Author:
Zhao Xiaoshuang,Liu Yan,Thomas Ian,Salem Alaa,Wang Yanna,Alassal Said E.,Jiang Feng,Sun Qianli,Chen Jing,Finlayson Brian,Wilson Penelope,Chen Zhongyuan
Abstract
AbstractThe Nile Delta in Egypt represents a valuable location to study the history of human societal development and agricultural advancement. However, the livelihood patterns of the earliest settlers – whether they were farmers or herders – remains poorly understood. Here we use non-pollen palynomorphs and pollen grains from a sediment core taken at Sais, one of the earliest archaeological sites in the west-central Nile Delta, to investigate the livelihood patterns and transition of early settlers there. We find that animal microfossils (dung and hair) occur in substantial quantities from around 7,000 years ago in our high-resolution-dated non-pollen palynomorphs spectrum, while domesticated cereals emerge in the spectrum around 300 years later. We also identify evidence of fire-enhanced land exploitation after this time. We interpret our microfossil evidence to indicate that the earliest settlers in the Nile Delta were herders and that this then developed into a combination of herding and farming.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
General Earth and Planetary Sciences,General Environmental Science
Reference43 articles.
1. Butzer, K. W. Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt: a Study in Cultural Ecology (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1976).
2. Said, R. The River Nile: Geology, Hydrology and Utilization (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1993).
3. Zeder, M. A. Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: origins, diffusion, and impact. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 11597–11604 (2008).
4. Shirai, N. The Archaeology of the First Farmer-Herders in Egypt: New Insights into the Fayum Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic (Uni. Leiden Press, the Netherlands, 2010).
5. Garcea, E. A. A. Multi-stage dispersal of Southwest Asian domestic livestock and the path of pastoralism in the Middle Nile Valley. Quat. Int. 412, 54–64 (2016).
Cited by
9 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献