The Sudanese Nile Valley: the ultimate frontiers of the Aterian and the northern and southern Out-of-Africa routes
Dipartimento di Filologia e Storia, University of Cassino, Cassino, Italy
This presentation aims at presenting a new perspective on the Sudanese Nile Valley by discussing two extensively debated topics: the eastern geographical extent of the Aterian and the northern route vs. the southern route in the Out-of-Africa dispersals of anatomically modern humans. Recent research (Amara West, Site 97 at El-Multaga, and El Hamra in the Ga’ab depression) and recent republications of previously excavated collections (Khor Abu Anga and Magendohli) provide hints on Aterian occurrences in the Sudanese Nile Valley. The assumption, based on the Egyptian Nile Valley, that Aterian human groups had very rarely extended as far of the Nile Valley should be reconsidered, at least as far as the Sudanese Nile Valley is concerned. Further evidence of Aterian assemblages in the Wadi Howar and in Kordofan, in western Sudan supports a link between the Eastern Sahara and the Sudanese Nile Valley.
The second highly debated topic regards the northern vs. southern route of the Out-of-Africa movements of anatomically modern humans. Scholars working in either North Africa or East Africa tend to have alternative, dichotomous views and see their area of interest as “the” privileged launchpad of the Out-of-Africa migrations. The MSA evidence from the Sudanese Nile Valley is in a geographic position that definitively rules out this antithesis and offers substantial contributions to both the northern and the southern routes. Sudan’s Upper Pleistocene anatomically modern human populations brought cultural influences in both directions, to the Levant, through the northern route, and to the Arabian Peninsula through the southern route.
Edited books:
- GARCEA, E.A.A. 2001. Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara. Arid Zone Archaeology – Monographs 2. Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio.
- GARCEA, E.A.A. 2010. South-Eastern Mediterranean peoples between 130,000 and 10,000 years ago. Oxbow Books, Oxford.
- GARCEA, E.A.A. 2013. Gobero: The No-Return Frontier. Archaeology and Landscape at the Saharo-Sahelian Borderland. Journal of African Archaeology Monograph Series 9. Frankfurt am Main, Africa Magna Verlag.
Articles:
- GARCEA, E.A.A. 2012. Successes and failures of the human dispersals from North Africa. Quaternary International 270: 119-128.
- GARCEA, E.A.A. 2016. Dispersals Out of Africa and Back to Africa: Modern Origins in North Africa. Quaternary International408, Part B: 79-89.
