DROUGHTS, FOODAND CULTURE

DROUGHTS, FOODAND CULTURE

Ecological Change and FoodSecurity in Africa’s Later Prehistory

Edited by

Fekri A. HassanUniversity College LondonLondon, England

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CONTRIBUTORS

R. Abu-Zied, Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.Hala N. Barakat, Cairo University Herbarium, Faculty of Science, Cairo University,

Giza, Egypt.Barbara E. Barich, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Archeologiche e

Antropologiche dell’Antichità, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Via Palestro63, 00185 Rome, Italy.

R. Bonnefille, CNRS, CEREGE, bp 80, 13545, Aix-en-Provence, Cedex 04, France.Peter Breunig, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Seminar

für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Archäologie und Archäobotanik Afrikas,Grüneburgplatz 1, D - 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

H. Brinkhuis, Laboratory of Palynology and Paleobotany, Utrecht University, TheNetherlands.

Ann Butler, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 GordonSquare, London, WC1 0PY, UK.

J. Casford, Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.Mauro Cremaschi, CNR Centro di Geodinamica Alpina e Quaternaria, Dipartimento

di Scienze della Terra, University of Milan, Italy.I. Croudace, Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.Savino di Lernia, Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca sulle Civiltà e l'Ambiente del

Sahara Antico, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Via Palestro 63, 00185 Rome,Italy.

Achilles Gautier, Laboratorium voor Paleontologie, Vakgroep Geologie enBodemkunde, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281/S8, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.

Fekri A. Hassan, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34Gordon Square, London, WC1 0PY, UK.

Stan Hendrickx, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Laboratorium voor Prehistoire,Redingenstraat 16 bis, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.

F. J. Jorissen, Department of Oceanography and Geology, University Bordeaux I,CNRS URA 197, France.

J. Kallmeyer, Department of Earth Sciences, Bremen University, Germany.D. Mercone, Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.M. U. Mohammed, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Addis Ababa

University, c/o P.O.Box 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Katharina Neumann, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main,

Seminar für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Archäologie und Archäobotanik Afrikas,Grüneburgplatz 1, D - 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

v

vi Contributors

E. J. Rohling, School of Ocean and Earth Science, Southampton University,Southampton Oceanography Centre, Waterfront Campus, European Way,Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.

Martine Rossignol-Strick, Laboratoire de Paléobiologie et Palynologie, Boite 106,Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France.

M. Adebisi Sowunmi, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University ofIbadan, U. I. P. O. Box 20204, Ibadan, Nigeria.

J. Thomson, Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.Wim Van Neer, IUAP, Royal Museum of Central Africa, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium.Robert Vernet, Département d’Histoire, Faculté des Lettres, BP 396, Nouakchott,

Mauritanie.G. Wefer, Department of Earth Sciences, Bremen University, Germany.

PREFACE

Recent droughts in Africa and Europe have serious implications for food security andgrave consequences for local and international politics. The issues do not just concernthe plight of African peoples or Europe’s role in alleviating catastrophic conditions,but also Europe’s own ecological future. Africa’s Sahel zone is one of the mostsensitive climatic regions in the world, and the events that gripped that region in the1970s were the first indicators of a significant shift in global climatic conditions.Deterioration of living standards in Africa due to adverse climatic conditions is alsolikely to involve the world community in various dimensions.

With the realization that contemporary climatic events and theirconsequences could not be properly interpreted without an adequate knowledge oflong-term climatic variability and associated cultural developments in Africa, aworkshop was organized, from 15 to 18 September 1998 in London (UK), on‘Ecological Change and Food Security in Africa’s Later Prehistory’, with a generousgrant from the European Science Foundation. In addition to substantive contributionsto our knowledge of African prehistory, the workshop was also a venue to explore thepotentials for a comprehensive, integrated program of future research with thefollowing goals in mind:

(1)

(2)(3)

(4)

to develop a common strategy for documenting and interpreting localresponses to global ecological events and their influence on interculturalcontacts;to forge available data into a coherent ecological-cultural framework;to explore means by which data can be processed in a dynamic model thatcan be used for interpretation of the long-term consequences of ecologicalevents; andto establish a data bank of ecological and archaeological data to assistresearchers and policy makers in assessing long-term ecological processes.

The workshop was thus an opportunity to overcome the limitations imposedby the lack of coordination among research teams working in Africa and the absenceof a concerted strategy of archaeological inquiry on a continental scale. Although thescope of this volume was limited by design and by practical necessities to a selectgroup of eminent archaeologists and palaeoclimatologists, it is hoped that futuremeetings will integrate the results from this workshop within other regional contextsand specific topical domains.

vii

viii Preface

It is also hoped that this volume will alert archaeologists to the effects ofsevere, abrupt, and closely-spaced climatic events on the course of culturaldevelopments. Such events, which are now becoming quite evident thanks to high-resolution palaeoclimatic data, are likely to cause significant ruptures in the culturalfabric of societies on various scales. Some of the events discussed in this volume haveproven to be of a global, trans-continental nature. This global interconnection is dueto the response of the shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone across an area thatextends from parts of South and Mesoamerica to China. The contributions in thisvolume should be seen as parts of a whole, which is in turn a part of trans-continentalcultural developments in response to climatic crises that punctuated the millennialchange in climate. Archaeologists stand to gain a deeper understanding of the past byfocusing on specific climatic events that set in motion cultural responses, that in turnhave cultural consequence under similar or pre-existing long-term climatic conditions.

It would be a grave error to resurrect the ghost of environmental determinismin order to undermine current efforts to clarify the intricate link between climate andsociety. It is now abundantly clear that the impact of any climatic change is mediatedby human perceptions and social action, and that many cultural developments arepredicated upon previous cultural choices and norms. Cultural developments are notto be explained in terms of a single paramount cultural mechanism, such as diffusionor the banal “evolution”, but in terms of a model of cultural innovations (that mayrange from prayers to migration) that are maintained or rejected by the localcommunity, that may or may not be adopted (often with significant modifications) byneighboring groups, and that may or may not survive from one generation to the next.

In this volume, the appearance of cattle keeping in Africa and its impact onAfrican societies in different ecological contexts, in response to adverse abruptclimatic crises, reveals the poverty of deterministic thinking, the shortcomings ofsimplistic diffusionary models, and the deficiency of linear evolutionary models. Theorigins and dispersal of cattle keeping in Africa, by contrast, reveal that societieschose from a set of probable responses, that they accepted, assimilated and modifiedinnovations (local or borrowed) within the context of their field of knowledge andaction, governed by norms, mores, and organizational parameters. The emergence ofcattle pastoralism, for example, in Central, West and East Africa were independentlocal responses taking advantage of local ecological conditions and within a strategythat maintained earlier traditions. The disparity between Egypt and other neighboringAfrican countries was a result of a different timing of events, different ecologicalsettings (the Lower Nile as a significant factor), and the cultural geography of Egyptwithin North Africa and in proximity to Southwest Asia. Travelling on differenttracks in response to the same climatic events, different groups responded, at a latertime, to the next climatic event in a very different manner from before. Developmentsin a cultural region may also have an impact on neighboring regions.

A more profound understanding of how societies dealt with climatic changein the past is one of the means by which we can cope with our changing climatetoday. This volume not only highlights the importance of detecting the timing and

Preface ix

severity of past abrupt climatic events, but also the role of archaeologicalinvestigations in teasing out such events and clarifying their impact on humansocieties. The palaeoclimatological community is also now challenged to explain thecauses of such abrupt events and to provide measures of climatic change that aresignificant in the realm of human affairs.

This volume is thus an attempt to bring archaeology within the domain ofcontemporary human affairs, and to forge a new methodology for coping withenvironmental problems from an archaeological perspective.

Participants in the London workshop included: Dr. Hala Barakat (Cairo),Prof. Barbara Barich (Rome), Mr. Obare Bogado (Benin), Prof. Peter Breunig(Frankfurt), Dr. Ann Butler (London), Dr. R. Chedadi (Marseilles), Prof. MauroCremaschi (Milan), Dr. Savino di Lernia (Rome), Dr. Françoise Gasse (Aix-en-Provence), Prof. Achilles Gautier (Gent), Dr. Stan Hendrickx (Brussels), Dr. SteveJuggins (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne), Ms. Dagmar Kleinsgutl (London/Vienna), Dr.Henry Lamb (Aberstwyth, Wales), Dr. Kevin MacDonald (London), Dr. JamesMcGlade (London), Dr. Katharina Neumann (Frankfurt), Dr. François Paris(Paris/Cairo), Dr. E. J. Rohling (Southampton), Dr. Martine Rossignol-Strick (Paris),Prof. Paul Sinclair (Uppsala), Prof. Adebisi Sowunmi (Ibadan, Nigeria), Prof. A. C.Stevenson (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne), Dr. Mohammed Umer (Addis Ababa), Prof. T. H.van Andel (Cambridge), Dr. Wim Van Neer (Tervuren), and Dr. Robert Vernet(Nouakchott, Mauritania). Mrs. Marianne Yagoubi, represented the European ScienceFoundation at the meeting.

I am most thankful to all who attended for the lively and stimulatingdiscussions that have opened up new vistas for investigation and new possibilities forcooperation between scholars from different regions and disciplines. I am alsoparticularly grateful to those who contributed to this volume. The workshop was heldat the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and I am indebted toProf. Peter Ucko, Director of the Institute, for making the facilities of the Instituteavailable for the workshop. The workshop has signaled for me a new direction inAfrican archaeology, with theoretical implications for archaeology as a whole, and Iwish to thank the European Science Foundation for its support of that event. Partialfinancial support through Prof. Paul Sinclair is also gratefully acknowledged. I wishalso to acknowledge logistic support by Dr. Hala Barakat, Geoffrey Tassie, JoanneRowland, Dagmar Kleinsgutl, and Janet Picton. Special thanks go to Julie Wilsonwho copy edited this work and prepared it for publication.

Cherish the land from the spoiling drought, from the raging wind, thedust-laden storm...and the beating rain.

From a treatise by al-Maghali to the king of Kano in thecentury (in Isichei, 1997, p. 20)

CONTENTS

List of Figures

List of Tables

1.

2.

IntroductionF. A. Hassan

Palaeoclimate, Food and Culture Change in Africa: An Overview

Section I: Climatic Change

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Rapid Holocene Climate Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean

Climate During the Late Holocene in the Sahara and the Sahel: Evolutionand Consequences on Human Settlement

F. A. Hassan

E. J. Rohling, J. Casford, R. Abu-Zied, S. Cooke,D. Mercone, J. Thomson, 1. Croudace, F. J.Jorissen, H. Brinkhuis, J. Kallmeyer and G. Wefer

R. Vernet

Late Pleistocene and Holocene Climatic Changes in the Central Sahara:The Case Study of the Southwestern Fezzan, Libya

M. Cremaschi

Late Holocene Climatic Fluctuations and Historical Records of Faminein Ethiopia

M. U. Mohammed and R. Bonnefille

Environmental and Human Responses to Climatic Events in West andWest Central Africa During the Late Holocene

M. A. Sowunmi

Section II: Plant Cultivation

Regional Pathways to Agriculture in Northeast AfricaH. N. Barakat

8.

9. From Hunters and Gatherers to Food Producers: New Archaeologicaland Archaeobotanical Evidence from the West African Sahel

xvii

1

11

27

35

47

65

83

95

105

111

123

xi

xiii

xii Contents

P. Breunig and K. Neumann

10.

11.

Holocene Climatic Changes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Spreadof Food Production from Southwest Asia to Egypt

M. Rossignol-Strick

Sustainable Agriculture in a Harsh Environment: An EthiopianPerspective

A. Butler

Section III: Pastoralism

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

The Evidence for the Earliest Livestock in North Africa: Or Adventureswith Large Bovids, Ovicaprids, Dogs and Pigs

A. Gautier

Cultural Responses to Climatic Changes in North Africa: Beginning andSpread of Pastoralism in the Sahara

B. E. Barich

Dry Climatic Events and Cultural Trajectories: Adjusting MiddleHolocene Pastoral Economy of the Libyan Sahara

S. di Lernia

Food Security in Western and Central Africa During the Late Holocene:The Role of Domestic Stock Keeping, Hunting and Fishing

W. Van Neer

Bovines in Egyptian Predynastic and Early Dynastic IconographyS. Hendrickx

Conclusion

17. Ecological Changes and Food Security in the Later Prehistory of NorthAfrica: Looking Forward

F. A. Hassan

Index

157

171

189

195

209

225

251

275

321

335

LIST OF FIGURES

2.12.23.1

3.23.3

4.1

4.24.3

4.4

4.5

5.15.25.35.4

5.55.6

5.7

5.8

5.9

5.105.116.1

Distribution of earliest cattle in AfricaDraft sketch of Holocene climatic variability in AfricaWarm versus cold planktonic foraminiferal percentages for cores IN68-

9, LC21, and LC31, plotted against core-depth in cm as correctedfor thicknesses of ash-layers and turbidites

Key benthic foraminiferal species in cores LC31 and LC21Warm-cold record and stable oxygen isotope record (G. ruber) for

LC21, versus age in calibrated yrs BPEvolution of the number of palaeoenvironmental age determinations in

the SaharaRadiocarbon and animal occurrences in the Holocene SaharaDiachronic evolution of economic stock species in Kerma (Sudan):

bovines and ovicapridesHuman occupation in the south Sahara and north Sahel at the end of the

Neolithic and at the beginning of history, according to radiocarbondeterminations (494 dates)

Palaeoenvironments and human occupation during the Holocene in thesouthwest Sahara

Location of the area studied in Chapter 5The stratigraphic sequence of Uan AfudaThe stratigraphic sequence of the site MT21 in the Messak SattafetU/Th dates of the travertine and anthropogenic deposits at site 96/50,

Wadi TanshaltThe first cycle of the rock shelter’s fill: the Uan Tabu sequenceThe second cycle of the rock shelter’s fill: the stratigraphic sequence of

Uan MuhuggiagSchematic stratigraphic sequence of a lacustrine basin in the Murzuq

EdeyenSchematic stratigraphic sequence of a lacustrine basin in the Erg Uan

KasaStratigraphy of a phytogenic dune at the site TAH4 along Wadi

Tanezzuft at TahalaThe climate changes as reconstructed by geological proxyRadiocarbon age determinations discussed in Chapter 5Location map of the core sites discussed in Chapter 6

1519

3638

41

4853

56

58

59666768

6971

72

74

75

76777984

xiii

xiv List of figures

6.2a

6.2b

6.3a

6.3b

7.1

8.18.29.19.29.3

9.4

9.59.6

9.7

9.89.99.10

9.119.129.1310.1

11.111.2

11.312.113.113.2

Pollen diagram from the Orgoba 4 core (O4), 3880 m, BaleMountains, Ethiopia, arboreal pollen taxa

Pollen diagram from the Orgoba 4 core (O4), 3880 m, Bale Mountains,Ethiopia, non-arboreal pollen taxa

Pollen diagram from the Dega Sala core (D1), 3600 m, Arsi,Mountains, Ethiopia. Arboreal (AP) pollen taxa

Pollen diagram from the Dega Sala core (D1), 3600 m, Arsi Mountains,Ethiopia. Non-arboreal pollen taxa

Map of West and West Central Africa showing the vegetation zones ofthe Guineo-Congolian region and pollen core sites of Chapter7

Location map showing sites mentioned in Chapter 8Palaeovegetation map of Nabta area ca. 8000 yr bpStudy areas under consideration in Chapter 9Map of northern Burkina Faso with major excavation sitesRadiocarbon chronology of the later prehistory of the Sahel Zone of

Burkina Faso based on calibrated datesCultural material from different Final Stone Age dune sites in the Sahel

Zone of Burkina FasoMap of the Chad Basin of Northeast Nigeria with archaeological sitesRadiocarbon chronology of the Holocene prehistory of Northeast

NigeriaDistribution of firki mounds and of sites of the Gajiganna Culture,

Northeast Nigeria (ca. 1800 cal BC – 800 cal BC) divided intopastoral (phase I) and agropastoral (phase II) stages

Pottery of phases I and II of the Gajiganna CultureEconomic and cultural appearance of the Gajiganna CultureGajiganna: Percentage values of plant impressions in potsherds from

phase I to phase IIcStone artifacts of the Gajiganna CultureBone tools of the Gajiganna CultureMap of sites with Gajiganna related potteryThe Eastern Mediterranean (Levantine Basin) Ghab Valley and Lake

Hula: pollen records, Merimde and the Fayum: first agriculturalsites in Africa

Minimum tillage: 2-oxen scratch plow, leaving stones on the fields,Adi Ainawalid, Tigray

Treeless landscape with stone terracing near Adi Ainawalid, Tigray

Sorghum crop with mixed varieties. Adi Bakel, TigrayLocation map of sites in Egypt and Sudan referred to in Chapter 12Map of the Libyan SaharaPottery with rocker impressions from Uan Muhuggiag, Tadrart Acacus,

Libya

86

87

90

91

96112114124125

127

130133

134

136139141

142144145147

159174

175177199211

214

List of figures xv

13.3

13.4

14.114.214.3

14.4

14.5

14.614.7

14.8

14.914.10

14.11

14.12

15.1

15.2

15.3

16.1

16.2

16.3

16.4

Map of the Egyptian Western Desert, showing directions of thedispersal of domestic cattle

Mid-late Holocene cultural sequence in the Sahara and the NileValley

Recent production of the main alimentary sources in North AfricaThe area licensed to the Italo-Libyan Joint MissionDating of Holocene archaeological sites in the Acacus and

surroundings, in radiocarbon uncalibrated years before presentA Middle Pastoral site in the erg Uan Kasa. The site 94/63 shows an

articulated intrasite organization and evidence of re-occupationsA model of the Middle Pastoral settlement pattern in the Acacus and

surroundings, based on a seasonal vertical transhumance betweenlowlands and mountains

The cranium of the mummified infant from Uan MuhuggiagA rock shelter in the Acacus used as sheep/goat dwelling during the

Late PastoralA model of the Late Pastoral settlement pattern of nomadic groups in

the Acacus and surroundings, characterized by a high mobility andlarge-scale movements

Examples of ‘exotic’ tools found in Late Pastoral sitesThe settlement pattern of nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoral groups in

the area of the Acacus Mountains at the beginning of the centuryThe semi-sedentary groups of the Late Pastoral in the Wadi Tanezzuft

Valley. Sites feature a high density and are concentrated near thepaleo-oasis of Tahala

Circular tumuli in the eastern slopes of the Acacus Mountain, facingthe erg Uan Kasa

Map of the major localities mentioned in Chapter 15 for West andCentral Africa

Relative importance of fishing, hunting and herding on sites in theregion considered in Chapter 15 (calculated on the basis of numberof identified specimens)

Dietary contribution of fishing, hunting and herding on sites in theconsidered region (calculated on the basis of number of identifiedspecimens multiplied by an average total weight)

‘Double bull’s head amulets’. Abydos (?), formerly Hilton-Pricecollection (Brussels E.3381a-c)

Bull’s leg amulet. Provenance not recorded, formerly MacGregorcollection (Brussels E.6154)

Figurative flint. Nagada, ‘royal tomb’, formerly MacGregor collection(Brussels E.6185a)

‘Bull’s head’ amulet. Provenance not recorded (Brussels E.2335)

216

218226227

230

233

234236

239

241242

243

244

245

252

266

268

281

282

284286

xvi List of figures

16.5

16.6

16.716.8

16.9

16.10

16.1116.12

16.13

16.14

16.15

‘Bull’s head’ amulet, late type. Provenance not recorded, formerlyScheurleer collection (Brussels E.7126)

Palette in the shape of bovid with bird amulet as leg. Provenance notrecorded (Brussels E.4992)

Bird amulet. Provenance not recorded (Brussels E.2179)‘Pelta’ palette with two bird heads. Provenance not recorded (Brussels

E.421)‘Pelta’ palette with one bird head. Provenance not recorded (Brussels

E.422)Rhomboidal palette decorated with double (?) bull’s head. Provenance

not recorded (Brussels E.2182)Greywacke needle. Provenance not recorded (Brussels E.2187)Palette with simplified Bat emblem. Provenance not recorded,

Scheurleer collection (Brussels E.7129)Amulets: a. Provenance not recorded (Brussels E.2882); b. Provenance

not recorded (Brussels E.2880); c. Ballas-Zawaida (bought),formerly MacGregor collection (Brussels E.6188b)

Amulets: a. Provenance not recorded (Brussels E.2881); b. Provenancenot recorded, formerly MacGregor collection (Brussels E.6188e); c.Ballas-Zawaida (bought), formerly MacGregor collection (BrusselsE.6188c); d. Unidentified Petrie excavation (Brussels E.1231)

‘Double bird head’ palette. Provenance not recorded (Brussels E.2886)

286

290290

291

291

293294

294

295

296297

LIST OF TABLES

1.1

1.22.1

3.1

6.16.2

6.3

7.1

7.28.1

9.1

9.2

11.112.113.1

14.1

15.117.1

Frequency of climatic events of different duration during the Holoceneof Africa

Conversion table of radiocarbon age estimatesCalibrated radiocarbon age determinations of oldest domestic or

putatively domestic cattle in AfricaUncorrected radiocarbon ages (bp) for biozonal boundaries in Central

Mediterranean cores studied by Jorissen et al. (1993)Uncalibrated dates in yr bp of the studied cores (D1 and O4)Synchronous pollen events in cores Orgoba 4, Bale Mountains and

Dega Sala 1, Arsi MountainsClimatic phases inferred from the sunchronous pollen zones of cores

Orgoba 4, Bale Mountains and Dega Sala 1, Arsi MountainsSummary of late Holocene environmental changes in West and West

Central AfricaSome of the uses of the oil palm treePresence/absence of a variety of grass types at Nabta, Hidden Valley

and Abu BallasRadiocarbon dates from archaeological sites in the Sahel zone of

Burkina FasoRadiocarbon dates of the Gajiganna complex in the Chad Basin of

Northeast NigeriaStrategies for sustainable subsistence at Adi Ainwalid, TigraySome Latin labels applied to animal domesticatesLibya: synthetic radiocarbon chronology of deposits at Uan

MuhuggiagDomestic animals from Holocene archaeological sites in the Acacus

and surroundingsRadiocarbon dates discussed in Chapter 15Chronology of climatic and cultural events discussed in this work

58

14

3985

88

89

98102

115

128

138183197

212

235254322

xvii