Sedentism, Cultivation, and Plant Domestication in the Holocene Middle Nile Region

Abstract

This paper focuses on preconditions for, and consequences of, sedentism and the emergence of cultivation. Archaeological material from sites in the Middle Nile basin dated to the mid-9th millennium b.p., shows that fishing, shellfish collecting, hunting, and plant gathering were important subsistence activities and that pottery was used for cooking and storage. The multitude of tasks involved in these activities is generally based on some kind of division of labor, either within the domestic unit or between such units. Comparative ethnographic material shows a very close correlation between females and a suite of activities including child rearing, plant gathering, and food preparation. It is assumed that this was also the case among people inhabiting these sites, and that women played a major role in the technological innovations related to these tasks. There are early dates for the occurrence of pottery (mid-10th millennium b.p.) that indicate that pottery was invented independently in the region between the Nile and the Sahara. The use of pottery has wide ranging implications since it can broaden the utilization of food resources, especially grain. Pottery has demographic implications because boiled food permits earlier weaning of infants, which would shorten the breast feeding period and thereby influence the fertility of women. It is argued that this change resulted in intensified use of plant resources. Despite an early occurrence of cultivating activities, ca. 6000 b.p., it took several millennia before these new selection pressures led to morphological changes that characterize domesticated varieties of sorghum.