Countless prehistoric sites, representing many thousands of years of human activity, can be found scattered throughout Egypt’s Western Desert. These sites remind us that, at times, various Stone Age societies lived here long before pharaonic civilisation flowered in the Nile Valley some 5,000 years ago. They were only able to do so because of the various ‘humid’ periods that punctuated the hyper-arid conditions that now prevail in the Western Desert. The increased rainfall during these wetter phases created savannah-like environments in which lakes and pools formed, providing vital water sources for humans and animals alike.
The most significant prehistoric sites surviving in the Western Desert are arguably the Neolithic settlements. Today, these sites, which roughly date from 9000 to 3500 BC, are little-known outside academia and are somewhat overshadowed by the spectacular archaeology of pharaonic Egypt. However, their importance is undeniable, as they bear witness to the beginnings and development of a sedentary prehistoric lifestyle centred on domesticated crops and animals, which would ultimately give rise to one of the greatest ancient civilisations the world has seen.
Nabta Playa
The best-known and most impressive archaeological evidence for Neolithic settlement in the Western Desert has been found at Nabta Playa, a large wind-carved basin or playa, located about 60 miles west of Abu Simbel and some 19 miles north of the Sudanese border. The Combined Prehistoric Expedition (CPE), under the directorship of Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild, carried out the first series of excavations at Nabta Playa (in the 1970s and 1990s). The team investigated the remains of hundreds of encampments and settlements, around the edges of the shallow, but large, ephemeral ‘palaeo-lake’, making many important discoveries as a result.
