100th century BCE – 50th century BCE
Maghrib, North Africa
The Maghribian Epi-Palaeolithic comprised several hunter-gatherer industries, including the Iberomaurusian and Capsian traditions. Their origins, movements, and relationships remain uncertain, with proposals involving eastern North Africa, south-western Asia, Sicily, Spain, or local development. The sequence also shows continuity and transformation toward Neolithic of Capsian Tradition assemblages, while some descendants retained hunting-and-gathering economies until the fourth or second millennium BC.
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The Story
The Maghribian Epi-Palaeolithic was not a single uniform tradition but a sequence of industries whose origins and relationships remain difficult to establish. The earliest known industry, the Iberomaurusian, has no clearly demonstrated indigenous predecessor in the Maghrib apart from the Aterian. The arrival of its first occupants, possibly from the east, is therefore presented as a possibility rather than a settled reconstruction.
Several models have been proposed for the origins of the Iberomaurusian and Capsian traditions. Comparisons have been drawn with the Sebekian and Silsilian industries of the Nile Valley, with Cyrenaica, south-western Asia, Sicily, and even late Upper Palaeolithic Spain. Yet the chronological differences are small, the parallels can be interpreted in opposite directions, and the excerpt stresses that diffusion, convergence, and population movement cannot presently be separated with confidence.
The later transition toward food production was similarly gradual and uneven. Late Capsian groups shared several traits with the Neolithic of Capsian Tradition, including polished stone, bifacial points, and pottery, but many may still have depended primarily on hunting and collecting. In the eastern Maghrib, descendants of Capsian groups survived as scattered, semi-nomadic populations from about 4000 to 2500 BC, while western Maghrib populations associated with the Iberomaurusian tradition may have persisted until their absorption into food-producing communities by the second millennium BC.
100th century BCE – 50th century BCE
Maghrib, North Africa
The Maghribian Epi-Palaeolithic comprised several hunter-gatherer industries, including the Iberomaurusian and Capsian traditions. Their origins, movements, and relationships remain uncertain, with proposals involving eastern North Africa, south-western Asia, Sicily, Spain, or local development. The sequence also shows continuity and transformation toward Neolithic of Capsian Tradition assemblages, while some descendants retained hunting-and-gathering economies until the fourth or second millennium BC.
Continue exploring
The Story
The Maghribian Epi-Palaeolithic was not a single uniform tradition but a sequence of industries whose origins and relationships remain difficult to establish. The earliest known industry, the Iberomaurusian, has no clearly demonstrated indigenous predecessor in the Maghrib apart from the Aterian. The arrival of its first occupants, possibly from the east, is therefore presented as a possibility rather than a settled reconstruction.
Several models have been proposed for the origins of the Iberomaurusian and Capsian traditions. Comparisons have been drawn with the Sebekian and Silsilian industries of the Nile Valley, with Cyrenaica, south-western Asia, Sicily, and even late Upper Palaeolithic Spain. Yet the chronological differences are small, the parallels can be interpreted in opposite directions, and the excerpt stresses that diffusion, convergence, and population movement cannot presently be separated with confidence.
The later transition toward food production was similarly gradual and uneven. Late Capsian groups shared several traits with the Neolithic of Capsian Tradition, including polished stone, bifacial points, and pottery, but many may still have depended primarily on hunting and collecting. In the eastern Maghrib, descendants of Capsian groups survived as scattered, semi-nomadic populations from about 4000 to 2500 BC, while western Maghrib populations associated with the Iberomaurusian tradition may have persisted until their absorption into food-producing communities by the second millennium BC.