Aterian tanged points
Puntas pedunculadas del Ateriense
- Date
- c. 145-30 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Ifri n'Ammar, eastern Rif, Morocco
- Credited to
- Middle-Late Pleistocene North African populations (Homo sapiens)
- Field
- Tools
What it is
Stone points with a tang shaped at the base so they could be socketed into a wooden shaft, giving the Aterian culture its name. They are among the earliest tanged hafted projectile points known in Africa.
The c. 145 ka date comes from luminescence dating at Ifri n'Ammar (Richter et al., 2010) and is the earliest; the culture lasts until c. 30 ka. The eponymous site is Bir el Ater (Algeria). Coordinates are approximate.
What it led to
- more efficient hafted throwing weapons for hunting across the wet Sahara
- spread of Aterian technology over the Sahara and Maghreb for more than 100,000 years
- cultural setting of the shell ornaments and clothing of the Moroccan Middle Pleistocene