ABSTRACT
Some 10,000 years ago, what is now the Republic of Sudan must be seen as just one part of a broader world which stretched across most of what is now Sudanic Africa, the Sahel and the Sahara. Most of northern Africa was largely uninhabitable some 18,000 years ago in a period of extreme aridity. However, as conditions improved there was a slow and gradual re-peopling of these areas. Returning rains brought life back to the desert, also gradually drawing people further north. Across Sudanic Africa we must envisage wide open landscapes, punctuated by mountain ranges and lakes, often rich in wild life and often densely wooded, across which small human populations ranged.
