Cattle domestication in North Africa

Abstract

Further information on the Holocene prehistory of the Eastern Sahara, originally described by Wrendorf and Schild (1980) and Wendorf et al. (1980), has appeared in a recent publication by the Southern Methodist University research team (Wendorf et al. 1984). The initial work on Holocene sites was concentrated around Nabta Playa, with more restricted work being done at Kharga Oasis and the Gilf el Kebir. The Pleistocene work was focused around the Wadi Kubbaniya, Bir Sahara and Bir Tarfawi. A more comprehensive interpret ation of the Nabta material published in Chapter 8 of the Wendorf and Schild ( 1980) volume can be found in Banks (1984) which gives a detailed description of the settlements found around the former lake basin 8000 years ago. Central to the study in the 1984 volumes is interest in the relationship between the prehistoric inhabitants of the Eastern Sahara and cattle. The question of the origins of African domestic animals has been debated for many years (e.g. Dechambre 1951; Esperandieu 1955; Boston 1963; Mori 1965; Epstein 1971). Camps (1974:217) assumed that the presence of ceramics indicated food production, although not specifically pastoralism, while Mauny (1967:590) was convinced that 'L'Afrique du Nord n'a pas ?t? un centre ancien de domestication, mais a adapt? celle-ci de l'Est, en commen?ant par le Bos ib?ricas, le mouton et la ch?vre.' In those days it was accepted that two species of wild Bos existed in North Africa and the Sahara: a larger B. primigenius and a smaller B. ibericus. As Churcher (1972) has shown a wide range of variation in the size ofB. primigenius: what was formerly considered two species should probably only be one (see Smith 1980a for discussion). The argument has been widened with the intensive study of early Holocene sites in the Eastern Sahara. Two localities reported in Wendorf and Schild (1980) and Wendorf ?? al. ( 1984) have produced faunal samples dated to around 9000 bp: Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba. The sites described are either surface materials or shallow deposits; stratified sites are rare in this part of the world. Stone tool typology and radiocarbon dates are used to develop a chronology7 that indicates a predominance of 'Early Neolithic' sites in the Bir Kiseiba area. The 'Early Neolithic' is now divided into three phases, the earliest of which (El Adam) was previously called the 'Terminal Palaeolithic' in the 1980 volume. The 'Early Neolithic' is dated between ca 9000 and 8000 bp. The industry associated with these faunal samples contains early ceramics that have been identified at numerous other localities in the Nile Valley (Hakem and Khabir 1984), Niger (Roset 1982), Libya (Barich 1978) and Algeria