The Sahara, today the largest desert in the world, was not always so dry, hot, hostile to life and devoid of people. Over the course of time the Sahara region was frequently ‘green’ and fertile. The last of these ‘green Sahara periods’ has been scientifically dated to between 5000 B.C. and 600 B.C. Whereas in the north, during the last of the ice ages, the Würm ice age, much water was trapped in ice, the climate zone also was displaced to the region of what is today the Sahara: the southern Sahara became green, fertile, savannah, while the northern Sahara was a grassy steppe land (many rock drawings of elephants, giraffes and antelopes are proof of this today). At this time, humans flowed into this ‘green’ region from the south, with its lakes and rivers, in which many fish lived. These four objects originate from this last ‘green Sahara period.’
1,2,3: Three round, flatly-convex curved on both sides and hand-polished, discus-shaped discs out of stone, with central, small holes. These are weights for fishing nets: the inhabitants of the Sahara used rectangular long nets for fishing in the rivers. These fishing nets had wooden floats on one long side, which held an edge of the net on the surface of the water. On the other long side of the net, round flat stones such as these were attached by their central holes. They pulled ‘their’ long side of the net vertically down into the water, or ‘anchored’ the net in the mud on the riverbed. By this method, flowing water could be blocked, and the fish were caught in the net. All three stone weights display different coloured structures of material: the larger stone shows a light, sand-coloured ground with dense grey-black dapples, the middle-sized stone has a white ground with sporadic grey-green spots, and the smaller stone has, on one side, a reddish-sand coloured ground with small, reddish-brown dapples. On the other side it is lighter, yet has the same structure. Two of the three stone weights, the larger one and the reddish one, are only slightly dented on the edge. Otherwise these exceptionally beautiful objects display no damage. DM: 17 cm, 11 cm, 10.5 cm.
4: A stone roller made of very hard, crystalline, light-coloured stone (quarzite?), which tapers at each end. Such rollers served to grind grain or collected grass seeds on a rubbing stone. Small natural dents, but no significant damage. L: 51.3 cm; DM: c. 7 cm x 9 cm (middle).
All 4 objects: Neolithic, 5th millennium to 3rd millennium B.C. (ME)

Provenance: German Private Collection. According to the consigner, all three stone weights were purchased at auction in the Munich auction house Neumeister as “finds from the southern Sahara” and the stone roller was acquired from a private collector.