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): traditional Capsian, characterized by flake and blade tools, and upper Capsian, with a much greater variety of geometric microliths. Bone tools were also used, and shell beads and decorated objects were made. Capsian sites are typically accompanied by shell mounds and dark-colored ash deposits; some involve caves, while others are open-air. They are often near springs or passes. Gafsa (or Qafsah) is one of the 24 governorates of Tunisia and the name of its chief municipality. ... The Mesolithic (Greek mesos=middle and lithos=stone or the Middle Stone Age) is the period between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. ... (see also North Africa, Tamazgha, Arab Maghreb Union, Mashreq) The Maghreb (المغرب العربي ; sometimes also rendered Moghreb), meaning western in Arabic, is the region of the continent of Africa north of the Sahara desert and west of the Nile - specifically, the modern countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya- and to a much... (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. ... Roman province of Cyrenaica, 120 AD Cyrenaica was a Roman province on the northern coast of Africa between Egypt and Numidia; it had been formerly Greek. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with midden. ...

During this period, the area's climate was open savannah, 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 hartebeests to hares and snails; there is little evidence on what plants they ate. Binomial name Bos taurus Bojanus, 1827 The aurochs (Bos taurus) is an extinct European mammal of the Bovidae family. ... Binomial name Alcelaphus buselaphus Pallas, 1766 The Hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus) is a grassland antelope found in West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. ... Species Many, see text Hares and jackrabbits belong to family Leporidae, and mostly in genus Lepus. ... Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica) 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 Protomediterranean. 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. Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ...

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. 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. ... Binomial name Struthio camelus Linnaeus, 1758 The Ostrich (Struthio camelus, Greek sparrow camel) is the largest living bird, reaching a height of up to 2. ... Incisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. ...

The Capsian culture is often identified by historical linguists as having brought the ancestor of the modern Berber languages to North Africa. Afro-Asiatic - Berber 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

The cave paintings found at Tassili-n-Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset, Algeria, 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...

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 North Africa
• Lubell. Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Maghreb (pdf)
• L'Université de Genève - drawing of mircoliths from upper Capsian