A wetter climate in eastern Sudan 2,000 years ago?

Within the past 15 years accurate radiocarbon dating and plant microfossil analysis of tropical lake sediments in Africa and elsewhere have revealed that the early Holocene (11-7 kyr) was generally wetter than today throughout the tropics^1-4, in contrast to last glacial maximum (18±2 kyr), which was cool, dry and windy^5,6. Desiccation beginning ∼4.5 kyr ago forced Neolithic herders to abandon previously habitable Old World deserts^7-9. Less well known is the climate of proto-historic times (∼2 kyr ago), when iron-smelting became important in Africa¹⁰. Here we present the first evidence that the Red Sea Hills were somewhat wetter at this time and suggest that this was also true of much of northern Africa.