The Early and Middle Holocene Lithic Industries of Ifri n’Etsedda (Eastern Rif, Morocco)

Archaeological research has been carried out in the Eastern Rif (Morocco) since 1995 by a collaborative Moroccan-German research team. A major topic of the project is the transition from hunting-gathering to food production and related cultural developments. Innovations such as pottery and domesticated species appeared around 7.6 ka calBP. The cultivation of cereals and pulses is evident at that time. Two of the most important sites in the area are Ifri Oudadane and Ifri n’Etsedda. Both provide Epipaleolithic as well as Neolithic deposits. While innovative technologies such as pottery production and cultivation indicate external influences, lithic artifacts demonstrate local technological and behavioral traditions. Therefore, the study of lithic industries is crucial to understanding the nature of cultural continuity and discontinuity between the hunting-gathering and agricultural populations in the Eastern Rif. Ifri n’Etsedda provides two distinct Epipaleolithic deposits and thus offers the opportunity to study possible changes throughout the Epipalaeolithic and relationship to the later Early Neolithic (ENC). In combination with the earlier phases of Early Neolithic assemblages (ENA, ENB) at Ifri Oudadane, we are now in a better position to understand the development of early-to-mid Holocene lithic technology in the Eastern Rif. We show that the lithic record of Ifri n’Etsedda does not indicate any significant change in raw material supply, blank production, and tool distribution from the Early Epipaleolithic to the Early Neolithic B. Therefore, we argue for behavioral continuity from the Epipaleolithic to the Neolithic period. In contrast, the assemblages of the Early Neolithic C show changes in lithic technology

Millennial-scale fluctuations in Saharan dust supply across the decline of the African Humid Period

The Sahara is the world's largest dust source with significant impacts on trans-Atlantic terrestrial and large-scale marine ecosystems. Contested views about a gradual or abrupt onset of Saharan aridity at the end of the African Humid Period dominate the current scientific debate about the Holocene Saharan desiccation. In this study, we present a 19.63 m sediment core sequence from Lake Sidi Ali (Middle Atlas, Morocco) at the North African desert margin. We reconstruct the interaction between Saharan dust supply and Western Mediterranean hydro-climatic variability during the last 12,000 yr based on analyses of lithogenic grain-sizes, XRF geochemistry and stable isotopes of ostracod shells. A robust chronological model based on AMS 14C dated pollen concentrates supports our multi-proxy study. At orbital-scale there is an overall increase in southern dust supply from the Early Holocene to the Late Holocene, but our Northern Saharan dust record indicates that a gradual Saharan desiccation was interrupted by multiple abrupt dust increases before the ‘southern dust mode‘ was finally established at 4.7 cal ka BP. The Sidi Ali record features millennial peaks in Saharan dust increase at about 11.1, 10.2, 9.4, 8.2, 7.3, 6.6, 6.0, and 5.0 cal ka BP. Early Holocene Saharan dust peaks coincide with Western Mediterranean winter rain minima and North Atlantic cooling events. In contrast, Late Holocene dust peaks correspond mostly with prevailing positive phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation. By comparing with other North African records, we suggest that increases in Northern Saharan dust supply do not solely indicate sub-regional to regional aridity in Mediterranean Northwest Africa but might reflect aridity at a trans-Saharan scale. In particular, our findings support major bimillennial phases of trans-Saharan aridity at 10.2, 8.2, 6.0 and 4.2 cal ka BP. These phases coincide with North Atlantic cooling and a weak African monsoon.Christoph Zielhofer, Steffen Mischke and William Fletcher as principal investigators thank the German Research Foundation (DFG, ZI 721/9-1), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, 01DH17020) and the Natural Environment Research Council (New Investigator Award to W Fletcher, NE/K000608/1, and NERC RCF dating awards, 1765.1013 and 1809.0414) for generous funding of the fieldwork and lab analyses.Peer Reviewe

Human occupation and environmental change in the western Maghreb during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Late Glacial. New evidence from the Iberomaurusian site Ifri El Baroud (northeast Morocco)

With the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), hunter-gatherers of the so-called Iberomaurusian techno-complex appeared in what is now the Mediterranean Maghreb. During a period of about seven thousand years, these groups left sandy occupation layers in a limited number of archaeological sites, while at the beginning of Greenland Interstadial (GI) 1, the sudden shift towards the deposition of shellrich sediments and the increase in number of sites document clear changes in subsistence strategies as well as occupation density. It is highly likely that these shifts in human behaviour are related to paleoenvironmental changes in the area, which, so far, are poorly documented in geological and archaeological archives. Ifri El Baroud (Gunpowder Cave, northeast Morocco) contains a well-stratified archaeological sequence covering both phases of Iberomaurusian occupation separated by a sharp sedimentary change. In this paper, new chronological data and detailed investigations on site formation using sedimentology and micromorphology are presented. In addition, results of the analyses of fauna, pollen, macrobotanical remains, and phytoliths are included. This data contributes to a full-scale paleoenvironmental interpretation of the site’s archaeological deposits, highlighting the fluctuations of landscape conditions at the transition from the cold-arid Greenland Stadial (GS) 2.1 to the warmer and moister Greenland Interstadial 1

Apport de l’analyse tracéologique à la compréhension de l’assemblage lithique atérien d’Ifri n’Ammar : résultat d’une étude préliminaire sur l’assemblage de l’Occupation supérieure

L’existence d’outils pédonculés atériens parmi les techno-complexes du Middle Stone Age nord-africain est mentionnée depuis le début du siècle dernier. Depuis, l’Atérien a surtout été étudié d’un point de vue typologique et, plus récemment, technologique. En revanche, les données fonctionnelles sont extrêmement lacunaires. Nous présentons ici les résultats préliminaires d’une première étude fonctionnelle des assemblages lithiques d’Ifri n’Ammar, un abri rocheux situé dans le Rif oriental marocain. Le corpus archéologique a fourni une grande diversité d’outils lithiques, offrant l’opportunité d’aborder la question des adaptations morphologiques pour l’emmanchement. À plus grande échelle, l’objectif principal sera d’améliorer et d’enrichir la compréhension des assemblages du Middle Stone Age nord-africain avec l’apport d’une analyse fonctionnelle

Agama bibronii (Sauria : Agamidae) et chamaeleo chamaeleon (Sauria : Chamaeleonidae) d’ifri n’ammar (Rif oriental, Maroc)

oai:revues.org:quaternaire/16948En Afrique du Nord, peu de matériel fossile a été décrit et attribué à des représentants des familles Agamidae et Chamaeleonidae. Le site d’Ifri n’Ammar a livré des restes (fragments de crânes, dentaires, maxillaires et vertèbres) qui ont été attribués à Agama bibronii (l’agame de Bibron; Agamidae) et à Chamaeleo chamaeleon (le caméléon commun ; Chamaeleonidae). Du point de vue chronologique, les restes de ces deux espèces ont été récoltés dans des niveaux se situant entre 83 ± 6 ka et 171 ± 12 ka pour Agama bibronii et entre 83 ± 6 ka et 130 ± 8 ka pour Chamaeleo chamaeleon. Les affinités bioclimatiques de ces deux espèces renseignent sur la présence aux alentours d’Ifri n’Ammar d’un milieu rocheux avec persistance de zones arborées, notamment durant la période comprise entre 83 ± 6 ka et 130 ± 8 ka, corrélée au stade isotopique 5. L’étude paléontologique entreprise sur les restes fossiles de ces deux espèces apporte une contribution importante à la connaissance des Agamidae et des Chamaeleonidae pléistocènes du Maroc.In North Africa, few fossil materials have been described and attributed to representatives of the Agamidae and Chamaeleonidae families. The Ifri n’Ammar site yielded remains (fragments of skulls, dentaries, maxillae and vertebrae) which have been attributed to Agama bibronii (Bibron’s agame ; Agamidae) and to Chamaeleo chamaeleon (common chameleon; Chamaeleonidae). Chronologically, the remains of these two species were collected in levels dated between 83 ± 6 ka and 171 ± 12 ka for Agama bibronii and between 83 ± 6 ka and 130 ± 8 ka for Chamaeleo chamaeleon. The bioclimatic affinities of these two species provide information on the presence around Ifri n’Ammar of a rocky environment with persistence of wooded areas, in particular during the period between 83 ± 6 ka and 130 ± 8 ka, correlated with Marine Isotopic Stage 5. The paleontological study undertaken on the fossil remains of these two species gives an important contribution to the knowledge of the Pleistocene Agamidae and Chamaeleonidae of Morocco

The Aterian at Ifri n’Ammar from a functional perspective

In this paper we will resume the results of a detailed functional analysis performed on the assemblage from the rock shelter of Ifri n’Ammar. The site is located in the eastern Moroccan Rif and has been settled periodically since ~170 ka. The entire assemblage has first been screened in Morocco and based on the state of preservation, the selected pieces, representative of all tool morphologies were subsequently exported for a detailed study at the TraceoLab. For the analysis of the stone tools, a technological study was combined with a functional approach that included the analysis of wear traces and residues in association with an experimental program. This integrated approach permitted the identification of knapping strategies (i.e., hammer used), tool use and hafting and an understanding could thus be obtained of the technological choices, subsistence strategies and the non-preserved organic components. Based on the technological observations of the Aterian tanged tools, a specific experimental program has also been performed to verify different hypotheses on manufacture, use and hafting. After the reproduction of the tanged tools, potentially available hafting systems were tested to examine the relevance of the Aterian tang for hafting and its effect on tool use. Based on the observed wear features and residues on the archaeological tanged and non-tanged tools, analysed using different optical microscopic techniques, further experiments have been designed to gain better insights about their life cycle and finally to build onto broader discussion about the Aterian technocomplex

Human manipulation of terrestrial gastropods in Neolithic culture groups of NE Morocco

Shells of terrestrial gastropods (Helicidae, Sphincterochilidae) are common in rock shelter sediments and open-air sites of Iberomaurusian to Neolithic age in NE Morocco. Excavations at numerous sites in the eastern Rif yielded new sites with a rich record of well-preserved terrestrial gastropods, among which species of the genera Otala, Sphincterochila and Alabastrina dominate. In sites with sediments younger than 7500 calBP, such as Taghit Haddouch, Hassi Ouenzga, Ifri Oudadane, Ifri Armas and Mtlili, a high percentage of shells were perforated in a regular manner. Narrow slots or squarish holes of a few millimetres width cut into the second or third whorl are regularly found in an apical position of the shell. We interpret these as evidence of human manipulation of the shell in order to facilitate consumption of the snail body. We discuss these new findings in the context of the settlement of this part of North Africa by different cultural groups. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved

Changes in hafting practices during the Middle Stone Age at Ifri n’ Ammar

The present use wear and residue analysis aims at identifying hafting practices during the Middle Stone Age at Ifri n’Ammar to improve insight in assemblage variability through time. Particular attention was devoted to the characteristics of the tanged and non-tanged tools to determine whether these morphological varieties were linked with different prehensile modes. The functional evidence suggests that the process of hafting seemed to be embedded in the technical system, and was not restricted to specific tool morphologies, or tool functions, but concerned a variety of tool types and functions, which is particularly relevant for a better comprehension of the Aterian. Moreover, the detailed analysis of hafting traces identified the integration of animal materials within the process of stone tool hafting as a key factor for changes in stone tool morphologies during the Aterian

Die Elfenbeinfunde aus Kehf-el-Baroud (Ziaïda, Ben Slimane, Marokko) und die Frage des Nordafrikanischen Elefanten

Zusammenfassung folgt