Neolithic Tenerian Culture Stone Grave Goods or Amulets

Tenerian Culture, c. 4600–2500 BC, Ténéré Desert, Niger, West Africa

Fascinating and evocative assemblage of ancient stone and fossil grave goods or amulets dating to the Neolithic Tenerian culture. Each piece reflects the ritual, symbolic, and spiritual world of a people who lived during one of the Sahara’s most remarkable climatic phases—the Neolithic Subpluvial, a time when today’s vast desert was a fertile savanna teeming with life.

The Tenerian culture flourished between 4600 and 2500 BC and was rediscovered only in 2000 during the groundbreaking archaeological expedition led by Paul Sereno at Gobero, a remote site hidden deep within the Ténéré Desert—known to Tuareg nomads as “the desert within a desert.” Gobero revealed two distinct prehistoric populations: the early Holocene Kiffian culture and the later Tenerian culture.

The Kiffians—robust, skilled hunters—inhabited the area around 8000 years ago, when a vast lake covered the region during the Sahara’s “Green Period.” Their disappearance corresponds with a dramatic return to aridity. Centuries later, the site was reoccupied by the more lightly built Tenerian people, who lived during the latter phase of the green Sahara, roughly 7000 to 4500 years ago. They practiced a mixed economy of hunting, fishing, and early cattle herding, sustained by the rich wetlands and waterways once present in the region.

Tenerian burials were particularly expressive. The deceased were placed in relaxed, slightly flexed side positions and accompanied by meaningful grave offerings—pottery vessels, stone tools, spear and arrow points, ornaments made from hippopotamus ivory, polished stones, and personal adornments. Such items symbolised protection, status, and the passage into the afterlife.

This set of stone and fossil pieces fits within that tradition: intimate, tactile objects imbued with ritual significance, likely worn, carried, or placed with the dead as amulets. They offer a rare connection to one of the Sahara’s most enigmatic Neolithic cultures and to a time when the world's largest desert was green, lush, and alive.

A compelling ensemble for collectors of early African prehistory.

Good condition. Surface wear and abrasions consistent with age. Attractive encrusted patina and rich earthen deposits across the surface. Size varies from 11,8cm to 8,0cm. Sell as a set.

Provenance: Dutch private collection.

References and further reading:

Stone Age mass graves reveal green Sahara, Nora Schultz, New Scientist, 14 August 2008. (https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14536-stone-age-mass-graves-reveal-green-sahara/)

Stone Age Graveyard reveals Lifestyles of a 'Green Sahara': Two Successive Cultures Thrived Lakeside, Uchicago News, University of Chicago, Aug 14, 2008. (https://news.uchicago.edu/story/stone-age-graveyard-reveals-lifestyles-green-sahara-two-successive-cultures-thrived-lakeside)

Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5,000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change, Paul Sereno and others, Plos One, August 14, 2008.  (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002995)

Lost Tribes of the Green Sahara, Peter Gwin, National Geographic September 2008, pp. 126-143.