The Nile Basin : Quaternary Geology, Geomorphology and Prehistoric Environments

This book provides detailed reconstructions of past environmental changes in the Nile Basin and considers how prehistoric humans adapted or failed to adapt to these changes. It will greatly assist archaeologists, geographers and planners who need to understand how the Nile has responded to past climatic changes in its headwaters.

The Nile Basin contains a record of human activities spanning the last million years. However, the interactions between prehistoric humans and environmental changes in this area are complex and often poorly understood. This comprehensive book explains in clear, non-technical terms how prehistoric environments can be reconstructed, with examples drawn from every part of the Nile Basin. Adopting a source-to-sink approach, the book integrates events in the Nile headwaters with the record from marine sediment cores in the Nile Delta and offshore. It provides a detailed record of past environmental changes throughout the Nile Basin and concludes with a review of the causes and consequences of plant and animal domestication in this region and of the various prehistoric migrations out of Africa into Eurasia and beyond. A comprehensive overview, this book is ideal for researchers in geomorphology, climatology and archaeology.