Fred Wendorf’s research while affiliated with Southern Methodist University and other places

... It unconformably overlies the Precambrian basement rocks that crop out in high mountains of Eastern Desert. The basement rocks mainly consist of metamorphic and metavolcanic rocks, intruded by pink or gray granites which dissected by dikes (Said, 1962;Said et al., 1970;Wendorf and Schild, 1976). The alkali olivine basalts of Tertiary volcanics are exposed in the southeast Qena sector (Yehia et al., 1999). ...

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Structural study using 2D modeling of the potential field data and GIS technique in Sohag Governorate and its surroundings, Upper Egypt

... Karst features predominantly arise from solution voids along discontinuities, creating cavities supported by the remaining points of contact across opened discontinuities. The reduced contact area diminishes shear strength, and points of contact may fracture due to overstressing [39,40]. ...

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Case Study on the Evaluation of Rock Cut Stability for Highways in Egypt: Implications for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety

... Indeed, during MIS 5e, the region was dominated by a savannah-like ecozone with active wadis and playas. While the expansion of Early Nubian Complex groups in the Nile Valley and into the Western Desert during early MIS 5 is quite well established (Smith et al., 2007;Wendorf et al., 1993), such sites were previously not recorded in the Eastern Desert. Sodmein Cave is thus a clear indication that hunter-gatherers also visited the Eastern Egyptian Desert. ...

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Sodmein Cave, Egypt Location and Research History

... Their varied economies relied on the husbanding of domesticated cattle and caprines, hunting, fishing and the intensive foraging of wild plants. Archaeological research in this region is limited but suggests that, alongside hunting, the intensive collection/processing of wild plants was already practised by foragers near Nabta Playa in Egypt's Western Desert by the seventh millennium BC (Wendorf & Schild 2001). The practice of cattle keeping, which likely predates sheep/goat pastoralism in north-east Africa, is thought to have arisen in this same area c. 6300-6200 cal BC (Barich 2021;Linseele 2021;Kabacinśki et al. 2023), before expanding into Upper Nubia and Central Sudan (Barich 2016). ...

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Do cultural and biological variation correspond in the Middle Nile Valley Neolithic? Some insights from dental morphology

... However, climatic conditions across northern Africa have oscillated between arid and humid (or pluvial) during the Quaternary, as indicated by lacustrine, fluvial and spring-deposited sediments preserved in the modern Sahara (e.g., Gaven et al., 1981; McHugh et al., 1988; Szabo et al., 1995; Crombie et al., 1997; Swezey et al., 1999; Brook et al., 2003; Smith et al., 2004a). The association of archaeological materials with many of these pluvial deposits indicates hominin occupation of the Sahara during humid periods (e.g., Caton-Thompson, 1952; Wendorf et al., 1991; Wendorf et al., 1993; Hill, 2001; Hoelzmann et al., 2001; Kleindienst, 2003; Smith et al., 2004b). Egypt straddles one of the four likely migration routes, and the only fully terrestrial route, out of the African continent for all major hominin migrations (Derricourt, 2005), making the identification of habitable hominin environments important for the recognition of potential migration corridors. ...

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Paleolandscape and paleoenvironmental interpretation of spring-deposited sediments in Dakhleh Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt

... A few other archaeological sites have been attributed to MIS 4 in Northeastern Africa (Van Peer et al., 2010), of which the majority are raw material extraction sites. The Khormusan sites have previously been dated to between 60 and 40 ka (Wendorf, 2001). However, more recent stratigraphic considerations and new observations suggest a correlation with MIS 5a and/or MIS 4 (Goder-Goldberger, 2013; Schild et al., 2020). ...

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Cultural rhythms and pulses on MIS 5-3 migration episodes of Homo sapiens dispersal in Northeast Africa

... One can compare this determination with the K/Ar dates for MSA from Ethiopia (Wendorf et al. 1975), or with some uranium-series and other determinations for sediments and palaeoenvironments in southwestern Egypt/Sudan (Haynes et al. 1993;Szabo et al. 1995;Wendorf, Schild and Close 1993a;Wendorf et al. 1994). Close and Wendorf (1993) have reported on a small MSA surface sample eroded from the sediments of the Tarfawi White Lake (Loc. E-88-14), for which the uraniumseries isochron 'date' (3 determinations) is 220,000 ± 60,000 Uyrs (Schwarcz and Morawska 1993), which is consistent with the determinations on tooth enamel (McKinney 1993). ...

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Water in the desert: First report on Uranium-series dating of Caton-Thompson's and Gardner's "classic" Pleistocene sequence at Refuf Pass, Kharga Oasis

... The clearly pedunculated pieces from Bir Tarfawi are surface finds affected by aeolian processes. Wendorf and Schild (1993) attribute them to dry phases of the Green Lake. Wendorf et al. (1993b) suggest that the Green Lake phase of higher humidity, which is not well dated, ended before 60 ka. ...

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The Aterian of the Oases of the Western Desert of Egypt: Adaptation to Changing Climatic Conditions?

... This complex is characterized by tanged points (Garcea 2020b;Scerri 2013aScerri , 2013b, small Levallois and discoidal cores (Garcea 2020b;Spinapolice and Garcea 2013), and bifacial foliates and lanceolate points (Garcea 2020b). Aterian sites occur mainly outside the Nile Valley, e.g. in the Western Desert in Egypt (Kleindienst, Smith, and Adelsberger 2009;Schild and Wendorf 1993). The only site recorded within the valley is Wadi Kubbanyia (Schild and Wendorf 1989). ...

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A Mismatched Piece in a Cultural Middle Stone Age Puzzle: Traces of Human Activity Dated to 90 kya (MIS 5) at Sites EDAR 134 and 155 in the Eastern Sahara, Sudan

... For example, sorghum found in archaeological sites is often charred from proximity to a heat source and can be difficult to classify according to race or level of domestication due to distortion, causing a 'popped' appearance (Dahlberg and Wasylikowa, 1996). Biehl et al. (1999) recognised the need to find alternatives to pure morphological identification of archaeological sorghum using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify charred sorghum grains from Nabta Playa, southern Egypt, but the results were inconsistent. Other studies have trialled infrared spectroscopic analysis (Dahlberg et al., 1995), ancient DNA (Rowley-Conwy et al., 1999) and image analysis (Dahlberg and Wasylikowa, 1996) with mixed success. ...

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The domestication, spread and uses of sorghum as a crop