Upper Palaeolithic sites are rare in Egypt. The oldest site of this date is Nazlet Khater-4 in Middle Egypt, where chert was extracted not only by trenches and mining pits (with a maximum depth of 2 m.) but also by imderground galleries starting from the trench walls or from the bottom of a pit. In this manner, underground galleries covering an area of more than 10 sq. m, were obtained. Hearths found in the fill of the trenches where flaking activities took place suggest that mining activities were spread over a long period extending from about 35,000 to 30,000 BP, which would make Nazlet Khater-4 of the oldest examples of underground mining activity in the world. The lithic assemblage from Nazlet Khater-4 110 longer showed any trace of the Levallois technique. Production aimed at obtaining simple blades From single platform cores. Among tools, some end-scrapers, burins, and denticulates but also some bifacial foliates and bifacial axes occur. As no other such sites have been disclosed in Egypt, it is difficult to establish its importance for the evolution of Egyptian prehistory. Next to the mine, and obviously in association with it, excavators revealed a grave in which the deceased was buried lying on his back with a bifacial axe next to his head.
The next oldest phase, after Nazlet IChater-4, was the Shuwikhatian industry, which is attested at several sites in the neighbourhood of Qena and Esna. The type site Shuwikhat-i has been dated to around
25,000 BP. The study of the environment and the animal remains shows that the site, which was located within the floodplain at that time, functioned as a hunting and fishing camp. It is possible that the Shuwikhatian is contemporaneous with a short wetter spell, but this climatic change was not important enough to bring about the repopulating of the Western Desert, which remained devoid of human occupation. The Shuwikhatian is characterized by robust blades obtained from opposed platform cores. Most common tools are denticulated blades, end-scrapers, and burins.
Within the framework of North Africa and south-west Asia, the Upper Palaeolithic of Egypt seems to be rather insular, although it is possible that there were some connections with the Dabban industry of Cyrenaica and the Ahmarian of southern Israel and Jordan.
World History
