Ancient Period

The history of Algeria takes place in the coastal plain of North Africa, which is often called the Maghreb. North Africa served as a transit region for people moving towards Europe or the Middle East, thus, the region's inhabitants have been influenced by populations from other regions like Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabians, and Turkish.

Evidence of the early human residents of Algeria is demonstrated by the discovery of 1.8 million year old Oldowan stone tools found at Ain Hanech in 1992.

In 1954 fossilised Homo erectus bones were discovered by the French vertebrate paleontologist Camille Arambourg at Ternefine that are 700,000 years old. Neolithic civilization (marked by animal domestication and subsistence agriculture) developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean Maghreb region between 6000 and 2000 BC.

(Left Image)

Tassili n'Ajjer 

The site of Acheulean which is located in Tighennif (Ternefine) is estimated to be 800,000 years old, among these relics, consisting mainly of animal bones and objects of carved stones, archaeologists have discovered the remains of a hominid. This site is considered to be known as the oldest representatives of the population which lived in North Africa in the past.

(Above image)

trihedral quartzite pick hand-axe

This historical ancient site, richly depicted in the Tassili n'Ajjer cave paintings in south east of Algeria, predominated in the Maghreb. The amalgam of peoples of North Africa coalesced eventually into a distinct native population, the Amazigh (Berbers) lacked a written language and hence tended to be overlooked or marginalized in historical accounts.

 (Left Image)

Tassili n'Ajjer cave paintings

Some paintings are back up to 10,000 years old