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Mid-Holocene bifacial tradition evidenced in Augila Oasis, Cyrenaica, Libya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2015

John P. Mason  and
Giulio Lucarini
John P. Mason
Affiliation:
International Development Consulting, J. Mason Associates, Colesville, Maryland, USA.
Giulio Lucarini
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK.
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Abstract

This article considers three lithic artefacts (two sidescrapers and a gouge or plane) discovered at Augila Oasis, located in Cyrenaica along the dried riverbed of Wadi Nashoof and once directly in the line of the Western Desert trade and pilgrimage route. The three Augila tools belong to the so-called bifacial tradition, which spread in the eastern Sahara during the mid-Holocene, from c. 6000 to 4800 BC, and find parallels among the mid-Holocene production of the northern edge of the Farafra Oasis and other contexts of the Egyptian Western Desert. The presence of the bifacial tradition in the Lower Nile Valley and in the Libyan littoral could have unfolded through exchange networks during periods of favourable climatic condition in the mid-Holocene.

يتناول هذا المقال ثلاث أدوات صخرية أثرية (اثنتين منهما على شكل مقشط جانبي، وواحدة على شكل إزميل ) اكتُشِفت في واحة أوجلة التي تقع في سيرينيكا (برقة) على جانب قعر النهر الجاف في وادي نشوف، والذي كان فيما مضى على مسار طريق التجارة والحج في الصحراء الغربية. هذه الأدوات الأثرية الثلاث من أوجلة تتبع شكل ما يُطلق عليه الأدوات ذات الوجهين، والتي انتشرت في شرق الصحراء الكبرى (الصحراء الليبية) خلال منتصف حقبة الهولوسين، من نحو عام 6000 إلى 4800 قبل الميلاد، وهناك أدوات مماثلة لها بين منتجات هذه الحقبة على الحافة الشمالية لواحة الفرافرة ومناطق أخرى في الصحراء الغربية المصرية. إن وجود الأدوات ذات الوجهين في منطقة شمال وادي النيل والساحل الليبي ربما كان نتيجة شبكات التبادل التجاري خلال فترات المناخ المناسب في منتصف حقبة الهولوسين .

Type
Articles
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 46 , November 2015 , pp. 7 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Libyan Studies 2015 

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