The Development of Sedentism

Several stone-built structures, forming circular huts, were found at Dakhleh Oasis associated with the Masara C cultural unit dated to 8700-8600 BP. They were strategically located on a sandstone ridge that was protected from seasonal floods so that they could be occupied during the wet seasons. The area they occupied was significantly smaller than the territory previously exploited, suggesting a contraction of resources in some selected locations. The Masara C unit has been paralleled with the El Kortein variant at Bir Kiseiba.

Furthermore, at both Bir Kiseiba and Nabta Playa, a complex settlement system with habitation structures was developed during the El Nabta variant, dated to 8200-7900 BP. The largest site at Nabta Playa is E-75-6, which yielded about 20 huts, more than 30 storage pits, 3 wells, and numerous hearths. The huts were either oval or round, with shallow basin floors, encircled with postholes. Their shape suggested that they were built with wooden poles tight in the center at the top of the roof, and the walls were covered by reeds, skins, or mats. The huts contained several hearths that were seasonally reused. The chronology of this site indicated that it remained in use for more than 800 years.

Sedentism in North Africa was not a form of preadaptation leading to agriculture. It was a typical strategy adopted by foragers, or forerunning pastor-alists as in the case of Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, associated with the exploitation of a broad spectrum of wild resources. These people continually occupied the same sites for long periods of time in restricted areas with concentrated water and food resources. Sedentary lifestyle favored an increased social organization and the rise of sociopolitical complexity with a delayed-return economy. Such an economic strategy implied the intensification of resource exploitation and scheduled consumption with considerable investments of capital, labor, and skills. It was a particularly efficient subsistence practice for North African populations as it allowed them to cope with irregular precipitations and to manage drier periods of reduced rainfall. Scheduled consumption increased awareness of predictable access to locally available food resources and generated techniques of delayed consumption of seasonally available products with the development of storage facilities.

As sedentism with a delayed return strategy grew, local wild resources became unable to sustain the increased needs for set-aside provisions, and North African dwellers had to switch to nomadic pastoral-ism as the only sustainable form of food production in their environment. In the Eastern Sahara, this happened during the El Ghanam variant, when pastoral-ism became the predominant subsistence base and was extended to caprine herding.