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Palaeo-)Hydrography of the Southern Atbai Plain and Western Eritrean Highlands (Eastern Sudan/Western Eritrea)

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Journal of Maps ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjom20 Geomorphology and (palaeo-)hydrography of the Southern Atbai plain and western Eritrean Highlands (Eastern Sudan/Western Eritrea) Stefano Costanzo , Andrea Zerboni , Mauro Cremaschi & Andrea Manzo To cite this article: Stefano Costanzo , Andrea Zerboni , Mauro Cremaschi & Andrea Manzo (2021) Geomorphology and (palaeo-)hydrography of the Southern Atbai plain and western Eritrean Highlands (Eastern Sudan/Western Eritrea), Journal of Maps, 17:2, 51-62, DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2020.1869112 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2020.1869112 © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa View supplementary material UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of Journal of Maps Published online: 17 Jan 2021. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 271 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tjom20 JOURNAL OF MAPS 2021, VOL. 17, NO. 2, 51–62 https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2020.1869112 SCIENCE Geomorphology and (palaeo-)hydrography of the Southern Atbai plain and western Eritrean Highlands (Eastern Sudan/Western Eritrea) Stefano Costanzo a, Andrea Zerboni b, Mauro Cremaschi b and Andrea Manzoa aDipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo, Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’, Napoli, Italy; bDipartimento di Scienze della Terra ‘A. Desio’, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY We present the geomorphology of the Southern Atbai Plain (Eastern Sudan) and the western Received 28 August 2020 edge of the Eritrean Highlands (Western Eritrea), in the eastern Sahel. The mountainous area Revised 7 December 2020 consists of Paleo-Proterozoic gneiss and Neo-Proterozoic igneous rocks and meta-volcanic Accepted 22 December 2020 assemblages shaped as inselbergs and whaleback landforms by weathering. Bare-rock hills KEYWORDS emerge from a gentle glacis that oversees the Southern Atbai alluvial plain, located Atbai plain; Eritrean between the Atbara and Gash Rivers. The plain features the SSE-NNW-oriented endorheic Highlands; Sahel; endorheic terminal fan of the Gash River and is crossed by intricate Early to Late Pleistocene river; tectonic; rock paleochannels, whose evolution was controlled by the interplay between Quaternary weathering regional tectonics and arid to humid climatic and environmental oscillations. The map is intended to interpret the evolution of local landscape, thus representing a tool for reconstructing the spatial and temporal distribution of Late Quaternary archaeological features and their functional relationships with the fossil fluvial system and the western foothills. 1. Introduction and background that have been scarcely investigated from the geomor- phological point of view. Notwithstanding this, the The Sahel is an African region corresponding to the region with its rivers played a crucial role in the Pleis- transitional belt between the hyperarid Sahara and tocene and Holocene human peopling of northeastern the peri-equatorial pluvial zone, extending for Africa, because it represents a bridge between the Nile ∼3,000,000 km2 from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Valley and the Horn of Africa (and beyond) (Beyin, Sea and bracketed between 10° and 20° latitude 2013; Beyin et al., 2019; Gatto & Zerboni, 2015). (Epule et al., 2017). Although receiving substantially Today, the area is sparsely inhabited, but huge more abundant rainfall than the Sahara, the Sahel is human modifications altered the pristine hydro- suffering severe desertification caused by both climate graphic network with the main aim of increasing the change and human agency (Huang et al., 2020). The extension of cultivable patches. Therein, a detailed latter is also responsible for altering the variety of geomorphological survey allowed (i) illustrating the landscapes, whose formation was primarily controlled main features of the landscape and reconstructing by natural causes (Roberts, 2019). Factors triggering their evolution, (ii) inferring the palaeoclimatic factors the geomorphological and ecological evolution of the that drove at least part of the morphogenetic pro- Sahel include: (i) lithological and structural properties cesses, and (iii) providing geomorphological tools to of the regional bedrock, (ii) contrasting climatic set- help the archaeological interpretation of land-use tings, alternating since the Quaternary pluvial and changes. (hyper)arid environmental conditions. Since the Holocene, several human interventions aimed to satisfy an ever-growing demand for land for cultiva- 2. Geography, geology and climate tion and pastureland (deforestation, overgrazing, diversion of watercourses, excavation of artificial The Southern Atbai (Central-Eastern Sudan, Kassala canals, alteration of the topography) resulted in the State) is the region outlined by the Atbara and the disruption of natural ecosystems and progressive Gash Rivers. The plain is gently sloping down from desertification of the land (ArchaeoGLOBE, 2019; SSE (560 m asl) to NNW (420 m asl), with a variability Huang et al., 2020; Wright, 2017). from 0.5% to 0.1%. The region is covered with Qua- The Sahel of eastern Sudan, for instance, is a region ternary fluvial deposits, comprising glaring evidence crossed by large rivers – the Atbara and Gash Rivers – of multiple generations of palaeochannels, and the CONTACT Stefano Costanzo [email protected] © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of Journal of Maps This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrest- ricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 52 S. COSTANZO ET AL. remains of a Middle/Late Pleistocene shallow lacus- and recent research teams (Clark, 1976; Fattovich trine deposit – the Atbara Palaeolake (Abbate et al., et al.,1988; Manzo, 2017; Marks & Sadr, 1988; Phillip- 2010), lying beneath a discrete assemblage of dunes. son, 1977; Sadr, 1988; Shiner, 1971) have investigated Today, the Atbara is a perennial, low-sinuosity mean- Holocene archaeological evidence nearby the Gash dering river with an incised riverbed some 10–30 m River. Such investigations show a continuous occu- lower than the surrounding area. The Gash (known pation of the region from the Early/Middle Holocene in Eritrea as Mareb) is a seasonal river that originates up to the present day. Most of the archaeological sites south of Asmara, flows along a narrow steep-sided val- date to the Butana Group (4th–3rd mill. BCE), the ley, becomes an SSE-NNW-oriented braided system in Gash Group (3rd–2nd mill. BCE), and the Jebel Mok- the open Sudanese plain, and finally dissipates into a ram Group (2nd–1st mill. BCE), but evidence actually vast endorheic terminal fan of relevant agronomic spans from the Pre-Saroba Phase (6th–5th mill. BCE) interest (Barbour, 1961)(Figure 1). To the east of to the Gergaf Group (mid-2nd mill. CE) (Manzo, the Gash River, a deflated glacis cut by E-W aligned 2017). Archaeological sites are located along the tributary channels (in Arabic: khors) gently slopes palaeochannels of the Gash River, although their tem- up to the edges of the Eritrean Highlands, whose S- poral relationship with them is still debated (Manzo, N orientation creates the watershed between the 2019, pp. 270–271). Sites consist of deflated spreads Gash and the Barka catchments. South of the Atbai of micro/macro-lithics, potsherds, ephemeral semi- Plain, a slightly more rugged area today not reached nomadic structures, shell middens, and simple or by the Gash floods extends for a few tens of kilometres small mound burials, with stratigraphies that rarely up to the Setit River’s basin. exceed a few centimetres due to intense deflation. In the western part of the study area downstream of Fewer known sites are located at the foothills of the the Khashm el Girba Dam, the bedrock underlying the inselbergs east of the alluvial plain; among these, the Cainozoic and Quaternary fluvial deposits is poorly largest and most important one (∼10 ha), is Mahal exposed. It consists of Precambrian basement rocks Teglinos (or K1) (Manzo, 2017, and references cited capped by Cretaceous Nubian Sandstone and Caino- therein). Systematic surveys east of the Gash River zoic basalts (Abbate et al., 2010; Whiteman, 1971). and to the far NE of the study area (see Main Map) Bedrock outcrops are more common in the eastern are underway (Manzo, 2019). part of the region, where they form alternation of In the region, the onset and spread of agriculture Palaeo-Proterozoic gneiss hills, probably uplifted started in the 4th millennium BCE, with what from the basement during the formation of the Ara- appears to be one of the earliest occurrences of bian-Nubian Shield, and Neo-Proterozoic igneous for- domesticated Sorghum sp. in the world (Beldados mations (granite and granodiorite; GRAS, 2004) in the et al., 2018; Winchell et al., 2017), within the form of inselbergs. Meta-volcanic and meta-sedimen- Butana Group. The recovery of allochthonous arte- tary gold-bearing assemblages are also present (Elsa- facts from the Gash Group strata in Mahal Teglinos mani et al., 2001; GRAS, 2004)(Figures 1 and 2). suggests that the region has also been crucial as a Local climate shifts from hot semi-arid
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  • Fighting for Survival

    Fighting for Survival

    IUCW SAHEL PROGRAMME STUDY FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL INSECURITY, PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE HORN OF AFRICA EDITED BY ROBERT A. HUTCHISON, BASED ON ORIGINAL RESEARCH AND COMPILATION BY BRYAN SPOONER AND NIGEL WALSH AN IUCN PUBLICATION, NOVEMBER 1001 FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL was prepared in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Pro• gramme. Copyright: ©1991 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Gland, Switzerland. Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorised without prior permission from the copyright holder. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Citation: Hutchison, R.A. (Ed.). 1991. Fighting For Survival etc, based on study by Spooner, B.C. and Walsh, N.; IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. ISBN: 2-8317-0077-9 Cover design: Philippe Vallier, HL Graphics,1260 Nyon, Switzerland, based on photography by Mark Edwards: two men in sandstorm, Tigray, northern Ethiopia. Graphics: Dan Urlich, Leysin Design Studio, 1854 Leysin, Switzerland. Printed by: Imprimerie Corbaz S.A., 1820 Montreux, Switzerland. The designations of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN or other participating organisa• tions concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN or other participating organisations. IUCN - The World Conservation Union Founded in 1948, IUCN - The World Conservation Union - is a membership organisation comprising governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), research institutions, and conservation agencies in over 100 countries.