Abstract
In the last decade, prehistoric archaeology in central Sudan and Nubia has been characterised by a regional approach and the use of proper stratigraphic methods in excavation strategies. This has also led to the discovery of well-preserved stratified Mesolithic deposits at sites affected by heavy post-depositional anthropogenic disturbances. For the first time, 65 years after the excavation of the Khartoum Hospital site, it is possible to perceive and describe material production variability, settlement pattern discontinuity and/or continuity. It has now become possible to face the problem of social complexity of hunter–gatherer–fisher groups along the middle Nile Valley, a cultural phase which lasted for at least 3,000 years. The new data suggest a reworking of the static picture of this culture, as emerging from the scientific literature, in order to move the debate in a new and more productive direction. This contribution will only be a first step, based mainly on freshly collected pottery assemblages, towards a new approach to the Khartoum Mesolithic pottery culture. It also begins a critical appraisal of the methodological and theoretical faults that hampered a correct evaluation of the data collected from previous surveys and excavations in central Sudan. Incidentally, it will help to revitalise the study of pottery–bearing hunter–gatherer–fisher societies, and supply fresh data to the worldwide anthropological debate on this complex and yet unresolved topic.
Résumé
Durant ces dix dernières années, l’archéologie préhistorique au Soudan central et en Nubie a été caractérisée par une approche régionale de la recherche et, en même temps, par l’emploi d’une méthode stratigraphique dans les stratégies d’exploration des sites archéologiques. Ces nouvelles stratégies ont conduit à la découverte de dépôts archéologiques stratifiés et bien conservés, même dans des sites qui subissent de fortes transformations post-dépositionnelles dues à l’activité humaine. Pour la première fois, soixante-cinq ans après la fouille du site de «Khartoum Hospital», il est possible de percevoir et de décrire aussi bien la variabilité dans les productions matérielles, que la discontinuité et/ou la continuité dans les modalités d’usage et de fréquentation des sites archéologiques préhistoriques. Il est désormais possible d’aborder le problème de la complexité sociale des groupes de chasseurs– cueilleurs–pêcheurs le long de la vallée du Nil moyen, une phase culturelle qui a duré pendant au moins trois mille ans. Les nouvelles données recueillies dans des sites au sud de Khartoum suggèrent une révision radicale de l’image du Mésolithique de Khartoum, telle qu’elle est véhiculée dans la littérature scientifique, pour transférer le débat dans une direction nouvelle et plus productive. Cet article ne sera qu’une première étape, principalement fondée sur les données récentes apportées par la céramique, en abordant le Mésolithique de Khartoum d’une façon nouvelle. De plus, sera ici fournie une évaluation critique de l’approche méthodologique et théorétique suivie dans l’archéologie du Mésolithique au Soudan central, et son incapacité à décrire et à expliquer convenablement les changements observés. Incidemment, nous espérons aider à réactualiser l’étude des chasseurs–cueilleurs–pêcheurs producteurs de céramique et à fournir des données nouvelles pour le débat en anthropologie sur ce problème complexe et toujours entier.
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Acknowledgments
The El Salha project, directed by Donatella Usai, has been supported by Ministero degli Affari Esteri (2000–2011), Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (2000–2011), Università degli Studi di Parma (2005–2011), Michela Schiff Giorgini Foundation (2002–2003, 2005, 2007), Università degli Studi di Padova (2010–2011) and GASID of Torino (2000–2009).
I am much indebted to Tina Jakob, the physical anthropologist of the project, for editing the English of this paper and for her invaluable comments on the text. I wish to thank Donatella Usai, Andrea Zerboni, Friederike Jesse, and the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of the paper. I thank Adria LaViolette for her consultations on this paper and her editorial contributions. Of course, shortcomings and inaccuracies in the paper are mine.
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Archaeological time period: Mesolithic period
Country: Sudan
Region: Khartoum–Omdurman region
Appendices
APPENDIX 1: A Survey of the Excavated Sites
The main, but not the sole purpose of this section is to provide the evidence of strong post-depositional disturbances affecting Mesolithic sites in central Sudan as inferred by the specific archaeological literature. Moreover, it is designed to praise the work of the scholars that with their surveys and excavations provided a first impressive picture of the geographic distribution of the Early Khartoum Mesolithic culture not only in central Sudan. (Sites are listed from north to south starting from the area of the confluence of the Atbara River into the Nile; Fig. 34.)
Map of the Sudan with the sites mentioned in the text
The Atbara Sites
Three Mesolithic sites located in the area of the confluence of the Atbara River with the Nile have been investigated in 1984–1989 (Haaland 1993; Haaland and Magid 1995).
At Aneibis, a site of about 0.7 ha, several trenches, in four discrete areas of the site, have been excavated for a total of 154 m2. The anthropogenic deposit is said to reach a maximum thickness of 1 m and the excavator explicitly says that “No stratigraphy is visible in the deposit” (Haaland 1993: 52). Artificial horizontal cuts have been used to excavate the trenches. According to the excavator, areas 1 and 4 were less disturbed and possibly the most ancient locations at the site, but no information is provided to support this assumption in terms of presence of distinctive features.
A number of radiometric determinations help to understand that the absence of stratigraphy in the archaeological deposit is due to strong post-depositional disturbance (see tables of 14C dates ordered by levels = horizontal artificial cuts; Table 3).
The many discrepancies between radiometric determinations and correlated levels (= artificial horizontal cuts) do not allow us to link dates with discrete pottery assemblages, and point to the effect of very heavy post-depositional disturbances which compromised data (Usai in press). We can only infer from the radiometric determinations that the site was possibly used by the end of the eighth to the end of the seventh millennium cal. BC.
The second site, Abu Darbein (Haaland 1993), was estimated to be 0.16 ha in size and 55 m2 were excavated. The deposit thickness was about 50 cm but no habitation or other kinds of structures have been detected. The excavation method is described as artificial horizontal cuts. The deep post-depositional disturbances at the site are due, according to the excavator, to the presence of numerous Meroitic and later graves (Haaland and Magid 1991: 36). Radiometric determinations from the site (Table 4) clearly show the mixing of the deposit and the only useful information is the possible chronological range of the site’s use during the Mesolithic period (between the second quarter of the eighth and the first half of the seventh millennium cal. BC).
Finally, the third site, El Damer (Haaland 1993), 0.6/0.9 ha large, was explored to an extent of 74 m2 and the deposit does not exceed the thickness of 50–80 cm. Here, too, the excavation method was that of artificial horizontal cuts, and no structural evidence was found. There is mentioning of large Meroitic burial mounds at the site (Haaland and Magid 1995: 22) and radiometric determinations clearly show a high degree of mixing in the deposit. The only indication coming from 14C dates (Table 5) is a possible range of site frequentation between the mid eighth and the end of the seventh millennium cal. BC. As at the other sites, no correlation can be drawn between dates and discrete material assemblages.
The Butana Sites
Between 1981 and 1983, a team from the Southern Methodist University excavated some prehistoric sites in the Shaqadud valley, in the Butana region, north-east of Khartoum and south of the Meroitic site of Mussawarat es Sufra. The sites were first located by the Humboldt University mission in 1961 (Otto 1963, 1964). The most important and better published Mesolithic site is the midden located at the foot of the Shaqadud rock shelter (Marks and Mohammed-Ali 1991). The midden, ca. 3 m thick, was excavated by artificial horizontal cuts of 5 cm each and the excavators have detected some discrete layers (Marks 1991, Fig. 4.11), but as Marks writes: “In spite of the differences, most came from the same source: colluviation off the higher ground to the east” (Marks 1991: 44). Site formation is apparently the result of deposition of material coming from the cleaning of fireplaces along a slope and the archaeological materials are to be regarded accordingly. A pottery sequence from the midden has been established by different scholars, with slight differences (Caneva and Marks 1990; Mohammed-Ali 1991). The upper cuts (from 5 to 25) show some degree of mixed Mesolithic and Neolithic pottery (Mohammed-Ali 1991, Fig. 5.15) while cuts from 26 to 65 apparently contain only Mesolithic pottery. A battleship graph of pottery type distribution according to artificial cuts as well as the correlated 14C dates show clear discrepancies. 14C (Table 6) and pottery distribution discrepancy is possibly related to a formation process hard to control in a powdery deposit as that of the midden (Marks 1991, 41; for the generally very low reliability of midden complexes see for example Beck 2007). The pottery analysis by Caneva and Marks (1990, Fig. 2) shows a higher degree of mixing: typical Neolithic pottery (types A and B in the battleship graph of Caneva and Marks 1990, Fig. 2) starts to appear from cuts 35–37 while types of Mesolithic pottery continue to be present from the base to the top of the deposit. In the absence of stratified materials, it is not useful to seek relationships among material assemblages, cultural variability and radiometric determinations from artificial horizontal cuts across an undifferentiated archaeological deposit.
Sites Along the Nile North of Khartoum
In 1979, the Archaeological Mission of the University of Rome started excavations at the Mesolithic and Neolithic site of Saggai 1, located 40 km to the north of Khartoum, on the right bank of the Nile (Caneva 1983a). The site, or, better, the archaeological material surface dispersion, covered an area of approximately 3.6 ha, while the deposit depth varied between 75 and 135 cm. Excavation was conducted by 4 × 4 trenches covering a total of 88 m2 placed along a north-west/south-east oriented line. The cultural deposit of the site appeared to the excavator “…so crumbling that it permits no immediate distinction, except for the animals burrows, most of which have been filled with pebbles and lined with clay by percolating water” (Caneva 1983b: 14). Apart from bioturbation, main disturbances at the site were apparently due to Neolithic and Muslim graves. Artificial cuts of 10 cm were used to excavate the deposit and no discrete features such as fireplaces, fire pits, garbage pits, postholes, etc. were found, except for Neolithic graves and Muslim cairns.
The above described state of preservation of the deposit does not allow the consideration to study the different categories of cultural material collected at the site (pottery, worked bones, lithic, faunal remains, etc.) apt to produce a picture of cultural variability along the 500 years of site use suggested by the published radiometric determinations (Table 7). Pottery from Saggai was used by Caneva to produce a first detailed typology of Mesolithic pottery which is largely used as a reference for the description of this cultural production Caneva (1983c).
Between 1985 and 1991, Caneva surveyed the area between the Neolithic site of Geili and Saggai 1 locating 22 Khartoum Mesolithic sites and testing 13 of them. The site of Kabbashi (Caneva 1987; Caneva et al. 1993: 183–195) was heavily disturbed by Post-Meroitic tumulus-like graves, and here Caneva made the attempt to excavate presumably undisturbed deposits under tumulus A and B.
In an estimated 2-ha large area under tumulas A, a 30-cm thick deposit, thought to be undisturbed, was excavated on an area 45 m2. As Caneva reports: “No stratigraphic superimposition of different levels was recognised in the deposit” (Caneva et al. 1993: 186). Among the pottery collected, 5 % is said to be intrusive, a word usually used for Neolithic sherds. Mesolithic pottery is characterised by rocker stamp (large square dots; dashes) mainly packed, “isolated” dotted wavy line motifs (3 %), and 16.1 % of undecorated sherds. The two radiocarbon determinations from Kabbashi A cluster in the last quarter of the sixth millennium cal. BC (Table 8).
Under tumulus B, in an estimated 2-ha large area, several test trenches of a total of 10 m2 were excavated. The deposit was 30–35 cm thick and incoherent. A grave, thought to be Mesolithic in date, was found resting on the virgin soil. It was a tightly contracted skeleton with chest and shoulders placed face down, comparable to one of the individuals of the “Late Palaeolithic” cemetery of Jebel Sahaba (Wendorf 1968: Fig. 23). Wavy line (7 %) and rocker stamp (80 %) Mesolithic pottery was found and Caneva suggests, on this basis, a chronological attribution to an early phase of the Khartoum Mesolithic culture and more precisely its contemporariness with phase 1 of Shaqadud (cuts 55–67; Caneva et al. 1993: 195). No 14C dates are available from this site.
Between tumulus A and B (Caneva et al. 1993: 226–227), two test trenches of 4 m2 each were excavated. No information about the deposit is provided and thus it is unknown on which stratigraphic basis Caneva writes about two phases: an upper one characterised by dotted wavy line and the absence of wavy line and alternating pivoted stamp pottery, and a lower one by wavy line decorations. About the lithic, she says that the lower phase shows a prominence of quartz while in the upper one quartz, is decreasing in contrast with other not specified types of stones. No 14C dates are available from this area of the site.
At the 3-ha large site of Kabbashi Haitah (Caneva et al. 1993: 227–229), six test trenches of a total of 10 m2 were excavated; the anthropogenic deposit is said to be ca. 160 cm deep, but no information about its formation and consistency is provided. The archaeological material is said to be “…regularly distributed in the whole depth of the débris” (p. 227). Pottery is characterised by a majority of undecorated sherds and the presence of rocker stamp and wavy line examples, together with a low percentage of DWL and some APS. Two radiometric determinations are reported (Table 9).
The 2-ha large Mesolithic site of Geili Sharq (Caneva et al. 1993: 199–203) was surely disturbed by Post-Meroitic or Late Meroitic tumuli. Seven test trenches of a total of 18 m2 were excavated. The cultural deposit is reported to be 15–20 cm thick. Only Mesolithic pottery (WL, RS, one DWL sherd and few APS) is recorded, while among the lithic material, together with a dominance of quartz, the presence of basalt, chert, petrified wood and rhyolite is mentioned, the latter being a kind of stone more frequently used in the local Neolithic. Again, no radiometric determination is available for the site.
At the 3-ha large site of Umm Sigid (Caneva et al. 1993: 206), four test trenches of a total of 6 m2 have been excavated. The anthropogenic deposit is said to be about 80 cm thick, but no information is provided about its formation and consistency. There is no mentioning of discrete levels or features. The pottery is distinctively Mesolithic (WL, RS, DWL and APS). Two radiocarbon determinations are reported from the site (Table 10).
The 3.2-ha large El Qala’a Mesolithic site (Caneva et al. 1993: 214–219) was later used as a Late Meroitic and Post-Meroitic cemetery. Four test trenches of a total of 8 m2 were excavated. Mesolithic material was collected only from two of the four trenches. The other two revealed only Late Neolithic pottery of the type known from the sites of El Kenger Middle and East (Caneva 1986). Intrusive Neolithic pottery is represented in 77.8 % of the entire sample. Mesolithic pottery is mainly represented by RS and few WL. The excavator emphasises the lack of APS decorated sherds and suggests a Late Mesolithic date for the site. Two radiometric determinations are available from El Qala’a (Table 11).
At the 2-ha large site of El Kenger West (Caneva et al. 1993: 219–220), a test trench of 4 m2 was excavated. The 30 cm deep anthropogenic deposit was excavated, as all the sites listed here, by 10 cm artificial cuts. About the deposit it is said that: “The anthropic débris … appeared much eroded” (p. 219). Pottery from the site is essentially RS and WL, while no APS and DWL pottery types are in the excavated sample. Radiometric determinations are not available from the site, but the excavator suggests a Late Mesolithic date and contemporariness with the El Qala’a site because of the absence of APS and DWL decoration types.
At the small (1 ha) site of Saggai el Betellab (Caneva et al. 1993: 220), four test trenches of a total of 9 m2 were excavated. The anthropogenic deposit was about 25–40 cm thick, but no information is provided on its formation and consistency. The site is said to be undisturbed by later graves and settlement phases. Pottery is mainly undecorated, but the presence of DWL and APS is recorded. No radiometric determination is available, but the excavator suggests an Early Mesolithic date based on the presence of APS decoration.
El Ahamda 1 site (3.5 ha; Caneva et al. 1993: 221) was surely disturbed as the presence of a large number of Post-Meroitic tumulus graves suggests. Four test trenches of a total of 8 m2 were excavated. The Mesolithic cultural deposit was 20–30 cm deep and is said to be undisturbed, in sharp contrast with the presence of many Post-Meroitic graves. Nothing is said about the formation and consistency of the deposit. Pottery is scarce and characterised by WL and RS, and lacking DWL and APS decoration types. Two graves from the excavation are said to be Mesolithic, but no stratigraphic or radiometric data are supporting the attribution and no radiometric determination is available from the site.
At the El Ahamda 5 (2 ha) site (Caneva et al. 1993: 221–222), three test trenches were excavated of a total of 6 m2. Anthropogenic disturbances are surely due to the presence of Post-Meroitic tumulus graves. The cultural deposit was about 15–20 cm deep. The pottery collected at the site is said to be 50 % undecorated with 50 % WL sherds. A disturbed grave is mentioned without chronological attribution. No radiometric determination is available from the site.
The large site (4.5 ha) of El Temeyim (Caneva et al. 1993: 222) was covered by more than 100 Post-Meroitic tumuli. Nine test trenches of a total of 18 m2 were excavated. The cultural deposit was found to have a maximum depth of about 50 cm. Mesolithic and Late Neolithic pottery was spread on the site surface. Pottery is said to be characterised by RS packed and spaced zigzag motifs and a majority of undecorated sherds. WL is also present, sometime “in association” with RS. One 14C date is available from this site, but it may be linked with its Neolithic use. On the basis of some pottery types Caneva would attribute the site to an Early Mesolithic phase, but the presence of Rs spaced zigzag and the absence of APS decoration let her to suggest a Late Mesolithic date in “accordance” with the available single 14C determination (Table 12).
Awlad el Imam (Caneva et al. 1993: 223–226) is a 4.5-ha large site disturbed by a number of graves of different periods. A Neolithic use is evidenced by gouges and distinctive pottery sherds spread on its surface. Five test trenches of a total of 10 m2 were excavated. The cultural deposit is said to be about 40 cm thick and a high number of intrusive Neolithic pottery is recorded. Mesolithic pottery is characterised by RS and few WL decoration motifs and by a large quantity of undecorated sherds. A grave (Caneva et al. 1993, p. 223 and Fig. 16b) was found and without any positive stratigraphic or radiometric data assigned to the Mesolithic. The excavator points to an Early Mesolithic date for the site. A single radiometric determination is available from Awlad el Imam (Table 13).
Few (13) Mesolithic potsherds are reported from the two middens excavated at the mainly Neolithic site of Kadero I (Krzyzaniak 2002). On the left Nile Bank, north of Omdurman, a number of Mesolithic sites have been located and tested:
Since 1978 (Ali Hakem and Khabir 1989; Khabir 1985, 1987; Mohammed-Ali 1984; Mohammed-Ali and Khabir 2003), intensive excavation activities were carried out at the Sarurab I and II sites. Sarurab II is located on the 384 m asl contour line and covers an area of approximately 0.26 ha. Several Post-Meroitic tumulus graves are present in the site area. Fifty-one square meter were excavated and the cultural deposit is said to be ca. 60 cm deep. “The pottery types and its decoration exhibit typical Early Khartoum tradition, though much more cruder and rougher examples are more in evidence at Sarourab II site” (Ali Hakem and Khabir 1989: 382–3). About WL and DWL pottery, it is said that “… the two motifs occurred in the same levels of the site without any marked proportional change” (Mohammed-Ali and Khabir 2003: 34–35). Charcoal samples from different test trenches gave four 14C dates (Table 14). The dates are said to be in association with various types of wavy line pottery, ground stones, microliths, and bone harpoons, but no stratigraphic data are provided to evaluate the claimed association (Mohammed-Ali and Khabir 2003: 41).
Jebel Umm Marrahi (Gautier et al. 2002; Mohammed-Ali and Khabir 2003; Elamin and Mohammed-Ali 2004) is a Mesolithic and possibly Neolithic site which has been only briefly published. Meroitic or Post-Meroitic materials are mentioned together with scattered remains of human bones (Gautier et al. 2002: 339). A Late Meroitic settlement with stone structures, a stone enclosure and contemporary burial mounds are on top of a low, flat sandstone outcrop (Elamin and Mohammed-Ali 2004: 97). Prehistoric material is widespread inside the stone enclosure and to the south, at the foot of the hill (Elamin and Mohammed-Ali 2004: 98; Gautier et al. 2002: 338). The last excavations at the site were carried out in 1981 and 1983 by the Department of Archaeology of the University of Khartoum. “It yielded rather comparable [with those from Sarourab II] radiocarbon dates based on shell, falling in the ninth millennium bp” (Mohammed-Ali and Khabir 2003: 41). The thickness of the cultural deposit is said to be about 1.15 m; excavations were conducted by arbitrary levels of 10 cm and “....the levels do not exhibit discrete cultural layers” (Elamin and Mohammed-Ali 2004: 99). Two radiocarbon dates were obtained from shell samples collected from −40 to −60 cm (Table 15) from the surface. It is important to note that the older date comes from the more superficial sample. In contrast with the opinion of the excavators, it is clear, both from their description of the excavated deposit and the 14C dates, that the prehistoric site was almost completely destroyed by the Late Meroitic settlement and burials.
In 1979, excavations were carried out at the site of Islang (El-Anwar 1981). The site covers an area of 0.45 ha and it was tested in an area of 21 m2. The excavator writes that: “The bottom of the cultural layer reveals potsherds with Wavy-Line decoration….. The potsherds found at the top layer bear the same characteristics of Dotted-Wavy line pottery” (El-Anwar 1981: 44). Lithic production consists mainly of rhyolite, a stone used mainly during the Neolithic period. There is no information about the cultural deposit thickness, its consistency and the excavation method used. The single 14C date from the site is to be related to a Neolithic frequentation of the site (Table 16).
In the same year (1979), the large site of Nofalab (El-Anwar 1981), that is said to cover an area of 3.6 ha, was tested in 24 randomly selected squares of unreported size. The excavator mentions a post-depositional disturbance due to later graves. The site yielded Neolithic material and only few Mesolithic potsherds with a DWL decoration. The two radiometric determinations (Table 17) as well as other recorded material confirm a frequentation of the site mainly during the Neolithic period.
The Khartoum area and the Blue Nile region
The Khartoum Hospital site was excavated by Arkell in 1944–1945 (Arkell 1947, 1949) disclosing the existence of an early Holocene pottery producing hunter–gatherer–fishers culture in central Sudan. An area of ca. 1,264 m2 was excavated (79 squares, 4×4 m in size). In the words of Arkell:
“The site consists of a low mound situated north-east of the Khartoum Central railway station and east of the Civil Hospital ....... The Most conspicuous features on the surface of the mound before the excavation began were fragments of broken red brick from Moslem tombs dating just before the siege of Khartoum in A.D. 1885 which have fallen into ruins, and a fine sayal (Acacia spirocarpa) tree which crowns the top of the mound. It was indeed one of the two main cemeteries of the city during the siege of Khartoum… It was the disturbance caused by the many graves from this period, dug one on top of the other in many cases, that made the excavation of our site, of its own nature difficult to excavate, doubly difficult.” (Arkell 1949: 1)
It is also interesting to note that Arkell, specifically interested in stratification processes, wrote a very detailed chapter on “Absence of stratification” (Arkell 1949: 4–5). Beyond the problem of the many and deep disturbances at the site, his work still represents a cornerstone in the prehistory of central Sudan and related areas. Moreover, his final publication, enriched by an abundance of illustration plates, provides a complete inventory of the materials collected at the site. Only few other publications of Mesolithic sites (e.g., Caneva 1983a; Fernández 2003b; Jesse 2003; Marks and Mohammed-Ali 1991) are so well illustrated.
In 1949, Arkell (1953: 97–101) tested the site of El-Qoz, located between the White and Blue Nile in the area of the capital city. The site, a sub-circular low mound of ca. 100/120 m in diameter, was at that time partly destroyed by a road. Other anthropogenic disturbances are recorded by the excavator as due to the presence of Post-Meroitic graves. An apparently less disturbed area (square P 40) was excavated by artificial cuts of 10 cm. “At 70 cm. depth from present surface was found a Khartoum Mesolithic hearth, containing 19 sherds of undoubted Khartoum Mesolithic pottery, many Ampullaria shells, one sandstone ochre grinder and a few fragments of similar grinders, a few animal bone fragments, and a few Limicolaria shells” (Arkell 1953: 97). About the often claimed stratigraphic evidence of a different chronology between WL (earlier) and DWL (later), this is possibly due to a misunderstanding of Arkell’s terminology (see Mohammed-Ali and Khabir 2003: 35). Moreover, a table of El Qoz pottery distribution provided by Arkell’s (1953: 98) clearly shows a complete mixing of Mesolithic and Neolithic materials from the surface down to the bottom of the excavation.
From 1990 to 2000, east of Khartoum, not far from the east bank of the Blue Nile in the Wadi Soba area, a Spanish mission (Menéndez et al. 1994; Jimeno et al. 1996; Fernández et al. 1997, 2003b; Fernández 2003a, b) carried out a survey locating at least 26 Mesolithic and seven Neolithic sites. Of the 26 Mesolithic sites, 15 had a very low density of archaeological material on the surface, nine have been tested by a single square (1 × 1 m) trench, and only two revealed a consistent cultural deposit (Al Mahalab in the Wadi Soba and Sheikh Mustafa-1 along the Nile).
Between 1993 and 1996, at Al Mahalab (1.3 ha), the Spanish team excavated a series of test trenches (1 × 1 m each) of a total of 17 m2 by artificial cuts of 10 cm (Fernández et al. 2003a). Almost everywhere, the deposit was badly affected by post-depositional disturbances (mainly bioturbation: animal burrows). Only in one trench it was possible to “…distinguish a clear stratigraphy” (Fernández et al. 2003a: 281) of six superimposed, apparently horizontal layers. No structural remains or features were found, but three radiocarbon determinations from the three anthropogenic layers point to a coherent time sequence (Table 18). The very high frequency of backed tools seems to be unique when compared to other Mesolithic sites in central Sudan (Fernández et al. 1997: 23). Mesolithic pottery is mainly represented by IWL and RS d zz packed types, while the presence of APS and DWL types is scarce (Fernández et al. 2003a: 301–305, Figs. 39, 40.1–16). A Neolithic frequentation is attested by the presence of distinctive pottery sherds (Fernández et al. 2003a: 302, Fig. 40.17–20).
Sheikh Mustafa-1 (0.8 ha; Fernández et al. 2003a; b: 274–280): the site was excavated between 1993 and 1996 by artificial cuts of 5–10 cm on an area of 75 m2. The anthropogenic deposit is 60–90 cm thick. “Apparently the original distribution of the archaeological deposit has been mixed to a certain extent due to the effect of site formation processes and later post-depositional disturbances, especially the ubiquitous animal burrowing that dispersed the artefacts upwards..... Another frequent disturbance was caused by human graves, Christian or most probably Muslim…” (Fernández et al. 2003a: 277). The reported sentences of the excavators leave no doubt about an intense mixing of pottery and stone artefacts. IWL, RS, APS, DWL and undecorated sherds are all well represented at the site. Although no mention is made of Neolithic pottery, some of the radiometric determinations from the site fall into this period (Table 19).
The Spanish survey south of Wadi Soba was carried out by car (Fernández 2003a). Nine Mesolithic sites were located between Wadi Raboub and El-Hag, accounting for 95 % of the prehistoric sites of this area. Some of the sites were located along the Nile, others along the wadi. It is said that they were smaller than those located in the Wadi Soba. Mesolithic pottery is mainly represented by IWL and less by DWL types.
In the Gezira, the area between the two rivers, two Mesolithic sites are recorded along the road between Sennar and Singa, while in the central Gezira the Spanish team visited and relocated the Mesolithic sites of Qoz Kabbaro-1 and Wad Sheneina discovered in the 1940s by Balfour Paul (1952); the sites are now destroyed by the agricultural exploitation of the area.
The Gezira
In 1973, JD Clark located at least two Mesolithic sites south of Khartoum along the eastern bank of the White Nile, and the largest one, named after the nearby Shabona Mohair village, was excavated in three trenches of, respectively, 16, 36 and 20 m2 (Clark 1973: 61) or four of respectively 16, 19, 20 and 28 m2 as later reported (Clark 1989: 391). The site was located 7 km south of the Shabona Mohair village, 7 km north of Naima, and ca. 4 km from the bank of the Nile. The prehistoric deposit lies on the southern edge of a south-north oriented ancient Nile bar and was no more than 10–20 cm (Clark 1973) or 30 cm (Clark 1989) deep, except for pits reaching a depth of about 1 m (Clark 1973) or 70 cm (Clark 1989). Some pits have been excavated which yielded pottery and other material related to an Early Khartoum (Khartoum Mesolithic) horizon. The higher concentration of archaeological material is said to be in the first 10 cm of the deposit, a concentration (probably an aeolian bed) due to wind erosion. Pottery is characterised by the presence of IWL and DWL decoration types (Clark 1973, 1989; Brandt 1974). Three small circular areas (13 cm in diameter and 5 cm deep) containing burnt clay lumps and fish bones were excavated together with a larger (60 cm in diameter and 28 cm deep) pit filled with unburnt fish bones and some mammal bone fragments. In another area, a pit (1 m in diameter and 0.82 cm deep) was excavated. This and a second pit of the same size, but only 45 cm deep, were filled with Pila shells, fish and mammal bones. Another feature, only partly excavated, yielded a number of sherds of coarse grass tempered ware and some quartz tempered sherds (Clark 1989: 393–4).
In the deposits across the site, numerous scattered fragments of human bones and some better preserved skeletons were found. One of the individuals, a female, shows avulsion of the upper incisors. Two radiometric determinations are available from the site (Table 20).
Early Khartoum or Khartoum Mesolithic pottery is also reported from Jebel Moya, a site located along the western bank of the Blue Nile. The site, excavated between 1910 and 1914 by Sir Henry Wellcome, was intensively used as a cemetery (thousands of graves of different periods) with the result of a complete reworking of cultural deposits. RS dots, RS drops and DWL pottery types are recorded from the site (Addison 1949; Caneva 1991: Fig. 3). It seems impossible to ascertain whether at least lenses of original settlement layers were still present at the site.
APPENDIX 2: More Details on Al Khiday Sites Pottery
16-D-5: The Pottery Assemblage
16-D-5 Temper Variability and Distribution According to Pottery Decoration Types (Sample Size = 1,423 Sherds)
Pottery temper was observed through fresh cuts with the help of a magnifying lens and described according to a descriptive code (Table 21). Petrographic analysis on a sample of about 250 sherds is currently underway by Dr. Lara Maritan and Mr. Gregorio Dal Sasso at the Department of Geosciences, University of Padua (Italy).
Tempering material is usually the result of a differential mixture of basic elements as reported in Table 22. Recipe variability is abundant (30 different mixtures) and this could be explained by a household production.
We can observe that IWL pottery has a very long lasting and stable type of temper (Q, 73.49 %). A second type of feldspar temper (Qf, 18.37 %) is almost always present but in small percentages in the first phase. It increases in the second phase until the end of the sequence when it prevails over the other type. Rare, but present, are mixed types (Q + mica, 2.09 %; Q + chf, 0.23 %; Q + Qf, 0.93 %; Q + Sm, 1.40 %). It is also important to mention the presence, in the first phase, of a Q temper with the addition of ochre (Q + ochre, 1.16 %). Pure or sand-based tempers are rarely found with IWL pottery (Slm, 0.47 %; Slm + ochre, 0.47 %; Slm + C, 0.23 %; Slm + C + chf, 0.47 %; Smf, 0.23 %). They appear towards the end of the sequence, but never exceeding 3–6 % in each stratigraphic unit, except in the last stratigraphic unit (SU 29) where they amount to 12 %. The analytic approach shows valuable trends of changes in temper recipes in IWL pottery that, at present, unfortunately, we cannot fully evaluate outside our sequence. A more simplified presentation of Q-, Qf- and sand-based is provided in Table 23.
RS d zz, without any significant difference among typological variants as signalled in Caneva’s typology (Caneva 1983c), behaves in a similar way as the IWL with a high percentage of Q (42.50 %; Q + mica, 3.13 %; Q + chf, 1.25 %; Q + Qf, 0.63 %; Q + Sm, 1.25 %; Q + C + chf, 0.63 %) and Qf-based tempers (24.48 %); with a similar introduction of the Qf type and, at the end of the sequence, a consistent increase of sandy-based temper types (26.25 %).
Lunula-type pottery, which occurs only in the older phase of the site sequence, is mainly tempered with large and medium size sand grains often associated with ochre, calcareous stone grains and vegetal elements. Well represented is the occurrence of calcareous grains mixed with vegetal temper. Much rarer is the presence of feldspar and quartz grains with angular edges tempers (Q- and Qf-based tempers, 5.45 %). This kind of pottery is often covered with a yellow or more frequently red ochre coat on both inner and outer surfaces.
Sherds decorated with deep dots or drops, a type which is contemporaneous with Lunula decoration, even if lasting a little longer in the sequence, is also characterised by sand tempers often associated with ochre grains, vegetal elements, calcareous grains plus vegetal temper. Rare are feldspar and quartz grains with angular edges tempers (Q-based tempers, 9.62 %). Similar to Lunula-decorated sherds, this type of pottery is also characterised by a yellow or red ochre coat on both inner and outer surfaces.
RS drop sherds have typical sandy tempers all along the sequence (90.82 %) and more rarely different temper recipes (Q-and Qf-based tempers, 9.18 %). Furthermore, in the older phase of the sequence they have mainly sandy tempers, often with the addition of ochre grains, calcareous stone grains with vegetal elements or ochre instead of calcareous stone grains. They will maintain this variability along the sequence adding the occurrence of Q temper alone or with other elements. Only towards the end of the sequence we can note a kind of stabilisation with a reduction of recipe variants and a decidedly predominance of sandy temper or very scanty presence of mixed temper types or feldspar and quartz grains with angular edges.
Much less abundant along the sequence are the other decoration types (RS pl zz, DWL, scraped, APS), but in spite of this they are to be considered in the analysis. RS pl zz is present with a very low number of occurrences, but it seems to be very stable and presents a low variability in temper recipes. The most frequent temper type is sand often mixed with ochre and vegetal elements. Very rare is the occurrence of feldspar and quartz fine grains with angular edges temper.
As RS pl zz, scraped sherds are rarely attested and thus statistical evaluations are not reliable. The few fragments we can assign to this type show a strong stability in the use of a sandy temper sometime with calcareous stone and ochre grains or vegetal elements.
The last two types are differently represented on a quantitative ground. Very rare is the APS type, and characterised not only by reduced wall thickness (see below), but also by the use of feldspar and fine quartz grains with angular edges temper (80 %). Sand-based tempers are also attested (20 %; Tables 22, 23 and 24 and Fig. 35). This kind of pottery will maintain its specific temper type until the second half of the sixth millennium cal. BC as proved by the material from the Late Mesolithic 10-W-4 site (Salvatori and Usai 2008; Salvatori et al. 2011).
16-D-5: principal component biplot of temper recipes and decoration motifs
Finally, the DWL decoration-type temper is highly variable from feldspar and quartz grains with angular edges (mainly Qf) sometime with the addition of ochre grains to various mixed sandy-based recipes. At the beginning of the sequence, sand-based tempers are decidedly predominant while an increasing of Q- and Qf-based tempers was noticed in the later stratigraphic units.
16-D-5 Thickness Distribution of Pottery Types (Sample Size = 1,461 Sherds)
According to thickness distribution (Table 25) it is possible to detect five size classes which encompass specific decoration types: (1) APS; (2) IWL, DWL and RS d zz; (3) Scraped; (4) RS drops; (5) Lunula, RS drops deep and RS pl zz.
16-D-4 and 16-D-4 B: The Pottery Assemblage
The number of pottery sherds in the pits of 16-D-4 and 16-D-4B is very limited, but confirms the general trend we described for the settlement of 16-D-5, and more precisely that of the second phase. As specified above, no Lunula pattern is present in the pits and only a limited number of sherds have a deep drops decoration. Temper recipes follow the same pattern described for the pottery of 16-D-5 (Tables 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31 and Figs. 36 and 37).
16-D-4 pits: principal component biplot of temper recipes and decoration motifs
16-D-4B pits: principal component biplot of temper recipes and decoration motifs
10-W-4: The Pottery Assemblage
10-W-4 Temper Variability and Distribution According to Pottery Decoration Types (Sample Size = 2659 Sherds)
As the pottery from 16-D-5, the 10-W-4 pottery is also characterised by a wide variety of recipes (25; Table 32). Some recipe, here as well as for 16-D-5 sample, is represented by a very low number of occurrences that could be the result of the limited area of the sherd fresh fracture observed. Moreover, some decoration motifs, like Scraped and Incised lines, are represented by a very restricted number of sherds and, consequently, the percent distribution of their temper recipes cannot be considered reliable.
A more simplified presentation of Q-, Qf- and sand-based temper is provided to evidence the general trend (Table 33). As expected, we can note similarities, dissimilarities and trend continuity comparing the 10-W-4 pottery sample with the older assemblage from 16-D-5. IWL sherds are still mainly tempered with feldspar grains with angular edges, but now the Qf-based tempers are predominant (42.06 %) and there is also an increasing of sand-based tempers (21.50 %). The same trend of the IWL pottery is noticed for the RS d zz and RS d zz packed.
APS pottery is relatively well represented at 10-W-4 if compared to its occurrence at 16-D-5. It has a very stable temper recipe with a similar predominance of the Qf type (80 % at 16-D-5 and 79.17 % at 10-W-4). DWL pottery has a different distribution of temper recipes when compared with 16-D-5, but it follows the trend noticed at that site with an increasing use of Q and Qf tempers.
The other types of pottery decoration (RS drops, Rs pl zz) are basically characterised by sand-based tempers. Principal component biplot and correlation matrix confirm the above described trends (Table 34 and Fig. 38).
10-W-4: principal component biplot of temper recipes and decoration motifs
10-W-4 Sherds Thickness According to Decoration Types
Sherds thickness does not vary much across the different decoration types except for APS sherds which, as at 16-D-5, are clearly separated from the rest (Table 35). On the base of sherd thickness it is possible to distinguish four size categories even if two are very close to each other: (1) APS, (2) RS d zz, (3) DWL + RS d zz packed + RS pl zz + incised lines + scraped, (4) IWL, (5) RS drops.
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Salvatori, S. Disclosing Archaeological Complexity of the Khartoum Mesolithic: New Data at the Site and Regional Level. Afr Archaeol Rev 29, 399–472 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-012-9119-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-012-9119-7