HISTORY LESSON

Did you know the claim that “agricultural practices began in the Delta Region of northern Egypt and the Faiyum” and were learned from Mesopotamia and the Levant is misleading and is unsupported by the evidence? Research shows that agricultural experimentation in North and East Africa occurred much earlier and in diverse regions, with each area contributing unique practices and domesticated plants.

At Nabta Playa, excavations led by Fred Wendorf and his team revealed evidence of early sorghum cultivation around 8,000 BCE. The inhabitants developed sophisticated water management techniques, laying the groundwork for settled communities that relied on local crops.

In the Central Sudanese Nile Valley, archaeologists like Derek Welsby have found evidence of early cultivation of wild cereals, including sorghum and millet, dating back to 7,000 BCE. These plants were crucial in supporting sedentary communities along the Nile, with the domestication of cattle supplementing their agricultural lifestyle.

Further east, in Ethiopia, teams led by scholars like Jack Harlan and Jean-François Saliège discovered the early cultivation of teff and ensete, native crops that formed the backbone of early agricultural practices in the Horn of Africa. This experimentation dates back to around 6,500 BCE and occurred independently of Levantine or Mesopotamian influence.

In the Western Desert, evidence of early experiments with domestication and the gathering of wild plants such as tubers and wild grasses has been found by researchers like Stefano Biagetti and Salima Ikram, dating back to at least 6,000 BCE. These practices show a gradual adaptation to the arid environment and reveal early agricultural ingenuity in the region.

Each of these regions exhibits early and independent agricultural developments, contradicting the idea that Egypt’s Neolithic practices were solely derived from Mesopotamia or the Levant. These findings show a rich and interconnected African tradition of agricultural innovation, where various crops were domesticated and cultivated long before any external influence, underscoring the importance of acknowledging Africa’s role in early agriculture.