Capsian culture

Map of areas of extension of North African cultures in the Neolithic

The capsian culture is a Mesolithic culture developed in Tunisia, derived from the Atherian. It shows an ethnic contribution of the Mediterranean racial type, represented by the Man from Aïn Dokkara or from Chacal, probably mixed with local chromañoids. Although the accepted period for this culture ranges from 10,000 B.C. C. and 6,000 B.C. C., its presence is not accredited until 6,800 a. C., long after the last Ibero-Mauritanian manifestations, while the latest findings are dated around 2,700 BC. c.

The Capsian period began in the central area of Tunisia, in the area of Gafsa (the old Capsa), without ever reaching the coast, as well as in the Algerian region of Tébessa, and towards the West to Uled Yellal, with some indications in the north of the Sahara.

Features

Geometric microliths are one of the main characteristics of the Capsian culture, and they did not appear during the Ibero-Mauritanian phase. The Capsian uses the same procedures in carving and retouching, but obtains different tools, reflecting a different way of life.

A notable difference between the two cultures is the practice of avulsion of the teeth, a practice that still exists among the women of some African populations, and that would indicate a probable belonging to the same trunk from which the Berbers descend.

Agglomerations of ashes, calcined stones, snail shells, pieces of carved flint, and ornaments of animals and people are found in the settlements of the Capsians.

Phases

The Capsian is usually divided into three phases: an initial one called Typical Capsian, another intermediate called Higher or Evolved Capsian and a third final called Neolithic Capsian.

Typical Capsian

The Capsian tools are of great volume: burins with truncated angles predominate, and flakes and blades with a lowered back, together with the already mentioned geometric microliths that suggested their extension to the Iberian Peninsula, where they also appeared. Today we know that these microliths are not exclusive to the Capsians, since they exist in other places, and in any case it seems more likely that emigration was from the North to Africa than the other way around. The microlithic geometric shapes were obtained by hitting the microburin. This phase was finally superimposed on the Ibero-Mauritanian culture.

Evolved Capsian

The evolved Capsian abandons large tools, and their tools are extremely varied: perforators, points, burins, etc. The burin cutouts are sometimes transformed (through touch-ups on the anvil) into straight spikes, characteristic of this phase.

The evolved Capsian surpassed the limits of the typical Capsian in the west, reaching beyond Constantine and as far as the regions of Algiers and Oran, and across the Sahara, reaching as far as Tidikelt.

On the shores of the salty lakes, the Capsians collected snails, a basic ingredient of their diet, although probably from the next phase, the Neolithic Capsians.

Neolithic Capsian

It is the Capsian culture that introduced art to the Maghreb, with movable objects and cave engravings, being very notable the engraved plaques and the fragments of decorated ostrich eggs, from the evolved period, which reached their apogee in the Neolithic period, in the west and the Saharan zone. The use of ostrich eggs as a container delayed the appearance of ceramics.

Basically, the Capsians are recipients of influences, perhaps from the Iberian Peninsula but more probably from Egypt, where microliths were already used at the end of the Paleolithic.

Late in the Neolithic, they imported all domestic animals, and their hunter-gatherer economy was transformed into a livestock and pre-agricultural economy, without abandoning hunting, especially in the west and in the Sahara.