Research Items

Abstract

THE STONE AGE IN THE EASTERN SAHARA.--In the course of an account of the oasis of Kawar (Kaouar), Eastern Sahara, in La Nature for March 14, Capt. Marius Prevost, who writes in collaboration with Dr. Lucien Mayet, describes stone implements found on a considerable number of sites in the oasis explored by him. The implements occur in such numbers as to suggest that the oasis supported a considerable population from an early date. In addition to flint, which was imported, quartz, quartzites, silicious limestone, haematite and volcanic rocks were used in the manufacture of the implements. In the absence of stratification, the only indication of date is the somewhat uncertain evidence of type. On this basis certain implements worked sometimes on one side, sometimes on both; flakes, points, carinated implements, etc., would, if found in Europe, be classified beyond question as palaeolithic, while others, arrowheads, with or without tang, or triangular, spearheaded knives, polished axes, etc., would belong to the neolithic. Beads and pendants of stone and ostrich shell were also found. The neolithic industry shows strong affinities with that of Egypt which, if contemporary, would indicate an antiquity of 9000 to 12,000 years, and the palaeolithic type might therefore- be assumed to be older still. Up to the present, neolithic typology in the Sahara seems to point to a great uniformity of culture in the whole area.