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AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR
CANADIAN DOLLAR
POUND STERLING
Product Description
We have been obsessively collecting the finest African Neolithic Capsian arrowheads for 20 years and this specimen comes from a small, select group we have been holding onto for the duration of two decades. We have been to the sources in the Sahara, scoured literal buckets and barrels of tens of thousands of arrowheads each year, for many years. Over the past decades, we have also purchased amazing private collections in America and Europe. In all this time, we would set aside the RAREST OF THE RAREST arrowheads of this Neolithic culture, and it is now time for us to sell some from this private, ultra-rare stash. The collection is small and limited and no two are alike. Each represents the highest degree of workmanship that we have ever seen. This is one of those precious specimens from those efforts. The sites where arrowheads like this were once found, have been entirely picked clean for years. In over the last two decades, poor safety and security in the desert, as well as changing laws in North Africa, prevent any new collecting or discoveries to be made, making these artifacts increasingly desirable and valuable.
This is a Capsian Neolithic projectile point called a BIFACIAL TANGED LEAF arrowhead. The main body profile resembles a willow leaf yet, with a delicate tang at the base. While many African Neolithic arrowheads are only bifacially flaked on the edges, this rare type features full bifacial flaking which has made the point extremely thin. Held to the light shows its translucency! The skill to flake this specimen would have required the most experienced craftsperson to avoid breaking the piece when being made. The workmanship on this example is truly breath-taking! One has to wonder if many of these perfect and seemingly impossible to make arrowheads were truly for actual use or more of a display of prowess and prestige.
The original mineral deposits and patina are intact and deep in the flaked hinge fractures and micro-crevices - traits ONLY found in AUTHENTIC specimens. BEWARE of fakes that dominate the market!
HISTORY
CAPSIAN TRADITION arrowheads have been found on exposed African Neolithic sites in the Sahara Desert in Northwest Africa. They were made by African Neolithic humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) between 10,000 and 4,700 years ago.
These arrowheads are similar to African Neolithic projectile points known to have been used in human conflict. A late Pleistocene graveyard was discovered at Jebel Sahaba, north of Wadi Halfa in Sudanese Nubia. These burials date from 14,000 to 12,000 years ago. Many people were buried there that had fallen victim to violent deaths with the bodies having been killed by microlithic weapons and small arrowhead projectiles. One man had 110 artifacts associated with his skeleton which had entered his body as stone barbs and points of projectiles. Two of the projectiles were still embedded in his skull.
