Early Khartoum

A base camp site within modern Khartoum which provided the first clear picture of the so-called 'Aquatic Civilization'. The site had traces of sun-dried daub suggesting the presence of temporary structures. Fishing done with bone-headed harpoons was the economic basis of the settlement. Other artifacts include chipped and ground stone and pottery with 'wavy-line' decoration. Dates of 6th or 5th millennium BC seems probable; similar harpoons at Tagra, to the south, are dated to c 6300 BC.

A site within the area of the modem Khartoum conurbation which provided the first clear picture of the so-called ‘aquatic civilization’. The site was evidently a substantial base-camp, and traces of sun-dried daub suggest the presence of structures which would have been occupied on more than a temporary basis. Fishing by means of bone-headed harpoons, in a Nile flowing at a higher level than the present, formed the economic basis of the settlement. Nets were probably also used. Other artefacts include chipped and ground stone, and pottery with ‘wavy-line’ decoration. No radiocarbon dates are available for this settlement, but an age in the 6th or 5th millennium be seems probable: at Tagra, 200 km to the south, similar harpoons occur in an aceramic context dated to o6300 be.