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Elemental XRF analysis carried out on an 8m long core from the Nile Delta reveals a gradual increase in the Ca/Ti ratio between 5000-4000 cal BP which is linked to the progressive development of hyper-aridity in this region. The increase results from elevated flux of aeolian material entering the Nile river system from calcareous source rock geologies in the dryer Egyptian Sahara. The most major increase in hyper-aridity occurs around 4000 cal BP. Such a perspective suggests a locally abrupt, regionally time-transgressive inception of hyper-aridity in this region at the end of the African Humid Period. After this time, reorganisation of wind circulation meant that less Saharan-derived aeolian material entered the Nile Valley, and the contribution of aeolian material in the Nile's sedimentary signal was also dwarfed by an increase in Blue Nile sedimentary flux. Chronological control is provided by two radiocarbon dates and the top and bottom of a well-constrained pottery horizon that dates from the period of occupation of two nearby archaeological sites: Kom al-Ahmer and Kom Wasit.

In the Theban area around modern Luxor (Egypt), the River Nile divides the temple complexes of Karnak and Luxor from New Kingdom royal cult temples on the western desert edge. Few sites have been archaeologically identified in the western flood plain, despite its presumed pivotal role in the ancient ritual landscape as the territory that both physically divided and symbolically con-

During the mid‐Holocene, the first large‐scale civilizations emerged in lower alluvial systems after a marked decrease in sea‐level rise at 7–6 kyr. We show that as the landscapes of deltas and lower alluvial plains adjusted to this decrease in the rate of relative sea‐level rise, the abundance and location of resources available for human exploitation changed as did the network of waterways. This dynamic environmental evolution contributed to archaeological changes in the three fluvio‐deltaic settings considered herein: Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Huang He in China. Specifically, an increase in the scale and intensity of agricultural practice, and the focussing of power toward a single city can be interpreted as responses to these environmental changes. Other archaeological observations, and the cultural trajectories leading to the formation of the Primary States also need to be considered in light of these evolving landscapes.