FIVE EARLY MAN MIDDLE STONE AGE AFRICA ATERIAN FLAKE TOOLS *AT107

Product Description

SEE MORE PREHISTORIC ATERIAN TOOLS

This set includes FIVE genuine Aterian Tradition tanged flake tools (one being a tanged point - the oldest known arrowhead).  The set dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Period, found in the Sahara Desert of North Africa. This set that includes less common Aterian Tradition flake tools of other typologies besides the tanged point.  A tanged point is included for educational reference but the scrapers comprise less commonly seen examples of the flaking and technology that Aterian tools possess.  These Aterian flake tools were made of flint, jasper and slate.  For the best display of Early Man stone tools of African Middle Paleolithic technology that runs simultaneous to the Neanderthals of Europe, this is an excellent teaching or exhibit set of 5 specimens that are COMPLETE, undamaged and in the finest preservation.  Each is complete, showing beautiful natural colored patinas and excellent form.  They all display a deep and heavy 'desert varnish' which is a smooth, semi-glossy surface layer consisting of iron oxide and manganese deposited over thousands of years by exposure to blowing desert sand. 

HISTORY

The Aterian is a Middle Stone Age (or Middle Paleolithic) stone tool industry centered in the Tamazgha, but also possibly found in Oman and the Thar Desert. The earliest Aterian dates to c. 145,000 years ago, at the site of Ifri n'Ammar in Morocco however, most of the early dates cluster around the beginning of the Last Interglacial, around 130,000 years ago, when the environment of North Africa began to ameliorate. The Aterian disappeared around 30,000 years ago and it is currently not thought to have influenced subsequent archaeological cultures in the region.

The Aterian is primarily distinguished through the presence of tanged tools and is named after the type site of Bir el Ater, south of Annaba. Bifacially-worked, leaf-shaped tools are also a common artifact type in Aterian assemblages, and so are scrapers as well as Levallois flakes and cores. Items of personal adornment (pierced and ochred Nassarius shell beads) are known from at least one Aterian site, with an age of 82,000 years. The Aterian is one of the oldest examples of regional technological diversification, evidencing significant differentiation to older stone tool industries in the area, frequently described as Mousterian.

Considered the "FIRST" arrowheads in the timeline of human stone tool development, this Aterian tanged point represents an important milestone in human thought and development.  Aterian tools were made by Archaic humans, at a time when Neanderthals were thriving in Europe.  Usually, Aterian tanged points display very crude geometry with many barely resembling the arrowhead form that would later follow with refinement.  A number of other flake tools with tangs, are found in the Aterian tradition that were scrapers hafted to wood, bone or ivory handles.  The Aterian Tool Tradition is the first obvious evidence of a flake tool specifically designed for hafting.  The Aterian Tradition also includes non-tanged flake tools but the tanged point is the most notable and a profound development from other Levallois flake tools of the period.