Atbai Enclosure Burials: Monumentalism, Pastoralism and Environmental Change in the Mid-Holocene East Nubian Deserts | African Archaeological Review | Springer Nature Link

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y Atbai Enclosure Burials: Monumentalism, Pastoralism and Environmental Change in the Mid-Holocene East Nubian Deserts * Original Research * Open access <https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/about/the-fundamentals-of-open-access-and-open-research> * Published: 27 April 2026 * (2026) * Cite this article <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#citeas> You have full access to this open access <https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/about/the-fundamentals-of-open-access-and-open-research> article Download PDF <https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y.pdf> Save article <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/save-research?_csrf=SHdSTiV1gWpuVI-OOnZuaLxsanN1ywTt> African Archaeological Review <https://link.springer.com/journal/10437> Aims and scope <https://link.springer.com/journal/10437/aims-and-scope> Submit manuscript <https://www.editorialmanager.com/aarr/default.aspx> * Julien Cooper<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#auth-Julien-Cooper-Aff1>, * Marie Bourgeois <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#auth-Marie-Bourgeois-Aff2>, * Maël Crépy <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#auth-Ma_l-Cr_py-Aff3> & * Maria Carmela Gatto <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#auth-Maria_Carmela-Gatto-Aff4> * 708 Accesses * 12 Altmetric * 1 Mention * Explore all metrics <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/metrics> Abstract Despite being at the crossroads of the well-studied worlds of ancient Egypt and Nubia, the archaeology of the Atbai Desert, the region between the Nubian Nile and the Red Sea, is still in its infancy. Cultural horizons are poorly defined, and patterns and chronologies of human habitation are only slowly emerging. As part of the satellite remote sensing workflows of the Atbai Survey Project, a common monumental burial feature has been identified across the entire Atbai Desert from Upper Egypt to the Eritrean borderlands, typified by a circular stone enclosure wall with internal burials—labelled here as “Atbai Enclosure Burials (AEBs).” This monumental feature, a local manifestation of common Saharan prehistoric burial practice, while exhibiting diverse architectural features, presents a consistent burial tradition across the entire desert expanse between the Nile and Red Sea. These features are a unique manifestation of a local pastoralist culture we broadly date to the fourth and third millennia BC, whose beginning was coeval with the southward displacement of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. Its termination is likely linked with harsher environmental conditions and increasing anthropogenic pressures on vegetation cover after the end of the African Humid Period. Résumé Bien qu’il se trouve au carrefour de mondes très étudiés, l’Égypte et la Nubie antiques, l’archéologie du désert de l’Atbai, situé entre le Nil et la mer Rouge, en est encore à ses balbutiements. Les horizons culturels sont mal définis, les trames et les chronologies de l’occupation humaine se dégagent lentement. Dans le cadre des travaux de télédétection par satellite menés dans le cadre de l'Atbai Survey Project, un type de sépultures monumentales a été identifié, avec un grand nombre d’occurrences, dans tout le désert de l’Atbai, de la Haute-Égypte aux frontières de l’actuel Erythrée. Ces structures se caractérisent par un mur d’enceinte circulaire en pierre avec des sépultures internes, appelé ici « Atbai enclosure burials» (AEB ou sépultures à enclos de l’Atbai). Ce type de structure monumentale, manifestation locale d’une pratique funéraire préhistorique courante au Sahara, présente des caractéristiques architecturales diverses, mais témoigne d’une tradition funéraire cohérente dans l’ensemble du désert situé entre le Nil et la mer Rouge. Ces structures sont une manifestation unique d’une culture pastorale locale que nous datons globalement du quatrième et du troisième millénaire avant J.-C. Leurs débuts correspondent au déplacement vers le sud de la zone de convergence intertropicale, et leur disparition est vraisemblablement liée à des conditions environnementales plus sévères et à des pressions anthropiques croissantes sur la couverture végétale après la fin de la période humide africaine. Similar content being viewed by others Day-to-Day Life in Ancient Nubia <https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-02544-1_5?fromPaywallRec=false> Chapter © 2019 Tumuli at Tombos: Innovation, Tradition, and Variability in Nubia during the Early Napatan Period <https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10437-023-09524-x?fromPaywallRec=false> Article 27 April 2023 Pre-Adult Burials at Tombos: An Investigation of Social Age and Health Over the Life Course in the Ancient Nile Valley <https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10437-025-09637-5?fromPaywallRec=false> Article Open access 01 September 2025 Explore related subjects Discover the latest articles, books and news in related subjects, suggested using machine learning. * Amoeboid Migration <https://link.springer.com/subjects/amoeboid-migration> * Archaeology <https://link.springer.com/subjects/archaeology> * Environmental Archaeology <https://link.springer.com/subjects/environmental-archaeology> * Prehistoric Archaeology <https://link.springer.com/subjects/prehistoric-archaeology> * Stratigraphy <https://link.springer.com/subjects/stratigraphy> * Theoretical Archaeology <https://link.springer.com/subjects/theoretical-archaeology> * Archaeological Landscapes and Environmental Change in Arid Regions <https://link.springer.com/subjects/archaeological-landscapes-and-environmental-change-in-arid-regions> Introduction—The Archaeology of the Atbai Owing to its remote terrain and difficulty of access, and possibly also the allure of urban archaeological contexts on the Sudanese Nile, the Atbai Desert between the Nile and the Red Sea has only been cursorily investigated. Major investigations are characterized by wide-area prospections which have been designed to provide initial data to define habitation patterns and chronological horizons (Castiglioni et al., 1998 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR19>; Davies & Welsby, 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR42>; Lanna & Gatto, 2010 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR85>; Manzo, 2017 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR91>). Some of these surveys have been designed around rescue remits (Cooper & Vanhulle, 2023 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR31>; Reinold & Ahmed, 2003 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR107>), addressing the widespread destruction of the region by gold-mining. Within the emerging scholarship, a number of chronological horizons can be identified in the prehistoric Atbai. Local prehistoric horizons are most easily defined by distinctive pottery (Gatto, 2012 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR57>; Manzo, 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR92>; Sadr et al., 1995 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR110>), bearing marked similarities to those phases on the Nubian Nile, such as exhibiting rocker impressed and pivoting stamp decorations (Lanna & Gatto, 2010 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR85>; Gatto, 2011 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR56>, 2012 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR57>). The period of c. fifth–fourth millennium BCE, roughly coordinated with the Abkan/A-Group and Badarian/Naqada horizons of Lower Nubia and Egypt, is much more elusive in the local archaeological record (Gatto, 2012 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR57>). With little securely dated pottery, the rock art record has been instrumental in explicating habitation of the Atbai Desert, notably illustrating the widespread presence of cattle pastoralists (Bobrowski et al., 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR7>; Cooper, 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR30>; Cooper & Vanhulle, 2023 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR31>). This pastoralist subsistence pattern started and terminated in the context of drying conditions during the progressive end of the African Humid Period (AHP, see below), when desert populations adapted by changing their herds through species composition and/or migrating to fertile refugia (Kuper & Kröpelin, 2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR84>). With the termination of the AHP, cattle pastoralism slowly transitioned to a higher mobility subsistence dependent solely on ovicaprids, and finally, in the first millennium BCE, to mixed camel and goat/sheep herding. While rock art, surface pottery, and the identification of a few tumuli have dominated discussions of the prehistoric Atbai (Gatto, 2012 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR57>; Sadr et al., 1995 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR110>), new prospections have been able to typify the material horizons of this “late” prehistoric phase through the identification of a monumental burial practice—bringing a new dimension to an elusive pastoralist horizon east of the Nubian Nile. The End of the African Humid Period in Northeast Africa Across the deserts of Sudan, most archaeologists have emphasized mid-Holocene human habitation as being directly shaped and influenced by climatic shifts at the end of the African Humid Period (Kuper & Kröpelin, 2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR84>). The end of the AHP corresponds to a north-to-south decline in monsoon rainfall that, at the scale of Northeast Africa, started around 5300 BCE at a pace of around 35 km per century (Bubenzer & Riemer, 2007 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR15>; Kuper & Kröpelin, 2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR84>) and ended during the second millennium BCE (Shanahan et al., 2015 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR114>) or the first millennium BCE (Ménot et al., 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR95>). The southern limit of Mediterranean winter rainfall, which also played a role in the emergence and maintenance of the African Humid Period (Cheddadi et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR23>), shifted northward (Blanchet et al., 1997 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR6>) at a rate and magnitude that is documented much less precisely. In Sudanese latitudes, climate aridification seems to have been quite progressive and linear (Shanahan et al., 2015 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR114>), except for a slightly wetter phase during the late first millennium BCE and/or the early first millennium CE that has been identified in the Central Sahara (Cremaschi et al., 2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR35>), plateaus of the Sudanese Red Sea Hills (Mawson & Williams, 1984 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR94>; Williams, 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR124>), and other parts of Sudan (Gatto & Zerboni, 2015 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR62>), but not Egypt (Nicoll, 2004 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR101>). Orographic corrections also played a role in the distribution of rainfall (Bubenzer & Riemer, 2007 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR15>; Linstädter & Kröpelin, 2004 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR88>), as well as coalescence of other convergence zones in the southernmost regions (Mologni et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR96>). However, climate is not the same as environment, and this linear trend of decreasing rainfall does not involve a steady pace of erosion, vegetation rarefaction, and desertification. Groundwater holdouts may have delayed or buffered the environmental effects of the termination of the AHP (Bourgeois et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR10>; Crépy, 2016 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR36>, in press; Eggermont et al., 2008 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR50>; Kuper & Kröpelin, 2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR84>; Lindstäter & Kröpelin, 2004 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR88>). Anthropogenic activities also have played a role in the modification of the vegetation cover and erosional conditions in the Eastern Sahara (Bourgeois et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR10>) and in the Horn of Africa (Mologni et al., 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR97>). The macro-environmental impact of pastoralism during the end of the AHP is still debated, with research concluding that it has delayed the end of the AHP (Brierley et al., 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR13>) and other studies showing that it might have accelerated the desertification (Wright, 2017 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR126>). In any case, although the AHP and its end are climatic facts or phases, the region’s environmental history is more complex. The termination of the Green Sahara is not the linear result of climate change, but of a complex system of interactions and retroactions including at least climate, groundwater, and anthropogenic actions. Unfortunately, there is little paleoenvironmental data available in the Atbai Desert for the mid-Holocene, but it is likely that the Red Sea Hills constitute an exceptional refugia used by groups of herders throughout the progressive termination of the AHP. Optically Stimulated luminescence sampling of alluvium at Onib and Bir Nurayet dating to 6.6 ± 0.4 ka and 4196 ± 222 bp respectively (Bobrowski et al., 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR7>; Krol et al., 2023 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR82>) is consistent with this picture. Some areas exhibit mist and orographic rainfall (Williams, 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR124>), and there is a seasonal distribution of rainfall utilized by current herders, subject to strong interannual variability (Cooper, 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR29>). Local wells are numerous, as well as rain or spring-fed pools. However, it is likely that conditions in the mid-Holocene remained harsh, necessitating successive adaptations to an increasingly arid environment (Riemer & Kindermann, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR109>) and “flickering” climate (Trauth et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR121>). Circular Monumental Structures in the Atbai Despite individual examples being known to scholarship, monumental circular or ovoid enclosure burials in the Atbai, here termed “Atbai Enclosure Burials” (AEB), have not been considered as a hallmark of a common pastoralist tradition. The first such identified monument was published by Murray (1926 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR99>) at Bir Asele (or Magwal El Arib), and owing to its location in the disputed Halaib border area has not undergone systematic survey (see Fig. 1 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig1>) (Sidebotham et al., 2008 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR115>). This monument actually comprises at least three interlocking circular burial monuments, with another separate monument to the west. The burials within the monument were hastily excavated by Murray to a depth of 50 cm, revealing the bones of cattle. Our investigations of other similar structures reveal the Bir Asele monument to be one of the largest and most complicated structures of this tradition. *Fig. 1* Fig. 1The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI. Full size image<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/figures/1> *a* AEBs at Bir Asele © James Harrell. *b* Map/plan of the site of Bir Asele, after Murray 1926 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR99>. *c* Pastoral tracks around Bir Asele © Google Earth, drawn by Marie Bourgeois It has proven difficult to connect these previously studied monuments to any established Egyptian or Nubian cultural horizon through their ceramic traditions. Murray (1926 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR99>) mentioned pottery at the site of Bir Asele, which he considered to resemble Nubian C-Group wares (c. 2400–1550 BCE). However, a few sherds recently documented by James Harrell and kindly made available in photographic format by James Harrell and Sylvie Marchand have characteristics resembling the so-called Nubian “Late Pre-Kerma” pottery c. 3000–2500 BCE (2020a <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR59>; Gatto, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR58>; Honegger, 2004 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR75>). This ceramic evidence supports a connection to broad Middle Nubian cultural traditions (Pre-Kerma, C-Group and Kerma), with the possibility that this evidence constitutes later reuse of the monument due to the likely dates of these structures (see below, “Internal Tumuli, reuse, and later traditions”). The best excavated example of a large monumental structure in the Atbai Desert is the burial complex at Wadi Khashab, investigated by a Polish expedition east of Kom Ombo (Osypiński et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR102>). This project, excavating half of the burial monument (Fig. 2 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig2>a), revealed an 18-m diameter circular structure with a low stone wall and over 25 internal burials, featuring internments of humans and animals. The arrangement of burials centered on the internment of a human (F.2), around which there were internments of cattle (F.1, F.4, F.6, F.14) and sheep (F.7, F.15, F.16), as well as a child burial (F.10). Multiple radiocarbon dates were taken from the internments (Osypiński et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR102>: 27, 37, 50–52), revealing a complex chronological setting of burials at different stages in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE. A much later stage of reuse in the second millennium BCE involved the transformation of the monument, with the erection of large upright monolithic “stele” as well as the deliberate filling in of the interior structure with rubble (Osypiński et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR102>: 139–140). Ceramics associated with this later phase most closely resemble Middle Nubian pottery from the C-Group horizon. The implication based on geography is that these monuments were not built by established cultural horizons known on the Egyptian and Nubian Nile in the fourth millennium BCE. *Fig. 2* Fig. 2The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI. Full size image<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/figures/2> *a* The AEB at Wadi Khashab, courtesy of Piotr Osypiński. *b* Kite photograph of an AEB, C23 from the CeRDO surveys in central Atbai. Courtesy of the Museo Castiglioni Wadi Khashab is certainly the best investigated example of a monumental burial in the Atbai, but not the only one. The research group CeRDO excavated several trenches in a similar structure in the Sudanese Atbai at Wadi el-Ku (Fig. 2 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig2>b), designated C23(2) (Sadr et al., 1995 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR110>). The excavations furnished evidence of cattle and sheep as well as charcoal for carbon dating. Further examples from the CeRDO surveys include other similar structures at Wadi Gabgaba (× 2), Jebel Duweig, Jebel Hatan el-Atshan, and “C25” (Castiglioni et al., 1998 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR19>: 162; Castiglioni & Castiglioni, 2020c <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR18>: Fig. 2 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig2>.16; Castiglioni & Castiglioni, 2020a <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR16>: Fig. 3 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig3>.30; Castiglioni & Castiglioni, 2020b <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR17>: Fig. 6 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig6>.6, 6.11, 6.13; Lanna & Gatto, 2010 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR85>, 321–324). There is even one putative example of similar “circular” monumental architecture with internal burials much further to the north than Wadi Khashab at Jebel Umm Naqqat, in the Eastern Desert east of Luxor (Sidebotham et al., 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR116>: 63; Harrell, 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR72>: 650–652). It is dated roughly to the 4th Millennium BCE based on the associated “ripple ware” ceramics identified on the surface. However, from a photo provided by James Harrell and Sylvie Marchand, the rippling visible on the vessel’s surface does not relate to an intentional decorative treatment, known in many late prehistoric cultures of the Nile Valley, but to a roughly executed, and local, manufacture. Therefore, the ceramic evidence alone does not confirm the suggested chronological attribution. Furthermore, the monument differs in construction technique enough to make its belonging to the AEB tradition uncertain, at least until further work takes place. Carbon dates have only been furnished from two AEBs, Wadi Khashab and Wadi el-Ku (C23). These date respectively to the end of the 5th millennium (plundered at the end of the 4th millennium and probably reused in the mid-2nd millennium) for Wadi Khashab, and the 4th millennium (3928–3237 BCE) for Wadi el-Ku (Osypiński et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR102>; Sadr et al., 1995 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR110>). While this is a poor number of dates from which to generalize chronologies across an entire tradition, this initial work firmly establishes these monumental burial traditions as a feature of the mid-Holocene Atbai and the AHP. Further indications of this broad date include the presence of cattle remains in the enclosures, a domesticate which is indicative of wetter environmental conditions in the AHP (Bobrowski et al., 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR7>; Cooper & Vanhulle, 2023 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR31>). In the present climate phase, cattle can only be kept in the grassy steppes of the southern Atbai c. 500 km to the south, which receive around 200 mm of annual rainfall (Salih, 1976 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR111>). Pottery connected to the original, rather than the reused, phase of these structures is generally absent, although at Bir Asele and some of the Nile Valley AEB examples (see below) pottery diagnostic to the fourth and third millennia BCE was identified. An example at Rayayna possibly dates back to the fifth millennium BCE (D. Bourgeois et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR10>; Darnell, 2011 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR39>; Gatto, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR58>). A Russian archaeological expedition recently excavated an AEB at Onib Crater, with reports citing carbon dates from the 5th–4th Millennium BCE, in addition to cattle, goat, and sheep internments (Sputnik Africa, 2025 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR117>). These dates are not yet formally published, so should be taken as preliminary. Together, these findings confirm the broad chronology of the AEB tradition c. 4500–2500 BCE. This type of monumental burial is not the only mid-Holocene burial tradition known in the Atbai Desert. At Wadi Elei, the surveys of CeRDO excavated much smaller burial pits surrounded by a small ring superstructure (Sadr et al., 1995 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR110>). The Atbai Survey Project excavated two similar structures in 2019 at Khor Rafit (Cooper et al., 2025 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR32>) and similar structures were identified by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project in the Wadi al-Lawi (Gatto et al., 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR61>), and by the /Elkab Desert Survey Project/ in the Bir Umm Tineidba, east of the Nile (Darnell, 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR40>). From diagnostic pottery and carbon dates, these structures date to the fifth millennium BCE. This data indicates that an earlier Neolithic burial tradition existed in the Atbai, predating the monumental enclosures described in this paper, and perhaps continued alongside them. Other projects have identified these AEB structures cursorily from vehicular surveys. The Atbai Survey Project recorded similar burial monuments at Umm Gerifat (AS19.2) and Khor Rafit (AS19.4), (Cooper et al., 2025 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR32>). The geoarchaeological prospections of Dietrich and Rosemarie Klemm identified examples at the sites of Adarmo West and Ganait (Klemm & Klemm, 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR80>: 385, 473). A French expedition to the Wadi Allaqi identified four burial monuments in this wadi and its tributaries (de Simone, 2004 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR43>: 243; Paris et al., 2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR105>). Follow-up remote sensing investigations of these locations published in de Simone (2004 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR43>: 243) demonstrate that at least three of these structures are likely of a similar AEB type. Amalgamating the data from these past surveys, it is clear that all these monuments belong to a similar burial tradition, comprising large diameter enclosure walls with multiple internal burials. AEBs in the Nile Valley: Pastoralist Enclaves? This tradition appears to be largely confined to the Atbai Desert, but there are rare cases of similar structures near the Nile Valley. A burial complex featuring similar stone architecture was recently investigated by the /Aswan Kom Ombo Archaeological Project/ on the Nile west bank north of Aswan (NH-16), in the plateau overlooking the village of Nag el-Hamdulab. The complex consists of a large enclosure encircling a burial pit and several offering pits, one of which is elongated and large enough to accommodate another human or animal grave. Unfortunately, no evidence was found in situ in that pit, so its function remains uncertain. Due to heavy looting, human and animal remains were scattered and disturbed. However, as cattle and goat remains were identified, and as the structure has marked similarities to the architecture of desert enclosures, it is likely that the site can be seen as another example of an enclosure burial related to nomadic pastoral communities (Bourgeois et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR10>). The pottery associated with the structure includes Egyptian and Nubian wares dated to the second half of the fourth millennium BCE. Two other burial features with very similar architecture and a possible contemporary date were also noticed in the Rayana Desert of the Luxor region (J.C. Darnell, pers. comm.; D. Darnell, 2011 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR39>). The internal organization of the Wadi Khashab enclosure, a main human grave surrounded by animal graves, is also found in a Nubian-related nomadic elite cemetery 1600 of Armant (near Luxor). The structure can be dated to the very early third millennium BCE by its pottery. Excavated by Myers in the 1930 s, his reports only included a map of the site and some information on the contents of the graves (Gatto, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR58>, 2020a <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR59>). Cattle burials were found surrounding main human internments in four or five clusters, with the largest exhibiting about eighteen cattle graves (Gatto, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR58>). The association of human and cattle graves in the same cemetery is also found in the Lower Nubian cemeteries of Qustul (Williams, 1986 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR123>) and Naga Wadi, the latter close to Sayala (Firth, 1927 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR52>). These are both elite cemeteries of the A-Group culture, which may be considered the earliest manifestation of a complex polity in Nubia (Gatto, 2020a <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR59>). The stone architecture typical of the desert AEBs is missing in these Nile cemeteries, as it was in Armant. This might suggest a process of entanglement of desert and Nilotic traditions at the end of the fourth millennium BCE, where standard Egyptian burial traditions with no stone superstructures were mixed with burial arrangements of enclosures typical of the desert. There is also the possibility that these stone enclosures were simply repurposed or reused, leaving no traces to today, although thus far this option seems less likely. All these structures provide evidence of a northerly extension of this tradition around the Nile, perhaps constituting a northerly “enclave” of desert pastoralists. “Cattle-Centred Behaviour” Frederike Jesse et al. (2013b <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR77>) introduced the term “Cattle-centred Behaviour” to explain the common cultural importance of cattle across the societies of the Middle and Late Holocene Eastern Sahara. This stands on the back of anthropological research which has long demonstrated the social importance of cattle in societies across the Nile basin (Seligman & Seligman, 1932 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR113>: 169). If the pastoral populations that occupied, and still occupy, Northeast Africa are as different from each other as they are numerous, they nevertheless share common features of which the importance attached to cattle is the most noticeable characteristic. In archaeological profiles, this importance can be seen through the connection between people and their livestock in funerary contexts, as well as the rock art record which prevalently features cattle (Dubosson, 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR49>). This association of cattle and human remains in funerary culture is attested at least from the early sixth millennium BCE in the Western Desert. The site of Nabta Playa is the earliest example we have of cattle remains in funerary context for Northeastern Africa. Cattle bones were found on the E-94–1 site (c. 5500 BCE) in six tumuli located near a human grave (Applegate et al., 2001 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR3>; Brass, 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR11>). These inhumations have been considered as symbols of status and power for African pastoral societies. Similar evidence of cattle-centric behavior in the form of burial rites is also registered in the contemporary Central Sahara (di Lernia, 2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR45>) and earlier in the sixth Millennium BCE Arabian Peninsula (Thomas et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR120>), making the Atbai tradition part of a broader Saharo-Arabian phenomenon. Cattle inhumation then became common during the fourth millennium BCE in Nubia, but it is rare in Egypt, only certainly attested at Armant and the First Cataract. In the Cemetery L of Qustul (Nubia), six cattle graves accompanied elite human internments (Williams, 1986 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR123>). Cattle thus played an important role in Nubian funerary traditions. However, regarding the first half of the third millennium BCE, cattle inhumations or cemeteries are much less common. Then, for latter periods, numerous cattle bucrania can be found in Middle Nubian contexts (Steindorff, 1935 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR118>; Säve-Söderbergh, 1989 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR112>; Chaix et al., 2012 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR22>). The tradition of placing bucrania alongside a human grave in Nubia actually goes back into the Neolithic period if not earlier. In the Late Palaeolithic cemetery in Toshka, a bucrania was identified on top of a human burial, but unfortunately their intentional connection to the grave cannot be confirmed (Wendorf, 1968 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR122>: 872–875; Gatto, 2020b <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR60>: 147). Intentionality is instead confirmed in the case of a cattle bucrania in a child burial at El Barga (near Kerma), the earliest example of domesticated cattle in Nubia, dated to c. 5750 BCE (Gatto, 2020b <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR60>). Finding AEBs in the Atbai: Methodology The use of remote sensing and satellite imagery in archaeological surveys of desert environments has demonstrated its extraordinary utility in identifying large burial monuments (Gauthier, 2015 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR64>, 2023 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR65>; Repper et al., 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR108>), and even more subtle features such as ancient mine entrances and small mining settlements (Crépy et al., 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR38>), caravan tracks (Bubenzer & Bolten, 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR14>; Manière et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR90>), or pastoral tracks (Bourgeois et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR10>). This method takes on new importance in the political context of the current conflict in Sudan, with ground surveying now impossible. In addition, the remote terrain and wide distances of the Atbai would make ground truthing this vast landscape for burial structures unfeasible. This means that remote sensing is the primary method for contextualizing monumental traditions across this landscape. Notwithstanding this method, follow-up excavations are required to garner more concrete and detailed results on the original dates, reuse, and inhabitants of these monuments, especially as remote sensing only identifies the “final stage” of monumental reuse. This task should be further emphasized given the destruction of these sites through looting and gold-mining (see below). In order to contextualize the AEB tradition in its wider geographical setting, a remote sensing surveying workflow was conducted under the program of Atbai Survey Project. This method employs satellite imagery from free providers, such as Google Earth and Bing across the study area of the Atbai (Fig. 3 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig3>). Using remote sensing, as of September 2024, the project Atbai Survey Project has plotted a total of 90,260 different structures related to the heritage of the Sudanese Atbai Desert, including nomadic camps, gold mines, cemeteries, and also data relating to heritage threats. *Fig. 3* Fig. 3The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI. Full size image<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/figures/3> *a* Grid-system of the Atbai Survey Project, showing searched grids in orange © MapTiler and Open Street Map, with incidences of AEBs marked (*b*). *c* Ring displacement diagrams revealing the clustering of Enclosure Burials across the Atbai and cluster in the core region of the Upper Wadi Gabgaba (*d*). Produced in QGIS, © MapTiler Planet © OpenStreetMap contributors, *©* Google Earth To aid visual surveying and for the purpose of heuristics, the Atbai region was gridded into 0.2 degree square units (~ 21 km) (Fig. 3 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig3>a), with each grid optimized for optical surveying by the creation of smaller gridded transects of 0.005 degrees (~ 520 m) to encourage easy tracking of the gridded space. Incidences of this monumental burial tradition within the confines of the modern Republic of Egypt were plotted by the aid of known fieldwork surveys in the region (de Simone, 2004 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR43>; Murray, 1926 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR99>; Osypiński et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR102>). A permit from the National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums (Sudan) is held by Atbai Survey Project for this remote sensing campaign. In addition to location, general characteristics of these structures were tabulated such as monument diameter, circumference, and morphological type (see below). All structures were given a label according to the major feature type, with “EB#” distinguishing /E/nclosures /B/urials with walls, and “B#” /B/urials without walls but nevertheless demonstrating a similar circular monumental cluster. Structures known from ground surveying were added to this dataset. Owing to the size of the Atbai Desert, it is not possible to conduct a 100% coverage satellite remote sensing survey of the landscape within a feasible timeframe. Rather, this methodology followed a combination of random and selective sampling practices over an extended six-month period, aided by student participation in an undergraduate internship program called Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) at Macquarie University, in addition to the work of collaborators at Université Lumière Lyon 2-HiSoMA and The Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Beyond random grid squares, this selective profile also included focused searching of specific grids where previous archaeological prospections had identified Neolithic or general “prehistoric” archaeological material (Hinkel, 1992 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR74>; Castiglioni et al., 1998 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR19>; de Simone, 2004 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR43>; Davies & Welsby, 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR42>; Lanna & Gatto, 2010 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR85>). This methodology is by no means designed to be statistically comprehensive but rather aims to canvass different environments in which this monument occurs and thus be broadly indicative of distributions. Confirmation of this general assessment is the finding that AEBs occur in most regions of the Atbai, across very different ecological settings, from the dry plains of the deserts nearer the Nile, to the Red Sea Hills, to the coastal piedmont. Apart from the above-mentioned similar, but not altogether identical, structures on the Nile at places like Armant and Aswan (see AEBs in the Nile Valley*)*, it does not seem that there is an exact parallel for this structure along the Nubian Nile. The overwhelming majority of AEB structures are located far into the desert. The distribution therefore confirms the general assessment that these monumental traditions were a marked feature of the Atbai Desert and its indigenous pastoralists. However, at least for Lower Nubia, it must be taken into consideration that no systematic survey was performed in the areas closer to the Nile before the submergence of the landscape under the waters of Lake Nasser. In total, the remote sensing survey has plotted 280 monumental structures across the entire Atbai, which included registering 20 structures known from previous fieldwork surveys or informal reconnoiters (see Fig. 3 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig3>b–c, Supplemental Material). This means that 260 new structures were discovered through remote sensing. This does not include the structures previously noted on the Nile (Armant, Aswan region). The northernmost case is the well-excavated enclosure from Wadi Khashab, at approximately 24.32° N latitude. The southernmost example is in Eritrea on the Khor Baraka at 16.69° N latitude. As the Eastern Desert of Egypt has a long history of surveying and archaeological reconnaissance compared to Sudan (Winkler, 1938 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR125>; Červíček, 1986 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR21>; Sidebotham et al., 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR116>; Desert Networks, 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR48>), we can be fairly confident that there are not many more examples in the Egyptian deserts vis-à-vis the Sudanese deserts. Typologies of Monuments There was a high degree of variability in AEBs’ architecture, which includes diameter, wall thickness, internal tumuli, as well as general shape, which ranged from circular to ovoid. Typological categorization of these monuments is hampered by the lack of excavation of these structures, which prohibits generalizations on their use as human and animal internments as well as their date. The chosen typology instead arises from the formal morphological and architectural characteristics that can be identified through remote sensing. This includes the presence or absence of entrances (openings), thickness and diameter of enclosure walls, as well presence of internal features or tumuli connected with the enclosure, which include both original contemporaneous structures as well as the reuse of the enclosures in later millennia. These architectural variations provided a challenge to forming a coherent typology of monument types (Fig. 4 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig4>), and selected typologies resisted any neat geographical clustering across the Atbai that might concord with geographic or cultural clusters (see “Supplemental Material”). This monumental tradition can be interpreted as a hallmark of the entire mid-Holocene Atbai, with differences in architecture possibly attributable to chronological variation. As the structures at Wadi Khashab [EB001] and Wadi el-Ku [EB090/C23] are similarly shaped structures and the only structures with an excavated chronological linchpin, it cannot be precluded that the different types represented here consist of a much longer chronology of monumental variation than would otherwise be suggested by the extant carbon dates from late fifth millennium to early third millennium BCE. The central tumuli type (Type C), for example, seems sufficiently different in architecture and form from the other types that it likely constitutes a different chronological tradition. Only future excavations will be able to concretely identify temporal horizons. *Fig. 4* Fig. 4The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI. Full size image<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/figures/4> © Google Earth Typology of AEB monuments, Type A (/n/ = 24) and its subtypes exhibit an entrance in the enclosure wall, which mainly points due east (/n/ = 9) or east-southeast (/n/ = 10), with five outliers pointing southeast or northeast. While Type A is only a small part of the total dataset, this type exhibits the only obvious architectural feature which may indicate something of their symbolic culture in respect to orientation to a solar east or winter solstice (east-southeast). The similar “Keyhole” monuments of the central Sahara likewise have a structure point east-southeast, and the “Goulet” burial monuments have an east–west axis (Gauthier, 2009 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR63>) (see below “Monumental Burials in an Afro-Arabian context”). By far the most common monuments are Type B, which show no enclosure entrance, and varying configurations of internal tumuli, with subtype Type B1c demonstrating an arrangement with a single central tumulus. Enclosures of larger diameters (20 m >) (Type C) mirror the arrangements of Type B. Type D reveals four rare cases of adjoining enclosure structures (/n/ = 4) constructed in a single complex, while Type E seems to belong to the same tradition in the sense of circular arrangements of tumuli but exhibits no external enclosure wall. Discussion Spatial and Topographic Distribution The distribution of these monuments covers the entire Atbai from the Upper Egyptian deserts to the Eritrean borderlands. Despite remote sensing prospection conducted on the flatter deserts adjacent to the Nile Valley, very few sites of this type were identified in this region. This distribution thus delineates a cultural complex that partly avoided the Nile Valley at least in terms of erecting funerary monuments, with a small number of exceptions in Upper Egypt, quite far to the north. This distribution firmly situates the AEB tradition as being defined by the Atbai Desert or “East Nubia” (Fig. 3 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig3>b). A caveat here may be that some of these monuments nearing the Nile Valley and its urban populations were plundered and reused so extensively that they are now undetectable. The general distribution, however (Fig. 3 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig3>), conforms with the Atbai desert as their geographic “centre of gravity.” By far the greatest distribution is west of the Red Sea Hills and the desert interior. The upper Wadi Gabgaba basin is in particular a core area of this tradition, with 112 examples (40%) in this region alone. Within this area, the largest single cluster is at Upper Wadi Gabgaba, which has 14 AEBs spread across 1-km of wadi length, by far the greatest concentration of these structures which are generally found in smaller groups of less than four (Figs. 4 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig4>c–d, 7 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig7>a–c). It should be stressed that 12 of the AEBs’ monuments have been recently damaged by modern gold-mining activities and vandalism. This destruction is particularly prevalent in the Wadi Gabgaba and the Hamisana area where large stretches of the desert floor have been removed for gold prospecting (Castiglioni & Castiglioni, 2020b <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR17>; Cooper, 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR28>, 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR30>). In some other geological settings, it may be impossible to ascertain if there were any monuments due to erosional processes. This includes areas subject to alluvium or colluvium accumulation, where monuments would be buried and thus impossible to detect through remote sensing. In other areas, where wadi flooding occurs, monuments would have been disturbed or totally removed so their superstructure becomes invisible to satellite imagery. At least 16 monuments bore signs of damage from fluvial processes, with flash-flooding carving new wadi channels into the monuments. This is a fairly low number compared to the total number of identified monuments (~ 5%), which tends to support the notion that the builders of AEBs carefully chose suitable locations and had a good knowledge of desert morphogenesis. It is possible of course that some wadi channels completely destroyed or buried the enclosures, leaving no traces to satellite prospection. The topographic setting of these monuments is fairly uniform, with most being located at the base of mountains and plateaus, in particular situated along wadi systems exiting from large rocky massifs onto plains (Fig. 5 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig5>A–C). These locations are advantageous for watering opportunities. The average altitude across the entire data set (excluding the Nile examples) was 482 m above sea level, conforming to the elevation of the inland desert basin. Only one enclosure [EB232] was located in the high plateau at 1162 m asl, and a few lower outliers (< 100 m) are located on the Red Sea littoral. More locally, most AEBs were situated on flat gravel terraces and level terrain, although types B1c and C2 had a propensity to be located on rocky slopes. *Fig. 5* Fig. 5The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.Fig. 5The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.Fig. 5The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI. Full size image<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/figures/5> Topographic (DEM) profiles of AEBs (yellow dots) at Southeast Upper Egypt (*A*), Gabgaba Region (*B*), and Central Atbai (*C*), with watering points (blue stars) and later burials (red). Produced in QGIS using NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR100>) Where local assessment and environmental data allowed, it is possible to ascertain that many monuments were located at favorable watering spots still utilized in the present day. The two examples at Umm Gerifat [EB045–046] are located close to a modern well, likewise with respect to the nearby monument at Khor Rafit [EB044], the latter of which is located next to a natural reservoir (/qalt/). Through the use of topographic maps and field reports, it is possible to verify that clusters near the Onib Crater [B002, EB025–EB027], B’ir Amreit [EB004–EB005], Jebel Erba [EB186–189], and B’ir Shigrib [EB106] are also located near potable contemporary water sources. In many other cases, such as the cluster near Wadi Gabgaba [EB041–EB042], Jebel Mandara [EB053–EB055] or Jebel Abu Markh [EB047–EB050], there is no modern potable water source marked on any maps, and these are furthermore located in exceptionally hyperarid deserts of the Atbai. An obvious explanation is that the paleoclimate, formerly wider groundwater resources, and/or specific topographic features allowing runoff concentration in these specific areas were once conducive to human presence and cattle pastoralism even in drying conditions (Bubenzer & Kuper, 2007 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR15>). The cluster at northern Wadi Gabgaba [EB041–042] is particularly interesting as it is located near a part of this major wadi clearly forming an ancient lakebed (Castiglioni & Castiglioni, 2020b <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR17>: 59–60; Lanna & Gatto, 2010 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR85>, 321–324). The fact that many of the burials are specifically located in favorable topographic situations for accessing water, rather than being evenly apportioned across the desert, suggests that the ancient habitants deliberately constructed AEBs near conducive water-sources. Most AEBs are situated near wadi beds, and on average the monumental burials were constructed approximately 196 m (median 158 m) from a present-day wadi-channel. This statistic, however, should be considered very approximate in the flatter topographies, given the propensity for the considerable movement of wadi drainage channels in such settings. No further statistical spatial data such as mean or median value for distance to wadi beds or Strahler number of the closest wadi are exhibited here because of insufficient resolution in the available Digital Elevation Models. Broadly, the location of AEBs can be taken as an index of favorable areas for pasturing and watering, and thus pastoralist habitation. While some monuments were identified within the barrier range of the Red Sea Hills, an area which was extensively surveyed, the lack of frequency in these areas is noticeable. This might be attributable to the lack of flat terraces upon which to construct these monuments. Despite ample water sources in this setting, the low frequency might also reflect the lack of readily available pastures for herds, with undulating and rugged terrain having a particularly negative effect on cattle pasturing (Cook, 1966 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR26>; Patton, 1971 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR106>). In general, pastoralists avoided constructing monuments in the topographically featureless deserts towards the Nile, where watering opportunities are much less common (Gleichen, 1905 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR68>: 86). The low frequency of AEBs on the Red Sea littoral is noteworthy. There are a few possible reasons for this pattern, some cultural and some environmental. A notable feature of modern and pre-modern nomadic transhumance amongst the Beja and Beni Amer pastoralists is the use of the coastal pastures only in winter when there is conducive rainfall (Andersen et al., 2014 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR2>; Fre, 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR53>), making utilization of this space temporally constricted. With paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the region focusing generally on the summer monsoon and its southward deterioration at the end of the AHP (Shanahan et al., 2015 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR114>), there is precious little data with which to reconstruct winter rainfall patterns on the littoral. Yet another reason might relate to lack of preservation in a geomorphological setting characterized by violent flash flooding, making their appearance through satellite remote sensing difficult or impossible. Where the interior deserts usually preserve ancient gravel terraces in a highly deflated surface (Costanzo et al., 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR33>), the flat coastal deserts in contrast have exhibited successive and widespread flash flooding across wide wadi fans (Babikir et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR4>; Elisséef, 1981 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR51>), plausibly covering a much greater land area with flood alluvium and obfuscating mid-Holocene surfaces (Beyin et al., 2023 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR5>). Pasturing Near Monuments Although many AEBs share common features with Nubian cemeteries already excavated, as stated earlier, it cannot be proven without excavation that they all contain cattle remains—but cattle remains were present in the only three excavated examples from the desert (Bir Asele, Wadi Khashab, Wadi el-Ku) and those investigated along the Nile (Armant, Nag el-Hamdulab, Naga Wadi and Qustul). However, an analysis of the landscape in the surrounds of the enclosure burials helps to confirm the assumptions that these sites are likely to be linked with Nubian pastoral communities. Satellite imagery-based survey makes it possible to identify evidence of ancient pastoral communities such as well(s) or other water sources, and notably here for remote sensing, traffic features such as regional and pastoral tracks (Bourgeois & Crépy, 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR9>; Bourgeois et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR10>). These ancient tracks entail “zoogeomorphic disturbances” in the landscape, formed out of repeated trampling and displacement of larger rocks, leaving distinct lines of finer sediments (Zerboni & Nicoll, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR127>). Tracks are particularly noticeable on gravel terraces (/hamada/) and rocky slopes, creating distinctive lines of lighter-coloured sediments within darker coloured rocky areas in a highly deflated geomorphological setting. Wind can take and/or put finer sediment in the tracks (without desert varnish as their frequent transport erases it or prevents its formation), but cannot move any of the coarse gravels and larger stones that cover the rest of the area (much darker due to desert varnish as they are not moving frequently, or due to their lithology). The rain is so rare and not strong enough to disturb such paths but can cut them in some specific sections. In the different geomorphology of sandy areas or wadis, they are almost impossible to spot as every flood can erase or bury them. Tracks near AEBs might be attributed to different activities of both domesticates and humans. Local water sources could have been intensively utilized during the construction and occupation of nomadic sites, including regular visits for watering, grazing, or longer thoroughfares, with wells generally acting as central nodes for nomadic activity. Thicker and well-formed regional tracks are formed through repeated journeys from one site to another. Smaller pastoral tracks are created by the recurring passage of people and/or their herds in search of pasture on the slopes bordering the wadis. Around the Bir Asele AEB monument, pastoralist tracks are concentrated on the closest slopes, as well as in a cluster about 700 m to the northeast of this site (Fig. 1 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig1>c). The area around the cluster at Upper Wadi Gabgaba [EB076–EB084, B004–B008] (Fig. 6 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig6>a) has also been heavily exploited; the slopes are covered by a high density of pastoral tracks, organized into clusters circling and crossing the hills and mountains. The remote sensing campaign observed particularly dense agglomerations of tracks around [EB038–040], [EB057], and [EB259–260], for example. The location of some of these track agglomerations and monuments is important, as they are located in the most hyper-arid parts of the Atbai seldom visited by contemporary nomads, making their attribution to prehistoric animals more likely than modern activity (cf. Zerboni & Nicoll, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR127>). Even if in some cases it is not certain that the observable pastoral tracks and wells are linked with these ancient communities, this kind of landscape-based analysis can demonstrate that pastoralists were present in the area. Indeed, these kinds of tracks are more likely to be linked with herds than with wild animals which follow different patterns of movement, creating paths generally less organized (Zerboni & Nicoll, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR127>). When there are very few sites in an area and a corresponding dense network of tracks close to an AEB, the probability of the paths being linked to ancient pastoralist herding is higher. This requires further surveying work along path networks to establish whether such paths were broadly coeval with monument occupation, but initial observations suggest a possible link between the paths and monumental features. *Fig. 6* Fig. 6The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI. Full size image<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/figures/6> *a* Mapping the desert landscape and tracks surrounding AEBs in an area of the Upper Wadi Gabgaba © Google Earth, drawing Marie Bourgeois. The inset *b* shows cluster EB076-EB078 + B006 and inset *c* shows cluster EB079-EB081 + B007-B008 Today, the slopes of the Atbai are mainly devoid of any vegetation partly because of climate change at the end of the AHP, and partly because of the high level of pastoral exploitation and degradation. As the aridification of the Eastern Desert was ongoing in the fifth millennium BCE, with the beginning of the drawdown of the main aquifers, it is probable that vegetation disappeared from the slopes between the seventh and the third millennia BCE, with the pastoral exploitation of the vegetation providing an additional factor (Bourgeois et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR10>). It is thus conceivable that the monuments are linked with Nubian pastoral communities that lived and exploited these areas between the fifth and the third millennia BCE. Internal Tumuli, Burials, Reuse, and Later Traditions The presence of internal tumuli in these enclosures is complicated as there are at least four distinct “internal tumuli” or burial traditions discernible within the AEB monuments. The simplest structure, which seems to be near contemporary with the larger and original enclosure wall based on a pattern of deliberate internal arrangements (Fig. 7 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig7>), appears as numerous small rectilinear or ovoid superstructures of ~ 2 m in length, all situated within the burial enclosure (I-pattern). In the examples where their arrangement is clearly observable on the surface, these can be seen to fill the entire enclosure, as observed in [EB077] (Fig. 7 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig7>, I <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig7>). This example has at least 27 smaller superstructures oriented around one focal larger circular burial. In many cases, these internal structures are obscured by wind-blown sand and alluvium. *Fig. 7* Fig. 7The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI. Full size image<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y/figures/7> © Google Earth Examples of different internal tumuli traditions within AEB monuments, Monument Types B1c (/n/ = 49) and C1 (/n/ = 18) have a different internal tumulus structure, exhibiting a small mound tumulus constructed in the center of an often thinly demarcated enclosure wall (II-pattern). There is another possibly contemporaneous or “earlier” tradition, which is characterized as a “donut” shaped tumulus with sand-filled interior depressions, common in the archaeological record of Nubia from the Neolithic to the second millennium BCE (III-pattern) (Jesse et al., 2013a <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR76>; Borcowski & Welsby, 2012 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR8>: type FT04). There is then a much later reuse horizon, distinguished by the flat-topped first millennium CE “disc-shaped” tumuli, a well-attested funerary monument across the Atbai connected with the historical Blemmyes, locally called /akerataheils/ (IV-pattern) (Cooper, 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR27>; Krzywinski, 2012 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR83>). These later monuments are easily discernible by their shape and are attested by excavation in the case of [EB090/C23] where a seventh century CE radiocarbon date was registered for the “disc-shaped” tumulus built within a fourth millennium BCE structure (Sadr et al., 1995 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR110>). Both contemporary and much later communities were attracted to these burial enclosures, which in many cases were constructed in enduringly viable ecological niches suitable for habitation in an otherwise arid environment. Remote sensing surveys of the first millennium CE /akerateheil/ burials demonstrate that these burials were positioned in the same ecologically favorable areas where mid-Holocene AEB monuments were erected. An exemplar here is the habitation of a jebel in the Central Atbai (Fig. 5 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#Fig5>C), where small springs or reservoirs in the higher valleys of the mountain created suitable conditions for pastoralist watering and subsistence. It is unclear whether the erection of these /akerataheils/ in or around millennia-old structures represents a form of ancestral behavior or utilization of mutually understood cemetery spaces. While cemetery reuse is common across many burial traditions in the Nile basin, it is further significant in a desert pastoralist space where there is no shortage of suitable land with which to establish new cemeteries. It can be stated that the AEB and /akerataheil/ distributions are both a spatial index of nomadic habitation. Monumentalism and Social Dynamics The size of these complexes, ranging in diameter from 5 to 82 m, cements their status as central places in the funerary lives of prehistoric pastoral communities. As witnessed in other regional contexts, such monumental funerary structures likely functioned as socially important places in the nomadic landscape, combining notions of territory and group identity for the groups that constructed these monuments (Munoz et al., 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR98>; Steimer-Herbet, 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR119>; Thomas et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR120>). The propensity of these sites to cluster near water sources, pasture, and the pattern of regular reuse by later communities all lead to the conclusion that these funerary enclosures were positioned near living nomadic communities, in other words nomadic habitation camps and favorable pasturing areas. As large artificial constructions in the landscape, AEBs likely constituted ceremonial complexes, not only expressly for funerary purposes but a gamut of votive and group behavior. Their construction formalized funerary space in the Atbai, space that would be reused for the same purpose millennia later. The act of constructing such monuments is in itself a community-building act, reaffirming social bonds (di Lernia, 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR46>; Knapp, 2009 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR81>). These constructions would have involved a significant investment of time away from subsistence tasks like herding and food production. Abrams (1994 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR1>) estimated that it was possible to move 900 kg of loose stone per hour (see also Thomas et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR120>), while Galili et al.’s (2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR54>) estimate came to a much lower figure of mass per hour (500 kg), but took into account individual stone size and quarrying expenditure. The setting of AEBs clearly involves the employment of easily available local stone, so Abram’s figures are more broadly appropriate. For an average burial diameter of [EB104], which has a 60.38 m semi-circular wall circumference, average wall width of 2.75 m and assuming locally available granite, a void ratio (empty space) within the walls of 40%, this would produce a figure for the wall construction of roughly 161 8-h workdays for one person, 16.1 days for 10 people, and 3.2 days for 50 people. This does not take into account the construction of internal burials themselves, and any other related activities like burial rites. The creation of these monuments was a significant expenditure for low-density dryland pastoralists, probably encompassing much of the local pastoralist community in one construction event. At Wadi Khashab, and similar burials in Armant, there is a marked pattern of a central or “focal” human burial with secondary human and animal internments oriented in the direction of this burial (Osypiński et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR102>: 19; Gatto, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR58>; 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR60>). Where satellite resolution and preservation allow, similar patterns can be seen in the remote sensing for structures [EB076], [EB077], [EB078], [EB082], [B003], [B004], [B006], [B007], [B016], [B019], [B020], and [B021]. This arrangement may speak to a hierarchical social organization of the burial of a preeminent individual, oftentimes situated in the northwest part of the enclosure. In a pastoralist setting, this “primary” burial theoretically could constitute a tribal leader or “nomad elite,” an emergent social class that has been proposed in similar Saharan burial traditions of the middle and late Holocene (Brass, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR12>; di Lernia, 2002 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR44>). This could also possibly delineate an eminent religious figure, ancestor, or generally an important social figure. The development of a local pastoral-oriented society seems to be a precondition for the emergence of these enclosure traditions. The proposed model for the consecration and establishment of these communal burials enclosures then begins with the burial of an eminent or primary figure, with successive generations or waves of burials filling the structure along with animal internments. As only a small number of these structures have been excavated, this development must remain a hypothesis. The above scenario does not seem relevant to Types B1c and C1, which exhibit a single central tumulus as part of the construction of the enclosure. In terms of the Type E structure, this same communal burial social organization is present, but no enclosure wall was built. Cultural-Historical Issues Based on current fieldwork data, no easily recognizable common material horizon has been identified across the Atbai in the late fifth to early third millennia BCE, making these monuments crucial to our conceptualization of Atbai pastoralism and our chrono-cultural descriptions. In the regional context, the chronological framework, broadly comprising the fifth to the third millennia BCE, is coeval with the Badarian and Naqada cultures and the Early Dynastic and Early Old Kingdom periods in Egypt, the Abkan, A-Group and Pre-Kerma cultures in Nubia, the later Neolithic in the Khartoum region, and the Butana Group in the southern Atbai (Garcea, 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR55>: 141–159). These numerous archaeological cultures are in fact regional variants of broader traditions of the Nile Valley and Eastern Sahara. A broad continuum of semi-nomadic and nomadic behaviors allowed Nubian pastoralists and agropastoralists to have wide spheres of interaction which included both the Nile Valley and surrounding deserts. The funerary evidence from Aswan and Armant mentioned above is a testament to the extent of the Nubian pastoralist presence within the confines of the Egyptian Nile Valley, and attests to the strong ties between mobile and sedentary communities in the Lower Nile region during the formative period of state building in Egypt c. fourth millennium BCE and the early stage of the state. It would be conjectural and premature to link the AEBs to a single one of these Nubian cultures. Rather, it would be more fruitful to focus on the uniqueness of this desert tradition and what it tells us about the nomadic pastoral communities of the Atbai Desert within the frame of the Nubian cultural sphere of the Middle Nile region. The identification of a common AEB tradition might then be a defining feature of a putative Atbai Desert cultural horizon, typified by cattle, goat, and sheep transhumant pastoralism between the Nile and the Red Sea. Those monuments are an expression of a stratified society where wealth was expressed by monumentality, communal rituality, and where cattle had a prominent social and ceremonial role. Like other neighboring cultures in Nubia, the internment of cattle in burials alongside the widespread depiction of cattle in local rock art (Cooper, 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR30>) points to a macro-regional setting of Saharan cattle pastoralists. A variety of tumuli traditions are known in Nubia (Gatto et al., 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR58>, 2022 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR61>), even if different in many ways and not always linked with cattle internments or votive offerings. Since the fifth millennium BCE, Nubian and Saharan societies have shared common beliefs, practices, and characteristics (Gatto, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR58>) regarding architecture and material assemblages (Gatto, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR58>). The AEBs, some of which are impressive in size and elaborate in their organization, composition, and shape, are additional evidence of the existence of complex Nubian communities in the East Nubian deserts between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea. This identification of an Atbai cultural horizon through a common burial tradition provides a putative prehistory to the Medjay nomads of the Eastern Desert, well known from Pharaonic textual records of the third millennium BCE (Cooper, 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR27>: 71–76; Liszka, 2012 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR89>). Monumental Burials in an Afro-Arabian Macro-context The AEB tradition is certainly not the only prehistoric monumental funerary tradition across the wider Saharo-Arabian belt. The onset of Neolithic pastoralism in dryland Africa and Arabia constituted a common development of large, monumental funerary structures (di Lernia, 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR46>; Hildebrand et al., 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR73>; Groucutt et al., 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR71>; Thomas et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR120>), often associated with “cattle centered” cultures. Where there is good chronological data, most of these monumental traditions seem to appear after the local domestication of cattle and in the context of increasing aridification. In the central Sahara, several distinct monumental funerary traditions are known. While not identical in architecture to the AEBs, a number of these are broadly circular or oval in type, comprising low stone walls and internal burials or tumuli. One of the closest comparisons in terms of architecture is the “Keyhole” monuments of Niger, Libya, and Algeria. Carbon dates for these monuments cluster between 4300 and 2800 BCE (Paris & Saliège, 2010 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR104>; Le Quellec, 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR86>; Brass, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR12>), making them broadly contemporaneous with the AEB tradition. An associated type called a “Goulet” has a similar shape with a corridor crossing the length of the monument along an east–west axis (Gauthier & Gauthier, 2003 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR66>). In the Tibesti (Chad) and southern Libya, a monumental type called the “Kompassgräber” dominates (Gauthier, 2023 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR65>), a low stone wall built around a central tumulus, with a distinctive long pear-shaped monument with an eastwards extension. They average about 20–30 m in length, and in terms of date cluster in the mid-third millennium BCE. In the Western Sahara, burial monuments partially contemporary with the AEB, dating between mid-fourth to late second millennium BCE, are characterized by a crescent or “croissant” shape (Gauthier & Gauthier, 2008 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR67>; Mattingly et al., 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR93>). Yet another Saharan burial monument type with a circular form is the so-called “Platform Tumuli” (Clarke & Brooks, 2019 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR24>: 349), appearing quite similar to type C1 described above with a central tumuli. Fieldwork in Djibouti has documented similar circular monumental structures, a plausible extension of a similar burial culture to the southeast along the Red Sea littoral. From present excavations, the monument of Antakari 3 stands out in this discussion. This multi-phase monument is circular and contains multiple human internments. The earliest phase is currently undated, but a second phase has two dates of 2848–2495 cal BCE and 2620–2475 cal BCE (Cauliez et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR20>: 328). Stone cairns enclosed by a circular ring are also reported in the archaeology of other neighboring pastoralist zones in northeast Kenya, Uganda, and Somalia (Davies, 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR41>). In almost all these cases, there are no systematic excavations or carbon dates, making their chrono-cultural history opaque. Broadly similar monumental burial traditions are attested in the Kenyan Rift Valley, as evinced by the well-documented site at Logatham North (Grillo & Hildreband, 2013 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR69>; Hildebrand et al., 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR73>). As with other monuments in this pattern, they comprise circular “platforms” enclosed by walls acting as interment for internal burials. Relevantly here, the authors emphasize that this putative monumental culture was connected to the influx of cattle pastoralists to the region, with the earliest phase of monumental construction corresponding to the third millennium BCE. In northwest Arabia, a large zone of monumental Neolithic burial structures, /mustatils/ or “rectangles,” typifies the Neolithic landscape of the region (Thomas et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR120>; Kennedy et al., 2023 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR78>). Like the Atbai tradition, these contain cattle remains but in this case in the form of offerings of bucrania or horns. The topographic distribution of these monuments across a similar geographic setting of a coastal barrier range (the Hejaz) in a previous climatic period is quite reflective of the distribution of AEBs. In northwest Arabia the majority of burials are on the inland side of the Hejaz range, with only a small number on the coastal littoral, mirroring the same geographic pattern of the AEB tradition. The carbon dates of the mustatils cluster from the late sixth to early fifth millennium BCE, likewise in a time of increasing aridity in northwest Arabia, but much earlier than the AEB tradition (Groucutt et al., 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR71>). Bridging the Afro-Arabian gap, circular Neolithic burial monuments are also known in the Sinai, although smaller in size than examples previously mentioned. Burials with enclosure walls are attested in the mid-fifth millennium BCE Sinai at El Awag, ~ 10 m in diameter (Close & Minchillo, 2010 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR25>) and also at the undated cemetery of Ain Yerqa, where the burials vary in diameter between 3 and 10 m (Grimal, 1996 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR70>: 578–580). Usual Suspects: Climate and Environmental Triggers? The earliest domesticated cattle dates in Nubia are in the mid-sixth Millennium BCE and deliberate internments of cattle are attested not long after (see “Cattle Centred-Behaviour”). Based on faunal morphology, an “intermediate form” of domestication has even been postulated as far back as 8000 BCE in Nubia (Osypinska et al., 2025 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR103>). Taking the safer sixth millennium dates, this means that there was at least a millennium of cattle pastoralist occupations in this East Saharan region before the emergence of the AEB tradition. The identified practice of AEBs and the dating elements that can be proposed for its emergence, continuation and cessation suggest a strong correlation with the final part of the AHP. This fits well with the model proposed by Kuper and Kröpelin (2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR84>) regarding a cultural regionalization between 5300 and 3500 BCE. Cattle pastoralism would have benefited from favorable grazing conditions at the cost of lower mobility. Based on available data, the AEB tradition and the associated cattle-oriented pastoralism seem to have lasted at least until the 3rd millennium BCE long after the cultural regionalization and progressive termination of the AHP. This would mean either that, despite the southward shift in the monsoon, the Atbai remained a refuge for a long time, or that the deteriorating climate did not have as strong an impact on demographics in this part of the Sahara as is generally hypothesized. There is not enough local quantitative demographic data to better estimate cattle’s impact on local environments, but the general climate data is suggestive of other factors in the degradation of environments beyond simply decreasing rainfall (Crépy in press <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR37>). This latter situation could be explained by the ameliorating effect of groundwater resources, orographic rainfall brought upon by winter rains, or by specialized nomadic subsistence strategies and long-distance mobility. Such strategies may have made it possible to take advantage of even scarce or small-scale grazing opportunities in the northern Atbai, for example taking advantage of exceptional orographic rainfall events arising from winter rains, and/or utilizing favorable geomorphological niches. Failing this, (cattle) pastoralists then migrated to refugia further south in the rain belt or the Nile Valley. Unfortunately, the lack of local paleoenvironmental data for this period and region does not allow more precise assessments. However, in the general environmental trend towards aridity and edaphic drying, it is very likely that nomads adopted transhumant strategies during the rainy season. Pastoralists could regroup in refuge areas such as wells or well-watered mountain slopes, as still observed during the twentieth century CE amongst several Saharo–Sahelian nomadic traditions. In this situation, it would seem logical that the main AEB clusters correspond to these ecological refugia. Regarding the climate’s effect on these societies, it must be stated that the most difficult change for adaptation is not the general trends towards aridity, which is slow and progressive, but the inter-annual variability which is its corollary and makes the distribution of water and grazing areas less predictable (Trauth et al., 2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR121>). In regards to the abandonment of the AEB tradition, probably during the third millennium BCE (but possibly later in the south), it seems quite logical to consider it as the result of an environmental threshold and a shift to new livelihoods for people of the desert, or even a general depopulation of the area. There are several possible explanations for why this threshold has been crossed, all of which are cumulative: (1) direct climate effect of the southward movement of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ); (2) groundwater depletion; (3) overgrazing—and more generally overexploitation of the vegetation—by the inhabitants of the desert and their herds. It may not be a coincidence that this rough period of the Fourth and Third Millennia BCE is coincident with a southerly shift in cattle pastoralism in the Horn of Africa, with increased cattle ratios in faunal assemblages of the southern Atbai (Manzo, 2017 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR91>: 26), and new cattle horizons in Lake Abhe (Afar region) (Cauliez et al., 2021 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR20>; Coudert et al., 2018 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR34>; Lesur et al., 2014 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR87>) as well as the Rift Valley (Khalidi et al., 2020 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR79>). Conclusion: A New Framework for Mid-Holocene Socio-environmental Trajectories of Eastern Sahara Based on our data and on the literature, we propose as a working hypothesis a nuanced model of socio-environmental evolution during this period which fits with the ideas expressed by Kuper and Kröpelin (2006 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR84>) concerning climate-driven evolution of societies. Our model is also compatible with the observations of Wright (2017 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR126>) regarding herd pressure on the environment and human roles in the termination of the AHP, and echoes the conclusions of Trauth et al. (2024 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y#ref-CR121>) on the role played by “climate flickering.” The proposed working model is as follows: Cattle pastoralism, developed in the context of the progressive termination of the AHP, had to deal with a natural climate-related reduction of good grazing areas, in addition to an increasing variability in the spatio-temporal distribution of rainfall. In these conditions, maintaining herd size necessarily leads to increased pressure on vegetation and increasingly irreversible degradation of grazing lands, making herding eventually unsustainable. Over time this anthropogenic—or cattlegenic—pressure can only increase until it reaches a threshold which compels people to change their livelihoods, shifting from grazers to browsers, and/or strategies involving relocation. 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We also thank the people of Sudan and NCAM for their support on the 2018 and 2019 Atbai Survey Fieldwork missions. The first group of structures was documented via remote sensing by Maria Gatto in 2022. Marie Bourgeois has then extended the documentation together with Maël Crépy, as part of her PhD research project. Julien Cooper coordinated the effort and the present research within the frame of the Atbai Survey Project. Maël Crépy contributed his expertise in geoarchaeology for the detection and interpretation of anthropogenic and geomorphic features. Gatto provided information on archaeological sites along the Nile Valley. Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. This paper was written as part of the joint project /Nomades/ hosted by the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale in Cairo. The research received funding support of Julien Cooper’s Australian Research Council /Future Fellowship/ (FT230100067). Author information Authors and Affiliations 1. Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Julien Cooper 2. Université Lumière Lyon 2, HiSoMa—UMR 5189, Lyon, France Marie Bourgeois 3. CNRS, HiSoMA, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée—Jean Pouilloux, Lyon, France Maël Crépy 4. Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Maria Carmela Gatto Contributions Julien Cooper: conceptualization (equal); data curation (supporting); funding acquisition (lead); investigation (equal); methodology (lead); project administration (lead); writing—original draft (lead); writing—review and editing (equal); visualization (supporting). Marie Bourgeois: conceptualization (equal); data curation (lead); investigation (equal); methodology (supporting); writing—original draft (supporting); writing—review and editing (equal); visualization (lead). Maël Crépy: conceptualization (equal); funding acquisition (supporting); investigation (equal); writing—original draft (supporting); writing—review and editing (equal). Maria Carmela Gatto: conceptualization (equal); investigation (equal); writing—original draft (supporting); writing—review and editing (equal). All authors contributed to the first draft of the manuscript and all authors read and approved the final manuscript. Corresponding author Correspondence to Julien Cooper <mailto:Julien.cooper@mq.edu.au>. Ethics declarations Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate Not relevant Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Supplementary Information Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material. 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Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark <https://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y> Cite this article Cooper, J., Bourgeois, M., Crépy, M. /et al./ Atbai Enclosure Burials: Monumentalism, Pastoralism and Environmental Change in the Mid-Holocene East Nubian Deserts. /Afr Archaeol Rev/ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y Download citation<https://citation-needed.springer.com/v2/references/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y?format=refman&flavour=citation> * Received16 November 2025 * Accepted27 February 2026 * Published27 April 2026 * Version of record27 April 2026 * DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-026-09654-y Share this article Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative Keywords * Atbai <https://link.springer.com/search?query=Atbai&facet-discipline="Social%20Sciences"> * Nubia <https://link.springer.com/search?query=Nubia&facet-discipline="Social%20Sciences"> * Mid-Holocene <https://link.springer.com/search?query=Mid-Holocene&facet-discipline="Social%20Sciences"> * Burial tradition <https://link.springer.com/search?query=Burial%20tradition&facet-discipline="Social%20Sciences"> * Pastoralism <https://link.springer.com/search?query=Pastoralism&facet-discipline="Social%20Sciences"> * Socio-environment <https://link.springer.com/search?query=Socio-environment&facet-discipline="Social%20Sciences"> * Eastern Sahara <https://link.springer.com/search?query=Eastern%20Sahara&facet-discipline="Social%20Sciences"> * Nomadism <https://link.springer.com/search?query=Nomadism&facet-discipline="Social%20Sciences"> -- Sent from my Linux system.