Achilles Gautier

A last interglacial fauna from the Eastern Sahara

Abstract Recent work on the middle Paleolithic at Bir Tarfawi, in the hyperarid Eastern Sahara (

THE CONTINUOUS EXPLOITATION OF WILD ANIMAL RESOURCES IN THE ARCHAEOZOOLOGICAL RECORD OF GHANA

The paper provides a critical review of the archaeozoological information from Ghanaian sites published up to now and summarizes the new faunal analysis of several Gonja and Asante sites. The data suggest the persistence of the use of the various wild animal resources available and limited reliance on domestic animals since late prehistoric times up to today, although certain resources such as molluscs, insects etc. may have limited or no visibility. Intensive utilisation of edible wild resources may be prevalent in African woodlands.

Molluscan assemblages from the late Cenozoic of the lower Omo basin, Ethiopia

Abstract The lower Omo basin, southern Ethiopia, preserves formations of sedimentary and pyroclastic rocks which span a substantial range of later Cenozoic time. These formations are often extraordinarily rich in vertebrate fossils and have also afforded a series of molluscan assemblages from contexts radiometrically dated by K/Ar or 14 C. The late Cenozoic molluscan fauna has been previously ill-known in this part of Africa and these assemblages provide a broad faunal zonation for the northern sector of the Eastern Rift valley. The five principal assemblages are here treated as faunal groupings, rather than as formal faunal zones. Three groupings are recognized for the Pliocene/Pleistocene time range, one grouping for the later Pleistocene and one grouping for the subrecent and present.

ANIMAL REMAINS FROM MAHAL TEGLINOS (KASSALA, SUDAN) AND THE ARRIVAL OF PASTORALISM IN THE SOUTHERN ATBAI

Faunal remains from Mahal Teglinos span the period from about 3000 to 1000 BC. They indicate that the arrival of cattle, sheep and goat in the region predates the occupatio n of the site, but the evidence available from other and older sites near Khashm-el-Girba does not suffice to document precisely the development of pastoralism and its consequences in the Southern Atbai. Among the limited mammalian game, the many gazelles and dikdiks point to steppe conditions, while the equally numerous buffalo remains suggest that this large bovid thrived in the seasonally inundated land along the Gash River.

Late Cenozoic freshwater mollusks of the Wembere-Manonga formation, Manonga Valley, Tanzania

The fossil freshwater mollusks described and analyzed in this chapter were collected by members of the Wembere-Manonga Paleontological Expedition (WMPE) in the Manonga Valley during the 1992 and 1994 field seasons. The following list summarizes basic information about the seven localities from which fossil mollusks were obtained. The abbreviations in parentheses are those used in Table I.

Le sanglier en Égypte

The wild boar, Sus scrofa, is not a typical member of the Egyptian wild fauna, although it appears to have lived in the Nile Delta and other suitable regions in the north of the country. However, historic populations were probably of mixed origin, including feral domestic pigs. It is incorrect, as is sometimes still done, to include the wild boar in the iconographic bestiary of Ancient Egypt and assume that the domestic pigs of Ancient Egypt derive from local wild boars.

Affad 23, a late Middle Palaeolithic site with refitted lithics and animal remains in the Southern Dongola reach, Sudan

Affad 23, situated in upper alluvial deposits related to a former channel of the Nile in the Affad District, Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan, is mainly known through its upper or surface level. The combined data concerning the position of the site, composition of the lithic assemblage, freshness, refittings and dispersion of the artefacts point to a late Middle Palaeolithic workshop used for short periods. It utilized discoid and levallois debitage of Hudi Chert collected from the palaeochannel during the lowwater season. The animal remains suggest opportunistic hunting of medium-sized antelopes, probably mainly kobs living near the site, some dorcas gazelles, occasionally hippopotamus and other big game, as well as small vertebrates, much less visible in the collected samples. A lower level, separated from the surface level by a deposit of some 30 cm, represents an earlier workshop. The easy access to chert in the palaeochannel may also explain the existence of other Paleolithic sites along the channel as workshops.

Palaeolithic big game hunting at HP766 in Wadi Umm Rahau, Northern Sudan

HP766, discovered by the Gdansk Archaeological Museum Expedition (GAME) in the region immediately upstream the Merowe Dam in North Sudan and now under water, is one of the few palaeolithic sites with animal bone remains in the country. The archaeological deposits, the large size of the site, the lithics and the radiocarbon dates indicate occupation of a silt terrace of the Nile in late MSA and perhaps LSA times. Large and very large mammals predominate markedly among the recovered bone remains and it would seem that the palaeolithic hunters focused on such game. They could corner these animals on the site which is partially surrounded by high bedrock outcrops. Moreover swampy conditions of the site after the retreat of the annual Nile flood may have rendered less mobile the prey animals. According to this scenario, HP766 would testify to the ecological skills and generational memory of late prehistoric man in Sudan.

New radiocarbon dates and Late Palaeolithic diet at Wadi Kubbaniya, Egypt

Vegetable remains are a rarity in Palueolithic contexts. These new determinations on material from southern Egypt establish securely the date of an intensive grass-tuber and fish economy in the Nile Valley towards 20,000 years ago.

A MALACOLOGICAL MINI-MYSTERY ALMOST SOLVED: THE GENUS SOLEILLET1A BOURGUIGNAT 1885 (BIVALVIA)

Bivalves from Holocene lacustrine deposits of Lake Assal (Djibouti Republic) appear to represent the genus Soleilletia. They belong to the Mesodesmatidae, an exclusively marine family. The genus Soleilletia Bgt. formerly included in the Corbiculidae and considered as a freshwater group must hence be reclassified systematically and ecologically.