Early North African Cattle Domestication and Its Ecological Setting: A Reassessment

Michael Brass

doi:10.1007/s10963-017-9112-9

Abstract

Nearly four decades have passed since an independent North African centre for cattle domestication was first proposed in 1980, based on the Combined Prehistoric Expedition’s work in the Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba region of southern Egypt, and the initial rigorous debates between Andrew B. Smith and Fred Wendorf, Romuald Schild and Achilles Gautier. More recently, geneticists have entered the fray with determinations on the spread of haplotypes, and the timing thereof, that extend the scope and increase the complexity of the debate. Here, a new look at the botanical data and a re-analysis of the geology of Bir Kiseiba–Nabta Playa rejects the ecological foundations of the early African domestication model, while a detailed examination of the published osteological and radiometric data from the same area reveals a more nuanced picture than has been recognised to date. These results are placed into context by a wider review of the genetic and other archaeological evidence from the Western Desert of Northeast Africa, where no other cattle remains designated as domesticated have been found. It is concluded that (a) Bos remains from the early Holocene at Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba were those of hunted aurochs; (b) domesticated caprines were likely present in Northeast Africa before domesticated cattle; and (c) the domesticated cattle spreading across Northeast and northern Africa, including Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba, from the late seventh millennium BC or early sixth millennium BC onwards were descendants of Bos taurus domesticated in the Middle Euphrates area of the Middle East.

Highlights

This paper presents a reassessment of the botanical, faunal and geomorphological data from Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba to determine whether or not an early Holocene timeframe for cattle domestication, as proposed by the Combined Prehistoric Expedition (Gautier 1987; Wendorf et al 1984, 2001; Wendorf and Schild 1980, 1994), remains a plausible explanatory model
I turn to the original geological report (Issawi and el Hinnawi 1984) to argue that more water was present on the surface during the early Holocene than acknowledged in the early cattle domestication model, and draw upon additional geological reports (Haynes and Haas 1980; Haynes 2001), which have been little cited in the debate, in support
I draw upon comparisons with other archaeological and modern semiarid regions to refute the claim that the ecology of the Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba area during the early Holocene was capable of supporting only small game animals and gazelle, which is the underpinning of the early cattle domestication model (Gautier 2001; Wendorf et al 1984; Wendorf and Schild 1994)

Summary

Introduction

This paper presents a reassessment of the botanical, faunal and geomorphological data from Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba to determine whether or not an early Holocene timeframe for cattle domestication, as proposed by the Combined Prehistoric Expedition (Gautier 1987; Wendorf et al 1984, 2001; Wendorf and Schild 1980, 1994), remains a plausible explanatory model. Despite the claim by Wendorf and Schild (2001) that there is no El Nabta/Al Jerarlike complex in the Nile Valley, Usai (2005) suggests that sites 626 and 628 to the west of the Nile were intermediary camps for hunter-forager peoples moving out of the Nile Valley during flood season, before they moved into the desert after the summer rains in an integrated cultural and ecological system Based on these combined re-analyses, there is no ecological or Nile Valley archaeological evidence for the early Holocene inhabitants of Bir Kiseiba—Nabta Playa having incorporated habitually domesticated cattle into their socio-economy.

E-94-1 E-94-2 E-94-3

1–4 Late Neolithic

Discussion