The Age and Graphic Attributes of the First Potteries of the Western Sahara

Abstract

Direct 14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates obtained on a selection of pottery sherds recovered from surface sites in the Western Sahara have confirmed that the first potteries of this region appeared at the middle of the seventh millennium cal. BP. From the geographical point of view, these early results are detected all along the latitudinal gradient and from the Atlantic to the inland regions, which indicates that adoption of the new ware was fast and uniform in the entire territory. The decorative motifs are dominated by herringbones and series of short segments, always impressed with combs. These graphisms do not correspond with the abundant and widely distributed rock art motifs of the same region. However, they do appear incised on the surfaces of the pierced ostrich eggs used as containers since the Epipaleolithic. This may indicate a certain degree of symbolic continuity between the Epipaleolithic and the Neolithic in this region.