Palaeolithic/Neolithic Stoneage Carving

Length:
47mm
Width:
80mm
Depth:
25mm
Weight:
82g

Description

A Good carved Saharan Upper Palaeolithic/Neolithic artefact

Condition report

A finely sculptured symbolic artefact-unknown symbolism-unknown purpose.

this appears to be a portion of the artefact, now broken in too.

clearly seen, a sand line where the artefact protruded from the floor of the desert, the darker stone having been exposed to weathering, manufactured from atypically finely graded Saharan stone showing

General Comment

A fascinating find, which intrigues the imagination as to what purpose this item was put too millennia ago.

Historical Provenance

Saharan Neolithic artefacts traded through Africa towards more affluent North Africa.

since the first quarter of the twentieth century when a great interest was resurrected in the ancient world, predominantly by the new finds of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter in the valley of the kings, Egypt, collectors have been sourcing these fine New stone age objects. Many of these tools collected in the twentieth century ended up in collections in Europe. this object is of this lineage and formed part of the collection of a European gentleman.

In the last twenty five years or so a new wave of enthusiasm has seen prices of artefacts steadily rise, this trend will continue as supply diminishes, through trading restrictions and particularly as many borders which once freely allowed nomadic movements are more and more heavily policed, restricting historically naturalistic nomadic trading further, coupled with less open site finds.

Many of these items were collected in open sites. This means found strewn across the open Saharan regions. As nomads traversed the Saharan routes, these objects revealed themselves through erosion and through storms and shifting sands.

Many items have been traded from as far south as Niger, Mali, Senegal and Mauritania, also from the more eastern North African states, Algeria, ,Tunisia and of course Egypt.

Geoffrey Moorhouse traversed the Sahara desert in 1972/3 from the coast of Mauritania to Egypt on foot [3,600 miles], on camel with one guide, an immense feat. On route his book the fearful Void tells of sightings of great Neolithic stone implements scattering the surface of the inner dessert, where the trading routes had been neglected for hundreds of years.