[Gerry here]:
> What you seem to be doing
> is including the Near East in your definition of Asia?
[Alexander]:
When saying "the Near East" I usually mean the territory between Mediterranian
Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf and Red Sea.
The Near East CENTER OF NEOLITHIZATION includes a less extended territory:
Levant, SE Anatolia, N Mesopotamia, Zagros Mountains.
> And where in
> Africa do you draw the goat, sheep, wheat and barley line?
Do you mean, how this complex spread through Africa?
I'm just taking the map to the article "Early farming in Africa"(p. 118-119)
from "Past Worlds. Atlas of Archaeology", Time Books, 1995 [comments are mine]:
along Mediterranean coast - Nile Delta -> Cyrenaica -> Maghreb [it can
correspond to Berber group]
offshoot from Libya to Hoggar in Central Sahara, then southward to to Sahel zone
in which westward till Tichitt in Mauritania and eastward till Lake Chad [they
must have met in Hoggar the native African Neolithic culture with domesticated
cattle - it can correspond to Chadic group]
offshoot from Hoggar to Nubia, then to south and souteast in Ethiopia and Kenya
[it can correspond to Cushitic group].
It is not obvious to me that the line to Nubia should be drawn from Hoggar. To
my mind they could come directly from the north (Egypt area). All the cultures
after Hoggar have not only sheep/goat but also cattle. So anyway a group of
people with cattle moved from Hoggar eastward through Tibesti to Middle Nile - I
think these were people of Shari-Nile group of the Nilo-Saharan family - but
this happened some earlier than groups of Asiatic origin came in Central Sahara.
An indirect evidence: both Chadic speaking and Cushitic speaking folks belong to
ancient but DIFFERENT types of metis europeoid/negroid races - correspondingly
to Westsudanic and Ethiopian racial types. (Must I swear here that I'm not a
racist and never have been neither Communist nor Nazi nor religious
fundamentalist ?)
> Do you have further information on the Tasian Culture other than it has
> been around since 4500 BC?
Quotations from Encyclopædia Britannica CD:
"Tasian culture, possibly the oldest-known cultural phase in Upper Egypt (c.
4500 BC).
The Tasian culture is best known from evidence found on the east bank of the
Nile River at al-Badari and at Deir Tasa. Tasian remains are somewhat
intermingled with the materials of the subsequent Badarian stage, and, although
the total absence of metal and the more primitive appearance of its pottery
would seem to argue for an earlier date, it is also possible that the Tasian was
contemporary with the Badarian. Archaeological remains indicate that the Tasians
were settled farmers who cultivated emmer wheat and barley and raised herds of
sheep and goats. Pottery vessels were reasonably well made, with open bowls and
bag-shaped forms predominating. The dead were usually buried in straw coffins,
with the bodies in crouching or bent positions."
"Badarian culture, Egyptian predynastic cultural phase, first discovered at
al-Badari, its type-site, on the east bank of the Nile River in Asyut muhafazah
(governorate), Upper Egypt. British excavations there during the 1920s revealed
settlements and cemeteries dating to about 4000 BC.
Although the Badarians apparently continued the agricultural and pastoral
practices of the Tasians (see Tasian culture ), whom some scholars consider to
be their immediate predecessors, their artistic and technical skills were
greatly improved. Their pottery, often distinguished by a black top, was
extremely thin-walled, well-baked, and often decorated with a burnished ripple;
many regard it as the best ever made in the Nile River valley. Other remains
include combs and spoons of ivory, slate palettes, female figurines, and copper
and stone beads. Badarian materials have also been found at Jazirat Armant,
al-Hammamiyah, Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar), al-Matmar, and Tall al-Kawm
al-Kabir."
[Alexander]:
It's possible to speculate that the Tasian culture could be the switch point of
Egyptian and Cushitic groups. According to this scenario the further development
of the Badarian line has given us Egyptian civilization, and
post-Tasian-non-Badarian groups kept on driving south and having mixed with
Nilo-Saharan people they established the Cushitic group of the Afroasiatic
family. If so we should expect a some higher similarity between Egyptian and
Cushitic languages than between other groups of the family, but I don't know
such facts.
Alexander