100th century BCE
Arkin area, Nubia, Nile Valley
An excavated earlier Stone Age site in the Arkin area of Nubia, where concentrated artifact patches were found in shallow fluvial or colluvial deposits within a wadi tributary of the Nile. About 2,500 artifacts include small hand-axes, bifacial ovates, polyhedral and discoid cores, and flakes. Possible windbreaks, a hut floor, and cairn-like heaps have been suggested but remain difficult to evaluate.
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The Story
Arkin 8 is one of the few excavated earlier Stone Age sites reported from the Nile Valley. The site lies in the Arkin area of Nubia, where concentrated patches of discarded artifacts were found in a thin lens of residual fluvial or colluvial deposits within the shallow bed of a wadi tributary. The concentrations have been interpreted as possible camping places, though the shallow deposits make detailed reconstruction difficult.
Some arrangements of stones may have formed the footings of windbreaks, and one hollow has been reported as a possible scooped-out hut floor. Cairn-like heaps are also mentioned. Such traces would be especially significant because structural evidence is rare for the earlier Stone Age, yet the published descriptions remain too limited for secure interpretation.
Approximately 2,500 artifacts were recovered. Some were made on medium-sized quartz cobbles and pebbles, while others used slabs of ferruginized sandstone. Small hand-axes are fairly numerous, alongside distinctive bifacial ovates, polyhedral and discoid cores, and numerous flakes; Levallois technique is scarcely represented, and flake scrapers are uncommon.
100th century BCE
Arkin area, Nubia, Nile Valley
An excavated earlier Stone Age site in the Arkin area of Nubia, where concentrated artifact patches were found in shallow fluvial or colluvial deposits within a wadi tributary of the Nile. About 2,500 artifacts include small hand-axes, bifacial ovates, polyhedral and discoid cores, and flakes. Possible windbreaks, a hut floor, and cairn-like heaps have been suggested but remain difficult to evaluate.
Continue exploring
The Story
Arkin 8 is one of the few excavated earlier Stone Age sites reported from the Nile Valley. The site lies in the Arkin area of Nubia, where concentrated patches of discarded artifacts were found in a thin lens of residual fluvial or colluvial deposits within the shallow bed of a wadi tributary. The concentrations have been interpreted as possible camping places, though the shallow deposits make detailed reconstruction difficult.
Some arrangements of stones may have formed the footings of windbreaks, and one hollow has been reported as a possible scooped-out hut floor. Cairn-like heaps are also mentioned. Such traces would be especially significant because structural evidence is rare for the earlier Stone Age, yet the published descriptions remain too limited for secure interpretation.
Approximately 2,500 artifacts were recovered. Some were made on medium-sized quartz cobbles and pebbles, while others used slabs of ferruginized sandstone. Small hand-axes are fairly numerous, alongside distinctive bifacial ovates, polyhedral and discoid cores, and numerous flakes; Levallois technique is scarcely represented, and flake scrapers are uncommon.