The geomorphic setting of upper paleolithic sites in Wadi el Sheikh, Southern Sinai

Abstract

A protracted phase of aggradation without evidence for episodes of cutting and filling occurred in the drainage of Wadi el Sheikh between about 65,000 and 12,000 B.P. Marl sediments in the deposits at the oasis of Tarfat el Quidrein denote freshwater ponds or marshes that attracted Upper Paleolithic, Ahmarian hunter-gatherers. Wetter conditions favoring the formation of the marls are explained by local, geomorphic factors including the orographic influence of nearby mountains. A major phase of down-cutting initiated at the end of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene is the only climatically forced gradational change seen in the geomorphic record.

The Ahmarian tradition of the Levantine Upper Paleolithic: the environment of the archaeology

“…In the late Pleistocene, a high water table sustained surface marshes at Tarfa el Quidrein indicated by many palustine marl units stratified within 40 m of deposits at the foot of Gebel Banat (1700 m). Contrary to earlier published sources (Awad, 1951), these facies occur in southern Sinai only at this location in the windward basin of a mountain range along the edge of the uplifted, basement massif ( Figure 5), and at a comparable orographic setting down-wadi at the oasis of Feiran (Gladfelter, 1990(Gladfelter, , 1992. The localized successions of many paludal facies denotes cool and wet condi-tions prevailed in this montane setting throughout the aggradation of the allostratigraphic sequence.…”

“…A single exception to this pattern may have occurred at Tarfa el Quidrein, where fossil tufa deposits found at the valley floor may denote spring activity; these deposits have been dated by Th/U (Gladfelter, 1990). In the late Pleistocene, a high water table sustained surface marshes at Tarfa el Quidrein indicated by many palustine marl units stratified within 40 m of deposits at the foot of Gebel Banat (1700 m).…”

“…Its importance lies in the facts that a significant allostratigraphic sequence of late Pleistocene age has survived here (Gladfelter, 1990(Gladfelter, , 1992, and that prehistoric sites of several traditions are associated with it (Phillips and Gladfelter, 1989). …”

Landscape and prehistoric chronology of West‐Central Jordan

“…Late Ahmarian and Kebaran cultures flourished in these settings. Seasonal marshes appear to have been a major settlement locus for later prehistoric populations here as elsewhere across the southern Levant (Gladfelter, 1990). 5.…”

Neolithic tombs in southwestern Sinai

“…Research in the upper basin of the Wadi Feiran located a number of Holocene (Khiamian and PPNB) sites (Phillips, 1987(Phillips, , 1988Gladfelter, 1989, 1991;Gladfelter, 1990), but the primary focus was upon the Ahmarian (dated to before 30,000 BP). Bar-Yosef and colleagues investigated PPNB sites, which are common in southern Sinai.…”