varying styles, m other artistic it frequently mad limestone. From village settleme settlements. At Egypt there wa many as 5000 i The beginn seen during thi administering t short inscriptio record the activ BC writing was s needs of the sin Upper and Low CULTURES OF 30˚ 30˚ Faiyum Saqqara Buto Minshat Samara Tell Ibrahim Awad Maadi Omari Memphis Tarkhan Abusir el Malaq Haraga Gerza Beda Mendes Matmar El Badari Naga-ed-Der Hu Naqada Armant Hierakonpolis Hammamiya Mahasna Abydos Gebelein Mostagedda Merimda Heliopolis Nile MEDITERRANEAN SEA EASTERN DESERT WESTERN DESERT Earliest fully developed dated Egyptian writing, tomb of Queen Neithotep (c. 3000 BC) ‘A Group’ cemeteries and dwelling sites (c. 4000-c. 3200 BC) N 0 0 100 miles 150 kms about 5000 BC. Potshards decorated with a distinctive wavy line pattern are found here and at many other sites in the Sahara. In addition, there have also been finds of a distinctive type of bone harpoon (freshwater fishing was then a mainstay of life in what is now desert) and other items which suggest that a similar level of cultural development extended from the Sudanese Nile Valley across much of the Sahara. EARLY EGYPTIAN CULTURE From this time on there was a rather rapid development of cultures along the Nile, both in Egypt and the Sudan. In Egypt the earliest village cultures were found on the edge of the Faiyum and at Merimda on the west edge of the Nile delta. Soon after there were settlements at many places along the Nile. The site at Naqada in Middle Egypt has given its name to the main culture of this period. From about this time there is much evidence of decorated, painted pottery of varying styles, mostly found in burials, and some other artistic items such as female figures frequently made of bone, or sometimes ivory or limestone. From this period there is evidence of village settlements, or even small town settlements. At Hierakonpolis in Upper (southern) T N S ki p sm th re E a ART, AGRICULTURE AND URBANIZATION eastern Sahara reveal that cereal crops were being cultivated at several sites in what is now desert, but then had plentiful rainfall – for example, Nabta Playa. Large numbers of grindstones provide good evidence for the use of cereals. It is not certain at what point farmers were able to grow domesticated cereal crops to replace the collecting of wild grains, but by 5000 BC it seems that this important advance had been made. The earliest pottery known in Africa is from a site at Khartoum, where it can be dated to THE EARLIEST EVIDENCE of artistic activity in Africa can be seen in rock engravings and rock paintings, which are located mainly in the Sahara and in South and East Africa – those parts of the continent where suitable rock faces are located. Scenes illustrated on rock faces frequently depict animals both wild and, in later times, domesticated. It is difficult to date these works of art, but by 5000 BC they were widespread, and some may be much earlier – examples in Namibia are dated to as early as 25,000 BC. Apart from pottery remains dating from as long ago as 3000 BC, there is no evidence of visual culture preserved in West and Central Africa before 500 BC. Rock art is all we have from southern Africa for this period. AGRICUTURAL LIFE IN THE SAHARA Rock paintings and rock engravings from North and East Africa that date from 5000 BC to 500 BC are significant in that they show the development of herding at about the same time as archaeological excavations in the AFRICA 5000-500 BC Kristel-Jardins 1 Rock Art and Agriculture, 5000-500 BC Sahara Desert, c.6000 BC Vegetation zones, c.500 BC: desert sub-desert dry savannah Lake Chad, c.500 BC woodland cape and Mediterranean vegetation tropical forest 2 The Cultures of the Nile Valley, 5000-3000 BC early predynastic Egyptian sites (c.5500-c.5000 BC) middle predynastic Egyptian sites (c.5000-c.4000 BC) late predynastic Egyptian sites (c.4000-c.3200 BC) main First Dynasty Egyptian sites (from c.3200 BC) southern limit of Egypt under the First Dynasty, c.3200 BC 30˚ Faiyum Saqqara Buto Minshat Samara Tell Ibrahim Awad Maadi Omari Memphis Tarkhan Abusir el Malaq Haraga Gerza Beda Mendes Mostagedda Merimda Heliopolis Nile MEDITERRANEAN SEA EASTERN DESERT 30˚ 30˚ Cu L C B S S S S S S S S S S S Elephantine Aniba Amara Buhen Abu Simbel Shalfak Semna Sai Askut Uronarti Kumma Kawa c.650 BC Napata c.700 BC Kurru mound graves of Kushite kings, from c.760 BC Nuri Kushite pyramid burials, from c.664 BC Meroë c.700 BC Sedeinga Sesibi Kerma N ile White Nile Blue Nile Atbara N U B I A N D E S E R T W E S T E R N D E S E R T S A H A R A D E S E R T First Cataract Second Cataract Third Cataract Fifth Cataract Fourth Cataract Sixth Cataract N 0 0 100 miles 150 kms Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom. CULTURES OF THE SOUTHERN NILE Further south, upstream of the First Cataract of the Nile, the situation was rather different, and the cultural remains there can be distinguished from those of Egypt. From about 4000 BC to about 3200 BC the first settled food-producing societies, known as the ‘A Group’, were occupying the Nile banks between the First and the Second Cataracts, living in mud houses of some size. They had a distinctive pottery style. Wheat and barley were cultivated, while fishing and hunting added variety to the diet. The ‘A Group’ were followed in the middle of third millennium by a different culture, known as the ‘C Group’. They are distinguished by quite different pottery styles and by evidence from buildings and tombs of a more advanced lifestyle. The presence of imported Egyptian goods in graves reveal contacts with Egypt, and the great number of graves implies an increase in population. KERMA CULTURE The Egyptians had entered Nubia and established a series of forts as far south as Semna from about 2000 BC, but withdrew a few hundred years later at the time of a spectacular development of an independent Sudanese culture based at Kerma, the first large town on the upper Nile. The Kerma culture is renowned for its new and spectacular developments in pottery styles, in weapons and in elaborate burials, as well as the building of very large mud-brick structures. It is not clear what happened in the final stages of the Kerma civilization, but after c.1500 BC the Egyptians once again entered and conquered the northern Sudan (Nubia) and eventually occupied it as far south as the Fourth Cataract, building temples and towns at many places. The furthest upriver they reached was Napata, where a prominent hill, Jebel Barkal, marked a site considered to be especially holy. 100 miles 150 kms 37 30˚ 30˚ Cu L C S S S S S S S S S S S Elephantine Aniba Amara Buhen Abu Simbel Shalfak Semna Sai Askut Uronarti Kumma Kawa c.650 BC Napata c.700 BC Kurru mound graves of Kushite kings, from c.760 BC Nuri Kushite pyramid burials, from c.664 BC Meroë c.700 BC Sedeinga Sesibi Kerma White Nile Blue Nile Atbara N U B I A N D E S E R T S A H A R A D E S E R T Second Cataract Third Cataract Fifth Cataract Fourth Cataract Sixth Cataract the ‘C Group’. They are distinguished by quite different pottery styles and by evidence from buildings and tombs of a more advanced lifestyle. The presence of imported Egyptian goods in graves reveal contacts with Egypt, and the great number of graves implies an increase in population. KERMA CULTURE The Egyptians had entered Nubia and established a series of forts as far south as Semna from about 2000 BC, but withdrew a few hundred years later at the time of a spectacular development of an independent Sudanese culture based at Kerma, the first large town on the upper Nile. The Kerma culture is renowned for its new and spectacular developments in pottery styles, in weapons and in elaborate burials, as well as the building of very large mud-brick structures. It is not clear what happened in the final stages of the Kerma civilization, but after c.1500 BC the Egyptians once again entered and conquered the northern Sudan (Nubia) and eventually occupied it as far south as the Fourth Cataract, building temples and towns at many places. The furthest upriver they reached was Napata, where a prominent hill, Jebel Barkal, marked a site considered to be especially holy. The Upper Nile, 3000-500 BC ‘C Group’ of cemeteries and dwelling places, c. 2250-c.1500 BC Egyptian occupation of Lower Nubia, c.2000-c.1100 BC Kerma culture, c. 2400-c.1500 BC Egyptian town with temple Egyptian fort Egyptian religious site Kushite town (with date of temple building) Resources: gold copper limestone calcite (Egyptian alabaster) basalt sandstone iron fertile area pastoralism desert tracks Cu L C B S 3 AN from a c.3500 BC. n found in d women. are made rehistoric that came ghanistan.
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