The Unnamed Plateau (Western Desert of Egypt). New geological and geoarchaeological data from an exploration in a remote area

Abstract

The Unnamed Plateau is a low plateau in the Western Desert of Egypt close to the Libyan border, about halfway between the Gilf Kebir to the north and Jebel Uweinat to the south. It is little known and seldom visited. In the past, we have conducted three field surveys in order to assess its geomorphic features and the human presence in the Holocene. During our explorations we have found a Paleozoic fossil plant, which allows to ascribe the sedimentary cover to the late Paleozoic (as in the Geologic Map of Egypt, 1981), not Mesozoic, as indicated in the 1987 Geologic Map. We could retrace and walk an ancient mountain path connecting the two slopes of the Plateau and leading to a fossil lake. The area was visited by hunters-gatherers and perhaps the first nomadic herders moving north-south, until the mid-IV Millennium BC, when the final desiccation of the Eastern Sahara pushed them out definitely.