Nazlet Khater 4

Nazlet Khater 4 (NK4) site, near Tahta (Nile Valley, Upper Egypt), is located on one of the small wadi-interfluves in the lower desert near the steep cliffs bordering the western Nile Valley edge. The Belgian Middle Egypt Prehistoric Project (BMEPP, led by Pr. Vermeersch) excavated the site during three campaigns in 1982,1987 and 1991. Their work revealed a prehistoric chert mining site with complex extraction structures like ditches, shafts and underground galleries. The lithic assemblage shows an important laminar component which led to the characterisation of the site as the most ancient Upper Palaeolithic site from this region.This blade assemblage evokes some Taramsan features and may represent an intrusion of a transformed Nubian Complex into the Nile Valley. In 1979 and 1980, two graves were found in the vicinity of the Nazlet Khater 4 and associated to the mining site based on sedimentological and chronological evidence. The second burial (NK 2), directly dated by ESR around 38 Kya, preserved a sub-complete skeleton of a male individual laid in the extended position in an adjusted desiccation crack. The exploitation period of Nazlet Khater 4 is consistently dated between 40 to 35 kya through C14 dates on charcoal and OSL dates on the aeolian sand filling the mining structures. The study of the Nazlet Khater 4 assemblage highlighted the presence of complex extraction strategies and planned occupations in the Nile Valley during the Late Pleistocene.