Cereals and Ceramics: Another Look at the Late Neolithic Development of the Butana Group in Eastern Sudan during the 4th Millennium BC

Summary

This paper will discuss the new findings of domesticated sorghum along with the ceramics associated with the Butana Group at an archaeological site called, KG23. The Butana Group represents a cultural manifestation in the southern Atbai of the far eastern Sahel that dates around 3500-3000 BC, and was contemporary with other groups such as the Late Neolithic groups in the central Nile Valley, the pre-Kerma culture in Upper Nubia, the A-Group in Lower Nubia, and the Egyptian Predynastic cultures of Upper Egypt. Recent archaeobotanical evidence recovered from organic-tempered pottery sherds from the largest Butana Group site, KG23, demonstrates that peoples associated with this group were in the process of domesticating sorghum in the 4th millennium BC.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Fire, Food, Farms, and Fortifications: Recent Advances in the Archaeology of Africa

Keywords

Spatial Coverage