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SORGHUMINTHEECONOMYOFTHEEARLY NEOLITHIC NOMADIC TRIBES AT NABTA PLAYA, SOUTHERN EGYPT

Krystyna Wasylikowa 1 and JeffDahlberg 2 W. Szafer Institute of Botany

1

Polish Academy of Sciences Krakow, Poland 2Tropical Agricultural Research Station Mayagiiez, Puerto Rico

ABSTRACT The 8000 years old early neolithic site E-75-6 at Nabta Playa, southern Egypt, yielded charred plant remains of over 120 taxa. Several species of edible plants were recovered, many of which are still gathered for food in the Sahara today. The in-site distribution of plant remains indicated the use of four different sets of plants by people living in various huts and pits, which may relate to the dominance of these plants in the local vegetation stands. The distribution of sorghum differed from that of the other edible plants, probably reflecting its special significance for the inhabitants of the site. The sorghum grains were morphologically wild, and could have been collected from natural stands, or irregularly cultivated with the decrue technique. This early cultivation did not lead to domestication, but provides early evidence for the human skill of cultivating such useful plants. Keywords: wild sorghum, gathering, cultivation, Early Neolithic, Egypt, Nabta Playa.

1. INTRODUCTION In the exploitation of plant resources, the change from foraging to food production is viewed as a continuous process. This process involves gathering wild plants, protective tending, wild plant cultivation and finally full domestication (Harlan, 1987; Harris, 1989). Understanding of this domestication process comes from studies in taxonomy, genetics, The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa, edited by VanderVeen. Kluwer Academic I Plenum Publishers, New York, 1999.

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K. Wasylikowa and J. Dahlberg

and distribution of modern crop plants and their wild relatives, with successive stages of this evolution being documented by plants preserved in archaeological sites. Fully domesticated plants can usually be easily recognized, although their evolutionary development is difficult to trace through direct archaeobotanical evidence. Opinions about the wild-collected or wild-cultivated status of plants is usually a matter of interpretation, based on both the archaeological and environmental contexts. This is also true of the sorghum found at Nabta Playa. It is the only plant species found at the site which later became domesticated; though the time and place of its domestication are still under discussion. Sorghum grains occur at Nabta Playa among the seeds of several wild plant species which were gathered for food. The nature of the site, along with the varied sampling procedures, offers an unique opportunity to study the significance of sorghum versus other plants found at the site and may enable us to gain a better understanding of human attitudes towards plants before domestication. The aim of this article is to present arguments for the special role played by sorghum in the economy of site E-75-6 and to discuss its possible consequences.

2. THE SITE Nabta Playa is situated in the southern part of the Western Desert of Egypt, about 100 km west of Abu Simbel. The area belongs to the driest part of the Sahara; precipitation-dependent plant communities are absent and the scant vegetation is limited to places where ground water is available (Bornkamm, 1986; Bornkamm and Kehl, 1990). A playa, the silt and clay covered surface of a former lake. 10 by 7 kms, occupies a large depression east of a prominent hill named Gebel Nabta. The wetter climate of the early Holocene and an unique geological formation, which permitted ground water accumulation, created favorable conditions for human settlement. Several Neolithic sites were discovered on the playa, with site E-75-6 being the largest and best studied in respect to plant remains (Wendorf and Schild, 1980, 1994). The site lies on a fossil dune in the lower part of the depression, and is partially covered with silt. Fieldwork, carried out between 1974 and 1992 by the Prehistoric Combined Expedition led by F. Wendorf and R. Schild, revealed the existence of a settlement composed of at least 15 huts, several storage pits and three wells (Wendorf et a/., 1991; Wendorf and Schild, 1980, 1995--6). The best preserved huts were found in the south-eastern part of the site, where they were covered with about 1 em of sandy silt (Figure 1). Hut remnants were primarily made up of 30 em deep small basins, oval or circular in outline with the oval basins c. 7 m long and the round basins c. 4 m in diameter. Inside these huts were a few hearths and numerous pot holes, i.e. small depressions, 7-30 em in diameter and 1-10 em in depth, in which cooking containers were probably placed (Schild eta/., 1996). Few post holes were associated with house F 1/90. The location of the site in the lower part of the playa and the presence of wells suggest that the occupation took place in the dry season only. The stratigraphy shows that at least some of the huts were re-used several times. The site has three archaeological levels. Two of them belong to the Early Neolithic; the older one (named the 'Lower Level'; Wasylikowa et a/., 1995) is dated to c. 8600-8200 BP and contains materials of el Ghorab type, the younger one (the 'Middle Level') has been dated to c. 8100-7900 BP and is described as el-Nabta type. The third level (the 'Upper Level'), associated with dates between 7600-7300 BP, belongs to the early phase of the Middle Neolithic. All three levels contained wood charcoal, but seeds

Sorghum in the Economy of the Early Neolithic Nomadic Tribes

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