Atbai Enclosure Burials: Monumentalism, Pastoralism and Environmental Change in the Mid-Holocene East Nubian Deserts

Abstract

Despite being at the crossroads of the well-studied worlds of ancient Egypt and Nubia, the archaeology of the Atbai Desert, the region between the Nubian Nile and the Red Sea, is still in its infancy. Cultural horizons are poorly defined, and patterns and chronologies of human habitation are only slowly emerging. As part of the satellite remote sensing workflows of the Atbai Survey Project, a common monumental burial feature has been identified across the entire Atbai Desert from Upper Egypt to the Eritrean borderlands, typified by a circular stone enclosure wall with internal burials—labelled here as “Atbai Enclosure Burials (AEBs).” This monumental feature, a local manifestation of common Saharan prehistoric burial practice, while exhibiting diverse architectural features, presents a consistent burial tradition across the entire desert expanse between the Nile and Red Sea. These features are a unique manifestation of a local pastoralist culture we broadly date to the fourth and third millennia BC, whose beginning was coeval with the southward displacement of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. Its termination is likely linked with harsher environmental conditions and increasing anthropogenic pressures on vegetation cover after the end of the African Humid Period.