Data

Thanks to new satellite data, it is possible to examine deserts area-wide for linear structures. Additionally, digital elevation models can be use to evaluate the geomorphological situation. In conjunction with historical sources and ground-truth data, these data allow us, for the first time, to reconstruct the position of the caravan routes with reasonable accuracy, here exemplified for the extremely arid Western Desert of Egypt. On the central Egyyptian Limestone Plateau where stony ground (hamada, serir)...

Perched groundwater resources on the northwestern coast of Egypt have thus far been little studied. However, if replenished by rainwater, they can provide a considerable amount of renewable water, i.e., for sustainable irrigation. These resources are limited, show different salinity contents and are endangered by overuse, pollution and by the sea level rising in the context of global warming. This paper presents new climatic data, geomorphologic, geologic, geochemical and hydrological researches in...

In vielen Trockengebieten der Erde haben der Klimawandel, ein überdurchschnittlich hoher Bevölkerungsdruck und eine zunehmende Ressourcen-, Nahrungsmittel- und Energienachfrage zu Landnutzungsänderungen, Migration, Ausweitung von Bewässerungsflächen oder zunehmender Verstädterung und damit einhergehenden Prozessen der Bodendegradation oder gar Desertifikation sowie zu physischem oder ökonomischem Wassermangel geführt. Während in prähistorischer Zeit das menschliche Handeln von den naturräumlichen...

The expansion of modern human populations in Africa 80,000 to 60,000 years ago and their initial exodus out of Africa have been tentatively linked to two phases of technological and behavioral innovation within the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa—the Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort industries—that are associated with early evidence for symbols and personal ornaments. Establishing the correct sequence of events, however, has been hampered by inadequate chronologies. We report ages for nine sites from...

This chapter is situated in the field among archaeology, geomorphology, and ecology. Two case studies from different east-Saharan landscape units classify and analyse archaeological, geoscientific, and remote-sensing data of Early and Mid-Holocene archaeological sites. The section combines the approaches of landscape ecology and landscape archaeology. The aim is a parameterisation of the research areas with respect to structural and ecological features. The data were used within a Geographical...

Between 70 and 50 ka BP, anatomically modern humans dispersed across and out of Africa to eventually populate all inhabitable continents. Knowledge of paleoenvironments and human behavioral patterns in Africa prior to and during these dispersals is crucial for understanding how and why hunter-gatherers were able to adapt rapidly to the new environments they encountered. However, few well-dated sites from this time period are known from the Horn of Africa, one of the purported staging areas for population...

This Bachelor of Science thesis will show the changes of the coastal area of the Red Sea at the time of the Upper Pleistocene and their effects on the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH). Thus insights about possible routes of migration of AMH out of Africa shall be gained. For this research the palaeoclimate, the sea level changes and the tectonic processes will be decribed. By reconstruction of coastal areas it will be shown that a trespassing of the Bab al-Mandab strait at the mouth of the Red...

The emergence of blade technology is often seen as an important indicator for the spread of modern humans from Africa to Eurasia and its evolution has been widely researched in Europe and the Middle East. However technological studies from the supposed original area of Homo sapiens, the Horn of Africa and especially Ethiopia, are still lacking, as well as a generally accepted lithic typology. Therefore a detailed comparative technological study of the late Middle Stone Age (40-45 ka) inventories of Mochena...

This geography diploma thesis was written by Harriet Berkhan within the framework of the CRC 806 “Our Way to Europe: Culture-Environment Interaction and Human Mobility in the Late Quaternary” at the University of Cologne. The thesis looks into the working hypothesis, as to whether the current morphology can yield important evidence for the discussion about the “Out of Africa” dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) and the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment. Inasmuch as there are no large-scale...

Conference contribution (Poster) at the EGU Meeting in Vienna, April 2012

The drillsites with coordinates and max. coredepth of the Chew Bahir field campaigns in 2009 and 2010.