Epipaleolithic: 10,000 - c. 5,500 BC
The Epipaleolithic years are largely a transition between the Paleolithic
and the Predynastic time periods in ancient Egypt, a time between the
hunter-gatherers of before and the appearance of the true farming of
the village-dwelling cultures after 5500 BC. Most of the information
from this era comes from the site of El Kab, nestled between the eastern
bank of the Nile and the Red Sea Hills. Before the discoveries at El
Kab, it was thought that Paleolithic artifacts, even those dating to
the Epipaleolithic, would not be found on the floodplain of the Nile,
simply because of the action of the inundation. However, in the case
of many of the artifact sites, it was the inundation that preserved
them, as the Nile deposited layer upon layer of soil each year without
washing the artifacts away.
- Three major "camps" of Epipaleolithic
peoples were discovered, the oldest dating to around 6400 BC, the one
above it to 6040 BC, and the uppermost to 5980 BC. The importance of
this site can easily be seen in the fact that the major archaeologist
of the site, Dr. Paul Vermeersch, classified over 4,000 artifacts. Most
of these were artfully made and minutely detailed microblades. Beads
made of ostrich shell were also discovered, showing that even then the
ancient Egyptians had a love for ornamentation. Burins, scrapers, and
points of all sizes and description rounded out the inventory.
- The camps at El Kab were most likely
occupied only during spring and summer. The annual inundation of the
Nile, especially given how massive it was then, would make it next to
impossible to live in those locations year round. It is apparent that
these tribes were still largely nomadic. Despite this, the camps (for
such we should label them) enjoyed many times of prosperity, living
near the cool Nile and benefiting from its supply of fish, supplemented
by the traditional hunting of savanna wildlife such as wild cattle and
gazelles.
-
-
- The two most prominent industries at
this time, as discovered near Wadi Halfa in the northern Sudan, were
the Arkinian and the Sharmarkian. So far, Arkinian artifacts have only
been found at one site and have been dated to around 7440 BC. The site
is a small settlement, with possibly around thirteen dwellings, given
the concentration of debris in a clustered location. Like many of the
settlements at this time near the Nile, this was most likely a seasonal
camp of some kind, though we will have to wait until other Arkinian
sites are discovered. Arkinian was largely a microlithic industry, making
use of very small, skillfully crafted stone tools, but large blades
and a new method of extracting more material from a stone, the double-platform
core, have been found.
-
-
- We know more about the Sharmarkian industry
than the Arkinian. A newer industry, but one that spans a much larger
time period, Sharmarkian artifacts have been dated from 5750 BC to 3270
BC, if not even more recent. Although more prolific, the Sharmarkian
artifacts actually show a decline in the quality of toolcraft
toward the end of the Sharmarkian. Settlements of these people have
been found on the beaches of soil left by the inundation. These seasonal
camps merged together and grew into large concentrations of dwellings
over time.
-
- There is evidence in these later Epipaleolithic
sites of a population explosion around 5500 BC, possibly due to the
development of true agriculture as well as animal domestication. In
a very short time, geologically speaking, the people had gone from savanna
nomads to riverdwellers, making a very efficient adaptation to the new
environment.
- Unfortunately, we still do not know exactly
when agriculture and animal domestication were discovered (or introduced
by another people) in Egypt. There is an odd gap of around a thousand
years between these riverine settlements of the late Epipaleolithic
and the true farming villages of the Predynastic cultures during which
great strides in Egyptian knowledge were made. It is even surmised that
it was during this time that they began to develop the writing systems
that would evolve into the hieroglyphs. There are sites in Nubia that
possess possible remains of domesticated animals that date to around
5110 BC. Whether domestication was brought into Egypt or was discovered
within her borders is still a debated topic. All things aside, this
final time period before the Predynastic age remains a very important
problem for researchers. Each new discovery, though, sheds more light
on the history of the first Egyptians.
|