ID

Neolithic of Capsian Tradition Tool

FOUND

Exposed Site - Sahara Desert, NW Africa

AGE

CAPSIAN CULTURE :  8500 - 6500 years 

SIZE

19" x 10" overall, pestle is 6" x 3"

CONDITION

INTACT AND COMPLETE - NO REPAIR OR
RESTORATION

NOTE

AN AUTHENTIC AFRICAN NEOLITHIC
GRINDING MILL SET IN UNDAMAGED
CONDITION IN A MARKET AWASH IN 
FAKES OF THIS TYPE. 

Actual Item - One Only

Comes with a certificate of 
authenticity / information sheet

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AFRICAN NEOLITHIC TOOLS

This is a RARE and COMPLETE, UNBROKEN stone grinding mill and rubbing stone used by Neolithic people from this period to grind grain for food.  Rarely available on the market, this is an  essential centerpiece of any collection of this Neolithic culture as this is what the Neolithic was all about - PREPARING food from cultivated / domesticated crops instead of relying on gathering naturally-occurring plants for food.  The large basin is solid quartzite and shows desert exposure wear and patina as well as mineralized sediments still attached.  The rubbing stone is a rare rectangular example and it too, is perfect and complete.  Both, the grinding basin and mortar are INTACT and shows wonderful desert mineral patina in the crevices.  The basin has a substantial thickness to it with obvious pecked shaping and grinding on the edges.  Underside is also nicely pecked and ground.   WITH OUR HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION! Perfect to display amidst other tools and weapons of this period!  NO RESTORATION AND NO REPAIR. 

These mills did not used to be so terribly rare but their large size have made them easy to spot by nomads and much of the Northern Sahara has been picked clean of these Neolithic mills.  In a time period over the last 10 years, COMPLETE and AUTHENTIC specimens like this have become EXTREMELY scarce.  In auctions, online sellers, shows and Ebay, we see nothing but fakes being sold.  Week after week for years!, Ebay has some sellers that routinely sell outright fake African Neolithic grinding mills.  These sellers have thousands of feedbacks and yet, with years of selling obvious fakes, NOT A SINGLE FEEDBACK IS NEGATIVE!!!!!!!  One way to tell is to wash the mill off with soap, warm water and a scrub brush.  True mills with thousands of years of impacted sediment, wind erosion and mineral encrustations, will be impossible to scrub clean.  Fakes will come clean and have no variation in color or surface texture like an authentic specimen.  See the photos above.  Under magnification, authentic stone Neolithic artifacts will have deep MICROSCOPIC crevices stained and impacted with minerals.  Fakes will not have this.  The sheer number of fake stone tools being produced in Morocco, Mali, Mauritania and Algeria, for example, is staggering.  And this junk routinely makes its way to the market every year. 

This NEOLITHIC OF CAPSIAN TRADITION artifact was found on an exposed African Neolithic site in the Sahara Desert in Northwest Africa.  It was made and used by African Neolithic humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) between 8,500 and 6,500 years ago.