The evolution from large social units with loose networks into small social units with tight networks from the Khartoum Variant to the Abkan and the Pre-Kerma at Sai Island

The latest investigations on Khartoum Variant, Abkan and Pre-Kerma sites at Sai Island, northern Sudan, have provided further evidence on the social and cultural changes that the island’s inhabitants underwent from the early Holocene until the critical period preceding the emergence of the Egyptian and Nubian kingdoms. Four sites excavated between 2004 and 2011 at Sai Island offered the opportunity to observe and compare these three phases: the Khartoum Variant at Site 8-B-10C, which revealed an extensive complex with hut floors, post-holes, and rubbish pits; the Abkan at Site 8-B-76, which evidenced an ephemeral use of the island during the nomadic pastoral period; and the Pre-Kerma at Sites 8-B-10A and 8-B-52A, a habitation and a granary complex, respectively, which indicated a new economic, social and network organisation in the Pre-Kerma period.