DiscoverScroll article

Nabta Playa was once a large endorheic basin (a temporary lake, or "playa") in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern-day Cairo or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, 22.51° north, 30.73° east.

Today the region is characterized by numerous archaeological sites. The Nabta Playa archaeological site, one of the earliest of the Nubian Neolithic Period, is dated to circa 7500 BC.

There is good evidence that there were several humid periods in the past (when up to 500 mm of rain would fall per year), including during the last interglacial and early last glaciation periods which stretched between 130,000 and 70,000 years ago, with the most recent one being the African humid period from around 15,000 to 6,000 years ago. This is disputed by other sources as the cattle remains found at Nabta have been shown to be morphologically wild in several studies, and hunter-gatherers at the nearby Saharan site of Uan Afada in Libya were penning wild Barbary sheep, an animal that was never domesticated. According to Michael Brass (2018) early cattle remains from Nabta Playa were wild hunted aurochs, whilst domesticated cattle were introduced to northeast Africa in the late 7th millennium BC, originating from cattle domesticated in the Euphrates valley. Larger settlements began to appear at Nabta Playa by the 7th millennium BC, relying on deep wells for sources of water. Early pottery from the Nabta Playa-Bir Kiseiba area has characteristics unlike pottery from surrounding regions. Some researchers, including Christopher Ehret, have suggested a Nilo-Saharan linguistic affinity for the Nabta people. In a more recent publication, Ehret argued that the material cultural indicators correspond with the conclusion that the inhabitants of the wider Nabta Playa region were a Nilo-Saharan-speaking population. Ibrahim examined the megalithic complex of Nabta Playa, Upper Egypt to understand the cultural and population influences of the Holocene on pre-dynastic Egypt.

The people of Nabta Playa had villages with 'planned' layouts, with deep wells that held water year-round.

It has been suggested that the associated cattle cult indicated in Nabta Playa marks an early evolution of Ancient Egypt's Hathor cult. Rough megalithic stone structures buried underground are also found in Nabta Playa, one of which included evidence of what Wendorf described as perhaps "the oldest known sculpture in Egypt."

"Calendar circle" may be a misnomer as the spaces between the pairs of stones in the gates are a bit too wide, and the distances between the gates are too short for accurate calendar measurements." An inventory of Egyptian archaeoastronomical sites for the UNESCO World Heritage Convention evaluated Nabta Playa as having "hypothetical solar and stellar alignments."

They conclude their report by writing that "The symbolism embedded in the archaeological record of Nabta Playa in the Fifth Millennium BC is very basic, focussed on issues of major practical importance to the nomads: cattle, water, death, earth, sun and stars." In 2011, Maciej Jórdeczka, Halina Królik, Mirosław Masojć and Romuald Schild, a team of archaeologists, excavated a series of Holocene pottery from Nabta Playa which represented the earliest phase of ceramic production in the Saharan region and were described as "relatively sophisticated bowls decorated with a toothed wheel".

Irish (2001), reported in "Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara", based on osteological and dental data suggested a mainly sub-Saharan African affinity and origin at Nabta (with sub-Saharan tendencies most commonly detected), but also possible North African tendencies, concluding that, "Henneberg et al. suggest that the Nabta Playa people may have been most similar to Negroes from south of the Sahara. Analysis of the dental features of skeletons from the nearby cemetery at Gebel Ramlah indicated that "two different populations, Mediterranean and sub-Saharan" were represented in the population associated with Nabta Playa.

Quick Facts

• The Nabta Playa archaeological site, one of the earliest of the Nubian Neolithic Period, is dated to circa 7500 BC.
• Ibrahim examined the megalithic complex of Nabta Playa, Upper Egypt to understand the cultural and population influences of the Holocene on pre-dynastic Egypt.
• According to Michael Brass (2018) early cattle remains from Nabta Playa were wild hunted aurochs, whilst domesticated cattle were introduced to northeast Africa in the late 7th millennium BC, originating from cattle domesticated in the Euphrates valley.
• In a more recent publication, Ehret argued that the material cultural indicators correspond with the conclusion that the inhabitants of the wider Nabta Playa region were a Nilo-Saharan-speaking population.
• Larger settlements began to appear at Nabta Playa by the 7th millennium BC, relying on deep wells for sources of water.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Nabta Playa". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.