Khormusan industry was a
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
archeological industry :''Not to be confused with industrial archaeology, the archaeology of (modern) industrial sites.''
In the archaeology of the Stone Age, an industry or technocomplex is a typological classification of stone tools.
An industry consists of a n ...
in Egypt and Sudan dated at 42,000 to 18,000 BP.
The Khormusan industry in Egypt began between 42,000 and 32,000 BP.
Khormusans developed tools not only from
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
but also from animal
bone
A bone is a Stiffness, rigid Organ (biology), organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red blood cell, red and white blood cells, store minerals, provid ...
s and
hematite
Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...
.
They also developed small
arrow head
An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...
s resembling those of
Native Americans,
but no
bows have been found.
The end of the Khormusan industry came around 18,000 BP. with the appearance of other cultures in the region, including the
Gemaian.
[Nicolas-Christophe Grimal. ''A History of Ancient Egypt''. p. 20. Blackwell (1994). ]
It was succeeded by the
Halfan culture
The Halfan industry is one of the Late Epipalaeolithic industries of the Upper Nile Valley that seems to have appeared in northern Sudan c. 22.5-22.0 ka cal BP. It is one of the earliest known backed-bladelet industries in Northern Africa, d ...
.
References
Upper Paleolithic cultures of Africa
Prehistory of the Middle East
Lithics
Industries (archaeology)
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