The success of this idea, that was first implemented in Poznan in 1980, and that brought together a relatively small group of archaeologists, led to the present Symposium that attracted 150 scholars from all continents.

Regrettably, I was again the only Latin American scholar who attended this very important meeting, which should perhaps receive more attention from people involved in research dealing with prehistoric times due to the valuable new information that was made known and that can be of use in other geographic areas of human development.

As I did before, I am sharing here my notes and impressions on many of the papers that were presented to this meeting. I have to make clear that this can be no more than a partial reflection of all that was said there since being the number of speakers so high, only fifteen minutes were allowed for each lecture and its graphic complements (slides, transparencies, Power Point presentations or videos), so the speakers had to talk fast and change their slides or whatever very quickly giving me very little time for my notes and diagrams.

Besides, what I am sharing here is my own personal impressions on each paper which reflect my interests and perceptions. The questions and discussions were much more numerous and detailed than what is given here, the reason being that due to time constraints, people also spoke fast on those occasions, sometimes not clearly enough or the exchanges were of a very technical nature which could hardly be put onto paper for a wider audience without more ample comments to render them understandable, which was not feasible in the few minutes (or sometimes seconds) in which they took place. I have omitted as well questions that implied a confirmation of something a speaker had said or a misunderstanding of a certain statement made.

Another limitation that affected my notes was that the organizers of this Symposium had the kindness to invite the writer to preside and moderate the afternoon session on Predynastic Egypt and the first part of the Sudan presentations (fifteen papers in all), which made it more complicated to take notes and make sure at the same time that none of the speakers exceeded their allotted times, moderate the discussions and other minor duties.

Since the Proceedings of this Symposium may take several years to appear in print, I think that these brief summaries can be useful to those who are interested in the wide variety of subjects covered by this very important meeting and if more information is required, the individual speakers can be approached for the purpose via email or regular mail.

I have already published several such reports of conferences I have attended and having so far received no complaints of having misrepresented anyone's views, that makes me confident that perhaps this time as well I have succeeded in providing an accurate, although of course very personal, account of what was said during this Symposium.

The main purpose that has guided me in taking the trouble of writing these Reports is that knowledge that is not shared is wasted, so I hope that I have been able to contribute to spread as widely as possible the new knowledge generated by many colleagues on important subjects having to do with the prehistory of this part of the world.

E. Garcea and C. Giraudi, "Earthquakes and tectonic dynamics favouring Late Pleistocene human settlement in the Jebel Gharbi, Libya" - Later Pleistocene earthquakes in the Jefara Plain (Libya) by creating faults and fractures in the underground structure of this region created as well a drainage system that favoured that rain water could flow towards the springs. These springs appear in the intersection of underground faults. At Jado deposits were found from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Late Palaeolithic (to 18,000 BP). Elsewhere they also involve remains that can be dated from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Late Palaeolithic. At Shakshuk the sequence of human occupation ranges from the Middle Palaeolithic (Aterian, 43,500 BP) to the Epipalaeolithic (about 16,800 BP). Nearer the surface, neolithic material was also found. Earthquakes have occurred there as late as the 30s of the XX century, so the geological process still continues in the country.

B. Barich and G. Lucarini, "Archaeology of the Jebel Gharbi (Libya): The Final Pleistocene - Early Holocene sequence" - The human occupation here goes from the Acheulian (Lower Palaeolithic) through the Aterian and Late Palaeolithic stages. At Wadi Ain Zargha the climate got less dry favouring human occupation. They found no hearths so no C14 dates could be obtained. The stone tools exhibit a homogeinity throughout the sites that were studied. Backed bladelets were usually numerous but not in all sites, in some they were relatively few. These are versatile tools, used for processing faunal resources or for processing the plants available to them. In a hunter-gatherer site a kind of zebra seemed to predominate among the faunal finds but other species such as gazelle were also present. They identified as well sites with seasonal occupation characteristics, some devoted to hunting, others to gathering and others to the exploitation of mineral resources and tool workshops. At Jebel Gharbi in the Epipalaeolithic they could date the occupation from 16,800 BP to 3,700 BP (ca. 2,200 - 1,900 BC cal C14). The gap between 11,000 and 7,000 BP should be explained as a chance absence that may be filled at a later time. They also found pottery associated to the Capsian sites.

K. Schmidt, "Göbekli Tepe (Southeastern Turkey), an early neolithic sanctuary" - This site has been included in this Symposium in spite of belonging to a region strictly outside the one covered by the conference because it changes many perspectives on the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene of the Near East. It has unique features and throws light on the hunter-gatherer/neolithic transition. He found megalithic architecture whose function could not be determined but that obviously did not reflect a domestic use. Most of the structures found are of a roughly circular shape. No evidence of a roof was identified and the pillars are monolithic. These were dated to about 9,000 BC cal C14 and were decorated with large images in relief of animals (snakes, birds, boars, bulls, foxes, gazelles, cranes in water represented as wavy lines) and other motifs. There were very large pieces of stone lying over some of the pillars like a "T" shaped structure, that have been severily damaged by the later agricultural work on the site. Small plaquettes were also found with incised signs, of a geometric and other nature and apparently had the only purpose of bearing these inscriptions. The sites may have been meeting places for hunter-gatherers before the Neolithic, showing that societies at such a remote time here were more socially developed than we had previously thought.   P. Vermeersch asked for more information on the Aterian and other earlier assemblages there and the speaker clarified that they found none, just isolated sites which could be dated from 28,000 - 30,000 BP to the Late Palaeolithic.

S. di Lernia, M. Cremaschi and F. Merighi, "Hunter-gatherers of the Central Sahara: a reassessment" - They limited their research to the territorial spread of human occupation and to social organization and the functions of the sites. There are many gaps in our knowledge of these people, where they came from, their social structure, beliefs, etc., and most of the sites that were studied don't go beyond about 7,000 BC. The sand seas in the area are abundant in sites of human occupation. They had a hierarchical distribution of their sites, base camps (residential) in the mountains, food procurement ones and workshops elsewhere. Palinological data indicate a longer occupation of the sites than previously assumed. (Note by the writer - Here I forgot to ask them if the palinological data was based on just a few samples or if on numerous and representative systematic studies in order to avoid the pitfalls this technique has involved in the past, but let's assume unless proved otherwise that the latter is the case). The picture shows the typical distribution of food resources with a greater abundance of the more easily storable goods. The pottery found includes many sherds that were decorated with incised geometrical motifs and is among the oldest in North Africa (9 to 10,000 BC). The few human remains found seem to have affinities (gene pool) with sub-Saharan populations. The petroglyphs are of a pastoral nature with figures of people and animals, mostly cattle.

M. Schuster, Ph. Duringer, J.-F. Ghienne, P. Vignaud, H. Mackaye, A. Likius and M. Brunet, "Toumai, Abel and Lake Megas, Tchad: sedimentology, palaeontology and palaeoecology of Tchad during the last seven million years (Upper Miocene to Holocene), Results of the Mission Paleoanthropologique Franco-Tchadienne (MPFT)" - The work was done in the Erg of Djurah in Tchad. The discovery of an australopithecus in Tchad (the first outside Southeast Africa) was the beginning of the work in this area. The fossil fauna found (ancient elephant bones and tusks, fish, etc.) showed that the fauna dated from between 3 and 7 million years ago. From the study of the ancient dunes they could determine the direction of palaeowinds. They could also determine that the sequence corresponds to an ancient lake and the desert and the climate changed at times. A similar picture can be found in today's Tchad with dunes that after flooding of the areas became islands, each with its peculiar fauna. They could identify a terrace wider than 50 km around the ancient lake, also a delta that marked an ancient river feeding the lake. They could also find palaeo-islands with the rock eroded at the same height by the pounding of the ancient waves.

S. Kröpelin, "New evidence from the Saharan lakes of Ounianga (Northeast Tchad)" - It is a large lake basin of about 5,000 km², they found here many fossils, among them of Nile perch (1 to 1,5 m long) that lived here 600 km west of the Nile. The purpose of the work was to understand the process of the desiccation of this area. This is one of the driest places on earth, the lakes that still exist here today have only fossil, ancient water, fed by underground sources and with one of the highest evaporation rates in the world. They took core samples using a boat of the sediments in the lake and found polen of chenopodiaceae, asteraceae, etc. and algae which offer a promisory field for future study. They fear that some of the landscape will disappear in a few hundred years due to the movement of the sand dunes and the overall desiccation. In the rock formations in this area, up to 100 m above present lake level, they found lake deposits at considerable height from the ground. Some of these deposits were dated to between 6,000 to 9,000 BP uncalibrated C14 dates. In the Holocene optimum the lake was about 12 km wide and 90 m deep. The stone structures found in one of the islands date back to no more than 2,000 years ago. The sensational revelation that it is still a lake of drinkable water (with high evaporation rates it should have become very soon salt water) is explained by an underground continuous feeding of drinkable water that maintains the low salinity and also maintains the lake level stable.

Ph. Van Peer, "A review of the Late Middle Pleistocene and Early Upper Pleistocene cultural developments in the Middle and Lower Nile Valley" - He said that the best evidence for the Middle to Upper Pleistocene transition comes from Sai island in the Sudan with Sangoan to Acheulian levels. Around 300,000 years ago the transition started in Eastern Africa. Farther north (ie. Sudan) the transition occurred around 200,000 years ago. He found many Sangoan grinding stones (sandstone) which were used for grinding pigments, lumps of which were also found in situ. They found as well grinding stones with indication that they had been used for processing plant material. Then the Sangoan large tools were replaced by blade tools. Afterwards, these were in their turn replaced by Nubian levallois tools. Then the foliates disappeared and were replaced by the Nubian Aterian complex. Then the Aterian emerged, probably in the area of southern Egypt, northern Sudan and southern Libya from where it spread to the west into the Sahara and to northern Africa. Then about 70,000 years ago a blade tool technology appeared, involving a very specialized division of work and a complex social organization. The time covered by this study goes between about 225,000 to 25,000 years ago.

J. Smith, M. Kleindienst, H. Schwarcz and R. Giegengack, "Quaternary pluvial phase environment in Dakhleh and Kharga Oases, Egypt" - In spite of all the effort invested over the years we still know little of palaeoclimatic change in the Holocene and even more so, for the Pleistocene. The study of the travertine deposits (tufas) has proved to be valuable for the evaluation of palaeoclimatic change. Since some of those springs are still in use, it was necessary to determine how rainfall behaved and when it ceased because an increase in it would reactivate the spring and originate further deposits. Because carbonate spring deposits can accummulate at a rate of 1 m every few decades, the study of these deposits can provide evidence quite narrow in time for climatic change. The sources of this carbon in the deposits are the local marine limestone, the CO² in the atmosphere and organic carbon from plants. Graphs made from the data for the isotopic carbon and oxygen composition for the sites studied by them were shown and the data reflects a wetter environment with plenty of plants or a dry one with carbon mainly from the marine limestone rock. The results show as well that apparently there were no significant variations in climatic conditions between successive pluvial periods.

P. Vermeersch, "El Abadiya 3: A Late Palaeolithic site in Upper Egypt" - The site is located near Naqada in Upper Egypt. It is situated at the foot of a terrace. The erosion of the site was due to two gullies located at the site. The archaeological material was preserved by chance and is very close to the present surface of the ground. The soil deposit on top of the Holocene archaeological material is quite unusual. Dates for this site are around 12,000 BC. The distribution of the archaeological material when plotted did not seem to offer any significant patterns. The faunal remains of several species were found (hartebeest, hare, gazelle, ass, etc.). The flint used was local, the technique was with the use of a hard hammer and consists of end scrapers and retouched blades, strangely there were very few micro-tools. This site's tool technology differs a lot from that of the nearby Abadiya 1 site. Some similarities exist with the Menchian from Kon Ombo published by Vignard in 1925. Also with later finds by Wendorf and Schild. The most important economic activities seem to have been fishing and hartebeest hunting, no evidence of plant processing was found here.

S. Zakrzewski, "Human skeletal diversity in the Egyptian Nile Valley" - The speaker used the study of skeletal material in the absence of genetic evidence. She studied how diverse was the Predynastic Egyptian population. The source for this work were the collections in museums, not material from recent archaeological work. She found, not unexpectedly, that there were was a sexual differentiation being males taller than females. Also that through time, from the Badarian to the Early Dynastic, the stature increased. She said that if there was no significant change in the population, then there must have been dietary defficiencies. She concluded that from the Badarian, with a clear prognatism, there was a change because there were many broader crania in the Early Dynastic. The increasing variation could be due to population increase or the influx of outside individuals into the population (without involving migrations).   J. J. Castillos objected to this paper's conclusions mainly because of the imprecise nature of the time periods (Badarian, Early Predynastic, Late Predynastic, Early Dynastic) which were taken from sometimes old and obsolete museum records and which are understood differently by different scholars. The speaker replied that she used the chronology as given in the museums and she could do nothing about that. Then J. J. Castillos objected to conclusions on height variation based on just a few examples (small samples), she replied that it was regulated in the statistical approach to make the results significant in spite of that. Finally, J. J. Castillos objected to the amount of variation in stature, for women of about 3 to 4 cm in 1,500 years, which he found hardly significant, she replied that it was nevertheless significant.

S. Keita, "Badarian skeletal affinities in the Egyptian Nile Valley" - The speaker emphasized that he agrees with human biological diversity in Africa. He dwelt on linguistic evidence showing influence in Egypt from the west and the south. He mentioned that some of the most common words related to people's lives like sheep, cattle, etc. are not semitic loan words. He said that the Badarians were semi-sedentarian and that in different clustering studies of Badarian crania they appear to be linked with Nubian samples (Kerma, Meroe).   J. J. Castillos asked whether the speaker thought that the clustering of the Badarian crania with those of Nubia and the Sudan had any special meaning, he replied that no, just that the Badarians were related to other north African populations.

S. Keita, "Variation in vault porosities of the retainers in the Dynasty I royal cemetery complex: possible interpretations" - The data on these vault porosities indicate that they were more frequent among the people buried around the royal tombs. Considering both non-court tombs situated far away and those around the royal tomb, values are higher than in the tombs of courtiers. He said that there were various possible interpretations: occupation (labour) related or other that might explain this situation.

S. Keita, "A response to Brace et al.'s 'Clines and clusters versus race' (Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 1993)" - The clusters made in this kind of research are suspect because although australian-melanesian data cluster with Africa, their DNA differs and places the former clearly in Asia. He listed a number of errors in the above mentioned publication, among them misrepresentations of statements made in certain publications by B. Trigger and the present writer, although he did not give more details, I forgot to ask him in what way my views had been distorted and which of my publications he was talking about. He showed many examples of African facial profiles indicating a great variability and denying the claims of some Africans (ie. Nigerians) to represent the true African prototype. He criticized as well the biased use of the language in definitions like for instance writing about "sub-Saharan" populations which has also other cultural implications, so to be consistent they should also use "supra-Saharan" instead of "north African" or other such nomenclature.

M. McDonald, "Holocene prehistory of the escarpment above Kharga Oasis (Egypt)" - The speaker summed up previous work in this oasis and that earlier scholars had thought that there were no Holocene assemblages here. At Wadi el-Midauwara she found in several field days spent in the area between 2002 and 2003 abundant Holocene remains. The material from this site is similar to other found in Dakhla and elsewhere. Unfortunately, there are no dates for these assemblages at Kharga but those at Dakhla were dated between 9,000 - 8,500 BP. Small collections of pottery (sherds) could also be made. There was a similarity with that found at Dakhla and it seems they would share a similar pottery tradition. Some examples of Badarian ripple ware could also be found here. The Kharga Baris material seems to date from 7,000 to 5,000 BP (Early Baris to Later Baris), people do not seem to have settled here for any length of time but rather to be passing through.

K. Kindermann, "Prehistoric projectile points from Egypt's Western Desert" - Projectile points are very time sensitive and very abundant in the archaeological material all over the Egyptian Western Desert. The largest collection they made was at Djara with over 2,000 items. At Abu Tartur they found a large assemblage dated to about 7,600 BP. The manufacturing process of these Ounan points makes them quite different from points from other sites, they can be dated to between 7,500 and 8,000 BP. Slightly later are points that exhibit a facial retouch. They could determine that these technological traditions did not spread evenly over the Western Desert. Geometric microliths dated to about 7,500 BP were also identified. Later on, bifacially retouched points became more and more common. Stemmed points appear late in the time line, in about 7,500 to 7,000 BP, barbed points appear slightly later on and points with wings at about 6,500 BP. At about 5,800 BP very regularly pressure retouched points were found and reflect an advance in hunting techniques since they penetrate the animal skin more easily.

H. Riemer, "Cultural diversity and mobility between the Sand Sea and the Oases" - This work was carried out between 1996 and 1997 in the Regenfeld area of the Western Desert (south of the Great Sand Sea). This area that was very arid, almost no rainfall, is situated between the more favoured regions of the Gilf Kebir and the western oases, people moved in only after rainfall and the formation of ponds or lakes. The sites of Khufu and Meri were studied. In Khufu they could identify assemblages from the Early to the Mid-Holocene. About 25% were points, about 14% knives. Flint is the main raw material but local quartzite was used as well. Most procedures for stone tool manufacturing did not seem to have taken place on the sites. Grinding stones were also found with grinders that reveal their use for processing plants (cereals) that grew after the rainfall and which were intensively exploited to depletion by the people here, some other grinding stones were used for grinding pigment, some of these stones have marks that show that they were tied for transportation. Some examples of incised pottery (sherds) were also found here.

G. Lucarini and A. Fahmi, "The use and exploitation of plants in the Farafra Oasis" - They found three occupation horizons (F. Hassan): one from 7,670 to 7,320 BP, then one of about 6,750 BP and a later one of 6,190 BP. The range of plant remains was much the same for each of these three horizons, consisting of 33 species of plants (acacia seeds, aristida grains, boerhavia fruits, brachiaria grains, etc. including sorghum, resembling those found at Nabta Playa. The high frequency of sorghum which can survive different climatic conditions shows that it was used as food. It could not be established whether it was wild or domesticated but for a number of reasons, the former seems more likely. Some of the stone tools exhibit the shine typical of use for gathering plants. Microwear analysis showed that some other tools had been used to work leather and hard animal material like bone. Acacia and other local trees were used for fuel in the hearths and also for manufacturing wooden tools. The life of this people reveal a basically pastoral economy. This area saw in time the passing of different pastoral groups.

R. Schild and F. Wendorf, "The megalithic structures of Nabta Playa revisited" - They found alignments of stones (stelae) worked by these people and pointing to Ursa Majoris and the Sirius star. Some stones seem to be an ancient calendar dating to about 4,000 BC (date calculated according to the position of the rising sun at the time). They found about 30 clusters of megalithic stones and some isolated stelae as well. At another location they found also a triple stone ring. These blocks are almost all broken now. Some stone alignments seem to point towards the north pole and the immortal stars.

P. Bobrowski and R. Schild - "Late/Final Neolithic settlement (E-01-2 'Camp') from Gebel Ramlah, Western Desert of Egypt, Preliminary Report" - Three natural layers could be identified in the excavation trench, a top layer and then a thin (35 - 45 cm) second of brown consolidated sand and a third 45 cm thick of light and very consolidated alluvial sand. Most of the hearths were oval or round, about 20 cm deep. An assemblage of stone tools was found and bones and some pottery, among them a large grinding stone. About 92% of the stone tools were debitage and 60% were made of Egyptian flint. The debitage comprised a 56% of chips and a 24% of flakes, only about 5% of blades. Among the flakes, 51% were tools with continuous retouch and 30% were denticulated flakes and blades. The pottery sherds found were mostly undecorated and were non-diagnostic. Faunal remains included cattle, sheep, goat, fox, gazelle. The C14 dates range between 8,500 and 6,000 BP obtained from hearths.

M. Kobusiewicz, J. Kabacinski and R. Schild - "Final Neolithic burial grounds from Gebel Ramlah Playa, Western Desert of Egypt" - Three burial grounds were found and excavated between 2001 and 2003. They were much alike and were located at a great distance from each other, the burials were very concentrated. They recognized two categories of burials, one of single individuals laid to rest on the right side and a second of 2 to 8 individuals as multiple secondary burials with mixed remains. Some of the bodies were of children, even newborn. Grave goods were found in both single and multiple burials, one was a symbolic burial with funerary goods but no bones. Among the objects found they mentioned black top pots, 'Tasian-like' beakers, stone palettes, ivory (bone) or gneiss containers for pigments, ivory bracelets and stone or ostrich egg beads as well as stone tools (points, microliths, etc.), also bone needles and bone finger rings, a miniature boomerang, sheets of mica (one in the shape of a tilapia fish). The pots were usually placed near the head or chest of the deceased. The pottery resembled Badarian assemblages. The chronology of these cemeteries from charcoal and bone ranges between 5,750 to 5,500 BP (4,600 to 4,300 BC cal C14). Some individuals seem to have affinities with sub-Saharan populations, others are not so clearly defined, women were four times as numerous as men, the single burials seem to have belonged to people who died on the site, the secondary ones seem to have been for people who died away from the site and were taken there. They even found what seems to be attempts to re-implant teeth fallen off the skull into their sockets, sometimes placed in the wrong position, in extreme cases in the eye hole or even in the nose, all this reveals attempts to keep the body whole.   J. J. Castillos asked if the bodies were protected in any way (wrapped in mats or animal skins), the speaker replied that was not detected, but that most of the bodies had been placed inside baskets made of wickerwork.

N. Shirai, "Curation, social representation or both? Emergence of a bifacial stone tools and its implication for a model of the beginning of food production in the Western Desert" - The speaker tried to decide whether the appearance of bifacial stone points was correlated with the beginning of herding of sheep and goats in the Western Desert and how and why domesticates were adopted earlier in the Western Desert than in the Nile Valley and why bifacial stone tools developed in the Western Desert in the Mid-Holocene and did not appear earlier in the Nile Valley. Bifacial stone tools could be the media for social representation, emergent socio-economic competition may have led to competitive aestheticism in lithic technology. Socio-economic competition reflected in bifacial stone tools may have motivated the introduction of domesticates. As more people gathered around the increasingly reduced number of water sources, an idea of territoriality took shape and a stressful situation in increasingly more circumscribed habitats led to domestication as a way to increase their economic resources. Stone tools used for butchering animals allowed certain people to acquire status as distributors of food, leading to increasing social stratification.

S. Hendrickx, "Dogs and power in Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt" - The speaker started by mentioning a black top pot of Naqada IIa with incised images of two (domesticated because of the collars) dogs and other assorted animals, he assumed at first that it was a hunting scene without the humans. He was not satisfied with this interpretation and decided to follow up along J. Baines' views on the symbolic representations of dogs in early Egyptian art. Then he discussed the presence of dogs in petroglyphs and palettes and at the tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis, in which dogs appear in hunting scenes. Well into the 4th millennium BC hunting had a marginal economic importance but it served instead for a display of prowess by members of the contemporary elite and for practice in the use of weapons. Tombs of dogs have been found in elite cemeteries at Hierakonpolis, cemetery T at Naqada, Abydos and Adaïma, although in the latter perhaps with different implications than in the previous elite cemeteries. Then he mentioned the ivory handles of predynastic knives with examples of dogs, in the case of the Gebel el Arak knife with a human figure, quite an unusual representation. In them the dog appears as the only active agent, attacking or goading other animals. Dogs would appear to be then symbols of power putting some order in chaos represented by the assorted other animals. Even in the Hunters' Palette the hunters wear what appear to be dog tails (compare with the tails of the dogs in the Dogs' Palette). Apparently quite uncommon animals worked their way into royal iconography, the dog was not one of them and most of these Predynastic examples appear to date no later than the end of Naqada I.   J. J. Castillos asked the speaker if he was aware of other examples like in a Gerzean tomb at Matmar containing the body of a man buried in a simple wicker coffin while beside him there was a stout wooden box, of much better quality, containing the skeleton of a dog, probably his favourite pet, indicating that dogs were seen in early Egypt in more ways than the symbolic ones mentioned in this paper. The speaker said that he was aware of this example.

I. Takamiya, "Distribution of decorated pottery vessels in cemeteries of the Naqada culture" - The speaker produced a table of quantitative data of decorated (painted) pottery in Predynastic Egypt classified as to shape, motif and type of burial for several Upper Egyptian Predynastic cemeteries. Generally speaking, decorated vessels seem to be more frequent in women's and sometimes children's graves. Her studies show that although W pots are associated mostly with larger tombs, decorated pots seem to have had a somewhat larger distribution, as luxury items to which the elite would have a more ample access but without involving a monopoly as it seems to be the case with the W pots, much more frequent in elite tombs.

K. Cialowicz, "Tell el-Farkha 2003: excavations on the Western Kom" - In 2000 they found a building with two levels of occupation dating to early Naqada III with a bottom layer of burnt material covered by a sterile layer. Above this there was another room connected to the building with less thick walls and containing large jars. A layer of mud indicates perhaps a period of abandonment of the structure. In 2002 they worked in the western side of the building. There are visible signs of destruction. They found another building measuring about 20 m by 20 m (perhaps with two floors), divided into several rooms, with 2 m thick mudbrick walls. It is hard to determine whether the destruction by fire verified was intentional or the result of a natural disaster. In one of the rooms the remains of badly preserved pots were found, perhaps because of the soil pressure. Some structures that indicate the use of fire seem to have been breweries. Lower down, structures dated to late Naqada II contain household items like jars. Lower down they found Lower Egyptian structures, among them a brewery. A second structure is another part of this large Lower Egyptian building comprising about 500 m², of unclear nature.

M. Chlodniki, "Tell el-Farkha: stratigraphy of the Eastern Kom" - The graves found in the geophysical survey correspond to different levels. In a circular structure limited by a wall they found inside a rectangular structure like nothing they had seen here so far, divided like a grid in many small squares. The pottery recovered that dates to Naqada IIIcd is unfortunately non-diagnostic. It appears that this structure was somehow related to the funerary nature of this part of the Kom. They also found elsewhere a number of red brick tiles, probably the floor of a 5 m by 5 m room. Inside this room a smaller rectangle was found that seemed also to have had a red brick tile floor. The function of this room could not be determined either. Architecturally, the nature of these buidings appear to be quite different from the others previously identified. They found in the trench a series of clay sealings with inscriptions dating to the First and Second Dynasties belonging to the upper layers. The estimated chronology is: Western Kom - Naqada IIb/c to First Dynasty; Central Kom - Naqada IIb/c to Third/Fourth Dynasties; Eastern Kom - Naqada IIIa to Third/Fourth Dynasties.

J. Debowska, "Tell el-Farkha necropolis - Field Season 2003" - An interesting feature is the variation they found in the graves they excavated. The bodies were buried lying on their left side facing east, the graves contained large jars and also smaller ones, with accessory chambers for the funerary goods built with a single row of bricks. Some of the tombs show evidence of robbers' activity who stole many of the most valuable objects. A special find was a splendid necklace that had apparently escaped the robbers' attention. One of the tombs was particularly rich containing about 40 pots, a hippopotamus rib and other items. In another tomb they found the body of a young male with the bones so close together that it appears to be due to deliberate body constriction. Another body in a tomb of about 2 m by 3 m, seems to have been buried in a mudbrick coffin. Tomb 14 had no funerary goods but the orientation of the body was different, on the right side looking west, which was quite intriguing. In another grave they found the remains of a wall that ran inside the tomb, belonging to an intrusive Early Dynastic building that also penetrated other nearby graves. Among the small objects found there was a pendant with the image of a bird on top and a beautiful knife handle.

A. Maczynska, "Egyptian-Canaanite interaction during the 4th millennium BC: a view from Tell el-Farkha" - According to the finds made in recent years the nature of the Egyptian presence in Palestine is more complex than the earlier assumed conquest, trade, colonization or other interpretations by themselves. Among the relevant finds in Tell el-Farkha there is a knife handle of EB I, wavy handles of EB I, a spouted jar of roughly contemporary nature, also a "pajama style" jar also dated to EB I, grain wash jars, examples of pattern burnishing also EB I, jar handles of similar date. The settlement at Tell el-Farkha took part in the exchanges that took place between Egypt and Palestine although they cannot state the nature of such exchanges. They have so far not found evidence of Palestinians settled here like in Buto and elsewhere in Lower Egypt. The evolution that seems to have taken place between 3,900 to 3,650 BC appears to have consisted from initial exchanges to an exploitation of southern Palestine and then later on, of an Egyptian presence involving a permanent Egyptian installation there.

J. Kabacinski and P. Szejnoga, "Early Dynastic chert workshops at Tell el-Farkha" - The chert workshops in Tell el-Farkha are remarkable because they appear to be highly specialized. Within the habitation area they found several workshops, one comprising about 900 objects and fewer in the other two. They found single platform cores for blades, cores for blades with changed orientation, the structure of the debitage involves a large number of chips and among the tools there are many micro-perforators as well as sickle inserts. Different techniques were used such as chipping, boring, polishing, etc.

M. Jordeczka, "Stone artefacts from Tell el-Farkha. Description of materials discovered during the last excavation season" - The stone for Tell el-Farkha had to be brought from elsewhere because of lack of local raw material. About 72% of it was sandstone, the most popular raw material here. The speaker did not discuss the manufacture of for instance, knives, but rather other types of stone objects such as stone vases, stone hammers of regular and irregular shapes, borers (there was a large presence here of these tools), polishing stones, grinders of several kinds, mortars, etc. The luxury goods included stone vessels (Naqada IId and Early Dynastic), cosmetic palettes, a cylinder seal, maceheads, zoomorphic pendants, etc.

M. Jucha, "The pottery from Tell el-Farkha" - The pottery here can be arranged in seven phases being the earliest Naqada IIb to the Third and Fourth Dynasties. The dominant pottery types at the earliest stage is Naqadian from late Naqada II and Naqada III which had already expanded this far north. Some of the earliest jars are large ones with mostly flat bases although some pointed bases were found, these did not seem to be very popular here. Some jars of local Lower Egyptian types are nevertheless still extant in phase 3 in this site. Fragments of W pots (second part of Naqada II and Naqada III) were also found, some with geometric painted patterns, as well as medium to large tall, globular storage jars, in one case the bottom was inserted in a small base pot. Miniature vessels were also found and some of foreign origin with finger impressions.

B. Drobniewicz and B. Ginter, "Multicultural site No. 21 at Deir el-Bahari (Upper Egypt)" - This paper is the result of work carried out in the 1970s in Western Thebes. They found remains from the Acheulian to the Dynastic period at over 200 m above sea level. Most of the material was the result of surface collections without stratigraphical considerations. They used instead the differentiation among the assemblages and patination. They found six assemblages: the first consisting of 'old', weathered material with a very thick patina; a second with very shiny, smooth surfaces and also presenting a thick patina; a third with slightly shiny, smooth surfaces also with patina; a fourth of objects with a mat surface with an orange and reddish patina; a fifth (which was the richest in quantity) with smooth, slightly polished surfaces and a thin patina and finally a sixth with nearly fresh surfaces, very weakly patinated. The general characteristics are that they were mostly flakes, then much less numerous non-retouched tools and also cores, other types were only marginally present. The debitage in phase one consisted mostly of cortical and levallois flakes, blades and points. Summing up, the first seems to be Acheulian and late Acheulian, the second a new industry ('Bahari technology'), Middle Palaeolithic, the third Nubian Mousterian, Type B, the fourth also Nubian Mousterian, the fifth Khormusan (?) and the sixth Predynastic, probably Naqadian.

J. J. Castillos, "The Predynastic cemeteries at Naqada" - The speaker, after making some preliminary methodological considerations, summed up the results of his research concerning these large cemeteries at and near Naqada, using the published data and unpublished excavator's notes, with which he could recover information covering about 2,000 tombs of the 3,000 originally excavated but very incompletely published. He outlined the steady cultural development revealed by the graves of various periods and the increase in social differentiation. He also studied the variations in social inequality that showed a steady increase down to the Early Dynastic for the general population although in the elite cemeteries the picture was somewhat different indicating a decrease in inequality between Naqada II and Naqada III, which would support the recent suggestions by scholars that the Predynastic kingdom of Naqada was absorbed and incorporated around this time into one of its more powerful neighbouring polities. This decrease in social inequality that was detected by the speaker and other scholars for cemeteries in rather more remote locations like Armant and Matmar as a decline probably due to increasing distance of those communities to the centres of political power at the time, in the case of Naqada would be due to the decline of the Naqada elite that saw its access to luxury goods for funerary purposes curtailed by the annexation of Naqada by another regional state whose elite appropriated for itself such status defining commodities.

E. Nowak, "The Gebelein Linen reconsidered" - The speaker argued that this object should be dated rather to Naqada I than other previously suggested later dates. She said that although the boat motif appears in the D class pottery, it also appears not so frequently in the C class pots of Naqada I. She also pointed out that in the D pots steering oars are not depicted. In the case of images of women with upraised arms in D pots, statuettes with a similar attitude have been dated to Naqada I as well as a C class beaker with a man with upraised arms. Other securely dated ivories have similar images and have been dated to Naqada I. The hippopotamus hunt scene in the linen is also attested in Naqada I. Then she compared and drew attention to the linen and the decoration of tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis which has the image of the chief next to a cabin in a boat. The linen seems to convey earlier representations and all points to Naqada Ic as the most likely date for this linen.

N. Harrington, "Human representation in the Predynastic Period: the Hierakonpolis locality 6 statue in context" - They found part of a nose and then numerous other fragments of a statue, even one of the ears that was clearly recognizable. Then she presented an approximate reconstruction of the statue and plynth, resembling Predynastic male figurines (stylized long and thin figure) with the arms close to the body at the sides and wearing a penistasche.   J. J. Castillos asked how she could be sure that these are fragments of only one statue. She replied that they do not know yet.

D. Welsby, "The Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project" - There has been very little archaeological work in this region soon to be flooded and it has even been shunned by tourists considering it a marginal area which is a view far from correct since there are numerous monumental remains and Meroitic tumuli, also evidence for an early Kushite occupation and its corresponding cemeteries. In January 2003 the remains of a small early Kushite stone pyramid were discovered. There is also evidence of a Kerma occupation with Kerma tombs similar to those farther north, including human remains and pottery. Far from being a marginal area of the Kerma territory, it seems to have been well integrated into the Kerma state. The earliest occupation of this area seems to date to the Middle Palaeolithic, so this region should attract a wide variety of archaeologists interested in this rescue operation.   After this paper was read, Sudanese officials present at the meeting, which included a Minister of that government, also underlined the value of the cultural remains in the area to be flooded and invited those attending the Symposium to take part in this rescue project.

Ch. Ehret, "Seriating Holocene language history in Northeastern Africa" - This paper was read by S. Keita due to the absence of the original speaker. He underlined that the origin of Afroasiatic is clearly African and not Asian as earlier scholars mistakenly implied. Furthermore, he suggested that the origin of Afroasiatic could be located in the Sudan area of the Nile, the Nilo-Saharan in the sub-Saharan/Tchad area and the Niger-Congo family in West Africa. Because of the vocabulary he could date the origin of for example, the Nilo-Saharan, to about 8,500 BC, then it branched out later on.

M. Judd, "Jebel Sahaba revisited" - The Sahaba site is near Wadi Halfa (Sudan). The study of these remains had to be confined to skulls (that were sometimes restored) because the pelvic bones were usually missing or very deteriorated. In order to preserve the remains she did ageing on the basis of the teeth profiting by recent publications on these techniques. Traumas were detected in many bones but of a not very dramatic nature. Many of the arm injuries seem to reflect the effect of a blow, but not implying any extreme violence. Cut marks are common and generally affect the femur or the humerus, they appear as notches in the bone. She could detect a stature dimorphism of between 155 to 175 cm for women and 160 to 180 cm for men, the maximium frequency was 165 cm for women and 170 cm for men. In data from other prehistoric cemeteries the difference in stature between men and women seems to have been of about 5 cm. These people do not seem to have lived in a very stressful environment and they seem to have led fairly normal lives given their circumstances.

F. Wendorf, "Late Palaeolithic warfare in the Nile Valley of Egypt and Sudan" - The speaker suggested that the common idea that warfare started with the neolithic and disputes over the possession of land and other resources in the case of the Nile Valley is wrong and it seems to have started much earlier than in the Holocene. In the earlier burials stone tools (flakes, points) were found inside the skeletons, embedded in bones or between vertebrae which might indicate violent deaths. Signs of violence were found in the bodies of men, women and children, marking what me might call "equal opportunity violence". The reason for this Nilotic early violence could be due to an increasingly restricted area favourable for human occupation and the competition of different cultural groups in the same narrow territory.   J. J. Castillos said that judgement on this should be postponed until cemeteries with a clear majority of male burials or mass graves of victims of warfare, indicating such violent confrontations, are found. The speaker replied that the evidence is still there indicating a state of indiscriminate violence affecting people of all ages. [What I meant to say with my objection was that violence in a society can be internal or external, as to where it takes place, the members of the community against each other, or against other groups, as the speaker implied. In the first case it would not be surprising since even in today's Egypt it has been reported in the local press that domestic violence is quite high as well as attacks against women who do not submit to men's wishes, which has often led to permanent injuries. But in the case of warfare against other groups, I would expect to find the evidence that I mentioned above.]

A. Alsharekh, "The Prehistory of Saudi Arabia: a reconsideration of Thumamah" - They found some stone structures but cannot decide on their purpose, ceremonial or other. Soundings made below the stones have not indicated the presence of other structures or other archaeological material. The stones seem to have been collected from nearby streams, some are large and others are small. Some of the stone structures are rectangular and others circular, several are quite large. They also found many pits which they think served as storage pits for cereals or other plant resources. Under the smaller structures they found some organic remains, human bones and objects like a bronze pendant and other items. They also found some quartzite workshops. They made as well surface collections of stone tools, mainly chert and flint. Near the stone tools they found many hearths, some large with a diameter of over 1 m and containing charcoal. Many of these artefacts and hearths were found near dry ancient ponds or lakes. Two dates were obtained, one from charcoal (hearth) of 6,290 - 6,170 BP and another from organic sediment of 1,350 - 1,240 BP (grave).

K. Grzymski, "Current field research in the Letti Basin" - The speaker found some Greek inscriptions on the rock but nothing earlier, so he thinks that this is due to the nature of the rock that breaks down very easily and has probably collapsed destroying possible earlier petroglyphs. He found quite a number of very eroded tumuli, some definitively Kerma and others with Napata material. He also found early Khartum material but nothing Palaeolithic so far. Near the surface he found circular structures that he could not decide whether they were storage bins, ovens or had other purposes. The Letti Basin shows a continuous occupation from the Middle Palaeolithic (others' findings) to early Muslim.

P. Osypinski, "Affad 23, a Middle Palaeolithic site from Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan. Preliminary Report" - The area they surveyed was of about 200 m by 200 m divided into four squares of 100 m by 100 m. They found about 100 hearths of much later date than Middle Palaeolithic. No other suggestion of settlements could be found and there were no domestic hearths, so they seem to have been industrial hearths of some kind. Much of the Palaeolithic material had no visible signs of erosion or patina, it still had sharp edges. The Middle Palaeolithic assemblages (over 2,000 artefacts) revealed a hard percussion technique. Animal bones were also found here, several hundreds in all, that will be reported by another colleague in this Symposium. The assemblages reveal a low Levallois index but we should be cautious since this could change with further surveying and more data.

J. Reinold, "Wadi el-Khowi, current research: the Neolithic cemetery KDK 21" - The two dates they could obtain for this site were of around 5,500 BP. They found for the first time in these neolithic cemeteries stone stelae buried in the ground next to tomb pits. The tombs had grave goods like pots and they also found graves of animals, like for instance, dogs. Some of the tombs were multiple, like one for instance with two adults, a woman and a man. The grave goods in these cases are around the body of the female, none with the man placed behind her. He suggested that it could be the case of a man sacrificed to accompany the main occupant in death (as servant or slave?). Some of the grave goods are figurines (made of stone or clay), some very rustic, others resembling Egyptian Predynastic ones and others very steatopygic .   R. Schild asked the speaker whether the dates he provided were calibrated or uncalibrated C14, he replied that they were uncalibrated.   J. J. Castillos asked if he could determine the size of the pits in some way and if the stelae had marks of any kind. He replied that he could not determine size due to the nature of the soil, only a rough idea by the disposition of the body and the tomb objects, and about the stelae, he said that they had no remarkable marks of any kind.

A. and A. Castiglioni, "Prehistoric and other sites on the Taka Road in Sudan" - They reported the discovery of several Meroitic remains like statues representing lions and a goat (bélier) and circular structures to gather rain water. In a cave in the rock they found pictographs with red paint including bovines with long horns and human figures, but these pictures were largely incomplete due to deterioration of the rock. More images (petroglyphs this time) were found on a standing rock away from the cave but it is a Meroitic inscription with a unique representation of a god in front and above the king who is celebrating a victory over his enemies. In other areas they found mortars and scattered incised pottery remains of prehistoric date. Other petroglyphs were also found elsewhere with pictures of animals like giraffes and they also found circular stone formations. Other findings were circular tombs of various typologies and of large size, one of them was dated to the 7th-8th centuries BC. In another place they found petroglyphs representing elephants of prehistoric date due to the patina. In some cases they found groupings of many oval or circular tombs and tumuli near hills or at the foot of the Jebel.

M. Kaczmarek, "Human skeletal remains from the Neolithic cemetery at Kadero (Sudan)" - They found 215 Neolithic graves and much fewer later graves. The tombs are oval pits, usually single burials (only one or two were double burials), the condition of the bodies is from poor to well preserved, all in a very contracted position, the funerary offerings involved pots, personal ornaments, etc. Only 48 subadults from 0 to 14 years of age were found, about 22% of the total number of bodies, the rest were 56 men and 41 women, 35% were of undetermined sex. The low figure for the children burials was a much lower figure than they expected which for this time period should be around 50%. The teeth exhibit great helicoidal wear but there are no cases of cavities.   J. J. Castillos asked if all the children were buried in the cemetery, could it not be that the infants and the newborn were systematically excluded explaining the low figures? The speaker replied that the infants and newborn were buried there because they found one or two, but being those bones so fragile, that could explain their scarcity. L. Krzyzaniak then intervened to say that some of the elite graves with children were dug deeper and were better preserved, so the ones belonging to poorer members of the community were put in shallow tombs and were lost through erosion or decay. K. Kroeper also pointed out that at the Nile Delta where she has been working, because of less dry conditions than in Upper Egypt, they had the same problem with the fragile bones of infants.

W. Stankowski, "Geomorphology and geology of the Kadero site" - Several metres deep borings were carried out around the Kadero site. Six or seven thousand years ago in Sudan the climate was wetter and then a desiccation process started. From much earlier times there were a succession of wet and dry periods in the region which cannot be plotted with great precision but that are revealed by enough evidence to know that they took place. The sediment deposits below the surface near the river are mostly sandy (eroded Nubian sandstone) and silty with sometimes calcareous sediments. The silt came from the Nile floods. At Kadero the soundings exhibited strata going as far back as 14,000 years ago. The speaker underlined that in this part of Africa the geological processes are going on very slowly.

L. Krzyzaniak, "Decorated animal bones from the Neolithic cemetery at Kadero" - The speaker centered his paper on two tombs, 242 (a female burial) and 244 (a male burial), in this cemetery. In one of them (242) they found groups of shell beads forming some kind of decoration. In the other one (244) the man, about 28 years old, was furnished with ivory bracelets and a necklace of carnelian beads, as well as this kind of shell decoration. The pottery in this tomb was diagnostic Khartum neolithic. But they also found decorated animal bones of a very fragile nature. The decoration consisted of parallel cuts made on the bone and sometimes forming a zig-zag pattern. The bones are of a big mammal, probably hippopotamus ribs. It was suggested that it could consist of a musical instrument (a "raspa" or "racleur"). The date of these objects is quite clear (about the 5th millennium BC) and they seem to be part of the tomb furnishings of a member of the local elite. Those who buried these people also included a bone pointer to rub and make the music or noise, the pointer had a hole near the end maybe to wear it hanging from the neck.

M. Cremaschi, S. Salvatori, D. Usai and A. Zerboni, "A further "tessera" to the huge "mosaic": studying the ancient settlement pattern of the El Salha region (southwest of Omdurman, Central Sudan)" - The greater abundance of sites in this area is from the Palaeolithic to the Meso/Neolithic and the Christian and Post-Meroitic, other periods are less well represented in the overall picture here. Then the speaker provided details of the mesolithic and neolithic sites found in this area and of the post-meroitic and islamic remains.

P. Bobrowski and M. Jordeczka, "A survey of the Wadi Awatib near Naga'a" - Settlements, workshops, cemeteries, single burials could be identified from the Palaeolithic to the Early Khartum and Meroitic periods. The oldest settlements correspond to two small workshops to work local sandstone and date back to the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic involving chopping tools and some levallois tools. The later settlements are of Early Khartum date as well as some of the cemeteries. Quartz was used here for the manufacture of small tools. Sandstone was used for larger tools. Examples of Early Khartum pottery were also found in these sites. Settlements and burial grounds of meroitic and post-meroitic date were also identified. The graves appear to belong to two different periods and are of different types. Among the single burials some were meroitic barrows or cysts.

F. Geus and Y. Lecointe, "El Multaga, a rescue work related to the construction of a dam on the 4th cataract of the Nile" - The rescue area looked at first like a sandy plain with no visible human created features. Being quite inhospitable, it seemed to have been uninhabited for long periods of time but a survey showed the existence of 90 sites (mostly ceramic carrying prehistoric sites) of Khartum mesolithic and neolithic, then later on 147 sites were found belonging to many periods. Palaeolithic sites were found in the southeastern area of the region and consist of workshops, mainly of Middle Palaeolithic date. Most of the neolithic sites have been unfortunately destroyed because they were located in the areas that later on were devoted to agriculture, but lithic and incised ceramic artefacts were found belonging to those neolithic sites, although unfortunately, no organic remains could be recovered. The stone tools showed a high percentage of finished tools. Burial mounds were found as well but not all of them contained human remains, only two of those that did were multiple (two bodies), the rest were single burials. The bodies had funerary offerings of pottery and ornaments and were highly contracted.

S. Kröpelin, "Wadi Hariq: palaeoenvironmental data from a remote desert site (southeastern Sahara/northwestern Sudan)" - This site is extremely remote and was found by chance by them when trying to find the shortest way to get from Tchad to Dongola in the Sudan. It is surrounded by barren deserts. The speaker said that he would explain why it is a very promising site for archaeological work. They found the remains of the holes left in the ground by fallen ancient trees of fairly large size that are rather in the same layer. They also found the bones of several animals, among them an early variety of camel and the remains of fires in which wood was burnt not naturally but by human agency. They also found a deep well, dry now but that may have contained water in ancient times. They found as well carbonate deposits that indicate ancient lakes.

F. Jesse, "Pastoral groups in the Southern Libyan Desert: the Handessi Horizon (ca. 2,200 - 1,100 BC)" - The cultural sequence here has been established from 6,000 to 1,000 BC. No traces of postholes or dwellings were found in their surveys. Pottery concentrations in certain areas seem to have been used for the storage of food and some other stone structures seem to have been meant to contain water for animal consumption. The pottery is decorated in two phases: A, triangular impressions, bouton, criss-cross, oblique rows of comb impressions and some geometric; B, complex geometric, mat impressions. The pottery of Handessi is organic tempered, often combined with sand. The lithics are a flake industry, the raw material was quartz or quartzite, seldom chalcedony. These assemblages and animal remains being cattle and also dogs and donkeys indicate a pastoral, animal breeding economy, in which the needs of the animals were paramount.

M. Lange, "The archaeology of Wadi Hariq (NW Sudan): Preliminary results from excavations in 1999 and 2001" - Most of the sites belong to late Holocene date. Excavations carried out showed assemblages of incised pottery and lithic implements located in part of the excavated area, being the rest of the squares quite empty of archaeological material. The decoration of the incised pottery was of a geometric nature being typical of the Handessi A horizon. Another excavation carried out showed more abundant remains of stone tools, pottery and charcoal from hearths. The pottery here was homogeneous and similar to the one described above. However, these two pottery assemblages seem to have been separated by at least four centuries in spite of belonging to the same Handessi horizon.

N. Pöllath, "Mid-Holocene pastoralism in northwestern Sudan: cattle bone finds from Wadi Hariq" - More than 4,000 bone remains were found in this site, most were cattle bones, also some sheep and goat with small numbers of wild animals such as gazelle, giraffe and others. Most of the meat consumption here was beef. The environment at Wadi Hariq seems to have been from semi-desert to desert, but with abundant grass some time during the year, the presence of giraffe that requires surface water seems to indicate seasonal milder conditions. the abundance of neonate cattle bones indicates the presence of man during the rainy season since it reveals practices common in herding pastoral communities. After developing a statistical analysis of cattle bones from many sites, the speaker was led to two conclusions: first, Sudanese and Egyptian cattle have different stature and are separate breeds, and second, Eastern Sahara cattle were slender and were linked to the Egyptian and Sudanese breeds.

M. Gatto, "Early A-Group in the north" - This paper dealt with early A-Group remains that have been found in the Dakka Plain, north of the Second Cataract. Early A-Group dates to about 3,800 - 3,500 BC (Stufen Ic to IIc), Stage I from Naqada Ic to Naqada IIa and Stage II to Naqada IIb-c. Single burials are common here but some multiple ones were found as well. The body can be both on the left or the right side, contracted, no animal burials were found at this phase. The presence of tall beakers in these cemeteries is noteworthy although they are not really A-Group but rather earlier neolithic beakers. The presence of the custom of having animal burials in the cemeteries, that has been linked to A-Group Nubians in the Naqada region between Naqada and Hierakonpolis in Egypt, and that has been assigned to Egyptian customs adopted by those Nubians, may not be so since in the Sudan that kind of animal burials has in fact been detected in the archaeological record. The speaker said that differences in A-Group presences north into Egypt may be due to regional variations of the A-Group traditions.

H. Nordström and M. Lange, "Abkan, A-Group and the desert finds" - Early A-Group can't be properly understood without bringing into the picture the Abkan culture (6,000 to 5,000 BP). The Abkan pottery is up to 80% undecorated and in their lithic debitage quartz is common. The later Abkan tends to microlithic tools. Naqada pottery has been identified in Abkan settlements. Although the extent of Abkan expansion is still under evaluation, it is absent in Lower Nubia, probably due to alluvial destruction, but in the south it extends beyond Wadi Halfa. A-Group and Abkan have many common traits and share a similar cultural development. There are about 75 A-Group cemeteries (in all about 3,000 graves) between Kubaniya and the Second Cataract area. Also more than 20 settlements were identified, some near the known cemeteries. The A-Group came to an abrupt end with the First Dynasty in Egypt and Egyptian expansion to the south.

F. Geus, "Pre-Kerma occupation in Sai island and its surroundings" - In 1996 the speaker found pottery belonging to the earlier culture that he had identified and labelled Pre-Kerma in the Nile area north of Sai island. Other elements of this culture were pits in the ground of two types: one, simple, deep or shallow and a second, deeper, more elaborately dug, that could be covered and that were perhaps used as granaries. He found schist slabs that were used for this purpose of covering them. The botanic remains consist of different types of grains (emmer wheat and barley, acacia seeds, etc.), some animal remains like egg shell fragments probably used to make beads and intruding animal remains like rodents, some of which were found naturally mummified in situ, also some stone tools like perforators and small metallic nodules as well as sherds of mostly decorated (incised) pottery that were found in the pits, an example of an Egyptian marl ware was also found that helped date the site. Seal impressions on clay resemble those found by Myers at Armant and others from the Elephantine area.

M. Honegger, "Pre-Kerma cultural features in the Kerma area" - The speaker attempted a definition of two phases of the Pre-Kerma culture, the transition to Kerma and the contacts with the A-Group. The Pre-Kerma settlements situated in the area beyond present cultivation were all preserved but those in the cultivation area are in very bad condition. He used for his study remains belonging to Middle and Late Pre-Kerma and ancient Kerma, settlements for the two former and a cemetery for the latter. He presented a number of examples of pottery from all those periods and quantitative analysis showing a clear evolution among these three phases marked by the evolution of the pottery from Middle Pre-Kerma to ancient Kerma.

U. Steffensen, "Origin of the C-Group" - Evaluating the origins of pastoral communities is much harder to pinpoint than those of settled communities that leave more abundant and more easily located remains. In the early C-Group cemeteries with stelae marking the graves are typical of this stage. The dating of early C-Group is done from horizontal stratigraphy and by the presence of Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period material, also by the reports of Old Kingdom officials and their campaigns against these people located in the southern border of Egypt at the time. Then he compared pots like a late neolithic one from a Nedada grave and an early C-group bowl from Aniba with almost identical incised decoration in the form of concentric squares that together with other examples show that the C-Group could have evolved from earlier Nubian cultural traditions since C-group sites were located in the Lower Nubia region where intense trade and other contacts had occurred.

S. Giuliani, "Defining the Pan-Grave pottery" - This group comprises Nubians living in Egypt and being buried in Egyptian cemeteries in the late New Kingdom, the evidence comes mostly from burials. Their pottery decoration shares characteristics with other cultural traditions like Kerma Moyen and C-Group, many examples of such similarities were presented.

B. Gratien, "The Middle Nubian pottery: C-Group, Pan-Graves and Kerma Moyen production" - The speaker limited her presentation due to time limitation to some aspects of the Pan-Graves culture, including as many examples of pottery types as possible, both funerary and for settlement use. First, she criticized the earlier classifications of Pan-Graves pottery showing their inconsistencies and shortcomings, although she finally opted for following Nordström's approach with some modifications, dividing it into five groups instead of the four proposed by that author. One of the characteristics of Pan-Graves pottery is the black-topped pots where the black colour never goes beyond the rim, which differentiates it from C-Group pots where the black area is more irregularly defined. Some of the decoration made by impression seems to have been copied from Egyptian Middle Kingdom/Second Intermediate Period pottery. Burnishing is another of the characteristics that differentiates the Pan-Graves pottery from that of the C-Group and other Nubian traditions like Kerma. She decided not to tackle at this time the chronological evolution of Pan-Graves decoration because of its complexity and the short time lapse covered of just a couple of centuries.

A. Gautier, "Kadero: the fauna revisited (2003)" - The meat consumption was mainly cattle (bovines=beef) but there was some opportunistic fishing and also hunting, mainly of gazelle. Domestic animals such as bovines and goats were the most numerous in the faunal remains here with a large presence as well of wild animals such as small antelopes. Because of the large size of some of the cattle, it seems that the people here may have practised castration since that leads to larger size. Cattle was very important (80% of the total faunal remains) for the economy of this people.

L. Chaix, "New data about rural animal economy in the Kerma culture: the site of Gism el-Arba (Sudan)" - They found large numbers (many thousands) of animal bones of domestic mammals but very few fish, this could be due to the perishable nature of the latter. Some of the remains are also of wild animals but they are a small proportion of the total. The cattle is often of very large size. Among the caprines most were goats (about 60%) and sheep came to about 30%. Dogs and donkeys were only marginally present here. The maximum percentage for caprines is of very young or older animals while for bovines the older animals (more than 4 years old) predominate in the archaeological record here. There are similarities between this site and Kerma in the domestic animal picture, although at Kerma the caprines are present in a much larger proportion. There were many more small figurines representing bovines or caprines here than at Kerma, which might be one more aspect of the diversity between the metropolis, so to speak, and other more remote communities.

M. Osypinska, "Petrified osteological remains from the site Affad 23, Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan" - They collected about 800 fossilized osteological remains, mostly well preserved, dark in aspect but also very fragile. The dark colour may be due to the presence of iron and manganese in the soil. Mammals are the greatest proportion of the remains, then fish in a much smaller proportion and very few reptiles and birds. She classified the parts of animals as attractive and unattractive related to the amount of meat attached to them. In this site the bones of the so-called attractive parts of the animal were more numerous. The composition of the animal remains in the Middle Palaeolithic here points to a savannah kind of landscape in this region at the time.

J. Lesur, "Exploitation of wild animals in Ethiopia during the Late Holocene: the fauna of Moche Borago (Wolayta)" - They found several layers of stratified remains ranging from the Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic) to other later phases that she called I (early), II (intermediate) and III (late), these later phases included pottery and mainly microlithic stone tool industries. Many bone remains were found including primates, suinae, bovines (buffalo) and small mammals, due to the human activity here through time. In all phases bovines predominate in the archaeological record. Although the evidence of cuts in the bones is absent here which would indicate human processing of these faunal remains, the high proportion of scrapers and of the blades used in hunting in the local lithic tool industry point in that direction. They found no evidence for the age of the hunted animals or for the seasonal distribution of the hunting activity. No evidence of domestic animals was found here either, even in the later phase of the human occupation. The main characteristic of this site is of cultural inertia.

M. Balasse, "Mobility pattern of neolithic herders in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya, assessed by isotope analysis of domestic animal teeth" - The speaker began by outlining the different models suggested over the years to explain the subsistence and land use by these neolithic societies in the Central Rift Valley. Various sites were considered for this study. The analysis of the ratio of C13 and C12 isotopes in the teeth of sheep allowed them to determine whether the caprines were taken to graze on C3 or C4 plants, which knowing the distribution of these plants, enabled them to estimate the mobility of these neolithic communities in their pastoral activities.

V. Linseele, R. Friedman and W. van Neer, "Gourmets at Hierakonpolis? The fauna from the Predynastic temple (HK29A)" - This study concerns localities 11 and 29A at Hierakonpolis. Many thousands of animal bones have been recovered from the excavated square 29A and in the domestic complex 11 also several thousand more bone remains were found. In the bone count, the domestic animals do not appear as so predominant, but if we consider meat weight, then cattle becomes the predominant meat source in this Predynastic Upper Egyptian site. Fish were also exploited, not as numerous in the archaeological record as at other sites like Adaïma, but this can be due to the unequal preservation of fish bones in the sites. The Nile perch here is of a large size. Soft shelled turtle and crocodile appear as much more numerous at Hierakonpolis than in all the other Upper Egyptian Predynastic sites considered in this study. The hunting of mammals was important for the local economy at Hierakonpolis.

F. Marshall, "Pastoral perspectives on the domestication of the donkey" - The speaker explained at great length the usefulness of donkeys to pastoral communities today for many different purposes, being extremely tough and versatile animals, to the point that she said that certain groups might not have survived without the donkey. Still, they have low status in the archaeological record, they are not usually depicted in the rock art nor buried, they are seldom eaten and are always kept in relatively small numbers. Wild ass varieties today are the Somali, the Nubian (almost extinct) and the Saharan. Wild ass is present in many predynastic sites in Egypt and in predynastic art, also in prehistoric sites in the Sudan. Donkeys may very well have been domesticated by pastoralists in the Sahara due to their usefulness but so far firm evidence for this is still lacking but it would be a welcome line of future research.

S. Rossel, "Fish exploitation in Upper Egypt: a comparison of fish remains from the Middle Kingdom settlement of South Abydos and the Predynastic settlement of Mahasna" - The recent excavations at Mahasna were concentrated in the settlement of Predynastic date. Mochokidae, cat fish and Nile perch were the most heavily exploited fish here as revealed by the archaeological record. In South Abydos the Middle Kingdom remains recently excavated show a similar distribution but with cat fish largely predominating there, involving mostly adult specimens, several years old, between 80 to 100 cm in length. The low price of fish as exemplified by a sale at Deir el Medina of 50 fish for 2 deben shows that that it was an easily available staple like bread and beer. At South Abydos fish was a small proportion of the protein contribution to the diet as compared to mammals while at Mahasna it was a predominant proportion, this difference could be due to a number of causes, the nature of the sites, climatic variations or other that requires further study in order to be clarified.

W. van Neer, R. Friedman and V. Linseele, "Status and funerary customs at Hierakonpolis: the faunal evidence from HK6" - This report involves the results of older and more recent excavations. It concerns animals buried in this elite cemetery. A problem is that some of the faunal remains were scattered over this looted site, for example, the elephant remains, some of which were found at a distance of 10 m from each other. Dogs, cattle, sheep and goats are the most common domesticated animals here. Some of these animals were buried in association with humans and others were not. Most of these animals were of large size and with emphasis on young or juvenile age. Wild animals were also found like hartebeest, baboon, wild cattle, hippopotamus, donkey, wild cat and elephant. Some of these animals were sacrificed and buried soon after capture but others have evidence for long periods of captivity prior to their death (healed fractures in the case of the cat and other evidence as well for some of the other wild animals). In some cases the wild and domestic animals were buried mixed together but in other cases it was not so, keeping them apart. Perhaps this practice exemplifies a desire to control chaos. In later burials (Naqada III) no wild animals were present and the other animal remains found seemed to be meant to assure the subsistence of the deceased in the afterlife.

C. Callou, R. Lichtenberg and A. Zivie, "The cat mummies discovered in the Bubasteion of Saqqarah, Egypt" - Maya's tomb, Tut's nurse, was the richest in these examples of cat mummies meant as votive offerings to the goddess Bastet. Skittles (tightly bandaged upright bodies), silhouettes (the animal bandaged but preserving its natural shape in life) and packages (bundles of mummified remains) were the predominant shapes of these mummies. In the first two types they contained only one individual, the packages contained more, up to five cats each. Many of these mummies had a broken neck that was clearly visible in the X-rays, in other cases they had a broken skull. About 40% of these mummies were false mummies with some or no cat remains and others even contained human bones or bodies of other animals like mangoose. About 56% were real cat mummies.   Several questions were asked by the colleagues present at the meeting, especially about the high percentage of fakes or false mummies, to what the speaker replied that there could be several explanations but that she favoured the one that mummy workshops, sometimes under pressure to supply large quantities of these mummies for people to offer to the goddess as votive objects, took the shortcut of faking them. This explanation was not well received by some scholars but then J. J. Castillos pointed out that this sort of chicanery was not unknown even in the case of human mummies and instances have been reported of human mummies in museums with missing limbs or head that have been replaced with bundles of cloth or with sticks, which was revealed by X-ray examination. Among the published examples he recalled several in Spanish museums.

A. Zboray, "New rock art sites in Jebel Uweinat and the Gilf Kebir plateau" - There were representations of domestic animals and humans and hunting scenes involving humans and/or wild animals as well. The human bodies painted in red have much decoration on their bodies, some even seem to be wearing some type of footwear. The repetition of some scenes in different locations involving humans and animals involve such an almost exact replica that they might represent a certain early iconography. In several compositions a strange mythical creature is shown without a head, with a lion's tail and surrounded by small human figures. There are other rather unusual scenes like these, of several people holding an object over their heads.

M. von Czerniewicz, T. Lenssen-Erz and J. Linstädter, "What's up in upper Uweinat?" - Again, human figures and animals such as bovines and gazelles are represented on the rock, drawn with red paint, but no hunting scenes were seen during the brief exploration by the speaker and her colleagues. It is quite clear due to the regularities in the rock art and its standard portrayal of motifs that it was the work of specialists in special and carefully selected places. They also found in some places petroglyphs with densely packed groups of animals put together like giraffes, bovines and others, in places near the ground or high up on the rocks.

M. Cremaschi, D. Zampetti and A. Zerboni, "The rock art of the Tadrart Acacus (Libyan Sahara): a territorial approach" - This work was mainly concerned with examples of rock art in the wadi bottoms rathen than with those in the plains. The rock art was dated by them to between the epipalaeolithic to the Garamantian period. These petroglyphs are neatly defined shapes of stylized animals with only their outline in relief over the surrounding rock. The rock art in the Acacus site was found in shelters, caves, niches, alcoves, pillars, isolated boulders and floors. The petroglyphs here represent animal and human figures this time in low relief but others are like the previosuly described high relief ones. According to their experience, the figures at low level, near the floor, are more recent than those situated higher up.

E. Garcea, "Pottery making processes at Esh Shaheinab, Sudan" - They found about 79% neolithic, 18% Early Khartum and 3% late neolithic pottery in the total sample here. All stages of the manufacturing process are relevant for establishing cultural identities and implications rather than privileging one or just a few for the purpose. Statistical analysis proved useful to study the internal distribution of the pottery in the site. In different periods the texture is different, medium in Early Khartum and fine in the later periods. Inclusions (organic and inorganic) vary as well in time. Statistical distribution diagrams showed that the settlement covered a large area in Early Khartum and was not as ephemerous as Arkell thought. Summing up, the clay composition shows differences in the periods studied here.

M. Gatto, "The Khartum variant pottery: Early Holocene Nubian ceramic production" - The speaker studied the pottery collections in several museums that were relevant to her work. She classified the Khartum variant fabrics as follows: SJE Ia (Nordström) = Ia - high grade, fine sandy fabric; SJE Ib (Nordström) = Ib - high grade, fine micaceous fabric; Ic - medium coarse mineral fabric; Id - sandy fabric; Ie - coarse mineral fabric. Most of the sherds are decorated but about 15% were undecorated. The incised decoration is mostly of dotted lines and zig-zag patterns. The ware group classification was arranged in five groups: A, B, C, D and E. Unfortunately, not many C14 dates are available but some published dates are between 8,200 and 6,000 BP and this pottery belongs to this approximate time frame. The provisional chronological grid is as follows: Group A (Nabta) - 8,000 to 7,700 BP; Group B (Al Jerar) - 7,600 to 7,400 BP; Group C (?) - ?; Group D (Middle Neolithic) - 7.000 to 6.500 BP; Group E (Abkan?) - ?. The Khartum variant pottery is therefore not a homogeneous assemblage and is time sensitive, the study of desert sites allowed her to suggest a preliminary chronology for this pottery.

C. Hope, "Mid-Holocene ceramics from Dakhleh Oasis: an overview" - Because of the nature of the sites the speaker said that he would deal with surface collections of pottery and not with those obtained from stratigraphical contexts. He also said that this paper would mainly consist of a mostly technological approach, the clay resources, the temper used and their selection and the functions the pots were made to serve. He was able to classify his material chronologically using M. McDonald's system because in spite of his finds being surface, every site usually represented one phase only of such a classification. The sections are usually thick, between 4 and 14 mm but many times the base is very thick and higher up the section is quite thin. The sequence seems to start in the 10th millennium BP and this pottery is undecorated except for notched rims although some of the later sherds are decorated with dotted lines, but even this pottery tended to undecorated manufacturing and the decoration appears as a rather undesirable variation, perhaps copied or imitated from elsewhere. It is interesting that there seems to have been a tradition of shale tempering for this kind of pottery, even in the later phases which are contemporary with the first Egyptian dynasties, time when the Dakhla potters had increased their sophistication and could have altered the tempering method if they had so wished. Occasionally in some sherds a very fine rippling can be noticed, but this is extremely rare. Moreover, some of the sherds exhibit a deliberate blackening of the rim and the inside of the pots. Some occasional variations in fabric like quartz tempered sherds are most likely imports. He ended by suggesting that Dakhla (and perhaps Kharga) pottery should be linked to sites in the Sudan rather with those in the (Egyptian) Nile Valley.

H. Riemer, "The prehistoric pottery of Abu Tartur" - This region is situated between the oases of Dakhla and Kharga. Most of the sites here are of early Holocene date. A large proportion of the pottery was undecorated. The earliest pottery here seems to be of an early Khartum tradition. C14 dates for these sites were of about 7,600 BP. The dominating temper is here a fine shale that makes the pottery porous, although organic temper (seeds) is also attested as well as untempered, non-porous sherds. Clayton rings, of uncertain function, were also found here.

B. Keding, "Pottery of Wadi Howar - traditions, transformations and their implications" - The Wadi Howar was not only a means of communication and travel in early times but also a refuge when unfavourable conditions prevailed and therefore it was a crossroad of cultural traditions. The pottery from this area between 5,000 to 1,500 BC corresponds to a sequence from dotted wavy lined and Laqiya varieties to Hardessi A and B, corresponding the earlier to hunter-gatherers, to cattle keepers later on and to goat and sheep keepers at the end of this sequence. In this region technological methods and decoration styles are not isomorphic in distribution and the latter seem to have covered much larger areas. While the first change from hunter-gatherers to cattle keepers seems to have been a process affecting basically the same population, the second change towards small stock keeping seems to have involved the immigration of new people into this area.

It was decided that the next Poznan Symposium will take place in 2007, the details will be confirmed well in advance, as usual, so that those interested in participating can make the necessary arrangements.

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