpoko(Eds.), The ar chae ol ogy of Af rica: Food, met als and towns (pp. 227–239). Lon don: Routledge.

Pluskota, K. 2003. Bir Nurayet galeria sztuki naskalnej Sudanu,

PRE HIS TORIC CAT TLE-KEEP ERS 141

Archeologia ¯ywa, 3(26): 16–21.Pluskota, K. 2006. Bir Nurayet- the Rock Art. Gal lery of the Ted

Sea Hills, Su dan & Nubia, 10: 2–7.Pöllath, N., Pe ters, J. 2007. Ho lo cene cli ma tic change, hu man ad ap -

ta tion and land scape deg ra da tion in arid Af rica as ev i dencedby the fau nal re cord. In: O. Bubenzer, A. Bolten, F. Dar ius(Eds.), At las of cul tural and en vi ron men tal change in arid Af -rica (pp. 64–67). Köln: Hein rich Barth Institut.

Schild, R., Wendorf, F. 2001. Geo mor phol ogy, lithostratigraphy,geo chron ol ogy and taphonomy of sites. In: F. Wendorf, R.Schild (Eds.), Ho lo cene set tle ment of the Egyp tian Sa hara,vol. 1. The ar chae ol ogy of Nabta Playa (pp. 11–50). NewYork: Kluwer Ac a demic/Ple num.

Schild, R., Wendorf, F. 2010. Late Paleolithic hunter-gath er ers inthe Nile Val ley of Nubia and Up per Egypt. In: E.A.A. Garcea(Ed.), South-east ern Med i ter ra nean peo ples be tween 130,000and 10,000 years ago (pp. 89–126). Ox ford and Oakville: Ox -bow.

Smith, A.B. 1984. The or i gins of food pro duc tion in North east Af -rica. In J. A. Coetzee & E. M. van Zinderen Bakker (Eds.),Palaeo ec ol ogy of Af rica (16th ed., pp. 317–324). Rot ter dam:Balkema.

Smith, A.B. 1986. Cat tle do mes ti ca tion in North Af rica. Af ri canAr chae ol ogy 4: 197–203.

Smith, A.B. 1992. Pastoralism in Af rica: Or i gins and de vel op mentecol ogy. Lon don: Hurst.

Smith, A.B. 2005. Desert sol i tude: The evo lu tion of ide ol o giesamong pas to ral ists and hunter-gath er ers in arid North Af rica.In: P. Veth, M. Smith, P. Hiscock (Eds.), Desert peo ple: Ar -chae o log i cal per spec tives (pp. 261–275). Pads tow: Blackwell.

Wendorf, F., Schild, R. 1994. Are the early Ho lo cene cat tle in theEast ern Sa hara do mes tic or wild? Evo lu tion ary An thro pol ogy3: 118–128.

Wendorf, F., Schild, R. 2003. Food econ omy and set tle ment sys temdur ing the Neo lithic in the Egyp tian Sa hara. In: L. Krzy¿aniak,K. Kroeper, M. Kobusiewicz (Eds.), Cul tural mark ers in thelater pre his tory of north east ern Af rica and re cent re search.Stud ies in Af ri can Ar chae ol ogy (Vol. 8, pp. 145–157). PoznañAr chae o log i cal Mu seum: Poznañ.

Wendorf, F., Schild, R. 2006. The emer gence of vil lage set tle mentsdur ing the early Neo lithic in the West ern Desert of Egypt.Adumatu, 14: 7–22.

Wendorf, F., Schild, R., Said, R., Haynes, C.V., Gautier, A.,Kobusiewicz, M. 1976. The pre his tory of the Egyp tian Sa hara.Sci ence 193: 103–114.

Wendorf, F., Close, A.E., Schild, R. 1987. Early do mes tic cat tle inthe East ern Sa hara. In J. A. Coetzee (Ed.), Palaeo ec ol ogy ofAf rica (18th ed., pp. 441–448). Rot ter dam: Balkema.

Wengrow, D. 2003. Re view ar ti cle: On desert or i gins for the an -cient Egyp tians. An tiq uity 79: 597–601.

142 P. BOBROWSKI et al.