Archaeologists from Macquarie University and the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures have discovered 16 new rock art sites in Sudan's eastern desert, or 'Atobai'. Almost all of his newly discovered 4,000-year-old artwork depicts the presence of cows.
Rock art from the area around Gebel Nahoganet in the eastern desert of Sudan. Image credit: Cooper other., doi: 10.1177/03075133231211.
“Finding a cow carved into a desert rock face was puzzling, as cows require large amounts of water and acres of pasture, and cannot survive in today's arid conditions in the Sahara Desert.” said Macquarie University researcher Dr Julian Cooper.
“The presence of cows in ancient rock art is one of the most important pieces of evidence for a former 'Green Sahara.'”
Rock art found in eastern Sudan also depicts the desert as a grassy savanna filled with ponds, rivers, swamps, and waterholes and home to a variety of African savannah animals, including giraffes and elephants.
The idea of a “Green Sahara'' has been proven through previous archeological and climate fieldwork and research, and experts are calling this the “African Wet Period''. This is a period of increased summer monsoon precipitation that began about 15,000 years ago and ended about 5,000 years ago.
Depictions of humans alongside cows may indicate the act of milking, suggesting that the area was once occupied by cattle pastoralists until the 2nd or 3rd millennium BC.
After this point, reduced rainfall made cattle grazing impossible.
Currently, the region receives very little annual precipitation.
At the end of the “African Wet Period”, around 3000 BC, lakes and rivers began to dry up, dry pastures became covered with sand, and most of humanity left the Sahara Desert to seek refuge near the Nile River.
“The Atbai desert around Wadi Halfa, where new rock art was discovered, was almost completely depopulated. For those who remained, cattle were abandoned for sheep and goats,” the archaeologists said.
“This would have profoundly affected every aspect of human life, from diets and limited milk supplies to the movement patterns of nomadic families and the identity and livelihoods of those who depended on cattle.”
team's paper Published in Egyptian Archeology Journal.
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julian cooper other. 2023. Rock art research in the eastern desert of Sudan: Results of the 2018-2019 Atobai research project. Egyptian Archeology Journal 109 (1-2); doi: 10.1177/03075133231211
Source: www.sci.news
