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

ABSTRACT

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.

RÉSUMÉ

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Memory of place
• Holocene hunter-gatherers
• geospatial patterning
• Middle Nile Valley
• Sai Island
• Sudan

Acknowledgements

Elena Garcea conducted fieldwork at Sai Island in 2004–2005, 2008–2009 and 2011–2013. At the time, she was in charge of the Research Unit for Later Prehistory within the Sai Island Archaeological Mission (SIAM) of the University Charles de Gaulle-Lille 3, France, under the aegis of Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM). She wishes to express her gratitude to the SIAM project directors, Francis Geus, Didier Devauchelle and Vincent Francigny, as well as to the NCAM directors and staff for their constant support and invaluable assistance. This work was supported by grants awarded her by the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration under Grant #8715-09, the Department of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Cassino and Southern Latium and the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research. Both authors contributed to the Introduction to the final editing. VS wrote Research methods, Results and General discussion of spatial behaviour. EAAG wrote The Khartoum Variant, Sai Island, Site 8-B-10C, From settlement patterns to memory of place and Final remarks.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vincenzo Spagnolo

Vincenzo Spagnolo is an archaeologist and research fellow of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Siena, Italy. His research interests include spatial archaeology and GIS, Palaeolithic societies, Palaeolithic behaviour, settlement dynamics, mobility/economy patterns and social archaeology. Since 2013 he has been involved in the study of key Mousterian sites in Italy, applying his expertise to the reconstruction of settlement dynamics, and since 2016 he has been collaborating on the study of Site 8-B-10C on Sai Island.

Elena A.A. Garcea

Elena A.A. Garcea is an archaeologist and professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Cassino and Southern Latium, Italy. Her research interests include pottery-bearing foragers, non-agricultural food producers, sedentism/mobility dynamics and the emergence of complex societies. Between 2004 and 2013, she was in charge of the Later Prehistory Research Unit within the Archaeological Mission of Sai Island and directed the excavations at 8-B-10C and other sites. She is currently a research associate of the Charles University Sabaloka Expedition in Sudan and the Shaqadud Archaeological Project.