Editing History of Sudan (section)

== Prehistory == <!--linked from [[Template:History of Sudan]-->
[[File:SabuJeddi4.jpg|thumb|260px|[[Sabu-Jaddi]] Rock Art site: Cattle]]

=== Nile Valley ===
{{see also|A-Group culture|Sabu-Jaddi|C-Group culture}}

[[Affad 23]] is an [[archaeological site]] located in the [[Affad Basin|Affad]] region of southern Dongola Reach in northern [[Sudan]],<ref name="Osypiński">{{cite journal |last1=Osypiński |first1=Piotr |last2=Osypińska |first2=Marta |last3=Gautier |first3=Achilles |title=Affad 23, a Late Middle Palaeolithic Site With Refitted Lithics and Animal Remains in the Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan |journal=Journal of African Archaeology |date=2011 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=177–188 |doi=10.3213/2191-5784-10186 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135549 |issn=1612-1651 |oclc=7787802958 |jstor=43135549 |s2cid=161078189 |access-date=1 August 2023 |archive-date=1 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801080857/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135549 |url-status=live }}</ref> which hosts "the well-preserved remains of prehistoric camps (relics of the oldest [[Natural environment|open-air]] [[hut]] in the world) and diverse [[hunting]] and [[Hunter-gatherer|gathering]] loci some 50,000 years old".<ref name="Osypiński II">{{cite web |last1=Osypiński |first1=Piotr |title=Unearthing Pan-African crossroad? Significance of the middle Nile valley in prehistory |url=https://projekty.ncn.gov.pl/opisy/480275-en.pdf |publisher=National Science Centre |date=2020 |access-date=1 August 2023 |archive-date=1 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801081130/https://projekty.ncn.gov.pl/opisy/480275-en.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Osypińska">{{cite book |last1=Osypińska |first1=Marta |title=From Faras to Soba: 60 years of Sudanese–Polish cooperation in saving the heritage of Sudan |date=2021 |publisher=Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology/University of Warsaw |isbn=9788395336256 |oclc=1374884636 |page=460 |chapter-url=https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/21580/Katalog%20wystawy%20From%20Faras%20to%20Soba%20-%20ONLINE%20o2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |chapter=Animals in the history of the Middle Nile |access-date=1 August 2023 |archive-date=1 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801080935/https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/21580/Katalog%20wystawy%20From%20Faras%20to%20Soba%20-%20ONLINE%20o2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Osypińska II">{{cite book |last1=Osypińska |first1=Marta |last2=Osypiński |first2=Piotr |title=From Faras to Soba: 60 years of Sudanese–Polish cooperation in saving the heritage of Sudan |date=2021 |publisher=Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology/University of Warsaw |isbn=9788395336256 |oclc=1374884636 |pages=187–188 |chapter-url=https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/21580/Katalog%20wystawy%20From%20Faras%20to%20Soba%20-%20ONLINE%20o2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |chapter=Exploring the oldest huts and the first cattle keepers in Africa |access-date=1 August 2023 |archive-date=1 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801080935/https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/21580/Katalog%20wystawy%20From%20Faras%20to%20Soba%20-%20ONLINE%20o2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref>

By the eighth millennium&nbsp;BC, people of a [[Neolithic]] culture had settled into a sedentary way of life there in fortified [[mud-brick]] villages, where they supplemented [[hunting]] and [[fishing]] on the Nile with [[grain]] gathering and [[cattle]] herding.<ref name=locearlyhist>"Early History", [[Helen Chapin Metz]], ed. [http://countrystudies.us/sudan Sudan A Country Study] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208183339/http://countrystudies.us/sudan/ |date=8 February 2016 }}. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991.</ref> During the fifth millennium BC, migrations from the drying [[Sahara]] brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed a social hierarchy over the next centuries and became the [[Kingdom of Kush]] (with the capital at [[Kerma]]) around 1070 BC. Anthropological and archaeological research indicates that during the pre-dynastic period [[Lower Nubia]] and Magadan [[Upper Egypt]] were ethnically, and culturally nearly identical, and thus, simultaneously evolved systems of Pharaonic kingship by 3300 BC.<ref>{{cite journal|title = Studies and Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships| author = S.O.Y. Keita| year = 1993| pages = 129–154| volume = 20| journal = History in Africa | jstor = 3171969| doi = 10.2307/3171969| s2cid = 162330365}}</ref> Together with other countries on [[Red Sea]], [[Sudan]] is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient [[Egyptians]] as ''[[Land of Punt|Punt]]'' (or "Ta Netjeru", meaning "God's Plan"), whose first mention dates to the 10th century BC.<ref>Simson Najovits, ''Egypt, the trunk of the tree, Volume 2'', (Algora Publishing: 2004), p.258.</ref>

=== Eastern Sudan ===
In eastern Sudan, the [[Butana Group]] appears around 4000 BC. These people produced simple decorated pottery, lived in round huts and were most likely herdsmen, hunters, but also consumed land snails and there is evidence for some agriculture.<ref>Andrea Manzo (2017): ''Eastern Sudan in its Setting, The archaeology of a region far from the Nile Valley'', Archaeopress, {{ISBN|9781784915582}}, 22-27 [http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/download.asp?id=%7B8051E498-158B-4217-8288-BD6DA9FB5ECC%7D online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126194148/http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/download.asp%3Fid%3D%257B8051E498-158B-4217-8288-BD6DA9FB5ECC%257D |date=26 January 2020 }}</ref>
The [[Gash Group]] started around 3000 BC and is another prehistory culture known from several places. These people produced decorated pottery and lived from farming and cattle breeding. [[Mahal Teglinos]] was an important place about 10 hectare large. In the center were excavated mud brick built houses. Seals and seal impressions attest a higher level of administration. Burials in an elite cemetery were marked with rough tomb stones.<ref>Manzo (2017): ''Eastern Sudan in its Setting, The archaeology of a region far from the Nile Valley'', 33-42 [http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/download.asp?id=%7B8051E498-158B-4217-8288-BD6DA9FB5ECC%7D online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126194148/http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/download.asp%3Fid%3D%257B8051E498-158B-4217-8288-BD6DA9FB5ECC%257D |date=26 January 2020 }}</ref> In the second millennium followed the [[Jebel Mokram Group]]. They produced pottery with simple incised decoration and lived in simple round huts. Cattle breeding was most likely the economical base.<ref>Manzo (2017): ''Eastern Sudan in its Setting, The archaeology of a region far from the Nile Valley'', 43-48 [http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/download.asp?id=%7B8051E498-158B-4217-8288-BD6DA9FB5ECC%7D online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126194148/http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/download.asp%3Fid%3D%257B8051E498-158B-4217-8288-BD6DA9FB5ECC%257D |date=26 January 2020 }}</ref>