Gift of the Nile? Climate change, the origins of the Egyptian civilization and Its interactions within Northeast Africa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2177-4218.v13i1p251-281Keywords:
Egypt, Nubia, Africa, Climate Change, Intercultural Interactions, Trade, Sahara, Hannek, Akkad, GinefabAbstract
Scholars today see the same basic landscape as Herodotus did before them in Egypt and northern Sudan, a narrow strip of green fed by the Nile and surrounded by an absolute desert. This distinctive ecology continues to play a central role in models for the origins of the ancient Egyptian state that downplay ancient Egypt’s broader African interconnections. From the 1930’s through the present day, however, a group of deep desert explorers and archaeologists have documented that during the Neolithic period much of the Sahara was a vast grassland with seasonal and perhaps permanent lakes. This paper discusses evidence from recent research, including data from the UCSB Dongola Reach Expedition and UCSB-ASU Fourth Cataract Project, that points to interlinkages between the cultures of the Upper Egyptian Nile, the Sahara and Sudanese Nubia, demonstrating how interaction combined with climate change in the form of a gradual desiccation of the Sahara contributed to the rapid emergence of the Egyptian state while maintaining robust connections across northeast Africa.
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