Prehistoric surveys in the Libyan Sahara

Sin resume

Outils statistiques pour l’étude de la production et de l’utilisation de la céramique au Sahara et au Soudan

Les études les plus récentes ont démontré que la classification de la céramique peut être beaucoup plus instructive si l’intégralité de la chaîne opératoire est identifiée et décrite. Cette méthode d’analyse a été appliquée aux collections provenant de l’Adrar Bous (Niger) au Sahara méridional et d’Esh Shaheinab (Soudan) dans la haute vallée du Nil. Jusqu’à présent le décor a été particulièrement important pour la définition de la poterie saharienne et soudanaise. Dans cette étude, il est replacé parmi les nombreuses étapes du processus de fabrication. L’approvisionnement en matière première, le choix et la préparation de l’argile, les techniques décoratives, l’utilisation et l’abandon des pots ont été enregistrés dans une base de données Access®. Ils ont été organisés sous forme hiérarchique imbriquée à l’aide d’un système de formulaires liés associés à des requêtes croisées. En outre, l’étude spatiale du site de l’Adrar Bous a fait l’objet d’une analyse géostatistique : la variabilité de la densité de céramique a été calculée et reportée sous forme de courbes d’iso-densité dans la cartographie du site.Most recent studies on ceramics have demonstrated that their classification can be much more informative if the entire production sequence of pottery manufacturing is identified and described. This method of analysis of the manufacturing chaîne opératoire has been applied to collections from Adrar Bous (Niger) in the southern Sahara, and Esh Shaheinab (Sudan) in the upper Nile valley. Although ceramic decorations are a considerable component in Saharan and Sudanese pottery, the present approach conceives them as one of the numerous stages of the manufacturing process. All information regarding raw material procurement, assessment and preparation of the clay, decorative techniques, use and discard of the pots were entered in a database on Access®  platform. They were organised in a nested hierarchy through a system of linked userforms with crossed field queries. Furthermore, geostatistical analysis was applied to determine the spatial structure of data at an archaeological site in the Adrar Bous. Abundance of pottery as pattern of variation was calculated and mapped as a contour map of the site

Archaeology of Holocene hunter-gatherers at the sixth Nile cataract, central Sudan

Jebel Sabaloka at the Sixth Nile Cataract has been known for its strategic importance in late prehistoric stone tool production in central Sudan. Since 2009, archaeological exploration on the west bank of the Nile has revealed a hierarchized settlement structure, with 30 sites of early to mid-Holocene dating. The key findings derive from two principal sites – Sphinx and Fox Hill – that are situated on large granite outcrops and provide evidence of robust occupation by hunter-gatherers of the Early Khartoum Complex (Khartoum Mesolithic, ca. 8,500–5,000 BC). One of the most intriguing elements at these Early Khartoum settlements is the presence of large hunter gatherer burial grounds, which will enrich the discussions of the character, duration and structuring of these Mesolithic societies at both regional and supra-regional level

Riociguat treatment in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: Final safety data from the EXPERT registry

Objective: The soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator riociguat is approved for the treatment of adult patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and inoperable or persistent/recurrent chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) following Phase

Report on the 24th Biannual Meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA), entitled: Building bridges to the African past

Over the past few decades, SAfA conferences have grown. SAfA meetings are intended to facilitate conversations that tackle the complex issues of cultural heritage management in Africa – examining dilemmas and their causes, and sharing opportunities, ideas and solutions. In total, 250 people registered for the conference, of which 84 were students. The Plenary Session explored “Dilemmas and Solutions in Cultural Heritage Management in Africa”. Five keynote speakers addressed provocative themes..

Aterian lithic technology and settlement system in the Jebel Gharbi, North-Western Libya

The Aterian represents one of the multiple facets of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and has become increasingly important in the context of understanding modern human origins. In this paper, we present the results of our study on the Aterian in the Jebel Gharbi, North-Western Libya, from a regional point perspective. A total of 1567 lithic objects were analysed for this work from twelve different Aterian assemblages. The results of this analysis show a wide range of economic behaviour, possibly suggesting different site functions, within the three main areas (Ain Zargha, Jefara and Wadi Ghan). It is unlikely that any of these assemblages represents a residential site. Instead, we argue that the assemblages in the study are more likely to be the result of a logistic land use. Technologically, they exhibit all the distinctive features of the Aterian technocomplexes: coexistence between Levallois and blade technology, presence of tanged pieces and bifacial foliates, as well as of “Upper Palaeolithic” tools, together with a majority of sidescrapers and endscrapers. Only a combination of these features, and certainly not one of them alone, can characterize an assemblage as “Aterian”

From settlement patterns to memory of place among Holocene hunter-gatherers at Sai Island, Middle Nile Valley

Persistent places are the locations where people aggregate, utilise and reuse natural or built features and develop their social identities and interactions. A network of persistent places forms interconnected persistent settlement patterns, which create a humanly made or storied landscape with a shared community-based memory of place. Although it has been demonstrated that persistent settlement patterns long preceded the onset of Neolithic farming villages, the Levant has received the most attention regarding this perspective. At the same time, Africa still needs to be addressed. This paper provides an illustrative case study of persistent settlement patterns created by Holocene hunter-gatherers in the Middle Nile Valley of Sudan. It employs geostatistical patterning and visual mapping of an extensive collection of different classes of artefacts (lithic industry, hammerstones, ground stone tools and pottery) from a well-preserved Khartoum Variant site on Sai Island and correlates them to complex architectural features exposed on an archaeological surface (Level 1) at site 8-B-10C dating to the early fifth millennium cal. BC. The combination of multiple in-depth geostatistical analyses of a complex habitation system successfully documents an exceptionally preserved planned intra-site settlement organisation maintained over several generations, revealing a memory of place.Les lieux persistants sont les endroits où les gens se regroupent, utilisent et réutilisent les structures naturelles ou construites, et où ils développent leurs identités et interactions sociales. Un réseau de lieux persistants forme à son tour des modes de peuplement persistants et interconnectés, ce qui crée un paysage anthropique ou marqué par des histoires, avec une mémoire du lieu qui est partagée par la communauté. Bien qu’il ait été démontré que les modes de peuplement persistant ont précédé de longtemps l’apparition des villages agricoles néolithiques, le Levant a reçu la plus grande attention dans cette perspective, tandis que l’Afrique a été négligée. Cet article présente une étude de cas illustratif sur les modes d’établissement persistants créés par les chasseurs-cueilleurs de l’Holocène dans la vallée moyenne du Nil. Nous utilisons des modèles géostatistiques et la cartographie visuelle d’une vaste collection de différentes classes d’artefacts (industrie lithique, percuteurs, outils en pierre polie et poterie) provenant d’un site bien préservé du ‘Khartoum Variant’ sur l’île de Sai, et les mettons en corrélation avec des structures architecturales complexes exposées sur une surface archéologique (niveau 1) sur le site 8-B-10C, qui date du début du cinquième millénaire calibrée avant J.-C. La combinaison d’analyses géostatistiques multiples et approfondies d’un système d’habitation complexe documente avec succès une organisation planifiée de l’habitat à l’échelle du site qui est exceptionnellement préservée et qui fut maintenue sur plusieurs générations, révélant une mémoire du lieu

Spatial analysis of the Khartoum Variant Site 8-B-10C (8th-6th mill. BC) at Sai Island (Sudan): preliminary results

Sai is an island in the Nile River located in northern Sudan, 30 km south of Aswan High Dam (Lake Nasser), at the Egyptian-Sudanese border. Numerous early Holocene sites have been located on the island and have been assigned to the so-called Khartoum Variant period (7600-4800 BC). One of them, Site 8-B-10C, revealed a particularly rich archaeological deposit and was extensively excavated. The excavations involved a surface of 7x15 m (105 square metres), organized by a regular 1x1-m grid. Data for spatial analysis were organised according to a GIS platform (ArcMap® 10.3). The Spatial Autocorrelation Global Moran’s and the Getis-Ord General G statistics highlight high clustered spatial patterns in the dataset of the site