With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Fred Wendorf and his international team of collaborators will conduct archaeological research in the Gebel Nabta and Bir Safsaf regions of the Eastern Sahara Desert in Egypt. They will return to sites located in past work and employ a series of strategies which include survey, surface collection of exposed materials and careful excavation. All sites date from the Neolithic period, ca. 9,000 to 6,000 years before the present. A series of houses from Nabta are particularly important because they contain large numbers of small depressions, probably the remains of cooking fires. Each holds abundant and well preserved floral remains which possibly are the byproducts of individual cooking events. With such data it is possible to gain unprecedented insight into subsistence practices since it is extremely rare for plant materials be so well preserved. A broad scale site survey should provide information on settlement pattern and subsistence strategies. The Neolithic period marked the appearance of many of the hallmarks which characterize our society today. The first long term settlements were established, pottery first appears in the archaeological record, and plants and animals were domesticated. Because this change was so important, archaeologists refer to it as "The Neolithic Revolution." However, it is not well understood what caused groups in many parts of the world to change from a hunting and gathering way of life to a more sedentary existence. Dr. Wendorf's work focusses directly on this issue and the Egyptian desert provides an excellent region for this study because sites are often visible from surface remains and the dry climate favors floral preservation. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to a large number of archaeologists. It will explore indirectly the issue of black Africa and its contribution to the development of civilization. It will also shed light on the processes which led to the emergence of complex societies.
