Out of Africa: Geoarchaeological research in the Eastern Desert of Egypt

Abstract

It is generally agreed upon that modern man came from Africa to Eurasia sometime in the
last 100,000 years; academics do not, however, always agree on the routes that were taken.
This question is the focus of the Collaborative Research Centre 806 (CRC 806;
http://www.sfb806.uni-koeln.de) “Our Way to Europe: Culture-Environment Interaction
and Human Mobility in the Late Quaternary” based at the universities of Cologne, Bonn
and Aachen. Within the framework of this large-scale project (funded by the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) academics of different disciplines are investigating possible
routes that anatomical modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) may have taken to Eurasia.
In this context, Northeast Africa can be considered a key region, as it connects Africa with
the southern Levant by the bottleneck of the Sinai Peninsula. The focus of the
archaeological and geoarchaeological investigations is on the ancient context of climate,
natural environment and culture with a major perspective on the dispersal of human
populations.

Resources

• Newsletter_IAG_December2016.pdf

Bibliography

Kindermann, K., Henselowsky, F., van Peer, P., Bubenzer, O. (2016): Out of Africa: Geoarchaeological research in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Working Group on Geoarchaeology. Newsletter - Working Group on Geoarchaeology