The Stone Age of the Middle Nile Valley

The stretch of the Nile River upstream from the First Cataract corresponds to the Middle Nile and is within present Sudan’s territory. Its water basin is larger than that of the Egyptian Lower Nile Valley and features considerable tributaries and groundwater outlets springing in oases, wells or boreholes that supported human populations in otherwise uninhabitable arid and semi-arid lands. The Middle Nile Valley and the adjacent western and eastern deserts revealed a range of significant sites belonging to the Early Stone Age (ESA), Middle Stone Age (MSA), and Later Stone Age (LSA). The earliest hominin occupation goes back to the Oldowan. Sites dating to this period are not numerous, but are dispersed in different areas, suggesting that some of them may have been lost due to taphonomic agents. Acheulean techno-complexes attest to a more consistent human presence in northern Sudan, western Sudan, and eastern Sudan. Recent research along the Red Sea coast and inland proved to be particularly successful and provided strong evidence on green corridors for hominin dispersals across the eastern desert, which was in connection with East Africa. A variety of MSA techno-complexes appear in different territories. The most frequent industries have been assigned to the Sangoan, Lupemban, Nubian Complex, Aterian, and Khormusan. Sangoan and Lupemban sites concentrate in the main Nile and White Nile areas, whereas Nubian Complex sites also appear in the eastern desert. Almost unknown in the Egyptian Nile Valley, the Aterian is well attested to in the Middle Nile Valley, as well as in the western desert. Finally, the Khormusan and the LSA are mostly restricted to northern Sudan, with the exception of an LSA evidence in eastern Sudan, at Khashm el-Girba. The renowned cemetery at Jebel Sahaba in northern Sudan with some confirmed, and other disputed, signs of interpersonal violence is located in northern Sudan. Thanks to the favourable intermediary position of the Middle Nile Valley and the adjacent western and eastern deserts, they likely contributed to both the northern and the southern routes of Out-of-Africa hominin dispersals. The northern route that led East African hominins into Southwest Asia and onwards almost inevitably traversed Sudan. At the same time, Sudanese technological traditions also appear across the Red Sea, in the Arabian Peninsula and seemingly spread via the southern route.