Posts: 516
Registered: May 2004

posted 30 November 2004 09:33 PM            

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During the Last Glacial Maximum the climate of Europe was extremly cold and arid. Africa was extermly hot and dry and population density was greater in Africa than anywhere else in the world prior to the neolithic period. During the LGM Northern European populations were forced into refugias in Spain/Southern France, Italy and the Balkans. African populations were centered around the African Rift Valley lakes and a much lower Nile. With the Holocene climates became warmer and Europeans began to re-colonize Northern Europe. The Holocene warm phase began much earlier in Africa than in Europe. At he beginning of the Holocene wet phase most Africans were concentrated along the Nile and in the African Rift Valley. Population density in NW Africa was low as demonstrated by the almost total replacement of NW African Upper Paleolithic populations. As the Holocene ensued the Nile experienced high Nile floods and the spread of Sub-Saharan populations into the Egyptian Nile and a branch archaeologically known as the Mushabians branched off into the Near East. Here is a great article on the African ecology during the LGM. This article can be incorporated into a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the peopling of Ancient Egypt.

http://iceage.umeqs.maine.edu/pdfs/653.pdf

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Posts: 1135
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 01 December 2004 10:41 AM            

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I have been looking for awhile for specific information on the climate history of North Africa. Much thanks.

[This message has been edited by rasol (edited 01 December 2004).]

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