Near East (6,093 – 4,366 BCE) Middle Holocene — Neolithic Nile & Aegean Littoral Farming

Geographic and Environmental Context

• Anchors: the Nile Valley and Delta; Sinai–Negev–Arabah; the southern Levant (with Tyre as the sole Levantine node in this subregion); Hejaz–Asir–Tihāma on the Red Sea; Yemen’s western uplands/coast; southwestern Cyprus; western Anatolian littoral (Smyrna–Ephesus–Miletus–Halicarnassus–Xanthos; Troad).

Climate & Environment

• Hypsithermal warmth: strong Nile floods; productive Aegean plains; Arabian west-slope wadis seasonally green.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Farming and herding spread widely: wheat/barley/pulses, cattle–caprines–pigs along Nile and in western Anatolia; oasis gardening in Egyptian Desert oases; horticulture in Yemeni west highlands (incipient).

• Coastal villages along Ionia/Caria/Lycia integrated fishing with fields.

Technology & Material Culture

• Pottery diversified; mudbrick/stone architecture; sail/raft experiments in Nile; weirs and nets; early irrigation spurs in Fayum/Delta.

Corridors

• Nile barge traffic; Aegean cabotage; Red Sea crossings minimal but possible short hops.

Symbolism

• House shrines; figurines; ancestor cemeteries; early sanctuaries on Aegean capes.

Adaptation

• Floodplain leverage + oasis redundancy anchored caloric security.