This article discusses archaeobotanical evidence from two Sheikh el-Obeiyid villages and the Bir el-Obeiyid playa, which are located along the course of the Wadi el-Obeiyid and on the top and escarpment of the Northern Plateau, at the northern edge of the Farafra Oasis, Egypt. The villages and playa are both part of a settlement system which developed from the top of the plateau, through its various erosion surfaces, down to the bottom of the wadi. The villages in particular can be considered as seasonal base camps, populated by semi-sedentary groups who engaged in intensive exploitation of the resources available in the surrounding environment during the early and mid-Holocene. These sites can be compared to the better-known Hidden Valley village site located only 20 km to the east, the remains from which were analysed during the early 2000s by Ahmed G. Fahmy. At all the sites investigated to date in Farafra there is clear evidence for gathering and use of sorghum and other species of small-seeded wild grasses, fitting the emerging patterns of intense wild grass exploitation in attractive ecological zones for the eastern Sahara during the 9th–6th millennia BP.

本文讨论了来自两个 Sheikh el-Obeiyid 村庄和 Bir el-Obeiyid 海滩的考古植物证据，这两个村庄位于 Wadi el-Obeiyid 河道沿线，位于法拉夫拉北部边缘的北部高原顶部和悬崖上绿洲，埃及。村庄和海滩都是从高原顶部发展而来的定居系统的一部分，通过其各种侵蚀面，一直到河谷底部。特别是这些村庄可以被视为季节性大本营，居住着半定居的群体，他们在全新世早期和中期对周围环境中的可用资源进行了密集开采。这些遗址可以与位于东部仅 20 公里处的更为著名的 Hidden Valley 村庄遗址相提并论，Ahmed G. Fahmy 在 2000 年代初期对这些遗骸进行了分析。在法拉夫拉迄今为止调查的所有地点都有明确的证据表明收集和使用高粱和其他种类的小种子野草，符合 9 世纪 9 日期间在撒哈拉东部有吸引力的生态区中密集野草开发的新兴模式-第六千年英国石油公司。