Palaeobotanical speculations and Quaternary environments in the Sudan
G. E. Wickens
Abstract
This chapter discusses the evidence for Quaternary environmental changes in the Sudan as a whole, and presents a series of very provisional and hypothetical reconstructions of the vegetation of the Sudan at selected periods during the late Quaternary. Inductive attempts to reconstruct late Quaternary environments in Africa are based upon evidence from geology, biology, and archaeology. Geological evidence of environmental change should consist ideally of absolutely dated stratigraphic sections comprising fossil-bearing fluviatile, lacustrine and aeolian deposits which can be traced laterally and correlated over large areas. Plants are slow to react to environmental changes because they must rely on random dispersal mechanisms for their propagation and several successful generations are necessary for them to establish themselves in a more favourable environment. An additional complication is that occupation of land, whether by a family or a tribe, involves territorial rights, so that any migration of man consequent upon an increasingly hostile environment is likely to create social problems.