Briefly John, as this is not the
place to discuss the origins of Egyptian civilisation, let's drop that
one.
I've attached some maps from the
University of Southampton (UK) on the palaeo-vegetation (together with the key)
of Africa at -18K, -8K and -5K. They are for public use. The site, though, is
very interesting : http://www.soton.ac.uk/~tjms/adams1.html
To me the most salient feature
is the northward advance after -18K of the tropical grasslands. It seems only
natural to me that the people who had been inhabiting this environment moved
northwards with it, propelled by the northward advance of the rainforests. The
most natural line of advance is along the higher ground of the Enned
Plateau-Tibesti Mountains-Tassili n Ajjer which runs from the south-east to
south of present-day Tunisia.
The north-west, with
its Mediterranean scrub vegetation, does not seem likely as a source of a
major population movement.
Thus I see the Capsian industry
as a fusion of the meeting of the southern grassland hunters with the northern
lithic traditions, probably in the region of southern Tunisia, and thence being
transmitted back southwards.
The map at -5K also shows what I
had suspected, that the desertification started in the interior of the Sahara at
two points, east and west of the central highlands. This would have forced the
people in the western Sahara to the mountains of the north-west - the future
Berbers, and to the wetter south - the future Chadics, and in the eastern Sahara
to the east into the Nile valley - the future Egyptians, and to the highlands of
the south - the future Cushites and Omotics.
I still maintain that the
Semites took no part in this. Their ancestors migrated rather to the Red Sea
region, which was also savannah, and from there crossed to Arabia. That no boats
have been discovered is not very surprising. Have any boats been discovered from
the presumed crossing of Ibero-Maurusian to Spain? It appears from latest
findings that HS has been present along the Red Sea coast from very early times.
And we're not talking mass migration and big boats here.
I can only repeat that Capsian
is a lithic industry, not a people. I have never heard tell of any Semitic
substratum in the Nile valley at the dates you give. And if, as you say
elsewhere, that Semitic and Egyptian were not yet distinct, how can you use this
as an argument for Semitic migration across the Nile?
How can you say categorically
that there were no movements out of Africa between 18,000 and 5,800? If a people
brings no new cultural or technical assets to an already inhabited area, how do
you distinguish them from the natives? Maybe Semitic hunters were already
roaming the grasslands of the interior when the Natufians developed from the
Kebarans. Perhaps there was a slow integration and intermixing. Who knows? I
only know that cultural/technical changes do not always correspond with
population movements and language changes.
Piotr's post (for which I thank
you, and apologies for my imprecise terminology) seems to show also that the
most archaic phonological features are found in Ethiopia and the Nile valley. As
Piotr says, we only have sketchy information on many of these languages, so it's
unwise to make any generalised statements about them.
So, I'm sticking with the
Ethiopian/East African source of AfroAsiatic, and Semitic crossing into Arabia
at an early date, perhaps as early as 12,000BCE, and from there spreading back
to Africa, via the Horn and via Sinai with the onset of drier conditions from
6000BCE, as well as spreading northwards to provide the basis of Glen's
Semitish. As to whether farming was invented by a Semite or not, we'll never
know. But they were very much involved in its early development and
dissemination.
in which it is claimed that
almost all Europeans are descended from 7 mothers, who in turn are descended
from one pf the three African "Eves". "Jasmine" is particularly
interesting.
As for the city at Tell
Harmoukar, all I know is what I've read here :
Cheers
Dennis