Acheulean Bifaces from Khor Shambat, Omdurman (Sudan), Comparative Studies in the Nubian Context

Abstract

This work presents Acheulean material discovered in Khor Shambat (Omdurman, Sudan), situated on the left-bank Nile valley a few km. north of Khor Abu Anga and about 7 km from the Nile valley, 10 km to the north-west of the confluence of the Blue and White Nile. The artefacts occur randomly in the channel or in the channel deposit, the latter forms elongated bars composed of fluvial deposits with a low degree of sorting. The assemblage consists of 34 artefacts made from highly eroded Nubian sandstones. The most common shape of the hand-axe from Khor Shambat is the cordiform type with lenticular cross section made on a chunk or cobble. The hand-axes from Khor Shambat were subject to a morphometric analysis together with the assemblage from two other Nubian Acheulean sites. The geometric-morphometric approach to 2D objects attempted to identify differences between the assemblages. The broad chronology of the Acheulean proposed for Khor Abu Anga by Roy L. Carlson (2015) might potentially be applicable to the Khor Shambat assemblage, which may fall within the range of 350–200ka.

Keywords

• Acheulean
• hand-axes
• Khor Shambat
• Dakhla Oasis, EDAR
• EDAR