Halina Królik

Early Holocene pottery in the Western Desert of Egypt: new data from Nabta Playa

Dated and stratified potsherds excavated at Nabta Playa belong to the earliest phase of pottery-making in the Sahara – relatively sophisticated bowls decorated with a toothed wheel. The authors explore the origins of post-Pleistocene settlers in the Sahara and the Nile Valley and discuss what prompted them to make pottery.

Site E-75-6: An El Nabta and Al Jerar Village

During several field seasons (1974,1975,1977 and 1990–1992) the Combined Prehistoric Expedition conducted extensive archaeological excavations at Site E-75-6, one of the most interesting Early Neolithic localities of Nabta Playa (Wendorf and Schild 1980; Banks 1984b).

Site E-96-1: The Complex Structures or Shrines

About 500 m south of Site E-75-8 there are around 30 clusters of unshaped or roughly shaped large rocks that, as a group, form a large ceremonial complex. Because they are partially covered by modern wind-blown sand, the first impression is that these big stones are bedrock outcrops. A closer inspection, however, revealed they were not bedrock, rather, they rest on several meters of playa and are well away from the nearest exposures of bedrock. The exact number of these features is unknown because they are partially buried in modern windblown sand and closely resemble outcrops of quartzitic sandstone. They can only be distinguished with certainty by excavation or drilling. We have completely excavated only two of these structures, tested a third, and drilled two others. None of the excavated or tested rock clusters in this area were bedrock; however, several other very similar features along the eastern margin of the playa basin were tested and turned out to be bedrock.

Here comes the rain again… The early Holocene El Adam occupation of the Western Desert, Nabta Playa, Egypt: Site E-08-2

Further Neolithic encampments and settlements have been explored by the Combined Prehistoric Expedition in the Nabta Playa Basin on the southern border of Egypts Western Desert around 100 km west of the Nile Valley. Site E-08-2 in Nabta Playa, excavated in 2008–2009, provided considerable new information on the El Adam settlement, which functioned in the younger phase of the El Adam horizon, sometime between 9000 and 8800 BP (c. 8200-8000 cal. BC). This new evidence facilitates the understanding of the direction of the sites development and shows how the discovery of new sources of raw material that are situated several dozen kilometres to the north affected flint working there.