The Aterian was the latest Upper Pleistocene cultural entity in the Sahara and the Maghreb, but it did not last until the end of the Pleistocene or the beginning of the Holocene at 10 000 BP. The dated stratigraphic series from Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East show that no human occupation survived after 70 000 BP in the Eastern Sahara and other dated sites in the Central Sahara confirm that the region became a hyper-arid desert that had to be abandoned for a very long time, until wetter conditions returned. These populations dispersed around the northern and, possibly, southern margins of the Sahara, definitely disappearing around 40 000 BP, but did not go in the direction of the Nile Valley. Smaller groups with different industries were settled in the Maghreb and the North African littoral between 40 000 and 20 000 BP. Later, between 20 000 and 10 000 years ago, the population considerably increased and produced various technocomplexes in the Maghreb, North African Mediterranean coast, as well as the Nile Valley, but still no human resettlement occurred in any place of the Sahara during this period.
At the end of the Pleistocene, around 12 000 years ago, the Nile suffered catastrophic inundations that caused a dispersion of Nilotic peoples toward the Eastern Sahara. During the Early Holocene, water was largely available from the Nile and its tributaries and rains were sufficiently frequent to keep permanent playas located in various places of the Western
Desert, from Siwa Oasis to Nabta Playa. Nevertheless, humid and dry phases still alternated throughout the Holocene. Systematic reoccupation of the Eastern Sahara took place after 10 000 years BP, when the first Early Holocene humid phase supported milder conditions. During the Holocene, humid and arid phases continually alternated, displaying eight humid and eight dry phases from the beginning of the Holocene until today at Nabta Playa. It has been suggested that, after every dry episode, the area was completely abandoned, and new people moved back again into the southwestern desert of Egypt at the onset of humid phases.
In the area of Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, the earliest cultural horizon of the Early Holocene is the El Adam variant, which is dated between 9500, or possibly 9800, and 8900 BP. The lithic tool-kit includes a large quantity of backed bladelets, struck from single and opposed platform cores, followed by end-scrapers, perforators, and notches. The microburin technique is frequent. Lower and upper grinding stones and ostrich eggshell containers and beads are common. The subsequent variants are El Kortein, dated from 8800 to 8500 BP, and El Ghorab, dated from 8400 to 8200 BP, the latter corresponding to an important lacustrine episode. Scalene triangles become a dominating aspect of the El Ghorab variant and backed bladelets are still frequent. Grinding stones are common and pottery is present, but is still very rare. This cultural unit has some affinities with the Masara phases at Dakhleh Oasis. The latest Early Holocene variant is El Nabta, dated between 8200 and 7900 BP, which flourished during the maximum humid interphase recorded in the area and dated between 8050 and 7300 BP. Burins dominate in the tool-kit, together with continuously retouched tools, backed bladelets, notches, and denticulates.
World History
