In Egypt the earliest Neolithic cultures emerged in the western desert. The term ‘Neolithic’ is usually associated with the introduction of agriculture followed by animal domestication. The Saharan Neolithic has been identified as Neolithic purely on the basis of cattle herding and the presence of pottery.
Most of the information for the Saharan Early Neolithic (c.8800- c.6800 BC) has come from the sites near Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba, south of the Kharga oasis. The playa (temporary lake) of Nabta is a self-draining land basin vulnerable to climate changes. Early occupation therefore corresponded with seasonal rainfall, the area being abandoned when it returned to desert conditions. Occupation was accompanied by the use of ceramics and cattle herding. After c.7500 BC, wells appeared at Bir Kiseiba and other sites. Grinding stones found at most sites were probably used for processing wild plant foods, but the plants themselves have only been recovered from site E-75-6 at Nabta Playa. Site E-75-6 consists of eighteen huts arranged in two or possibly three straight lines, possibly representing different shorelines of the lake. Although all these early sites yielded potsherds, ostrich eggshells, used as water-containers, are far more common.
During the Saharan Middle Neolithic (c.6500-c.5100 BC) domestic wheat and barley are known, and in lithics there was a move away from blade production towards bifacial flaking for the production of foliates and concave-based arrowheads. The Saharan Late Neolithic (c.5100-c.4700 BC) is distinguished by burnished and painted pottery.
Nabta Playa has revealed a remarkable megalithic complex consisting of an alignment of three stones, a circle of small sandstone uprights, thirty complex structures and eight tumuli covered with slabs. Stone alignments have been found elsewhere in the Napta basin. Their function is not known, but as with other megalithic sites worldwide they are considered to be public architecture indicating increasing social complexity.
At the Dakhleh oasis several distinct phases have been identified: the Masara culture (c.7200-c.6500 BC); the Bashendi culture (c.5700-c.3250 BC); and the Sheikh Muftah culture, which began during the Bashendi and survived through to the presence of the Old Kingdom in the oasis after c.2200 BC.
From c.4700 BC onwards the desert became increasingly less inhabitable because of the onset of the arid climate that continues up to the present day. A few areas, however, were still occupied in historic times.
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