Contacts between the Oasis and the Nile

[Charlie Bass]

The survey was conducted on the plateau desert between the oases andthe Nile Valley, an area that formerly was hardly investigated. Duringthe final Holocene humid phase c. 6000-5300 BC there were frequentepisodic occupations by desert dwellers on the plateau during the rainy seasons, but as occupational sites in the Nile Valley are generally lack-ing; little contemporaneous contact between the two regions can beshown. Indirect evidence, however, is given by the discovery of the Nilemollusc Aspatharia in Djara. The deterioration of the Egyptian Eastern Sahara between 5300 and 4600 BC is the reason for desert dwellers com-ing into the Nile Valley. With the rapid aridification of the desert after 5300 BC the amount of occupational sites decreases in the Western Desert, but the findings of “desert black-topped” potsherds and Tasian-like beakers among the local desert traditions may indicate that the Predy-nastic dwellers were the descendants of desert groups. During the Pre-dynastic from 4500 BC onwards, the desert outside the oases was avoided due to the hyper-arid conditions. In the Late Predynastic and Early Dynas-tic Period pottery and sites of the local Sheikh Muftah tradition are found in Dakhla Oasis, and Clayton rings from desert sites may indicate a spe-cialised group of desert nomads. Frequent contacts between the Western Desert and Nile Valley dwellers in the Old Kingdom only increased when donkey tracks were established through the desert to connect the Nile Valley with the oases........The changing mechanisms of contacts, at least, are caused by the climatic development which dramatically changed the Eastern Sahara between 6000 and 3000 BC. Although climatic and ecological conditions did not determine all aspects of the cultural development, they are the framework in which the cultural development and contacts appeared.The migrational shift of desert dwellers into the Nile Valley around 5000BC is only one, if a very drastic, development which can be linked to the changing environmental conditions. Climate, therefore, can be described as the true “motor” that stands behind the general development of contacts between the desert and the Nile Valley.

Contacts between the Oasis and the Nile: A résumé of the Abu Muhariq Survey 1995-2002.
Egypt at its Origins 2, Proceedings of the International Conference , 2008
Karin Kindermann
Karin Kindermann

Heiko Riemer

www.academia.edu/2492285/Contacts_between_the_Oasis_and_the_Nile_A_r%C3%A9sum%C3%A9_of_the_Abu_Muhariq_Survey_1995-2002

[zarahan]

^^THis article tracks somewhat with the climatic pump theory, though in a broader way- that is-
fluctuating climate/climate change pushed populations towards the more fertile Nile
Valley when the river was in a stable period. THe notion of a mechanical "pump" has fallen out of
favor but climate change making populations move about basically tracks with the same general
principle.


With the rapid aridification of the desert after 5300 BC the amount of occupational sites decreases in the Western Desert, but the findings of “desert black-topped” potsherds and Tasian-like beakers among the local desert traditions may indicate that the Predy-nastic dwellers were the descendants of desert groups.

^^This too tracks with earlier research. Also making up the predynastic would be movement from the Sudan.
But much of this area too is desert, so "desert groups" covers a wide range.

[zarahan]

.The migrational shift of desert dwellers into the Nile Valley around 5000BC is only one, if a very drastic, development which can be linked to the changing environmental conditions. Climate, therefore, can be described as the true “motor” that stands behind the general development of contacts between the desert and the Nile Valley.

Which tracks with Kuper and Krolein's 2006 article on the Sahara- as the "Motor" of Africa's evolution.


Kuper R1, Kröpelin S.. Climate-controlled Holocene occupation in the Sahara:
motor of Africa's evolution. Science. 2006 Aug 11;313(5788):803-7. Epub 2006 Jul 20.

[Tukuler al~Takruri]

The West African Monsoon is the pump.
The pump's motor is the Earth's Wobble.

The Sahara is no more than a bowl, trough, and sponge.
It puddles, channels, and soaks up the northward advancing Monsoon rain waters.
Those lakes and rivers get wrung out dry upon the W Afr Monsoon's retreat south.
That wringing's residue are some wadis, oases, and deep underground aquifers.

Sahara is no pro-active agent.
It's just a passive reactant.

The so-called "Green Sahara" is but one manifestation
of the African Humid Period, beefed up because the
Sahara is much more closer to Europe than the Rainforests,
the Great Lakes, the Veldt, and the Kalahari regions mostly
overlooked by European scholarship of Africa. Why? It's a
prehistory so unrelated to the beginnings of what they call
Western --white European-- civilization.

The Grassland moved northward from equatorial Africa.
Central and southern Peoples followed the expanding
Grasslands they always knew, lived in, and depended on.
Coastal and northern Peoples explored the new phenomena
and learned the ways of Grassland and Aquatic economies.

Monsoon's retreat signaled Grassland shrinkage and
cessation of Aquatic resource in that part of Africa's
northern hemisphere. Both People's had little choice but
to follow declining fertile landscapes or fall back to
lakes and rivers their ancestors knew of as the African
Humid Period ended. Else stay put and face the unknown.
Some of both Peoples did just that, coming to adapt to
previously unlivable desert conditions as was never done
before in the history of humankind.


The West African Monsoon drove Africa's evolution that
happened all over the entire continent not just Tropical
North Africa to Mediterranean Africa alone, the sphere
of Europe's first contact, so important to Europeans.

[zarahan]

Yours is a better description of the process- a changing climate pushing or pulling people
into one zone or another. Like you say the monsoon's retreat pushed people to
the lakes and rivers that remained- hence the development of the Nile Valley
cultures that ultimately coalesced into Badarian, Kemet, Nubia and others.

What good sources do you have on the monsoon system, and how did it impact
West Africa/Sahel region where say the Nok cultures were to develop?

[Tukuler al~Takruri]

Maybe it's better, maybe it ain't.

It's just my assessment after a decade of research, watching & reading
too many sources to list here. It's just my interpretation of uncovered
facts and remembering Euros' overriding agenda to co-opt everything
in de wereld into their "weltanshauung" since exploration and colonialism.

Beside that series of Following Fertile Landscape maps I've posted
www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=008357;p=1 (2013; imgs rescinded)
www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=011212;p=1 (2016; imgs rescinded)
egyptsearchreloaded.proboards.com/thread/2994 (2019; imgs still intact)
egyptsearchreloaded.proboards.com/thread/2999 (2019; intact imgs)
perhaps this vid blew up the house when igniting trees while the stove was leaking gas)


But what about the Sudani Middle Nile Valley cultures (i.e., Khartoumian)
expanding and diversifying into the Lower Nile Valley noted here and here?

May 5, 2020 0:13:45 GMT -5 zarahan said:

Yours is a better description of the process- a changing climate pushing or pulling people
into one zone or another. Like you say the monsoon's retreat pushed people to
the lakes and rivers that remained- hence the development of the Nile Valley
cultures that ultimately coalesced into Badarian, Kemet, Nubia and others.

What good sources do you have on the monsoon system, and how did it impact
West Africa/Sahel region where say the Nok cultures were to develop?

Also, if ya wanna be exhaustive,
ESR's own internal search feature
got stuff under the phrase
African Humid Period.