The Capsian culture (named after the town of Gafsa) was a Mesolithic culture of the Maghreb, which lasted from about 10000 BC to 6000 BC. It was concentrated mainly in modern Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, with some sites attested in Cyrenaica (Libya). It is traditionally divided into two variants, often contemporaneous rings or passes. Gafsa (or Qafsah; Arabic: ‎) is a capital city of Gafsa Governorate. ... The Mesolithic (Greek mesos=middle and lithos=stone or the Middle Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age. ... The Algerian bay (view from the west). ... (Redirected from 10000 BC) (Pleistocene, Paleolithic – 10th millennium BC – 9th millennium BC – other millennia) Beginning of the Mesolithic, or Epipaleolithic time period, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch. ... (7th millennium BC – 6th millennium BC – 5th millennium BC – other millennia) Events c. ... The Roman Empire ca. ...

During this period, the area's climate was open savanna, much like modern East Africa, with Mediterranean forests at higher altitudes. The Capsians' diet included a wide variety of animals, many no longer present in the area, ranging from aurochs and hartebeest to hares and snails; there is little evidence on what plants they ate. Trinomial name Bos primigenius primigenius (Bojanus, 1827) Bos primigenius namadicus (Falconer, 1859) Bos primigenius mauretanicus (Thomas, 1881) See Ur (rune) for the rune. ... Binomial name Alcelaphus buselaphus Pallas, 1766 The Hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus) is a grassland antelope found in West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. ... Jack rabbit and Jackrabbit redirect here. ... The name snail applies to most members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells. ...

Anatomically, the Capsians (to use a loose expression) were modern Homo sapiens, classed in two "racial" types: Mechta-Afalou and Proto-mediterranean. Some (eg Ferenbach 1985) have argued that they were immigrants from the east, whereas others (eg Lubell et al. 1984) argue for population continuity based on physical skeletal characteristics. Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man) is the scientific name for the human species. ...

It was in the early Capsian period that the first domesticated sheep and goats appear in the area.

Nothing is known about Capsian religion, but their burial methods suggest a belief in an afterlife. Decorative art is widely found at their sites, including figurative and abstract rock art, and ocher is found coloring both tools and corpses. It has been suggested that several rock paintings from Tassili n'Ajjer depict the shamanic use of hallucinogenic mushrooms, however, this interpretation remains controversial. Ostrich eggshells were used to make beads and containers; seashells were used for necklaces. The Iberomaurusian practice of evulsion of the central incisors continued sporadically, but became rarer. Rock art is a term in archaeology for any man-made markings made on natural stone. ... Ochre or Ocher (pronounced OAK-ur, from the Greek ochros, yellow) is a color, usually described as golden-yellow or light yellow brown. ... Cave, or rock, paintings are paintings painted on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to pre_historic times. ... Landsat image of the Tassili nAjjer The Tassili nAjjer (Arabic: تصلة ناجر) is a mountain range in the Sahara desert in southeast Algeria. ... Specifically, Shaman (saman) is a term in Evenk, Manchu and other Manchu-Tungus languages for an intellectual and spiritual figure; who usually possess power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, one of which is analogous to the function of a healer in other cultures. ... Magic mushrooms are also known as sacred mushrooms, psychedelic mushrooms, and, more generally, hallucinogenic mushrooms. ... Binomial name Struthio camelus Linnaeus, 1758 The present-day distribution of ostriches. ... Incisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. ...

The Capsian culture is identified by some historical linguists as a possible ancestor of the speakers of modern Afroasiatic languages of Africa and the Middle East and of the Berber languages in North Africa. Map showing the distribution of Afro-Asiatic languages The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia. ... The Berber languages (or Tamazight) are a group of closely related languages mainly spoken in Morocco and Algeria. ...

The Eburran culture of the 13th-8th millennia BC in Kenya is also termed the "Kenya Capsian", due to similarities in the stone blade shapes; it is unclear whether this culture is to be linked with the North African Capsian culture.

See also

• Prehistory of Central North Africa
• Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures

The cave paintings found at Tassili-n-Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid scenes of everyday life in the central Maghrib between about 8000 B.C. and 4000 B.C. They were executed by a hunting people in the Capsian period of the Neolithic... The table gives a rough picture of the relationships between the various principal cultures of Prehistory outside the Americas, Antarctica, Australia and Oceania. ...

Bibliography

• 2001D. Lubell. Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Maghreb. In, P.N. Peregrine & M. Ember (eds.) Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 1: Africa. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 129-149.

External links

• Capsian African Neolithic Tools, Weapons and Artifacts
• Capsian North Africa
• Lubell. Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Maghreb (pdf)
• L'Université de Genève - drawing of mircoliths from upper Capsian