Climatic Change and Human Settlement between the Nile Valley and the Central Sahara

Following the results of the long term interdisciplinary project "B.O.S." (Settlement History of the Eastern Sahara) further and more detailed research is to be carried out in the Northern Libyan Desert.

The sub-project focuses on the beginning and spread of food-producing economies, the general question of mono- or polycentric development of neolithic phenomena and the relevance of these processes for the beginning and rise of Egyptian civilization. Since the ecological setting for man's activities in the area can be divided into three larger environmental zones by the summer rains in the North, winter rains in the South and the Nile Valley in the East, the study of regional climatic development is a necessary prerequisite for understanding the historical development and the possible role and range of interregional contacts. In this regard a detailed regional chronology has to be worked out on the basis of geomorphological- sedimentological analyses as well as of archaeological excavations including palaeobotany and archaeozoology.

Within the general theme of the SFB - man and environment - this sub-project focuses on the earliest level of relevant interdependence between economic/social life and environmental conditions, investigates the transition to productive economy, and thus tries to record an initial stage in the cultural change, obviously starting in the North and affecting the South of the continent some millennia later.