Eastern Sudan, Gash Delta in Prehistory
Osama Elnur
Eastern Sudan: The Gash Delta in prehistory
A brief overview of the most important results of field research in eastern Sudan
Osama Abdel-Rahman Elnur
In fact, until recently, references were neglected by the inhabitants of eastern Sudan living along the northern border of Ethiopia, from the Atbara River, the Red Sea, and the Ethiopian Plateau, and this region remained unknown to archaeologists and historians, with the exception of limited evidence collected by Arkell in the 1940s in Agurdat in the middle Baraka Valley, and that collected by Shiner in the 1960s near Khashm al-Girba in Wadi Baraka. Middle Atbara. For long times, the region was considered a desolate land inhabited by nomads who did not contribute to the ancient cultural history of Kush and the Nile Valley in general. Kitchen, 1971; 1972 and some of the few researchers had put forward a hypothesis stating that this region was the “Land of Punt” recorded in Egyptian texts since the Old Kingdom. Arkell,1954Kitchen,1971;1972
Historical evidence for eastern Sudan and the Gash Delta is very scarce. There is no confirmed mention of the region, neither in Egyptian inscriptions nor in Nabataean and Meroe inscriptions. However, both Zyhlarz, 1958 and Zibelius, 1972:170-171 put forward the opinion that the country of “Gears” mentioned in the list of countries of Tuthmosis III coincides with the area located between Kassala and Goz Rajab. Garstang et al. 1911 believes that “Tesni” recorded in the lists of enemies on the walls of the “Sun God” temple in Meroe, matches the Eritrean Tesni located at Al-Gash, about 40 km south of Kassala. The prominent inscriptions and texts that tell us the facts of the mission sent by Queen Hatshepsut to the Land of Punt were found on the walls of the Deir el-Bahari Temple. For long times, it was believed that the country of Punt was located in the Horn of Africa. Currently, the majority of researchers present a different opinion, which says that the country of Punt is located on the Sudanese coast of the Red Sea Берзина, 1990. Therefore, they believe that the country of Punt included the coast up to the northern border of Eritrea and the inland land adjacent to the coast. Therefore, many researchers believe that Egyptian ships heading to the country of Punt docked in the area of present-day Port Sudan-Suakin. The name of the “Nemi” and “Eram” tribes was mentioned in Hatshepsut’s inscription among the tribes in the country of Punt that offered tribute to the queen. O’Connor 1984:117 puts forward an opinion that “Nemi” is a misspelling of the name “Amu,” and it is the place from which the Egyptians brought gold. As for “Iram,” O’Connor demonstrated with strong arguments that this tribe lived to the east of the Nile (and not to the west of it as was commonly believed), approximately in the area where the Atbara and Nile rivers meet. Zyhlarz,1958Zibelius,1972:170-171Берзина,1990
Among the most important commodities that the Egyptians sought to acquire was gold, which is abundant in many areas of Sudan, although extracting it required hard work. Although gold must have been an important commodity in ancient times, its intensive exploitation began with the New Kingdom of Egypt, and securing access to it was one of the reasons for the Egyptian occupation of Nubia in the New Kingdom. There were several gold mining areas to which roads were found. “Wawat gold” was brought from the hills to the east of Lower Nubia, where access to the mines was mainly via the Allaqi Valley, which heads south-east from Muharraq on the Nile, far into the mountainous region along the Red Sea (for more details about the gold-rich areas, see Vercoutter 1959). It appears that the Ptolemies intensified their attempts to control Lower Nubia with the aim of securing access to the gold mines in the Red Sea hills via the routes opened by the pharaohs of the New Kingdom of Egypt.
Hellenistic sources seem to have recorded a population living in the Gash lowlands. According to Conti Rossini (1925; 1928), the Megabari, who are described in Agatharchid's work as nomads who constitute a branch of the Troglades, may be inhabitants of this region. They could be ancestors of the Baria who currently live in western Eritrea, according to Conti Rossini 1913. Conti Rossini,1925;1928
The book Monumentum Adulitanum in the third century AD, Wolska-Konus, 1968: 372-379, recorded the Tangatians among the peoples that followed Aksum, and they were identified by Kirwan, 1972 and Huntingford, 1974, with the population living in the Gash (Taka) delta. Wolska-Konus,1968:372-379Kirwan,1972Huntingford,1974
The Christian inscriptions of King Ezana (fourth century AD) mention the Nuba conquest of the region east of the Setit River, which indicates, in the opinion of Fattovich (1987), that the population living between the Takazi and Barka rivers was subject to Aksumite control. Littmann et al.1913:43 reports that a post-Axumi inscription by King Daniel (ca. 10th-11th century AD) records a campaign towards Kassala during which the Barias were conquered. Fattovich,1987
Archaeological data obtained during the last fifteen years related to early cultures in eastern Sudan indicate that the models proposed to explain cultural development in the prehistoric stage in the Near East and the Egyptian Nile Valley need to be expanded, taking into account the possibility of the existence of alternative cultural processes.
The traditional model of the transition from a hunter-gatherer economy to food production, initially proposed by Gordon Childe and subsequently modified, initially by Braidwood and Willey 1962, and later by a large number of researchers, assumes that the first forms of food production followed the concentration of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers in specific areas, and their life there was imposed by various forms of natural pressures, such as, for example, climate change, the growth of population density, and so on. There is common evidence that the introduction of millstones and pottery was linked to the emergence of a new socio-economic organization, generally called the “Neolithic Age”, characterized by sedentary life, agricultural activities, and a rural economy. The emerging new possibilities for food production and storage are seen as the first element of social stratification, which ultimately leads to the formation of an “elite” and the emergence of the state system.
During the past forty years, which has witnessed intense research in the field of prehistory in northeastern Africa, the model provided by archaeological data from the Egyptian Nile Valley has proven to be fully compatible with this scheme. A different situation, however, often characterized eastern Sudan, where summer rains and a dry climate hindered the growth of wild crops and the development of agriculture. Hence, the pre-history of eastern Sudan provided a promising opportunity to provide models for different economic and social processes, and alternative ways towards developing urban societies. Based on these potentials, the Sudanese General Administration of Antiquities and National Museums decided in 1981 to start an archaeological exploration project accompanied by excavations in eastern Sudan. In implementation of this project, certification was granted to two archaeological missions to work, specifically, the joint mission of the Universities of Khartoum/Dulles, and the mission of the University Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of Naples, in the area between Kassala and Khashm al-Girba.
The initial results of the work of the two aforementioned missions clearly demonstrated the existence of a cultural continuity covering the entire period starting from the tenth millennium BC until the eighth century AD. This paper seeks to shed light on these results and analyze them based on an assessment of the relationship between culture and the environment that adheres to the limits established by contemporary archaeology, namely that it is not possible to exceed the importance of the role that both culture and the environment occupy for archaeology. Addressing environment and culture requires referring to the principles of cultural ecology as well as the principles of geoarchaeology. Culture, by which we specifically mean the group that embodies such culture, lives in interaction with the natural environment, and not only aspects of material culture, but also economic choices, residential and demographic characteristics, are determined by the environment.
The emphasis placed by functional archeology on the procedural concept of culture, that is, on culture as a product of systemic function, has pushed some questions of research strategy to the forefront. Creating assessments of the dimensions of spatial phenomena. This included moving away from interest in the traditional “archaeological site unit” and directing the research focus to broader regional frameworks, and to paying attention to sedimentation processes, to the processes of archaeological site formation and destruction (which depend heavily on the fluctuations of ancient environments), and to the stratigraphic contents and post-depositional dynamics. In addition to these considerations, issues related to the distribution of resources (water, plants, animals, and raw materials) must not be overlooked because this is related to the nature of the environment.
These last points, as is known, were developed particularly in the field of geoarchaeology, a branch of knowledge that has shown the ways in which quantitative principles and techniques, particularly for the study of the environment, can be applied in archaeological research. It is known that the work of Butzer (1982) represents a fundamental development of the principles of functional archaeology, and provides a solid foundation for archaeological research aimed at providing cities not only with theoretical tools, but also with the technical tools that the archaeologist needs. An example of this is found in Butzer's understanding of culture as a concept that does not take on the metaphysical value of a system, nor is it an ideal system for society's behavior, an understanding that developed in the field of cultural ecology. However, it is possible to notice a shift in both cases from an interest in tools and their typological classification to an interest in shifts in behavior, that is, a shift to the dynamic by which people organize their existence through their interaction with others and their cultural, natural, and metaphysical environments... From this standpoint, the presented paper attempts to evaluate the recent results of the ongoing archaeological research in eastern Sudan from the reality of a vision characterized by an emphasis on the development of the economy and the general lifestyle without neglecting the definition, succession, and interrelationships of the named industries. Thus, we see that the most evident shift in the behavior of eastern Sudanese groups in the mid-early Holocene can be seen in the first experiments with food production, that is, in the transition from a state of dependence on the environment to a state of “actual” organization and production of resources (see below the stages through which this process passed). Food production can be seen as the result of an adaptive dynamic resulting from selective exploitation that humans have exerted, as a result of their accumulated experiences, on the environment. Butzer,1982
Although it is possible to note that systemic functionalism and the concepts of adaptation related to it may lead to a mechanical explanation of cultural phenomena that excludes the individual contribution Hodder (1985), it cannot be denied that the concept of systematicity allows reaching a degree of control and quantitative measurement of data to a degree that was not possible to reach through traditional models. The results of research in the Gash Delta Fattovich (1990c) indicated that change can occur not only due to the environment, but also due to other elements such as demography, symbolic ideology, and connections with neighboring regions. The results also confirmed that the influence of the environment in the conditions of eastern Sudan was an important, even decisive, element in determining the decisions of groups (Sadr, 1993). The possibilities of choice were still numerous among early Holocene groups, and the flourishing of civilization along waterways in particular was the result of decisions made by human groups at that stage. But later, with the emergence of the dry phases that characterized the late Holocene, the restrictions imposed by the more stringent environment began to impose a transition from hunting to agriculture among the groups of eastern Sudan in the early Holocene. In this paper, the hypothesis of a model is adopted that considers food production as an adjustment of groups dependent on a local appropriative production pattern in order to adapt to specific environmental constraints, and the role played by resource variability as an element in increasing the exploitable subsistence base is emphasized. By resorting to such an approach, it is possible to provide an assessment of the extent of economic and technical activities, socio-political systems, and beliefs that have developed according to varying population densities, physical barriers, means of transportation, and available resources. This way we can see the optimal way in which different environments were exploited. Hodder,1985Fattovich,1990c
The reconstruction of the paleoenvironment in eastern Sudan in the Holocene is still a matter of speculation. Available evidence indicates a humid climate in the early Holocene (ca. 6000-4000 BC) and increasing aridity during the middle Holocene (ca. 4000-1000 BC) with a tree-savanna environment in the middle of the second millennium BC. Geraads,1983; Fattovich, Sadr and Vitagliano 1988.
In general, it seems that climatic fluctuations in eastern Sudan followed the same path that characterized North and northeastern Africa in general. The fluctuations were characterized by increasing aridity from 4000-3000 BC, with a period in which fairly humid conditions prevailed in the third and second millennium BC. The present conditions arrived around 1000 BC, with a warm period at the beginning of the second millennium and the increasing stabilization of the current dry climate in the middle of the second millennium BC. (See Butzer, 1976; Hassan, 1981; Muzzolini, 1982; Williams, 1982; Gowlett, 1989. Butzer,1976Hassan,1981Muzzolini,1982Williams,1982Gowlett,1989
Chronologically, the cultures of eastern Sudan, which represent a regular periodicity, have been classified as follows: Fattovich 1994:
* The first phase was represented by population groups that exploited the local riverine and savanna environments and lived in the northern delta during the sixth and fifth millennium BC. (Umm Adam Group). Samples of sherds similar to early Khartoum pottery were found, which may indicate a connection with the Nile Valley.
* The second phase was represented by a group of hunter-gatherers who relied on savannah mammals and lived in the plains extending between Sharab Al-Gash and the Atbara River in the fifth millennium BC. (Malawia Group). The pottery of this group appears to be contemporary with the pottery of the Nile Valley and the Sahara. Soft-handled pottery indicates the relationship of this group to the earlier Umm Adam group.
* The third phase is represented by the descendants of the Malawi group who lived in the fourth millennium and the early third millennium BC. (Al-Butana Group), in the plains near the ancient streams of Al-Gash that shift towards the Atbara River. Their subsistence economy was based primarily on hunting savannah mammals, fishing, and possibly grain farming. The people of this group began in the late fourth millennium BC. In domesticating cows. The size of the residence sites expanded to reach 10 hectares. Valuable ornamental objects at key sites indicate the possible emergence of a hierarchical society.
* The fourth phase is represented by a pastoral group, or agricultural pastoralism, whose people lived throughout the delta and the Sharab Al-Gash region from the beginning of the third millennium until the middle of the second millennium BC. (Gash Group). Sadr (1988) believes that it represents a continuation of the previous phase. Accommodation sites vary in size from less than a hectare to 13 hectares, with social stratification clearly evident. Fattovich 1988 revealed an official cemetery with megalithic obelisks at the main site in the delta (Tiglinus Place) dating back to the late third millennium and the beginning of the second millennium BC. The population entered into a wide network of connections and trade exchange with Egypt, Nubia, the Peninsula, Ethiopia, and the southern Arabian Peninsula, and they were an important trading partner for the Kingdom of Kerma Fattovich, Sadr and Vitagliano 1988. Fattovich believes that the form of the state was closer, potentially, to the sheikhdom statelet Fattovich 1991. Sadr,1988
* The fifth phase is culturally linked to the Agordat group in Wadi Barka (see: Arkell, 1954) and occupied the northwest of the delta in the middle of the second millennium BC. Arkell,1954
* The sixth phase was represented by an agricultural and pastoral population, descending from the Gash group. They inhabited the plains between the Gash and Atbara rivers, and spread as far as Wadi Barka, from the middle of the second millennium to the middle of the first millennium BC. (Jabal Makram Group). The pottery of this group shows a resemblance to the pottery of pan-graves, which led Karim Sadr (1986; 1987) to assume that they had connections or mixing with residents coming from the north. This population still maintained connections with Nubia, and possibly with Ethiopia and southern Arabia. A form of social complexity remained. In the first half of the first millennium BC. These residents occupied only the district of Jarab al-Gash. It is possible that by this period the region had been included in the sphere of Ethiopian influence, as indicated by the Aksumite pottery sherds at the later Jebel Makram sites. Sadr,1986;1987
* The seventh phase is represented by a pastoral population, with limited grain cultivation, descending from the previous group and inhabiting the entire area extending between Kassala and Khashm al-Girba in the late first millennium BC. And the beginning of the first millennium AD (Hags Group). The similarities in the pottery of this group with its Aksumite counterparts indicate that the region was within the sphere of Ethiopian influence. No evidence of cultural complexity was detected Fattovich, Sadr and Vitagliano 1988.
* The eighth phase is represented by a sedentary group, which mostly engaged in trade between Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia, and its people lived in the area surrounding Mount Taka, near Kassala, in the middle of the first millennium BC. (Khatmiyya Group). The pottery indicates similarity with its Late Meroe and/or Post-Meroe counterparts in central Sudan and with the Late Pre-Axumite artefacts in northern Ethiopia.
* The ninth phase is represented by a pastoral or semi-pastoral population carrying cultural traditions related to the post-Meroe traditions in central Sudan. Traces of this group were found in the region south of Kassala and date back to the late first millennium BC. Fattovich,1989b.
On the basis of the evidence provided by exploration and excavation works in eastern Sudan, the cultural development of the region appears to have passed through multiple stages, as the region witnessed in the period from about 5000 BC. Until 300/400 AD a local tradition developed, characterized by unique pottery (what is known as the Atbai tradition). In the period about 6000-1500 BC, there is evidence indicating the emergence of links with Nubia and the Eastern Desert. In the period 2500-1500 BC. The region began to engage in the network of economic exchange between Egypt and the southern regions of northeastern Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. It is this last period that we are interested in highlighting because it provides the first material evidence of the emerging cultural ties between eastern Sudan and the southern Arabian Peninsula and a tangible development due to the expansion of the commercial relations of the ruling system from a simple sheikhdom to a complex sheikhdom.
Before proceeding to present the sample material provided by recent excavations and exploration in eastern Sudan, it is worth pointing out that the origins of the sheikhdom and the early state and their basic characteristics in general have been well covered in specialized literature Johnson and Earle, 1987; Earle,1987; Claessen and Skalick, 1978. Therefore, we need here to focus only on the properties that are directly relevant to the topic of this paper. A point of fundamental importance is that while systems of government can be divided into types, the definitional boundaries between those closely related types are inevitably fluid to some degree. The typological spectrum runs from societies with a primary egalitarian system, through the system of “the great sheikh or leader,” then simple and complex sheikhdoms, to, finally, the early state and its descendant the nation-state Johnson and Earle, 1987. Once the characteristics of a specific polity are recognized, it becomes possible to attribute it to its spectrum, but it is nevertheless necessary to allow for some fluidity of definitional boundaries. Johnson and Earle see that sheikhdoms “at the lower end... resemble the regimes of the great sheikh or leader; and at the higher end, they converge with states. Sheikhdoms are best conceptualized as an evolutionary series of social hierarchy and institutions of governance” Johnson and Earle 1987. Johnson and Earle,1987Earle ,1987Claessen and Skalick,1978
As long as the sheikhdom and the state are the subject of our topic, we have to ask the question: What are the common characteristics between the two systems, and what are the differences between them? The most notable common characteristics that interest us are that both systems—the sheikhdom and the state—display a relatively high degree of integration (the organized polity covers a considerable area with a large population); And certainly in the government system; A clear degree of hierarchy, in terms of social rank and status, and in terms of economic privileges or loss thereof Johnson and Earle, 1987:288-291. As for the differences, Johnson and Earl suggest that “the state differs from the sheikhdom primarily in terms of the former’s larger size, a larger and more diverse population, and a stricter social hierarchy.” These differences result from functional transformations: as the degree and magnitude of differentiation increases, the difficulties of interdependence arise, which are “beyond the informal control of the hereditary elite,” that is, the sheikhdom, and require instead “a government bureaucracy, an official religion, a judicial system, and a police force.” Johnson and Earle,1987:288-291
“With regard to differentiation, sheikhdoms consist of a population numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands (the maximum is one hundred thousand people), while states consist of a population numbering in the hundreds of thousands and millions.” Johnson and Earle, 1987:211,225,246,256; Earle, 1987:297. Therefore, states usually have larger areas than sheikhdoms, although there is considerable diversity as long as the population density is not homogeneous, whether in sheikhdoms or sheikhdoms. States. As for the system of government, both sheikhdoms and states have many levels, but the office holders in the sheikhdoms form a structure in which “each pole point...is completely identical to that point in the center” (Cohen, 1987:35-36). Consequently, sheikhdoms...are highly generalized leadership systems in which the different levels have similar duties” (Earle 1987:289). For this reason, sheikhdoms can be susceptible to fission (in contrast to States), and tend "to disintegrate and form similar units." States, on the contrary, can “represent an entirely new type of society,” with systems that keep out fissiparous tendencies” Cohen, 1987: 34. States succeed in this by developing “hierarchical and specialized bureaucracies, the likes of which do not exist in sheikhdoms,” in which office holders are centrally appointed and whose maintenance of office and promotion depends on competence and loyalty to the ruler. Johnson and Earle,1987:211,225,246,256Earle,1987:297Cohen,1987:35-36Cohen,1987:34
Chiefdoms and states consist of hierarchical societies, with high-status elites, usually wealthy and powerful. The hierarchy is generated by financial systems that exploit agricultural resources and long-distance trade for the benefit of elites, but they are equally necessary for the survival and stability of society as a whole (Johnson and Earle 1987:207-211). Rate increases are more severe and pronounced in a state than in a sheikhdom (Johnson and Earle 1987:246,319). In the state, the hierarchy is based on class. Society is divided into rulers and landowners on one side, and producers and commoners on the other side (Johnson and Earle 1987:270). A merchant class may also develop.
As long as archaeological data are our only source for studying the cultural development of eastern Sudan in the period under study, we will try to ask whether the characteristics of the sheikhdoms were reflected in the archaeological record.
The trade routes of ancient Sudan show an uncomplicated pattern characterized by continuity over long periods of time. The dominant role that the Nile played in the lives of the population, with almost all activities on its banks, made trade follow the river. Trade with Egypt represented the basic commercial activity, and relevant information is available regarding its direction to the south, while the details of commercial activities towards the west and east are scarce and difficult to reconstruct, although hypotheses have been put forward in this regard, but they still require further research. In this context comes the importance of the results reached by the archaeological research currently underway in eastern Sudan.
The results recently obtained as a result of these field research indicate the development of a society that adopts an organization closer to the system of a sheikhdom, with Tigellinus being an administrative center and a ceremonial center associated with funeral rituals. Administrative institutions indicate that a form of control over the redistribution network emerged in the early Gash Group phase. Funerary practices indicate the emergence of a form of social hierarchy in the late Gash group. As for the architectural remains that were studied in the Tigelinos shop, they indicate huge buildings and shops built of green brick dating back to the late Gash Group phase.
The material evidence obtained from archaeological excavations at the Tigelinos site indicates the beginning of the emergence of a sheikhdom-state in the period of the Classic and Late Gash Phases, and the foundations of this new system were established in the Late Gash Group phase. It appears from the data provided by recent field work (Fattovich, Sadr and Vitagliano, 1988) that the process of consolidating the foundations of the sheikhdom statelet system in the Gash Delta was influenced by the role it played in the trade exchange network with Egypt in the north, Nubia in the west, Al-Jazira in the southwest, and the southern Arabian Peninsula in the east across the Red Sea, and with the Horn of Africa. The study of the strange objects found in the site of Tigellinus indicates that the people of the Gash group had entered into contacts with Egypt, Nubia, and the southern Arabian Peninsula since the times of the early Gash group (2700-2300 BC). They also established connections with Kerma, to the north of Butana, and the southern Arabian Peninsula in the Middle Gash Group (2300-1900 BC) and Classic (1900-1700 BC) phases. These connections continued with Kerma, the Jazira, Ethiopia, and southern Arabia in the Late Gash Group phase (1700-1400 BC). Fattovich,Sadr and Vitagliano,1988
Based on the initial interpretation of the results obtained from the archaeological research currently underway in eastern Sudan, the process of formation of the complex society in eastern Sudan, specifically the Gash Delta, appears in its general form as follows: The emergence of a hierarchical society that relied on a role in the trade exchange network with Egypt, Nubia, and the southern Arabian Peninsula in the early Gash group phase. This emphasizes the abilities of some high-ranking group members to consolidate their control over the redistribution network. The people of the Gash Group became intermediaries between Kerma and the southern Arabian Peninsula in the Middle and Classic Gash Group phases. The official obelisks that were uncovered in the Tigellinus shop indicate that some sectors of the population enjoyed privileges with regard to strategic resources, which helped the emergence of strong leadership. The establishment of effective administrative authorities by the late Gash Group phase was linked to the expansion of the exchange network with Egypt, Nubia, the Jazira, the southern Arabian Peninsula, and Ethiopia.
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