Palynological evidence of cultural and environmental connections in Sudanese Nubia during the Early and Middle Holocene

Pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs have been studied from three archaeological sites (8-B-10C, 8-B-76, and 8-B-81) on Sai Island, in the River Nile, and one (2-R-66) from the Amara West district, in northern Upper Nubia of the present Sudan. The research aimed at obtaining information on the environmental conditions and changes occurring in the area during the Early and Middle Holocene. Archaeologically, this is a crucial period as it saw one of the most relevant economic transitions from hunting–fishing–gathering to animal herding. The archaeopalynological analyses are useful to reconstruct the environment and plant landscapes that supported human plant selection in this part of North Africa, between about 8700 and 4300 cal BC. However, pollen was not present everywhere because the sediments were very poor in organic content, or damaged by the repeated hydration–dehydration cycles determined by the Nile river floodings. The data obtained, the most consistent from any archaeological site in this area, are coherent with the regional and interregional palaeoenvironmental data. The interdisciplinary studies that allowed the correct interpretation of the pollen records presented in this paper included the archaeological features, and the faunal (mainly gastropod) and algal remains from the same sites. The state of preservation of most pollen, showing thinned exine, and the remarkable records of the terrestrial alga Fritschiella outline the seasonality of the area that has been evident in the past as in the present. Pollen samples included prevailing amounts of grasses and sedges that, with some hygro-hydrophilous taxa, largely represent the riverine and wetland vegetation of the Nile Valley. They suggest that the land use was not intensive and was not able to substantially modify the natural cover and cyclic renewal of the soils and the vegetation. The interdisciplinary evidence from the Sai Island, showing that site 8-B-76 has been continuatively occupied during the 8.2 ka BP dry phase, proves the key role played by the great river on attracting humans and supplying resources even, and especially, during the arid oscillations of the Holocene.