Acheulean Bifaces from Khor Shambat, Omdurman (Sudan), Comparative Studies in the Nubian Context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23858/APa58.2020.003Keywords:
Acheulean, hand-axes, Khor Shambat, Dakhla Oasis, EDAR, EDARAbstract
This work presents Acheulean material discovered in Khor Shambat (Omdurman, Sudan), situated on the left-bank Nile valley a few km. north of Khor Abu Anga and about 7 km from the Nile valley, 10 km to the north-west of the confluence of the Blue and White Nile. The artefacts occur randomly in the channel or in the channel deposit, the latter forms elongated bars composed of fluvial deposits with a low degree of sorting. The assemblage consists of 34 artefacts made from highly eroded Nubian sandstones. The most common shape of the hand-axe from Khor Shambat is the cordiform type with lenticular cross section made on a chunk or cobble. The hand-axes from Khor Shambat were subject to a morphometric analysis together with the assemblage from two other Nubian Acheulean sites. The geometric-morphometric approach to 2D objects attempted to identify differences between the assemblages. The broad chronology of the Acheulean proposed for Khor Abu Anga by Roy L. Carlson (2015) might potentially be applicable to the Khor Shambat assemblage, which may fall within the range of 350–200ka.
Downloads
References
Abbate, E., Albianelli, A., Awad, A., Billi, P., Bruni, P., Delfino, P., Ferretti, M. P., Filippi, O., Gallai, G., Ghinassi, M., Lauritzen, S. E., Lo Vetro, D., Martínez-Navarro, B., Martini, F., Napoleone, G., Bedri, O., Papini, M., Rook, L. and Sagri, M. 2010. Pleistocene Environments and Human Presence in the Middle Atbara Valley (Khashm el Girba, Eastern Sudan). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 292: 12–34.
Anderson, M. J. 2017. Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance (PERMANOVA). Wiley StatsRef: Statistics Reference Online. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Arkell, A. J. 1949. The Old Stone Age in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Sudan Antiquities Service Occasional Papers 1. Khartoum.
Bordes, F. 1961. Typologie du Paléolithique ancien et moyen. Bordeaux: Imprimeries Delmas.
Carlson, R. L. 2015. Khor Abu Anga and Magendohli: Stone Age sites at the Sudanese Nile. Oxford. British Archaeological Reports International Series S2768.
Caton-Thompson, G. 1952. Kharga Oasis in Prehistory. Athlone Press.
Chmielewski, W. 1968. Early and Middle Paleolithic Sites near Arkin, Sudan. In F. Wendorf (ed.), The Prehistory of Nubia v. 1, 110–47. Fort Burgwin Research Center and Southern Methodist University Press.
Costa, A. G. 2010. A geometric morphometric Aassessment of plan shape in bone and stone Acheulean bifaces from the Middle Pleistocene site of Castel di Guido, Latium, Italy. In S. Lycettand and P. Chauhan (eds), New Perspectives on Old Stones. Springer, 23–41. New York.
Goren-Inbar, N., Alperson-Afil, N., Sharon, G. and Herzlinger, G. 2018. The Acheulian Site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov Volume IV: The Lithic Assemblages. Springer, Dordrecht.
Goren-Inbar, N. and Saragusti, I. 1996. An Aheulean biface assemblage from the site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel: Indication of African affinities. Journal of Field Archaeology 23: 15–30.
Hill, C. L. and Schild, R. 2017. Paleohydrology and Paleoenvironments at Bir Sahara: Pleistocene Lithostratigraphy and Sedimentology in the Southern Egyptian Sahara. Journal of African Earth Sciences 136: 201–15.
Idris, G. 1994. Die Altsteinzeit im Sudan. Bonn. Archäologische Berichte 4
Jórdeczka, M., Chłodnicki, M., Sobkowiak-Tabaka, I. and Stanaszek, Ł. M. 2020. Rebirth in the afterlife. Neolithic pot burials from the Khor Shambat, Sudan. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 55: 1–25. doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2020.1721840
Lycett, S. J. 2007. Is the Soanian Techno-Complex a Mode 1 or Mode 3 phenomenon? A morphometric assessment. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(9): 1434–1440.
Lycett, S. J. 2008. Acheulean variation and selection: does handaxe symmetry fit neutral expectations? Journal of Archaeological Science 35(9): 2640–2648.
Masojć, M., Nassr A., Kim, J. Y., Krupa-Kurzynowska, J., Sohn, Y. K., Szmit, M., Kim, J. Ch., Kim, J. S., Choi, H. W., Wieczorek, M. and Timmermann, A. 2019. Saharan green corridors and Middle Pleistocene hominin dispersals across the Eastern Desert, Sudan. Journal of Human Evolution 130: 141–150. doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.01.004
McPherron, S. P. and Dibble, H. L. 1999. Stone tool analysis using digitized images: examples from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Lithic Technology 24(1), 38–52.
Pillai, K. C. S. 2014. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). Wiley StatsRef: Statistics Reference Online. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Robertson Research Group, 1988. Geological Map of Sudan 1:1 000 000, sheet Khartoum. Khartoum Research Authority of the Sudan.
Schild, R. and Wendorf, F. 1977. The Prehistory of Dakhla Oasis and adjacent desert. Polish Academy of Science, Wroclaw, Cracow, Warsaw, Gdansk.
Schild, R. and Wendorf, F. 1981. The Prehistory of an Egyptian Oasis. A Report of the Combined Prehistoric Expedition to Bir Sahara, Western Desert, Egypt. Ossolineum.
Serwatka, K. 2014. Shape variation of Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools from southern Poland: a geometric morphometric approach to Keilmessergruppen handaxes and backed knives. Lithics: the Journal of the Lithic Studies Society 35: 18−32.
Serwatka, K. 2018. What's your point? Flexible projectile weapon system in the Central European Final Palaeolithic. The case of Swiderian points. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 17: 263–278.
Serwatka, K. and Riede, F. 2016. 2D geometric morphometric analysis casts doubt on the validity of large tanged points as cultural markers in the European Final Palaeolithic. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 9: 150–159.
Spinapolice, E. E., Zerboni, A., Meyer, M. and Usai, D. 2018. Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan): A Contribution to the Understanding of the MSA of Eastern Africa. Journal of African Archaeology 16: 193–209.
de la Torre, I. and Mora, R. 2018. Technological behaviour in the early Acheulean of EFHR (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania). Journal of Human Evolution 120: 329–377.
Van Peer, P., Fullagar, R., Stokes, S., Bailey, R. M., Moeyersons, J., Steenhoudt, F., Geerts A., Vanderbeken T., De Dapper, M. and Geus, F. 2003. The Early to Middle Stone Age transition and the emergence of modern human behaviour at site 8-B-11, Sai Island, Sudan. Journal of Human Evolution 45: 187–193.
Vermeersch, P. M. 2001.‘Out of Africa’ from an Egyptian Point of View. Quaternary International 75: 103–12.
Vermeersch, P. M., Paulissen, E., Otte, M. and Gijselings, G. 2000. Acheulean at Nag Ahmed el Khalifa. In P. M. Vermeersch (ed.), Palaeolithic Living Sites in Upper and Middle Egypt, 57–74. Leuven University Press.
Wendorf, F. (ed.). 1968. The Prehistory of Nubia. Fort Burgwin Research Center and Southern Methodist University Press.
Whiteman, A. J. 1971. The geology of the Sudan republic. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Archaeologia Polona
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
I declare that the manuscript sent is original, has not been published before and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
I confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors mentioned and that there are no other persons who would meet the criteria for authorship but were not mentioned. In addition, I confirm that the order of the authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by all the authors.
I confirm that the correspondent author is the only contact with the Editorial Board in the editorial process, and is responsible for communicating with other authors and informing them about the progress, corrections and final approval of the article.
