essay
The Khormusan: an Upper Pleistocene industry in Sudanese Nubia
prehistory of nubia; [final report] papers assembled and • [Taos, N.M.] • Published In 1968 • Pages: 315-391
By: Marks, Anthony E..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Marks describes and defines the Khormusan industry. The industry was first recognized with the excavation of sites 1017 and ANW-3 in 1965. Only five sites represent the Khormusan industry. (Marks dates the industry from approximately 32,000 to 16,000 B.P., while Fred Wendorf, who wrote the culture summary for Middle Paleolithic Egypt in the Encyclopedia of Prehistory dates site 1017 from 65,000 B.P. to 40,000 B.P. The Khormusan now appears to be considered a Middle Paleolithic industry and not an Upper Paleolithic one as stated by Marks.) In this report Marks describes the major traits of the Khormusan, describes each site individually, illustrates selected stone artifacts, and compares the Khormusan to contemporary adjacent cultures. Marks believes these people hunted and fished along the Nile and, due to the numerous burins found at the sites, made reed and wood tools, perhaps even reed and wood traps for fishing. All five sites had ground hematite. Surprisingly, two bone tools were found at site ANW-3. They may be the earliest bone tools in Nubia.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Identification
- Organization and analysis of results of research
- Topography and geology
- Lithic industries
- General tools
- Cultural stratigraphy
- Typologies and classifications
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Middle Paleolithic Egypt
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2004
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Northern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Sarah Berry ; 2002
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1961-1965
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- Khormusan; 27,000 BP -16,000 BP (but probably 65,000 BP-40,000 BP)
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nile Valley; northern Sudan
- NotesAdditional notes
- Anthony E. Marks
- For bibliographical references see document 6: [Wendorf]
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 68018382
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Paleolithic period--Egypt