Authors Accepted Manuscript of a paper published in "Lithic Technology" (2025) The research of Early Holocene sites in the Middle Nile region enabled the establishment of general trends in technological traditions, including the creation of stone tools, ceramic vessels and subsistence. Nevertheless, the task of ascribing the origins of subsequent Neolithic tradition to these earlier ones was a challenging endeavor. This in turn served to reinforce the prevailing theories concerning the external origins of pastoral communities. Recent research at the Letti Desert 2 site from the 8th millennium BCE has yielded a substantial collection of stone tools associated with alternately pivoting stamped pottery, as well as the earliest remains of domesticated cattle in this part of Africa. In contrast to the industry of groups referred to as regional Mesolithic, the use of quartz in this complex was sporadic. Despite the evident differences when compared with Neolithic funeral deposits, close parallels are observable in the raw material preferences and composite tool-making technology.
Osypiński et al. (Thu,) studied this question.