100th century BCE
North Africa and the Sahara
The Aterian was a regional Middle Palaeolithic stone-tool tradition of North Africa and the Sahara, distinguished especially by tanged flakes retouched into points, scrapers, and related forms. It was widespread across the Maghrib and much of the Sahara north of the sixteenth parallel, including western-desert oases but excluding the Nile Valley. Its communities used caves, springs, and shallow lakes as bases and hunted large antelopes and equids.
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The Story
The Aterian tradition is identified above all by the development of the tang: flakes were retouched into points, scrapers, and other implements whose projecting bases could serve in hafting. This innovation appears across the Maghrib and almost the whole of the Sahara north of the sixteenth parallel, extending into the oases of the Western Desert while apparently bypassing the Nile Valley. Bifacial lanceolate forms were also frequent in Saharan assemblages.
Although the Aterian resembles Mousterian industries in several respects, it is no longer treated simply as a North African equivalent of the Upper Palaeolithic. Dating discussed in the chapter places it at an age broadly comparable with the Mousterian, while suggesting that it may have endured for longer. The presence or absence of tanged forms may therefore reflect local needs and established technical practices rather than a single linear evolutionary sequence.
Aterian occupations were particularly common on the Saharan side of the Atlas and in the desert itself. Home bases were often located in caves, near springs, or beside shallow lakes. The associated populations appear to have been capable hunters of large antelopes and equids; some caves, including Dar es Soltan and Taforalt, were repeatedly used over long periods, whereas Hajj Creiem near Derna functioned as a hunting camp.
100th century BCE
North Africa and the Sahara
The Aterian was a regional Middle Palaeolithic stone-tool tradition of North Africa and the Sahara, distinguished especially by tanged flakes retouched into points, scrapers, and related forms. It was widespread across the Maghrib and much of the Sahara north of the sixteenth parallel, including western-desert oases but excluding the Nile Valley. Its communities used caves, springs, and shallow lakes as bases and hunted large antelopes and equids.
Continue exploring
The Story
The Aterian tradition is identified above all by the development of the tang: flakes were retouched into points, scrapers, and other implements whose projecting bases could serve in hafting. This innovation appears across the Maghrib and almost the whole of the Sahara north of the sixteenth parallel, extending into the oases of the Western Desert while apparently bypassing the Nile Valley. Bifacial lanceolate forms were also frequent in Saharan assemblages.
Although the Aterian resembles Mousterian industries in several respects, it is no longer treated simply as a North African equivalent of the Upper Palaeolithic. Dating discussed in the chapter places it at an age broadly comparable with the Mousterian, while suggesting that it may have endured for longer. The presence or absence of tanged forms may therefore reflect local needs and established technical practices rather than a single linear evolutionary sequence.
Aterian occupations were particularly common on the Saharan side of the Atlas and in the desert itself. Home bases were often located in caves, near springs, or beside shallow lakes. The associated populations appear to have been capable hunters of large antelopes and equids; some caves, including Dar es Soltan and Taforalt, were repeatedly used over long periods, whereas Hajj Creiem near Derna functioned as a hunting camp.