Geo-archaeological research on the Late Pleistocene of the Egyptian Eastern Desert: recent threats to the Sodmein Cave

Abstract

The amount of stratigraphic and secure dating evidence from Late Pleistocene archaeological sites of north-eastern Africa is limited and well-dated Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites remain a desideratum. One of the rare sites in this time range - beside the Haua Fteah in Libya (cf. Barker et al. 2010) - is the Sodmein Cave in Egypt.



Sodmein is located about 40km north-north-west of the seaport Quseir in an isolated Tertiary limestone complex (Djebel Umm Hammad/Djebel Duwi) of the Red Sea Mountains (Figure 1, Vermeersch et al. 1994). This elongated Eocene limestone ridge runs almost parallel to the Red Sea graben structure and is surrounded as well as underlain by the basement rocks of the Red Sea Mountains. The cave is situated on the northern flank of the break-through of Wadi Sodmein through Djebel Duwi, around 17m above the present wadi floor (Figure 2). The cave was discovered in 1979 by M. Prickett during a survey but systematic scientific research did not begin until the 1990s by the Belgian Middle Egypt Prehistoric Project (BMEPP) of the University of Leuven (Vermeersch and Van Peer 2012). Since 2010, fieldwork has resumed in this area of the Eastern Desert through cooperation between the universities of Cologne and Leuven under the aegis of the CRC 806 Our Way to Europe.

• GQT1
• eastern desert
• egypt
• geoarchaology
• msa
• sodmein cave

Resources

• http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/kindermann337/

Bibliography

Kindermann, K., Bubenzer, O., Peer, P. V. (2013): Geo-archaeological research on the Late Pleistocene of the Egyptian Eastern Desert: recent threats to the Sodmein Cave. – In: Antiquity, Vol. 087(337)