RARE SERRATED LARGE CAPSIAN AFRICAN NEOLITHIC DENTICULATE SAW BLADE *CAP328

Product Description

SEE MORE AFRICAN NEOLITHIC ARROWHEADS

We have been obsessively collecting the finest African Neolithic artifacts for over 20 years and this specimen comes from a small, select group we have been holding onto for the duration of that time.  We have been to the source 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 objects of African Neolithic cultures, and it is now time for us to sell some from this private, ultra-rare stash.  The collection is small and limited, and once sold, would be impossible to recreate due to changed legislation and site depletion.  Each specimen represents the highest grade of its kind that we have ever seen.  This is one of those precious specimens from those efforts.  The sites where these artifacts were once found, have been entirely picked clean for years, not to mention are now protected from any further exploration.

This is a RARE and exceptionally large Capsian Neolithic BIFACIAL DROP POINT SAW.  First flaked into a very robust blade that could withstand heavy use without breaking, the cutting edge was then masterfully serrated by tedious secondary flaking to create a denticulated edge.  The aesthetic drop point offers immediate visual indication which side is the saw side.  A saw like this could have been hafted into wood or bone handle, or the proximal end wrapped in leather for comfort in the hand.  The saw was an invaluable tool to cut heavy materials like sinew, bone, wood or plant fiber.  This is the ONLY example of this rare form we have ever come across in the Capsian Neolithic.  While ordinary knives and blades are often seen, a serrated saw blade this size is EXTREMELY RARE.  The original mineral deposits and patina are intact and deep in the flake hinge fractures and micro-crevices - traits ONLY found in AUTHENTIC specimens.

HISTORY

In the final Pleistocene and early Holocene Periods around 10,000 years ago, the Sahara was believed to be a highly favorable environment for hunters, gatherers and pastoralists.  Freshwater lakes existed between the dunes in what is now the Tenere region, Lake Chad was eight times its current size, the highlands supported Mediterranean forest trees, and a large fauna of animals flourished.  The slow drying out process of the Sahara, began 7,000 years ago and ended 4500 years ago resulting in the barren conditions that exist to this day.  As we progress from the time from the end of the Pleistocene to the end of the Paleolithic Period, we see Man relying more on meat from raised animals as opposed to hunted animals.  

The earliest blade industry in North Africa is classified as the ORANIAN or also known as the IBERO-MAURUSIAN TRADITION.  This tradition begins in the region around 12,000 years ago and is eventually superseded by another blade tradition called the CAPSIAN TRADITION.  The Capsian industry runs simultaneously with the Oranian beginning 11,000 years ago (9,000 years ago in the Northwest region).  This later tradition is responsible for the influence of the Oranian industry and eventually succeeds it as we near the end of the Paleolithic Period.  

Most notable during the era of these two traditions is the proliferation of various blades and bladelets ushering in MICROLITHIC technology.  Microliths are tiny flake blade tools and segments of blades that are used as they are or set in composite tools of wood or bone for use as barbs or to make saws.  It is likely that the presence of abundant small game and fish necessitated the manufacture of these smaller projectile points at a time when the Sahara was cooler and still teeming with life, thousands of years ago.  It is also highly likely that these artifacts served as weapons against other humans.  From a slightly earlier time period, 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. 

The blades and projectile points of the ORANIAN / CAPSIAN TRADITION represent some of the most delicately flaked and beautifully executed smaller stone tools of primitive man.  By this time, the flaking methods utilize small punches for extreme control in the removal of material and shape of the blade being made.  Some points were so perfectly executed that they were not used at all but  served as items of prestige by their owner and are sometimes found in association with burials.  These finest points and blades from this period rival any stone implement ever made by primitive man and were sometimes manufactured out of the most stunning gem-grade material such as fine translucent chalcedony and agate as well as transparent crystalline quartz.  By this late age of lithic tool manufacture, stone implements have undergone man's development by both trial-and-error and cognitive thinking spanning an overall time exceeding one million years.