Under the supervision of Dr. Katherine "Kit" Nelson, Eman Khalifa will analyze data gathered during her archaeological excavations at the Eastern Saharan site of E-00-1 in the Nabta Playa region. Nabta Playa is located about 800 km to the south of the modern city of Cairo. During the Late/Final Neolithic, the region became a regional ceremonial center reflected in the presence of complex structures. Nabta Playa served as a contact point between the pastoralists of the Eastern Sahara in both Egypt and Sudan and the agriculturalists of the Nile Valley during the Late and Final Neolithic shortly before the rise of the ancient Egyptian civilization-state.Analysis of ceramic assemblages from the site of E-00-1 will be used to, document evidence of interaction and detail vessel function in this pastoral economy.
Site E-00-1 is a multi-component site with robust Late (6200-5800 bp) and Final Neolithic (5400-4800 bp) occupations. Data collected from the site will be combined with data collected during previous excavations, carried out by the Combined Prehistoric Expedition, to form a larger data set of sufficient analytic size. Ms. Khalifa will use previous ceramic sequences as a marker to differentiate between other artifacts belonging to these two periods, which are usually grouped together due to insufficient data. She will also perform a detailed attribute-analysis on the ceramics of these two periods, which witnessed the first use of controlled firing. Comparisons between Nabta Playa and other predynastic centers in Egypt and the Sudan, will also be carried out with a goal of discovering interactions between these centers, trade, and social and political influences. Radiocarbon samples will be obtained to obtain a more controlled chronology
The second focus of this proposed research is to study "black-topped pottery", which first appears at Nabta Playa during the Late Neolithic and became an important feature in multiple widespread ceramic assemblages. No previous residue analysis has been carried out to determine what these effort-intensive vessels actually contained. The researcher expects to find residues of milk and/or blood, liquids proven by ethnographic studies and archaeological evidence to be of great importance among pastoralists. The results of this analysis will help to determine if Nabta Playa functioned as a ceremonial center. They will also help develop a hypothesis explaining their wide spread. Additionally, this will facilitate comparison with other cradles of civilization, where similar studies have recently been carried on dairying.
This research will also have a broader impact. Mr Khalifa will train the local archaeological inspector in field methods and computer-based statistical analysis. This field work will also enhance the professional training of the applicant, who will return to Egypt to teach archaeology to college students after earning her doctorate. Training programs in archaeology are limited in Egypt, and the addition of a US-trained anthropological archaeologist to a university in Cairo will benefit the next generation of Egyptian archaeologists.
Site E-00-1 is a multi-component site with a robust Final Neolithic component. The large Final Neolithic pottery assemblage discovered at the site is described as the "best available pottery assemblage for the Final Neolithic" (Gatto 2010). This dissertation provides analysis to this assemblage, along with the lithic assemblage from this site to uncover more about the Final Neolithic period from a settlement context. The dissertation also performed residue-analysis on black-topped sherds from Hierakonpolis, which provided further insights on this controversial type of pottery that made its first appearance at Nabta Playa. The earliest phase represented at the site comes from Area I, which is marked by the presence of Krukowski microburins and the absence of pottery sherds. The Late Neolithic period is not well represented at Site E-00-1, and its pottery appears mixed with Final Neolithic assemblages. Areas L and M show the presence of core-trimming elements. The burial at Area J also dates to this period. This indicates an abandonment of area during this period, most likely caused by virtue of aridity. Very little is known about the Final Neolithic. The robust Final Neolithic component at Site E-00-1 allowed for a better understanding of this period. The presence of two houses indicates a more sedentary life than archaeologists previously thought. Site E-00-1 yielded three Final Neolithic radiocarbon dates: 5869±60 C14BP from Area J, 5410±155 C14BP from Area B, and 5170±80 C14BP from Area G. I argue that during the Final Neolithic period Site E-00-1 was occupied for much longer periods than the cemetery at Gebel Ramlah. This also means that it was only during a specific phase of this period, that the pastoralists of Nabta Playa buried their dead in the desert. The earliest Final Neolithic assemblage comes from Area B and M. Pottery assemblages from these two areas are comparable to the Late Neolithic of Sites E-75-8 and E-92-9 respectively. They are only confirmed as Final Neolithic by the associated radiocarbon dates. The youngest Final Neolithic assemblage from Site E-00-1 comes from Area K. At this area, several bifaces, comparable to those known throughout the Predynastic period (Holmes 1989; Midant-Reynes 1992[2000]) are present in the assemblage. Tulip-shaped beakers can be argued to have been represented at Site E-00-1 by the presence of zonal incisions at Areas A and M. The discovery of burials at both areas indicates a funerary nature for this type of pottery. Caliciform beakers also appear at various sites along the Nile (Math 2006). Black-topped pottery, milled rims, and sand temper are all characteristics of what Gatto (2009) called hybrid features of both Egypt and Nubia, which appear as part of the process of creolization of the two cultures in the Nile Valley and the nearby deserts during the Fifth and Fourth Millennia BCE. The presence of these features at Site E-00-1 confirms their appearance earlier during the Final Neolithic from the Sixth millennium BCE at Nabta Playa. Overall, one can say that the material culture from the Nabta region began similar to their contemporaneous ones from North Africa (Usai 2005), and ended with those comparable to the Nile Valley. At Hierakonpolis, Takamiya and Endo (2011) used this development from ad hoc to retouched tools as an indicative of the development in social complexity. This reflects an early step toward the unification of Egypt. All of these features emphasize the developing social complexity of the period, which was part of the increasing mobility of the pastoralist groups of the region, creating the background of the Predynastic period (Gatto 2011a). Black-topped pottery is one of the features of this development associated with the increase in the degree of social complexity among pastoralists during the Late and continued throughout the Final Neolithic. In this dissertation, I provide evidence supporting that no fireward was used during the production of this type of pottery. Also indicates that plant and animal fatty acids are the main content of this type of pottery. I also provide evidence in favor of the development of black-topped pottery in conjunction with rough rather than red-polished ware. By the end of the Final Neolithic, drought forced the people to abandon the desert. Buchez (2011) reported a gradual abandonment of the community at Adaïma and Armant from Naqada IID onwards reflecting an exodus towards major cities, leading to the formation of the Egyptian state. Given the amount of similarity between the Late and Final Neolithic at Nabta and the Dynastic period, I would argue that the earliest exodus took place at Nabta Playa at the end of the Final Neolithic period, as people were driven by their deteriorating environment.
