The ḫЗšt or Kushites in the Levant

The early hunter-gathers and farmers in Europe herded cattle,and cultivated millet.

Ancient DNA (aDNA) indicates that R1 clades were carried by European hunter-gathers (CHG) and European farmers (EF). Villabruna man lived 14kya in Italy and carried R1b1a. European hunter-gatherers carried R1b1 in Spain and Samara. Many European farmers also carried varied R1 clades. Although the lineages R1b1 and R1b1a were recognized as R-V88 clades (Cruciani et al, 2010), some researchers claim that Y-Chromosome R1 is of Eurasian origin, without any collateral evidence from archaeology to support this claim.

There is no archaeological evidence of the herding of Cattle and millet cultivation older than the Nabta Playa material.


At Nabta Playa the people herded cattle and cultivated crops. The Kushites cultivated pennisetum millet at Nabta Playa (c. 7950 BC ) and probably herded cattle (Miller, et al, 2010; Mitchell,2013).

A center of cattle worship was the Kiseiba -Nabta region in Middle Africa. At Nabta archaeologists have found the oldest megalithic site dating to 6000-6500 BC, which served as both a temple and calendar. This site was found by J. McKim Malville of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Fred Wendorf of Southern Methodist University.

As a result, we have in the archaeological literature the name Ounan-Harif point. This name was proposed for the tanged points at Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba .Harifian is a specialized regional cultural development of the Epipalaeolithic of the Negev Desert. Harifian has close connections with the late Mesolithic cultures of Fayyum and the Eastern Deserts of Egypt, whose tool assemblage resembles that of the Harifian.

Narmer was one the first ruler to expand the Kushites into the Levant and Anatolia. Narmer is attested in  Egypt and Canaan. Many serekhs of Narmer have been found Tel Erani, Arad, 'En Besor, Halif Terrace/Nahal Tillah .

We know that Narmer was probably a Kushite because of a Clay bulla (reg. no. G-67.95, Locus 102, B. 1308) from Nahal Tillah. The inscriptions on the  Clay bulla can be read as ḫЗts.t Kush,  ḫ3s.tj "he who belongs to Kush" or Kushite..

Researchers make it clear that the European Neolithic was began by the Levantines. As noted earlier these early European farmers cultivated millet and herded cattle. It is clear these Neolithic "Europeans" were Africans who took the Nabta Playa cultural traditions into Europe. This is supported by the settlement of people from Nabta Playa who took the Ounan-Harifian cultural traditions into the Levant; and from there into Europe.

References:

Brass, M. (2013). Revisiting a hoary chestnut: the nature of early cattle domestication in North-East Africa. Sahara (Segrate, Italy), 24, 65–70.

Egyptian-Canaanite Interaction at Nahal Tillah, Israel (ca. 4500-3000 B. C. E.): An Interim Report on the 1994-1995 Excavations. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302287010_Egyptian-Canaanite_Interaction_at_Nahal_Tillah_Israel_ca_4500-3000_B_C_E_An_Interim_Report_on_the_1994-1995_Excavations [accessed Dec 26 2017].

Mitchell P., Paul Lane (Ed.),(2013). The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology. Oxford .

Miller N.F., Robert N Spengler, Michael Frachetti. (2010). Millet cultivation across Eurasia: Origins, spread, and the influence of seasonal climate, The Holocene , Vol. 26 10:1566-1575
Wengrow, D., Dee, M., Foster, S., Stevenson, A., & Ramsey, C. (2014). Cultural convergence in the Neolithic of the Nile Valley: A prehistoric perspective on Egypt's place in Africa. Antiquity, 88(339), 95-111. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/cultural-convergence-in-the-neolithic-of-the-nile-valley-a-prehistoric-perspective-on-egypts-place-in-africa/198005B5D23B644951E17B3F0803AF74