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Late Stone Age Shell Middens on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea

2009; Routledge; Volume: 4; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/15564890802662171

1556-1828

Daniella E. Bar‐Yosef Mayer, Amanuel Beyin,

Archaeology and ancient environmental studies

ABSTRACT A pioneer survey of the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea revealed three shell middens dated to the mid-Holocene that reflect the exploitation of different coastal environments. Misse East and Gelalo Northwest were both dated to the eighth millennium BP. The former is dominated by Atactodea striata, a small bivalve that burrows in intertidal sands, the latter by Terebralia palustris, a large gastropod living in mangrove swamps. Gelalo Northwest also included a relatively large number of shell beads. Asfet, dated to the sixth millennium BP, was also dominated by Terebralia palustris. This coastal settlement is probably the result of adverse climatic conditions that prevailed in the hinterland during that period. Change in the regime of monsoons in the Sahara and northeast Africa may have caused human populations to settle in better-watered areas, the Red Sea Coast among them, and to adapt to the new conditions by exploiting the marine environment. Keywords: Africashellfish gatheringHolocene ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Fieldwork was generously supported by the Dan David Prize, the LSB Leakey Foundation, and Wenner-Gren Foundation. We are also grateful to Dr. Yosief Libsekal, director of the National Museum of Eritrea, and Dr. Zemenfes Tsighe of the University of Asmara for their support and for making this research possible. Mr. H. K. Mienis, Collections Manager of the Mollusk Collection at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, helped with species identification. Dr. Ruth Shahak-Gross (Bar-Ilan University) and Prof. Paul Goldberg (Boston University) provided consultation on shell and bone preservation. Bar-Yosef Mayer thanks the staff of the Israel Embassy in Asmara for their kind assistance. Beyin thanks his research collaborators from the National Museum of Eritrea and Asmara University. Special thanks from both of us to John J. Shea for following this project. Finally, thanks to Geoff Bailey, Gregory A. Waselkov, and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Jon Erlandson and Scott M. Fitzpatrick for their editorial assistance.