The Abbassia Pluvial was an extended wet and rainy period in the climate history of North Africa. It began c. 120,000 years before the present (ybp), lasted approximately 30,000 years, and ended c. 90,000 ybp. The Abbassia Pluvial spanned the end of the Lower Paleolithic and the start of the Middle Paleolithic eras — an interval that is also sometimes identified as the Achulean (250–90 kybp). As with the subsequent Mousterian Pluvial, the Abbassia was brought about by global climate changes associated with the ice ages and interglacials of the Pleistocene Epoch.
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Ecological impact
As with the Mousterian Pluvial that followed (c. 50–30 kybp), the Abbassia Pluvial brought wet and fertile conditions to what is now the Sahara Desert, which bloomed with lush vegetation fed by lakes, swamps, and river systems, many of which later disappeared in the drier climate that followed the pluvial. African wildlife now associated with the grasslands and woodlands south of the Sahara penetrated the entire North African region during the Abbassia Pluvial.
Cultures
Human stone age cultures — notably the Mousterian and Aterian Industries — flourished in Africa during the Abbassia Pluvial. The shift to harsher climate conditions that came with the end of the pluvial may have promoted the emigration of modern Homo sapiens out of Africa and over the rest of the globe.