A highly important Neolithic stone artefact created in a stylised bird's head form displaying a finely-honed surface. Now desert polished or having a desert varnish, the patina created by time, which nothing can imitate-the stable of accreditation of a prehistoric stone tool or artefact with aeons of natural use and wear coupled with the acrid desert-blown sands.

The form of the artefact striking resembles a bird's head and beak; we may only partially know if that was intended here; only our imagination and a well-practised eye of experience, coupled with research and more discoveries, will ascend to that end. However, Neolithic man used the strongest influences around him to create his art in daily and sacred objects. We have seen several animal forms stylistically represented in the stone effigies of the stone age.

The art of the Neolithic craftsman who initially picked the stone and created the artefact. This is what history tells us, backed up by a plethora of excavations and research into the habitat of Neolithic man. This object was discovered in North Africa. It is of a most uncommon form, transcending aeons of time across several continents, from Africa to Europe. The Saharan prehistoric desert find is connected in style and manufacture to Neolithic stone tools found in Britain. It is challenging to tell one from another without locational find notes. The Fossil Store discovers ancient artefacts, often originating from Africa, and offers them here on our website. Where possible, we supply the location. Often relics of the Western Saharan desert and beyond the sub-Saharan limits are discovered in open sites. Open sites describe a place found in the exposed desert regions. Often, Nomads and Berber travellers occasion across an area strewn with chards and pieces of stone tools. When traversing the desert region of North Africa (for an excellent reference of the actual conditions, one would encounter, source the account, The Fearful Void, by Geoffrey Moorhouse); where windstorms uncover and equally cover these desert sites, sometimes allowing the collecting of artefacts for a limited period.

The Neolithic [New-stone] Stone Age was when Neanderthals created and brought agriculture into human life; the nomadic hunter-gatherer era was no more. The Neolithic occurred around 4000 BC. The ideas and advancement of farming, possibly the first livestock, crossed the Channel and arrived in Britain. The Neolithic age was the progression of behavioural and cultural characteristics, including the use of wild and domestic crops and animals.

The details

Type: Neolithic artefact
Age: Neolithic, Capsian Tradition, 8,500 to 6,500 BC
Origin: Ténéré Central Sahara desert, Mali and Niger borders, Africa

Artefact: H: 13.7 CM / W: 6.2 CM / D: 3.7 CM
In stands: H: 18.7 CM / W: 6.2 CM / D: 6 CM