60th century BCE – 40th century BCE
Fayum Depression, Lower Egypt
The Fayum Epi-Palaeolithic was a lakeside tradition of hunters and fishermen in the Fayum Depression, dated approximately between 6,000 and 5,000 BC and surviving until the settlement of Fayum A food-producing groups around 4,000 BC. Its communities used microlithic tools and bone harpoons around a lake much larger than the modern one. The origins of this tradition and its interactions with incoming food producers remain uncertain.
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The Story
The Fayum Depression in Lower Egypt supported an Epi-Palaeolithic tradition during the later sixth millennium BC. Around the margins of a lake much larger than the diminished body of water known today, groups of hunters and fishermen used microlithic tools and bone harpoons.
Their way of life may have included plant collecting, but the excerpt does not establish this securely. It is also uncertain whether the Fayum tradition developed from Nile Valley populations or from contemporary lakeside groups living farther west in the Sahara.
These hunting and fishing communities appear to have persisted until approximately the time when food-producing groups of the Fayum A Culture settled in the region, around 4,000 BC. The nature of the interaction between indigenous foragers and incoming communities—whether acculturation, displacement, or another process—remains poorly understood.
60th century BCE – 40th century BCE
Fayum Depression, Lower Egypt
The Fayum Epi-Palaeolithic was a lakeside tradition of hunters and fishermen in the Fayum Depression, dated approximately between 6,000 and 5,000 BC and surviving until the settlement of Fayum A food-producing groups around 4,000 BC. Its communities used microlithic tools and bone harpoons around a lake much larger than the modern one. The origins of this tradition and its interactions with incoming food producers remain uncertain.
Continue exploring
The Story
The Fayum Depression in Lower Egypt supported an Epi-Palaeolithic tradition during the later sixth millennium BC. Around the margins of a lake much larger than the diminished body of water known today, groups of hunters and fishermen used microlithic tools and bone harpoons.
Their way of life may have included plant collecting, but the excerpt does not establish this securely. It is also uncertain whether the Fayum tradition developed from Nile Valley populations or from contemporary lakeside groups living farther west in the Sahara.
These hunting and fishing communities appear to have persisted until approximately the time when food-producing groups of the Fayum A Culture settled in the region, around 4,000 BC. The nature of the interaction between indigenous foragers and incoming communities—whether acculturation, displacement, or another process—remains poorly understood.