The Butana Group was a prehistoric,

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

culture in the eastern part of modern

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, that flourished from the fourth to the early third millennium BC. The Butana Group is mainly known from its pottery that is often decorated with incised lines, including fingerprints. The ceramic is comparable to those from other (late) neolithic culture in the Sudanese Nile Valley. They produced stone tools. The main economical base was most likely animal breeding, but there is also evidence for domesticated forms of wheat and barley, attesting agriculture. Several animals were hunted such as antelopes, suidae and elephants. Shell

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

s indicate the extensive use of land snails for food. Not much is known about settlement patterns, but some settlement sites are almost in area, indicating longer occupations. The people of the Butana Group lived in small, round huts. Not many cemeteries are known, but people were most often buried in a contracted position. The only grave goods are personal adornments, including many lip plugs.

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References

{{Reflist Neolithic cultures of Africa Butana Group