This paper reviews the various Late Quaternary records that are available from western Egypt and northern Sudan, which includes more than 500 published radiocarbon dates and various sedimentary archives from local landscape components, including palaeolakes, soils, drainages (wadis), and archaeological sites. This palaeoenvironmental compilation frames the spatial and temporal context of local cultural activities when the region was most hospitable similar to 9000-6000 BP; at this time, monsoonal weather influenced the portion of the African continental interior, creating enough convective rainfall for occasional surface water storage. In this part of the modern Sahara, rapid hydroclimatic changes play a key role in geomorphic evolution and resource availability. As 'watering holes' formed and dried up in the Early to Middle Holocene, Neolithic people developed various subsistence strategies, including opportunistic hunting of small animals (e.g. gazelle and hare), and food-related (e.g. wild sorghum, millet, and legumes) activities: gathering, plant cultivation and livestock-rearing. During its wettest phases during the 'monsoonal maximum,' the area was drought-prone, sustaining a meager steppe shrub desert flora. Further desertification and aeolian deflation during the Middle and Late Holocene fostered technological innovation, migration and settlement, as well as the further development of agrarian communities and complex culture. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
