Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley: Archaeozoological and Taphonomic Analysis of Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Affad Basin, Sudan

African Archaeological Review, May 2016

With the research on the issue in its initial phases, the behaviour and hunting strategies of MSA communities inhabiting the Nile Valley in the Late and Terminal Pleistocene have been fragmentarily recognised thus far. Osteological materials from the area of the Affad Basin in the Middle Nile Valley, recorded in archaeological contexts and dated to the sixteenth millennium BP using OSL methods, have significantly enhanced our knowledge in this regard. It is the first time that an opportunity has occurred to construct a reliable model of the environment exploitation and the behaviour of human groups producing lithic tools using Levallois methods in the Terminal Pleistocene. Archaeozoological analyses have allowed the identification of taxa, species and anatomical origin of remains and enabled the establishment of a database of osteometric measurements. The animals hunted in the Sudanese Nile Valley during the Terminal Pleistocene have been classified with a view to refer the data to the results of analogous studies on MSA in South Africa. The behaviour of the communities occupying the Affad Basin 15,000 years ago was connected to the environment of the tree-covered, swampy savannah and extensive backwaters. Medium-sized antelope (kobus) was hunted most often. People hunted also, albeit less frequently, for large ruminants (buffalo), guenons and large rodents. Remains of fish and mega-fauna (hippopotamus and elephant) have been found in isolated concentrations, away from the camp sites. Remains of molluscs or ostrich eggs have not been registered. The condition of the osteological materials, notably their anatomical distribution, is shown to have been largely affected by wetland environment, rich in iron and manganese.

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Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley: Archaeozoological and Taphonomic Analysis of Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Affad Basin, Sudan

Afr Archaeol Rev Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley: Archaeozoological and Taphonomic Analysis of Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Affad Basin, Sudan Marta Osypińska 0 1 Piotr Osypiński 0 1 0 P. Osypiński Patrimonium Foundation , Wodna 27, 61-781 Poznan , Poland 1 M. Osypińska ( 2 Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences , Rubiez 46, 62-612 Poznan , Poland With the research on the issue in its initial phases, the behaviour and hunting strategies of MSA communities inhabiting the Nile Valley in the Late and Terminal Pleistocene have been fragmentarily recognised thus far. Osteological materials from the area of the Affad Basin in the Middle Nile Valley, recorded in archaeological contexts and dated to the sixteenth millennium BP using OSL methods, have significantly enhanced our knowledge in this regard. It is the first time that an opportunity has occurred to construct a reliable model of the environment exploitation and the behaviour of human groups producing lithic tools using Levallois methods in the Terminal Pleistocene. Archaeozoological analyses have allowed the identification of taxa, species and anatomical origin of remains and enabled the establishment of a database of osteometric measurements. The animals hunted in the Sudanese Nile Valley during the Terminal Pleistocene have been classified with a view to refer the data to the results of analogous studies on MSA in South Africa. The behaviour of the communities occupying the Affad Basin 15,000 years ago was connected to the environment of the tree-covered, swampy savannah and extensive backwaters. Medium-sized antelope (kobus) was hunted most often. People hunted also, albeit less frequently, for large ruminants (buffalo), guenons and large rodents. Remains of fish and mega-fauna (hippopotamus and elephant) have been found in isolated concentrations, away from the camp sites. Remains of molluscs or ostrich eggs have not been registered. The condition of the osteological materials, notably their anatomical distribution, is shown to have been largely affected by wetland environment, rich in iron and manganese. - Published online: 25 May 2016 # The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Résumé Le comportement et les stratégies de chasse des communautés du paléolithique moyen habitant la Vallée du Nil dans le Pléistocène supérieur ne sont identifiés que d’une manière fragmentaire et à un niveau très sommaire. Les matériaux ostéologiques du 16e millénaire avant le présent trouvés sur le territoire du Bassin d’Affad dans la moyenne Vallée du Nil, enregistrés sur les sites archéologiques et datés avec des méthodes OSL viennent compléter les informations disponibles d’une manière importante. Pour la première fois sur ce territoire est apparue la possibilité de créer un modèle, plausible et basé sur un contexte archéologique, à la fois d’exploitation de l’environnement et de comportement de groupes humains liés à l’épisode tardif d’utilisation de la technique Levallois classique, dans le Pléistocène supérieur. Les analyses archéologiques ont permis l’identification des taxons, des espèces et des débris d’origine anatomique, ainsi que la création d’une base de mesures ostéométriques. De plus, pour la première fois dans la Vallée du Nil dans le Pléistocène supérieur, une classification de gibier a été élaborée, analogiquement aux méthodes appliquées dans les études du paléolithique moyen en Afrique du Sud. Le comportement des communautés habitant le Bassin d’Affad il y a 15 mille ans était lié à un environnement de savane arborée, marécageuse avec des marais étendus. La chasse se concentrait sur les antilopes de taille moyenne (cobe). On chassait également, mais à un moindre degré, des ruminants plus grands (buffles), des Chlorocebus et de grands rongeurs. On retrouve aussi des restes de poissons et de mégafaune (hippopotames et éléphants), dans des concentrations isolées, loin de leurs habitats. La présence des restes de mollusques ou d’oeufs d’autruche n’a pas été constatée. L’environnement humide, riche en fer et manganèse, a eu une influence déterminante sur l’état de conservation des matériaux ostéologiques, et surtout sur leur décomposition anatomique. Introduction The current state of faunal knowledge in archaeological contexts dating to the Late Pleistocene, in the area of the Sudanese part of the Nile Valley, is still limited (Bate 1951; Chaix et al. 2000; Gautier 1968, 1987; Gautier et al. 2012; Peters 1989b, 1992; cf. Steele 2012) . Discovered in 2003 and rich in mineralised animal remains, the complex of sites at Affad (northern province, Sudan) stands out as an essential element that will enhance our knowledge of the fauna, environment and behaviour of the communities living in Upper Nubia at the end of the Pleistocene ( Osypiński et al. 2011 ). Research conducted in the years 2012–2014 in the Affad Ba (...truncated)


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Marta Osypińska, Piotr Osypiński. Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley: Archaeozoological and Taphonomic Analysis of Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Affad Basin, Sudan, African Archaeological Review, 2016, pp. 107-127, Volume 33, Issue 2, DOI: 10.1007/s10437-016-9220-4