Abstract
The Aterian is well-represented in arid eastern North Africa, particularly in the Egyptian oases and other formerly watered areas. In this region, study of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), including the Aterian, has been hindered by the rarity of buried sites. However, work by a number of teams suggests that the Levallois-based industries associated with significantly higher moisture during Marine Isotope Stage 5 are not Aterian. The artifact inventory of Aterian differs from that of the earlier MSA industries, as does the distribution of sites on the landscape. Taking a technological viewpoint, I suggest that the Aterian represents an elaboration of earlier industries arising in response to changing climatic regimes.
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter I use the term Middle Stone Age (MSA) to refer to Pleistocene-aged Levallois-based units. The Aterian, using predominantly Levallois reduction, is therefore included in the MSA. See below for a discussion of the various units described for the MSA of the Eastern Sahara.
- 2.
In Egypt, the Nile Valley serves as a dividing line between the “Eastern Desert” and the “Western Desert.” Archaeologists also employ the term “Eastern Sahara” to refer to the area that broadly overlaps with the “Western Desert,” but is not confined to the borders of present-day Egypt.
- 3.
Kleindienst (2003) uses the term “specialized flake” to refer to flakes, points, and blades produced using Levallois, discoidal, and blade reduction. Similarly, “specialized cores” are Levallois, discoidal, and blade cores.
- 4.
Infinite dates of >350 and >400 ka have been excluded.
- 5.
- 6.
Kleindienst (2003, p. 32) notes that “the only chronometric determinations available for the Teneida Palaeobasin are Ar/Ar determinations on lagged Dakhleh Glass … the isochron age limiting the age of some pre-existing surface of the Lake Teneida Formation onto which the glass was deposited is 122,000 ± 40,000 (Schwarcz et al. 2008).” Churcher et al. (1999, p. 305) assert that the deposit from which the faunal remains derive “dates broadly to the later middle Pleistocene.” Some of the earlier MSA material from the Teneida Paleobasin is found in situ in the same deposit, some is found in surface context. Kleindienst (2003, p. 26) indicates that the Teneida un it material is “probably within the older Middle Stone Age time range.”
- 7.
Material from L. 211 was selected for examination because “all artefacts seen were collected” (Kleindienst 2003, p. 32), making the assemblage generally comparable with the grid collection from 130 and the excavated material from BT 14 A.
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Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on several seasons of research in the Dakhleh and Kharga Oases, many of which were made possible through National Geographic Foundation Grants. Additional funding came from University of Toronto travel grants and a Halbert Foundation post-doctoral fellowship to Alicia Hawkins, and a Leakey Foundation grant to Jennifer R. Smith. I thank Dakhleh Oasis Project director A.J. Mills and Kharga Oasis Prehistory Project directors M.R. Kleindienst and M.M.A. McDonald. I thank the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt for granting concessions to allow work in Kharga and Dakhleh. Jonathan O’Carroll illustrated the artifacts pictured in Figs. 11.4, 11.5, 11.6. Numerous individuals collaborated and assisted in different ways. I particularly wish to thank J. R. Smith, M.R. Kleindienst, M.F. Wiseman, and T. Ormerod. I thank Jean-Jacques Hublin and Shannon McPherron for organizing the “Modern Origins: A North African Perspective,” and for inviting me to participate. The comments of three anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of this manuscript were very helpful.
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Hawkins, A.L. (2012). The Aterian of the Oases of the Western Desert of Egypt: Adaptation to Changing Climatic Conditions?. In: Hublin, JJ., McPherron, S. (eds) Modern Origins. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2929-2_11
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