Close With an Archaeology Program "High Risk Exploratory Grant" Dr. Angela Close will conduct a survey in the Southern Sinai Desert of Egypt. She will seek to identify sites to solve two particular problems. The first is the apparent hiatus in occupation of the region between ca 30,000 and 14,500 years ago. This interval spans the coldest part of the last glaciation. She will also search for Neolithic sites which mark the origins of food production in the region. Although previous work has discovered a number of grinding stone which suggest that domestic grains were available, no such plant remainq have actually been found. Surveying will be conducted on foot and concentrated in three zones. The most detailed work will be in foothills where springs and vegetation would always have been attractive to human occupation. Secondly, effort will also be focussed on the coastal region because marine shells were collected and widely traded during Neolithic times. Finally dry river valleys and lake beds will be examined. The Sinai peninsula is potentially of great archaeological significance yet relatively little work has been done there. The Near East is an area in which both plants and animals were domesticated and a settled village way of life developed. Archaeologists wish to gain insight into this process and the work which Dr. Close will conduct has the potential to contribute to this goal. The Sinai also provides the only land-bridge out of Africa and has the potential to shed light on early human migrations out of this continent. This work is important because it will, hopefully, establish the basis for a longer term project. ***
