THE NILE FLOODPLAIN AT SHEIKH ABD EL-QURNA.

Predynastic Cultures of the Nile Valley

This page added 10-30-2012

LAST UPDATE: 10-30-2012

The seven major oases of Egypt.

Demographic model for the Western Desert and the Nile

The Wadi Howar as seen from Gebel Nahas.

Early cattle remains from archaeological sites in the Wadi Howar and adding regions in the Sudan and southern Egypt.

Pottery such as this is associated both with ancient pastoralists and Late Palaeolithic hunters and gatherers.

Grindstones suitable for preparing wild grasses and seeds are a persistent feature of Later Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic tool kits.

Storage pots left at an Neolithic settlement abandoned as the climate became hotter and dryer.

LATER PALAEOLITHIC CULTURES ALONG THE NILE

Lower Nubia	Upper Upper Egypt
Arkinian (10,600 BP)
	Isnan (12,700-11,500 BP)
	Afian (13,500-12,300 BP)
Qadan (14,500-12,000 BP)
Sebilian (ca. 14,000 BP)	Sebilian (ca. 14,000 BP)
Ballanan-Silsilian (16,000-15,000 BP)	Ballanan-Silsilian (16,000-15,000 BP)
	Idfuan (17,500-17,000 BP)
Halfan (19,500-18,500 BP)	Kubbaniyan (19,000-16,500 BP)
	Industry D (19,100 BP)
	Fakhurian (21,000-19,500 BP)

Lower Egypt

None Formally
Described
North of Qena

Remember the part of the ancient Nile Delta that is now submerged beneath the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile below the First Cataract is graded to the sea. When sea level rose after the last ice age, the Nile aggraded its floodplain burying older archaeological sites. In fact, Late Palaeolithic sites are not found downstream from Qena, at the bend in the Nile north of Luxor.

Burials 20 and 21 from Site 117 near Jebel Sahaba, along the Nile near the Sudan border. This is a stone age, pre-agricultural site from about 11,500 BCE. 40% of the individuals in the cemetery died from wounds inflicted by weapons such as arrows and spears. Learn more about Site 117.

Here are some of the microlithic armatures found with the skeletons at Site 117 near Jebel Sahaba. These provided the sharp cutting edges and points of composite arrow points. From The Prehistory of Nubia, Vol. II 1968:894) by Fred Wendorf.

Microlithic armatures used in transverse arrows from the Predynastic site at Naga-ed-Der. From Ancient Egyptian Bows and Arrows and their relevance for African Prehistory, by Stanley, Phillips and Clark (Paleorient, 2:2:323-388, 1974).

Fragment of a commemorative pallet showing a man pierced by a transverse arrow. Predynastic, Naqada III.

A predynastic arrowhead with arrow poison on the foreshaft; Predynastic Sudan. Four bone points coated with arrow poison from Predynastic burials at Naga-ed-Der. From Ancient Egyptian Bows and Arrows and their relevance for African Prehistory, by Stanley, Phillips and Clark (Paleorient, 2:2:323-388, 1974).