Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-rnpqb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T20:33:52.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mid-Holocene bifacial tradition evidenced in Augila Oasis, Cyrenaica, Libya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2015

John P. Mason  and
Giulio Lucarini
John P. Mason
Affiliation:
International Development Consulting, J. Mason Associates, Colesville, Maryland, USA.
Giulio Lucarini
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article considers three lithic artefacts (two sidescrapers and a gouge or plane) discovered at Augila Oasis, located in Cyrenaica along the dried riverbed of Wadi Nashoof and once directly in the line of the Western Desert trade and pilgrimage route. The three Augila tools belong to the so-called bifacial tradition, which spread in the eastern Sahara during the mid-Holocene, from c. 6000 to 4800 BC, and find parallels among the mid-Holocene production of the northern edge of the Farafra Oasis and other contexts of the Egyptian Western Desert. The presence of the bifacial tradition in the Lower Nile Valley and in the Libyan littoral could have unfolded through exchange networks during periods of favourable climatic condition in the mid-Holocene.

يتناول هذا المقال ثلاث أدوات صخرية أثرية (اثنتين منهما على شكل مقشط جانبي، وواحدة على شكل إزميل ) اكتُشِفت في واحة أوجلة التي تقع في سيرينيكا (برقة) على جانب قعر النهر الجاف في وادي نشوف، والذي كان فيما مضى على مسار طريق التجارة والحج في الصحراء الغربية. هذه الأدوات الأثرية الثلاث من أوجلة تتبع شكل ما يُطلق عليه الأدوات ذات الوجهين، والتي انتشرت في شرق الصحراء الكبرى (الصحراء الليبية) خلال منتصف حقبة الهولوسين، من نحو عام 6000 إلى 4800 قبل الميلاد، وهناك أدوات مماثلة لها بين منتجات هذه الحقبة على الحافة الشمالية لواحة الفرافرة ومناطق أخرى في الصحراء الغربية المصرية. إن وجود الأدوات ذات الوجهين في منطقة شمال وادي النيل والساحل الليبي ربما كان نتيجة شبكات التبادل التجاري خلال فترات المناخ المناسب في منتصف حقبة الهولوسين .

Type
Articles
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 46 , November 2015 , pp. 7 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Libyan Studies 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barker, G., Antoniadou, A., Armitage, S., Brooks, I., Candy, I., Connell, K., Douka, K., Drake, N., Farr, L., Hill, E., Hunt, C., Inglis, R., Jones, S., Lane, C., Lucarini, G., Meneely, J., Morales, J., Mutri, G., Prendergast, A., Rabett, R., Reade, H., Reynolds, T., Russell, N., Simpson, D., Smith, B., Stimpson, C., Twati, M., and White, K. 2010. The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2010: the fourth season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave and its landscape, and further results from the 2007–2009 fieldwork. Libyan Studies 41: 63–88.Google Scholar
Barker, G., Antoniadou, A., Barton, H., Brooks, I., Candy, I., Drake, N., Farr, L., Hunt, C., Ibrahim, A.A., Inglis, R., Jones, S., Morales, J., Morley, I., Mutri, G., Rabett, R., Reynolds, T., Simpson, D., Twati, M., and White, K. 2009. The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2009: the third season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave and its landscape, and further results from the 2007–2008 fieldwork. Libyan Studies 40: 55–94.Google Scholar
Barker, G., Basell, L., Brooks, I., Burn, L., Cartwright, C., Cole, F., Davison, J., Farr, L., Grün, R., Hamilton, R., Hunt, C., Inglis, R., Jacobs, Z., Leitch, V., Morales, J., Morley, I., Morley, M., Pawley, S., Pryor, A., Rabett, R., Reynolds, T., El-Rishi, H., Roberts, R., Simpson, D., Stimpson, C., Touati, M., and van der Veen, M. 2008. The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2008: the second season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave and its landscape, and further results from the initial (2007) fieldwork. Libyan Studies 39: 175– 221.Google Scholar
Barker, G., Bennett, P., Farr, L., Hill, E., Hunt, C., Lucarini, G., Morales, J., Mutri, G., Prendergast, A., Pryor, A., Rabett, R., Reynolds, T., Spry-Marques, P., and Twati, M. 2012. The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2012: the fifth season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave. Libyan Studies 43: 115–36.Google Scholar
Barker, G., Hunt, C., Reynolds, T., Brooks, I., and el-Rishi, H. 2007. The Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica (Northeast Libya): renewed investigations of the cave and its landscape, 2007. Libyan Studies 38: 2–22.Google Scholar
Caton-Thompson, G., and Gardner, E.W. 1934. The Desert Fayum. 2 vols. Royal Anthropological Institute, London.Google Scholar
Cziesla, E. 1993. Investigations into the archaeology of the Sitra-Hatiyet, Northwestern Egypt. In Krzyzaniak, L., Kobusiewicz, M., and Alexander, J.A. (eds), Environmental Change and Human Culture in the Nile Basin and Northern Africa until the Second Millennium B.C. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan: 185–97.Google Scholar
Cziesla, E. 1989. Sitra and related sites at the western border of Egypt. In Krzyzaniak, L. and Kobusiewicz, M. (eds), Late Prehistory of the Nile Basin and the Sahara. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan: 205–14.Google Scholar
de Faucamberge, É. 2014. Le site néolithique d'Abou Tamsa (Cyrénaïque, Libye). Apport à la préhistoire du nord-est de l'Afrique. Collection Études Libyennes 2. Riveneuve éditions, Paris.Google Scholar
Gehlen, B., Kindermann, K., Linstädter, J., and Riemer, H. 2002. The Holocene occupation of the eastern Sahara: regional chronologies and supra-regional developments of four areas in the absolute desert. In Heinrich Barth Institut (ed.), Tides of the Desert – Gezeiten der Wüste, Contributions to the Archaeology and Environmental History of Africa in Honour of Rudolph Kuper. Africa Praehistorica 14. Heinrich Barth Institut, Cologne: 85–116.Google Scholar
Hassan, F.A. 1976. Prehistoric studies of the Siwa Oasis region: preliminary report, 1975 season. Nyame Akuma 9: 18–34.Google Scholar
Hassan, F.A., and Gross, G.T. 1987. Resources and subsistence during the early Holocene at Siwa Oasis, northern Egypt. In Close, A.E. (ed.), Prehistory of Arid North Africa. Essays in Honour of Fred Wendorf. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas: 85–103.Google Scholar
Holmes, D.L. 1989. The Predynastic Lithic Industries of Upper Egypt. A Comparative Study of the Lithic Traditions of Badari, Nagada and Hierakonpolis. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 33. BAR International Series 469. Archaeopress, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hulin, L., Timby, J., and Mutri, G. 2009. The western Marmarica coastal survey 2009: preliminary report. Libyan Studies 40: 95–103.Google Scholar
Jones, S., Farr, L., Barton, H., Drake, N., White, K., and Barker, G. 2011. Geoarchaeological patterns in the pre-desert and desert ecozones of northern Cyrenaica. Libyan Studies 42: 11–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kindermann, K. 2004. Djara: Excavations and surveys of the 1998–2002 seasons. ArchéoNil 14: 31–49.Google Scholar
Kindermann, K. 2010. Djara. Zur mittelholozänen Besiedlungsgeschichte zwischen Niltal und Oasen (Abu-Muharik-Plateau, Ägypten). Africa Praehistorica 23. Heinrich Barth Institut, Cologne.Google Scholar
Klees, F. 1989. Lobo: a contribution to the prehistory of the Eastern Sand Sea and the Egyptian oases. In Krzyzaniak, L. and Kobusiewicz, M. (eds), Late Prehistory of the Nile Basin and the Sahara. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan: 223–32.Google Scholar
Linseele, V. 2013. Early stock keeping in northeastern Africa. Near Eastern influences and local developments. In Shirai, N. (ed.), Neolithisation of Northeastern Africa. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment 16. Ex Oriente, Berlin: 97–108.Google Scholar
Linseele, V., Marinova, E., Van Neer, W., and Vermeersch, P.M. 2010. Sites with Holocene dung deposits in the Eastern Desert of Egypt: visited by herders? Journal of Arid Environments 74: 818–28.Google Scholar
Lucarini, G. 2014. The bifacial products from Hidden Valley and neighbouring areas in Wadi el Obeyid. In Barich, B.E., Lucarini, G., Hamdan, M.A., and Hassan, F.A. (eds), From Lake to Sand: The Archaeology of Fafara Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt. All'Insegna del Giglio, Florence: 263–81.Google Scholar
Lucarini, G. 2013. Was a transition to food production homogeneous along the circum-Mediterranean littoral? A perspective on Neolithization research from the Libyan coast. In Shirai, N. (ed), Neolithisation of Northeastern Africa. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence and Environment 16. Ex Oriente, Berlin: 149–73.Google Scholar
McBurney, C.B.M. 1967. The Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica) and the Stone Age of the South-East Mediterranean. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
McDonald, M.M.A. 1998. Early African pastoralism: view from Dakhleh Oasis (southern central Egypt). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 124–42.Google Scholar
McDonald, M.M.A. 2007. Holocene prehistory of the Wady el Midauwara above Kharga Oasis, Egypt. In Kroeper, K., Chłodnicki, M., and Kobusiewicz, M. (eds), Archaeology of Early Northeastern Africa. In Memory of Lech Krzyzaniak. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan: 479–92.Google Scholar
McDonald, M.M.A. 2009. Increased sedentism in the central oases of the Egyptian Western Desert in the early to mid-Holocene: evidences from the peripheries. African Archaeological Review 26: 3–43.Google Scholar
Mason, J.P. 1971. The social history and anthropology of the arabized berbers of Augila Oasis in the Libyan Sahara Desert. PhD dissertation, Boston University, Boston.Google Scholar
Riemer, H. 2007. Out of Dakhla: cultural diversity and mobility between the Egyptian oases and the Great Sand Sea during the Holocene humid phase. In Kroeper, K., Chłodnicki, M., and Kobusiewicz, M. (eds), Archaeology of Early Northeastern Africa. In Memory of Lech Krzyzaniak. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan: 493–526.Google Scholar
Shirai, N. 2010. The Archaeology of the First Farmer-Herders in Egypt. New Insights into the Fayum Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic. Archaeological Studies Leiden University 21. Leiden University Press, Leiden.Google Scholar