North Africa
(6000 BC)
What happened?
Gradually the hunter-gatherers disappeared and were replaced by people who continued to live in one place. They often built large houses, raised livestock, and grew all kinds of crops. People were no longer dependent on the often-changing supply of animals and products from the wild. Still, wild animals were still hunted, as evidenced by the many arrowheads that can be attributed to the New Stone Age.
The Sahara was not always a desert. During the Neolithic sub pluvial or late Sahara rainy season (8500-8000 to around 3500-3000 BC), the Sahara had a noticeably more humid climate and a denser human population. During the last ‘wet’ period, the Sahara was grassland with Mediterranean vegetation, during that period the Sahara had large lakes and thousands of small lakes, streams, and rivers. In the central Sahara one can find from 8000 to 6000 BC the Kiffian culture, hunters, and fishermen of a robust human type. After 6000 BC a dry period followed.
The people there lived as nomads. The climate during the Neolithic sub pluvial allowed a more intensive population of the Nile Valley. The Neolithic way of life, characterized by livestock and subsistence farming, spread from 6000 BC. from the Levant across North Africa. The first Neolithic settlements appeared in Egypt, but also further south in Sudan one can find Neolithic developments and the first pottery. In time, they began to domesticate animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle. But despite that, they remained hunters. Finds in some parts of the Sahara yielded many grinding stones, stone agricultural implements and remains of grain. In addition to these finds, arrowheads are still found, indicating that hunting remained a part of their daily life.
Domestication of sheep and goats reached Egypt from the Near East possibly as early as 6000 BC. The first indisputable evidence for domestic plants and animals in the Nile valley is the early fifth millennium BC in northern Egypt. The south of Egypt was not until a thousand years later. Egypt lived and relied heavily on fishing, hunting, and gathering food. These changes were not due to migrating farmers from the Near East but was a local development with cereals either indigenous or obtained through exchange. Other investigators argue that the agriculture change and domesticated animals in Egypt came from the Near East.
Around 5200 BC a new culture arrived in the Sahara with a different, probably from the East, lightly built human type and the introduction of domesticated cattle. The rock art of the Sahara gives a vivid picture of pastoral life in this period.
Leaf-Shaped Arrowheads
± 8000 yrs. BC to ± 6000 yrs. BC
Leaf-shaped = a simple shape but the most common is strong and extremely useful. Comes in all sizes to hunt fish, birds, and large land animals. Often it has serrations on the edge to deal greater damage.
Triangular Arrowheads
± 8000 yrs. BC to ± 6000 yrs. BC
Triangular = one of the basic shapes, but a very efficient arrowhead.
A wide base to attach the arrow shaft to, and a sharp point. It can be reused and transformed into another type of arrow if needed.
Diamond-Shaped Arrowheads
± 8000 yrs. BC to ± 6000 yrs. BC
Diamond-shape = a shape that is an improvement on the triangular arrow, where the tip could be better attached to the shaft and therefore less likely to break off when hitting the target.
Stemmed Arrowheads
± 8000 yrs. BC to ± 6000 yrs. BC
Hunters used stemmed arrowheads of varying styles. The rather radical change in weaponry style from the leaf-shaped arrowheads, markes a distinctive technological shift. The use of stemmed arrowheads may indicate experimentation and advances in weaponry systems.
Barbed and Tanged Arrowheads
± 8000 yrs. BC to ± 6000 yrs. BC
BBarbed and Tanged V-shaped = the youngest shape of arrow. The trunk provided better attachment to the shaft. The barbed arrowheads optimized the attachment and after penetration of the prey, the arrow also got stuck in the flesh, increasing the wound size when the arrow was removed from the wound.
Bone Figure Of A Woman Replica, ± 3700 yrs. BC to ± 3500 yrs. BC. Found: Naqada, Egypt (JN0630)
Naqada
± 4000 yrs. BC to ± 3000 yrs. BC
The Naqada culture is an archaeological culture of pre-dynastic Egypt from about 4000 BC to 3000 BC. It is named after the city of Naqada in Egypt. The city was the center of the cult of Set. The large amount of remains from Naqada has made it possible to date the entire archaeological period in Egypt and the surrounding area.
The culture is divided into 3 periods. The Naqada I starts about 4000 BC and succeeds the Badarian culture and ends at 3500 BC. It was mainly a local village culture with few foreign contacts. The Naqada II period lasts until about 3300 BC. Egyptian prehistory has a turning point here. There are contacts with foreign countries. The population is divided into layers and important population centers are developing. The spread leads to centralization and the beginning of state organization in Egypt. The Egyptian script may have arisen in response to contacts with Mesopotamia. In the last period, Naqada III, kings already ruled both parts of the country, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Various cultures were gradually united until one ruler controlled the entire area.
Such figurines in human form first appeared in ancient Egypt with the earliest inhabitants of the Nile Valley. This is the so-called Badarian culture around 4200-3900 BC. They were always made in a wide variety of materials.
During the pre-dynastic period (3900-3300 BC), unlike later times, they were never common. The rarest and most detailed of these figures were made of ivory or bone. Like our copy, the original is kept in the British Museum, most of them represent naked women with their feminine features emphasized by cutting and careful drilling. With their slender figures, narrow waists, and full hips, they present an ideal of the female body that will change little over the course of Egyptian civilization. Their concept of beauty included a full head of hair and large, seductive eyes.
The carved large round eyes or eye sockets were probably embedded with colored paste or shells. The lapis lazuli squares that fill the eye-catching eyes of this specimen are unique. They may have been added later. Lapis was already known to the Egyptians at that time. The earliest examples date from about 3700 BC. The use of these blue stones is evidence of intricate trade networks. The nearest source of lapis lazuli was about 4000 km away, in present-day (2022) Afghanistan.
In the past, it was believed that these female figurines were intended as concubines (= illegitimate mistress) for the deceased in the afterlife. Figurines of women have been found in the graves of men, women, and children. The majority is depicted wearing clothes. Therefore, this hypothesis is no longer supported. Their presence would have provided magical support for the reincarnation. The image is said to be associated with female fertility and nurturing.