Early holocene sites and the emergence of sedentism in the Atbara region

Randi Haaland University of Bergen

@Pharaoh

Published in 

Egypt

 · 14 Dec 2023

Contents

• Introduction
• Aquatic resources
• Hunting
• Gathering of plants
• Pottery
• Graves
• Dates
• The Atbara sites in a broader cultural historical context
• Sedentism
• Why Sedentism emerged
• Demographic implications of sedentism
• References

Introduction

Fieldwork in the Atbara region started in 1984. The aim of the work was to survey and excavate sites which could throw light on the precondition for the transition to food production and its consequences. The area to be surveyed and excavated was along the rivers Atbara and the Nile. No fieldwork had been done in this area. In Sudan the main focus of archaeological work has been along the Nile in the Khartoum area (Krzyzaniak 1978, 1992; Mohammed Ali 1982; Caneva 1983, 1988; Haaland 1984, 1987; Tigani el Mahi 1988; Clark 1989; Khabir 1987; AbdelMagid 1989). Little work has been done on prehistoric sites between this area and the Third Cataract area in the north, an exception is the work in the Shendi area (Geus 1984; Reinold 1987), and in the are of Shagadud (Marks and Mohammed Ali 1991). In the north the extensive rescue work was done in connection with the Nubian campaign and this has been delt with separately by Säve Söderbergh and Nordström in the main papers for the conference. Our work then filled an important gap.

Fieldwork was carried out by Anwar Abdel Magid, Ali Tigani el Mahi and myself. We have had five field seasons (Ali Tigani el Mahi did not participate during the last field season), and the most interesting data that we have got so far is from three sites dated from the Early Holocene. Sites which have given us new insight into the problems related to transition to a broad spectrum type of economy and the emergence of sedentism. We did not locate habitation sites dated to the Mid-Holocene i.e. Neolithic sites. This is probably due to the fact that the sites in the area are all very heavily deflated. There appears to have been a later Neolithic occupation on most of the Early Holocene sites. This can be seen as a very thin eroded layer of Neolithic material on top of the Early Holocene settlement mounds and as material washed down on the surrounding plain. The other factor which has influenced the absence in our survey of Neolithic sites, is due to the change in the course of the rivers. Decrease in rainfall from Early to Mid-Holocene changed the floodplains which became more narrow and settlements are most likely to have been within areas which today are heavily populated or irrigated.

The three sites that we have been excavating are: Abu Darbein, El Damer and Aneibis. The sites are all located on old river gravels along the rivers Atbara and the Nile. The material recovered from the sites are of the typical aqualithic culture as coined by Sutton in 1974. The people inhabiting the sites exploited a broad spectrum of resources but relied most heavily on aquatic resources many as 30 different fish species were exploited (identified by Joris Peters). The pottery that we have recovered is of the dotted wavy-line tradition) and we have the typical uniserial bone harpoons, usually associated with these types of sites. The presence of grinding stones and the evidence for processing of plant food is also clear. What is of special interest is the recovering of several graves. These are found located at the outskirt of the settlement area, they seem however to be located within a confined area, they are not found scattered on the site. Since the graves are located within the settlement debris it is thus somewhat difficult to see if there are grave-goods which have been deliberately ­put in the graves. It does however seem to emerge as a pattern that fresh water molluscs was ritually placed with the dead as grave-goods, some of the shells are deliberately cut and abraded along the edges and have a pointed triangular shape.

The excavated material shows that the people inhabiting the sites exploited a broad spectrum of resources: fishing and collection of molluscs, hunting big and small game and gathering plants.

Aquatic resources

The main emphasis appears to have been on aquatic resources. As many as 30 different fish species were exploited and 3 different types of molluscs. Among the types of fish caught were floodplain dwellers (Clarias, Barbus, Tilauia) as well as open water forms (Bagrus, Synondotis, Lates). According to Joris Peters, who has identified the faunal remains, the latter are predominant. This indicates that the inhabitants focused on fishing in the main river channel (Peters manuscript n.d.).

Based on the fish species caught, Peters suggests that nets were used, although no such remains have been found. Some disk-shaped pottery artifacts that are frequently recovered on all the sites, might have been net-sinkers. It is interesting to note the presence of striped Nile puffer (Tetrodon), a type of fish with poisonous intestines that have to be removed immediately after it has been caught. On the sites at El Damer and Aneibis spines of very large Nile perch were recovered, some with an estimated size of two meters (Peters manuscript n.d.).

The remains of bone harpoons and spears suggest that fish were "hunted" with these tools. Stewart has argued that with them one could pursue the fish "by applying hunting methodology and technology to fish whose behaviour and ecology made them susceptible to such techniques" (Stewart 1989:233 ). The exploitation of aquatic resources is expected to have been mainly a dry season activity. The inshore species are easier to catch at the beginning of the inundation, when the fish enter the alluvial plain to spawn or when the water starts to recede and the alluvial plain dries out. Fishing in the main river channel is also easier during the low waters in the dry season (Peters manuscript n.d.).

Three types of mollusc shells were recovered, freshwater bivalves (Aspatharia, Etharia), freshwater snails (Pila and landsnails (Limicolaria). Peters identifies these as food refuse except for Limicolaria, whose status he thinks is uncertain. Since the aquatic resources were mainly exploited during the dry season, it is highly likely that the inhabitants practiced some form of fish processing. The abundance of large pots recovered on the sites suggests that these could have been used to store dried and/or smoked fish.

Hunting

Mammalian remains are abundant on the sites and show that a wide range of animals were hunted. The faunal samples yielded bones from large mammals such as elephants and giraffe, and from small mammals like mongoose. However, the most frequently hunted animals were, according to Joris Peters, different types of wild bovides such as African buffalo and small didik (gazelle). When looking at the artifacts it is striking, that no projectile points were found. We only have microlithic tools, such as lunates. which could have been used as hunting weapons. For these tools to have been effective for hunting large animals such as elephants, I will suggest that poison was part of the hunting technology. Peters concludes that the archaeofauna did not yield evidence for hunting outside the Nile and Atbara river valleys. He assumes that neither the Butana savanna nor the areas west of the Nile were within the site catchment area (Peters manuscript n.d.). It is expected that hunting took place throughout the year.

Gathering of plants

Remains of three types of plant taxa have been recovered. These are Celtis (which is the most numerous), Zizyphus and Setaria. The first two types can be consumed unprepared, while Setaria needs to be processed before being eaten. Plant remains were found both in the settlement debris and as imprints on pottery. The imprint of Setaria on pottery makes quite clear that the plant is contemporary with the settlement. The presence of Setaria is interesting, its seeds are still used and cultivated widely among people in Sub­Saharan Africa, such as the Azande people in southern Sudan (Abdel Magid 1989; Stemler 1990). It is also frequently found on the Neolithic sites dated the the 6^th millennium bp. It was, however, never domesticated. We have not found remains of Sorghum verticilliflorum (wild sorghum).

The presence of numerous grindstone fragments indicates the importance of plant food. Grinding stones could have been used for grinding non-food substances such as ochre as suggested by Arkell (Arkell 1949). This is supported by the presence of red ochre on the sites. This activity is however considered unlikely to have been the main function of numerous grinding tools. The gathering of plants would have been seasonal and is expected to have taken place at the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry season.

Pottery

Ceramic material is quite abundant on the sites. In some squares (one sq. meter) three to four kilograms of potsherds were recovered. The pots were globular in shape and rim-sherds indicate that they varied in size from large vessels with a diameter of 50-70 cm, to smaller sized vessels of 20-30 cm. Probably the larger pots were used primarily for storage purposes and the smaller pots for cooking. In the manufacturing of the vessels, a coil technique was employed. The bases of the pots were rounded or pointed. The rims very often show decoration, such as punctuation or lines which were sometimes made into a criss-cross pattern. The pots do not have a burnished surface but are well smoothed or polished, mainly on the inside. The potsherds show frequent reuse in the form of abrading or grooves. The pottery belongs to the typical Early Khartoum Mesolithic complex (Arkell 1949; Caneva 1983). Decoration covers almost all the surface except for the bottom part of the pot. It consists mostly of impressed dots executed with a rocker-stamp technique; frequently these are made into a dotted wavy-line pattern. Incised decoration made into a wavy-line pattern occurs very seldom. The wavy line pattern is typically associated with the Mesolithic sites in the Khartoum area but appears to be less frequent outside this area.

Graves

The excavations in 1989 and 1990 yielded skeletal remains of eight human individuals from the site of El Damer. These graves were found within a restricted area of the settlement. The dead were buried in a contracted position, but there does not appear to have been a fixed pattern as regards the orientation of the dead. One grave needs special attention. The skeleton is buried in an east-west orientation with the head to the west facing north. In association with the grave, at a distance of c. 50 cm from it, was found a gazelle head with horn-cores preserved, also facing north. Similar finds have been recovered from a Mesolithic settlement with graves at the site of BuurHeybe in Somalia (Brandt 1988). In association with other graves we have recovered river-shells which were probably deposited as grave goods, although this is regarded as more uncertain since the graves were dug on the outskirts of the settlement debris.

From the site of Aneibis one grave has been excavated; containing a skeleton buried in a tightly contracted position. This one grave was also found on the outskirts of the settlement and it is likely that further excavations will document the presence of more graves in this area. No graves have yet been found at the site of Abu Darbein.

Dates

The 3814 dates from the three sites are somewhat problematic. They are presented in table l and diagram l. It is apparent that they cover a long timespan. For the site of Abu Darbein six dates range between 8640+/-120 and 7700 ± 140 bp, but with a concentration on 8640 to 8330 from the centre of the settlement. For the site of El Damer, 13 dates range from 8390 ± 50 to 7260 ± 110 bp, nine concentrate around 8040 to 7780 bp seven which are based on river-shells found in graves. They are listed from No. 4 to No. 10 on table 1. From the Aneibis site we have the widest range of dates: 17 dates which span from 8230 ± 120 to 6820 ± 170 (again with a concentration on 8090 to 7290 bp).

I interpret the dates in the following way. The sites are located in a favourable riverine habitat. They were occupied intermittently on and off for a long period of time. I will however, hypothesize that we have the remains of a sedentary population during the period when we have the concentration of dates. It is evident that the dates from the El Damer site are more in support of a sedentary population than those from the two other sites.

The Atbara sites in a broader cultural historical context

The archaeological material presented shows that fishing, shell collecting, hunting and plant gathering were subsistence activities carried out by the people inhabiting the sites excavated. Hunting was probably practiced during the whole year. while the other activities were mainly dry season activities with an emphasis on the utilization aquatic resource. Another important activity which probably took place during the dry season was pottery making, since it would be easier to dry and fire the pots during this period.

It is likely that the technology of pottery production was independently invented in Africa within this Mesolithic tradition (Arkell 1949; Roset 1987). From our sites the oldest date is from the Abu Darbein site 8600 bp. However, pottery from the site of Sarurab in the Khartoum area is dated to 9300 bp. (Kabhir 1987). Equally early dates are now emerging from areas as widely separated as from the site Ti-n-Torha in the Libyan part of the Sahara, dated to 9300 bp.(Barich 1987) and Tagalagal in Niger, dated to 9500 bp. (Roset 1987). The type of pottery recovered from these sites belongs to the same pottery tradition, the Khartoum Mesolithic, with an emphasis on dotted wavy-line decoration. It appears that there are similarities not only in decoration but also in shape of the vessels. It is regarded as highly unlikely that the same type of pottery was independently invented within these different areas. I have argued elsewhere that this pottery tradition was independently invented in the Nile valley within a population which relied heavily on aquatic resources (Haaland 1992) Since the dates from the Sahara-Sahel region are more or less contemporary with the dates from the Nile valley it might seem strange to argue for this area as the place of origin. However aquatic resource exploitation has a long tradition in the Nile valley, it goes back 25000 to 40000 years (Greenwood 1968; Stewart 1989). The Sahara, however, did not open up for this type of resource exploitation before the early Holocene humid phase in the tenth millennium b.p. (Hassan 1986). One should stress that further research and more data needed in order to reconstruct the area within which the technology of pottery production originated.

The importance of pottery lies in the fact that allows for the utilization of broader and wider range of food resources. Arnold has pointed out that boiling or steaming food render it more digestible and palatable. It is also more efficient for cooking since it requires less effort and attention than indirect methods like stone-boiling. Pottery moreover expands the range of potential food resources available in the same habitat (Arnold 1985:125-136). It thus allows people to occupy a broader ecological niche with increased carrying capacity. Handwerker has argued that pottery and the use of boiled food led to a change in the diet of infants and that the early weaning this allowed would influence the fertility of women. It would furthermore influence the survival rate of infants since the period after weaning would be the most critical period (Handscerker 1983:19). Another advantage of pottery production was its use for storage. Improvements in preserving techniques enhance the nutritional value of foods such as plants. Most importantly it became possible to store food, which probably ensured that enough was available the year round. The new pottery technology would, however, imply constraints on mobility which might have operated as a factor favouring increased sedentism.

The archaeological material presented here shows that fishing, shell collecting, hunting and plant gathering were important subsistence activities carried out by the people inhabiting the sites excavated. Hunting was probably practiced during the whole year, while the other activities were mainly dry season activities. The evolution of such a complex multi-resource adaptation has several critical aspects which need to be discussed further. Adaptations involving a multitude of productive tasks would have required some kind of division of labour. My thesis is that gender was a basic organizational principle in these early Mesolithic communities. The archeological material provides no direct evidence for the structuring of the production units by a division of labour based on gender. Comparative ethnographic material from people engaged in similar activities under tropical conditions does, however, support the hypothesis that the division of labour was based on gender (Murdock and Provost 1973). Conkey and Gero argue that any hypothesis about gender in prehistory must to a lesser or greater extent be based on ethnographic analogy (Conkey and Gero 1991). I shall here mainly focus on subsistence activities which I have reasons to expect were carried out by women (Haaland 1981; 1987). I will start with the most visible material on these Mesolithic sites, the pottery. If the assumption that plant gathering was mainly a female activity is correct, I think the making of unburnt clay for storage bins was probably also a female activity. The important step however, took place when the idea of a clay jar for food storage was developed to the idea of a clay jar for cooking food. On the basis of ethnographic analogy. I assume that food preparation was a female activity (Gerro 1992) Archaeological material shows that the use of fire for transformation of raw food into food for human consumption had been practiced for a long time. Ethnographic analogy and archaeological material makes it reasonable to assume that it was within the female sector of activities that the important innovation of applying fire in carder to transform clay jars for storage to clay pots for cooking. This hypothesis has forcefully been argued by Wright, who on the basis of the work done by Amiran (1965), pairs the making / cooking of bread / porridge with pottery production. (Wright 1991 based on Amiran 1965). Pottery making and food preparation by cooking, involve activities which, in many respects, are similar: grinding, the use of water, kneading and firing. Wright argues further that "from its earliest appearance it very likely involved women's labour and its development occurred hand in hand with other economic activities such as the domestication process" (Wright 1991). With these technological innovations it is also likely that the labour input became greater for women. Harris and Ross have argued that pottery production and the increased consumption of boiled food lead to increasing intensification of female labour in food procurement. This was probably substituted by the increased importance of children's labour in these activities and within a broad spectrum type of economy (Harris and Ross 1987). Plant gathering was part of the inhabitants' subsistence activities. The evidence for this are the plant remains and grinding stones. Among contemporary foraging peoples, gathering of plant food is generally a female activity. It is also a highly social activity in which several women and their children participate (Lee 1972). There is a cross-cultural pattern among food gatherers that women not only gather the plant food but process it by grinding and cooking as referred to above. Under tropical conditions the plants gathered are usually of much greater subsistence importance than the game hunted (Lee 1972).

Grinding stones seem closely related to female activities. In the ethnographic survey done by Murdoch and Provost 1973 above, it is argued that production of lithic tools is a strictly male activity. However, from my own ethnographic fieldwork from West Sudan and Tanzania I have evidence which demonstrate that production of grinding stones is a female activity. This supports the hypothesis that tasks which are interconnected in the food preparation process fall within the syndrome of female activities.

Among the Fur tribe, in West Sudan, people still make and use the same type of grinding equipment that we find on the Mesolithic sites. In the village of Dor in Northern Darfur, where I did fieldwork in 1978, every woman in the village makes her own grinding stones. Suitable raw material is found in only one area, this is a finegrained type of sandstone. Every woman has her own quarry where she extracts the raw material and the first rough shaping of the grinders takes place at the quarry site. The grinders are then brought back to the village, where the final shaping and pecking of the tools takes place.

Based on informants from the Fipa tribe of West Tanzania, it is also evident that it is the women who produce and use the grindstones. The stone grinders were intimately bound up with female activities and identity. Cross-cultural evidence indicates that not only food processing but also the storage of food is closely connected with women's work (Hastorf 1991). In conclusion, I will hypothesize that activities related to gathering of plants, processing and production of equipment for these activities, including pottery and grinding stones, were performed by women. Following Wright's argument, I will furthermore relate the innovation of pottery production to women's labour (Wright 1991).

Sedentism

The material from these sites indicates that we have remains of a sedentary population. The broad spectrum of resources exploited (with an emphasis on aquatic species), abundant and predictable resources which could be stored, permitted a sedentary way of life. The most visible artifacts found on the sites were the large quantities of pottery material. The pottery technology would imply constraints on mobility and would probably have operated as a factor favouring increased sedentism. Several pieces of wattle and daub recovered on the sites suggest the presence of more permanent hut or house constructions. That these types of sites are indicative of a sedentary mode of life has previously been argued by various archaeologists (Phillipson 1985; Stewart 1989).

Another set of data which supports this interpretation is the presence of graves in a formal disposal area for the dead, which indicates permanence in site occupation. Brandt has looked at the ethnographic data on mortuary practices among African hunter/gatherers and although these data are meagre, they do support the interpretation that formal disposal areas for the dead occur among sedentary hunter/gatherer/fishing people and not among mobile hunter/ gatherers (Brandt 1988). I consider the configuration of material inventory (pottery, grinding stones, fishing technology, more permanent houses, graveyard) indicative of a sedentary way of life.

Why Sedentism emerged

To understand the emergence of sedentism one must consider the benefits, and those who would benefit. With the presence of more material items, such as pottery, the inconvenience involved in frequent migrations would increase. Sedentism would reduce this inconvenience as well as the problems involved in moving around the old, infirm and young (Rafferty 1985). Women have the main responsibility for child care among food gatherers. This includes the strain of being pregnant, giving birth, and nursing; and carrying young children when collecting plant food. Thus at least half of the adult population would benefit from a more sedentary way of life where food resources permitted it. This argument is supported by the large amount of archaeological remains from the sites which appear to have been the product of women's activities. While I have found few data in existing ethnographic records which can support my hypothesis about the role of women in the process of becoming sedentary. I think this is partly due to the fact that most of the ethnographic work has been done within a male-biased setting in which this type of issue has not been addressed or has been seen from a male perspective. There has been an emphasis on the reluctance of hunter / gatherers to become sedentary, and on the negative effects of sedentism on activities such as hunting, which generally seems to be highly valued among males in hunter-gatherer communities. A conflict of interest between males and females with respect to sedentism, with the much greater importance of the women's contribution to subsistence making it likely that over time plant gathering may have favored women's interests.

Patricia Draper has collected 13 life histories (1992) from elderly !Kung men and women. In these interviews people reflected on the difference between the old days when people were mobile foragers, and today's settled situation. When analyzing these interviews Draper found that women, much more than men remembered the old days of mobility in terms of hard work. Women repeatedly said that they liked their current settled life and that drinking water and not moving around all the time was much better. Men, when talking about the old days, emphasized how much game there used to be and stressed their ability as hunters. There was a strong theme in the narratives by men that they had lost a valued role as hunters and providers of meat. On the basis of these few life history interviews one might conclude that old women interviewed have a more positive view about settled life and more negative views of nomadic life than the old men interviewed today. However Draper stresses that we do not know what opinions the women and men in general had 50 or more years ago when they were experimenting with the process of settling down (Draper 1992 and personal communication). Studies of this type, where the female dimension is taken into account, will provide important insight into the factors influencing the process of change from a mobile, foraging type of life to one of sedentism.

Demographic implications of sedentism

The unintended consequence of sedentism is, generally population growth. Several studies have documented population increase when formerly non­sedentary groups settle down (Rafferty 1985). Generalizing from the !Kung , Lee argues that a greater population growth is directly related to decreased mobility and it results in closer spacing between child birth (Lee 1972; 1979): Binford and Chasko argue from their study of the Nunamiut that it is related to less seasonal variability in caloric intake (Binford and Chasko 1976). Roth, in his study of Kutchin Athapascan populations argues that increased birth rates were a result of prolonged reproduction periods (Roth 1981). In addition, in the case of these Mesolithic societies, the evidence points to the exploitation of new aquatic resources and I would expect the productivity of a previously unoccupied niche to be high, thus allowing a rapid population growth. As discussed above, pottery production and the use of boiled food would serve to increase fertility. Mothers could feed infants boiled substitutes for milk, breast feeding would tend to decline earlier in a child's life and birth intervals would be shortened (Harris and Ross 1987). The problems attendant on population increase can be solved by intensified use of existing resources or geographical expansion.

Conclusion

To sum up; invention of pottery is considered a critical technological event and generated processes with wider implications; the emergence of sedentism, demographic growth, intensified resource utilization and population expansion.

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