First conclusions on Early-Middle Holocene ground (sand)stone production in the Eastern Sahel: View from the Shaqadud site complex (north-west Butana, Sudan)

Abstract

In this study we combine data derived from an exceptional find context and a surface survey focused on the identification of traces of production and quarrying activities in Central Sudan. The ground-stone assemblage from Trench 1/S1-B located at the foot of Jebel Shaqadud (Shaqadud Mountain) yielded a striking number of sandstone flakes, roughouts, and hammerstones together with other finds, all occurring in the same layers that have been radiocarbon dated to the 9th millennium cal BCE. The high concentration of ground-stone artefacts over the entire Shaqadud site complex indicates their enormous importance for local communities and, at the same time, their intensive use long before domesticated crops and animals were introduced in this area. While sandstones suitable for the manufacture of ground stones are present over the entire mountain range, it is possible to confirm an increased occurrence of roughouts together with production tools in a roughly 0.5 km radius around the box canyon with preserved settlement layers and an excavated trench. According to our findings, the primary shaping of grinding-milling tools took place near the sandstone outcrops, but all known morphometric groups were most probably completed in the settlement area of the box canyon and in close proximity to the canyon. No specialised production apparently took place here, although we cannot rule out the possibility that roughouts and final products were distributed to more distant areas lacking suitable stone raw materials and could thus have been part of some form of exchange.