Etude Archeothanatologique De La Sepulture Protohistorique Du Monument Funeraire Mbii (Boulmane, Moyen Atlas, Maroc)

The Moudmane Boulama site is a funeral structure located at 10 km South West of the city of Boulmane (Middle Atlas). It is a necropolis made of approximately twenty tumuli implanted on a hill. The MBII funeral monument is a tumulus built on the top of this hill, which culminates at 1970 m. It is an oval formation made of stack of stones and blocks. The funeral space is delimited in its West part by a low wall made of a sharpened stone alignment. The digs undertaken in June 2013 brought to light the burial place of a H3 adult and some remains of another adult as well as an immature subject. The skeleton of the most complete H3 individual is a male adult, buried in a lying dorsal position, oriented towards East West, head towards West and feet East. He is in a hyper contracted position and lays on an oval plane pit with a diameter of less than a meter. The calvarium and the mandible were subjected to a rotation and lay on the right side. The superior members are folded on themselves and laid on the thorax. The inferior members are also flexed. The skeleton is characterised by the maintaining of the connection of a number of labile elements which allows the characterisation of the burial place as being primarily in clogged space. This funeral monument has probably been used at first for the reception of the two individuals (H1 and H2) and then for the burial of the H3 individual in a sepulchral pit. The reuse of the monument could be explained by the three individuals belonging to the same family and that the last buried subject H3 has a more important familial and possibly social role. This tumulus has also released funeral furniture made of a few bones of domestic fauna. They were the object of a radiometric dating, which allowed the attribution of 2290 ± 35 years old to this tumulus14C B.P (GifA15085/ Sac A 41509)

ETUDE ANTHROPOLOGIQUE ET COMPARATIVE DES MANDIBULES HUMAINES DE LA CITE DES PIERRES (MOYEN ATLAS) A CELLES DE TAFORALT

The CPSI funeral monument is located In the North-West of the Middle Atlas, in the region of Adar Ouawine, approximately ten kilometres away from the town of Boulmane. It is a sandstone slab with an internal cavity in a scree zone that gave way to the remains of three individuals, one man and two women. They are buried in a lateral decubitus positions. The orientation of their body is North-South, the heads towards the North. The three mandibles exhumed are complete and in a very good state of conservation. The origin of the builders of the funeral monuments of North Africa in the protohistoric periods is debated. The results of the historic searches, ethnologic and linguistic on the subject oppose two theses. Gabriel Camps’s defends an oriental origin of the Protomediterranneans, assuming a progressive replacement of the existing local population and of other researchers who support the idea of a local anthropologic evolution of the Iberomaurusian population. We have based our approach on an anthropologic, as morphologic as morphometric and statistic, of the physic characteristics of the human remains found in the CPSI monument to define and compare them to the morphotype of Taforalt known to represent the Iberomaurusian population of Morocco. The morphometric and the statistical analysis of these mandibles showed that they presented physical characteristics consistent with the mandibles of the Men of Taforalt, particularly with H1’s mandible. The ACP showed that the CPSI and Taforalt individuals belong to two different populations. This distinction is explained by the slenderisation of the CPSI individuals who nevertheless keep morphological characteristics specific to the Mechta type. The morphological fit and the slenderisation allow us to establish a possible filiation between Berber populations, builders of the monuments of the Middle Atlas, and the oriental Moroccans in Taforal. This acknowledgment supports the thesis of local anthropological evolution during the protohistoric periods and weakens the thesis of the oriental origin of the Protomediterraneans

Description et position systématique du grand canidé de Tamaris I (Casablanca, Maroc)

Le site de Tamaris I à Casablanca a livré quelques restes d’un grand Canidé mentionné auparavant dans plusieurs gisements du Pléistocène supérieur et de l’Holocène du Maroc. La morphologie dentaire est celle du genre Canis, mais les dimensions dépassent celles de Canis aureus. Dans cet article nous proposons une description des restes de ce Canidé provenant du site de Tamaris I et une discussion de sa position systématique.The site Tamaris I in Casablanca yielded some remains of a great Canid mentioned before in several Pleistocene and Holocene deposits in Morocco. Dental morphology is similar to that of the Canis genus, but dimensions are larger than those of Canis aureus. In this paper, we propose a description of the Canid remains from the site of Tamaris I and a discussion of its systematic position

GIS and Remote-Sensing Application in Archaeological Site Mapping in the Awsard Area (Morocco)

Morocco is famous as one of the archaeologically richest places with many sites. In addition, some of the sites have been listed as UNESCO World Human Heritage sites. In situ observations are used in cultural heritage and archaeological sites mapping. However, this procedure requires periodic observations, which are practically difficult to combine with traditional methods and practices since this is time consuming and expensive. Thus, modern technologies, mainly GIS and remote sensing, are gaining attention as tools for prediction at archaeological sites. The aim of this paper is to assess the application of GIS and remote sensing in order to develop a predictive model, which will be used in locating areas with high potential as archaeological sites in the Awsard area (southern Morocco). The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) as a multi-criteria decision making method, which integrates archaeological data and environmental factors, geospatial analysis and predictive modelling, has been applied to the identification of possible tumuli locations in the study area. The model was developed using a zone of 21 km2 with 233 known sites. It was later validated using 530 unknown sites within an area of 980 km2. The acceptable accuracy of 93% was calculated using an estimation of predictive gain, which proves the efficiency of the model’s predictive ability

The Fossil Human from Rabat-Kébibat (Morocco): Comparative Study of the Cranial and Mandibular Fragments

As part of the geological and chronological recontextualization of the Rabat-Kébibat quarry performed by a Franco-Moroccan team of geologists, the human remains discovered in the site and already published were reassessed. The human remains assemblage is composed of 23 cranial fragments, a mandible (including on the right I1, P3, P4, the roots of M1, M2, and M3, and of the left I1, I2, C, P3, P4, and M1), and the left half of the maxillary (including I1, I2, P3, P4, M1, and M2). Through a micro-computerized tomography analysis, the internal structure of the parietal fragment (evaluation of the thickness of the compact table and diploe) and the mandible was examined. Geometric morphometrics were applied on the tridimensional model of the mandible to investigate the conformation of the symphyseal outlines. Results were compared to a large reference collection composed of African, Asiatic, and European hominin fossils, from different chronological range. Our results allow us to clarify the phylogenetic position of the human remains from Rabat-Kebibat, in particular their relationship with other North African hominins

Etude anthropologique et comparative des mandibules humaines de la Cité des Pierres (Moyen Atlas) à celles de Taforalt

International audienceThe CPSI funeral monument is located In the NorthWest of the Middle Atlas, in the region of Adar Ouawine, approximately ten kilometres away from the town of Boulmane. It is a sandstone slab with an internal cavity in a scree zone that gave way to the remains of three individuals, one man and two women. They are buried in a lateral decubitus positions. The orientation of their body is North-South, the heads towards the North. The three mandibles exhumed are complete and in a very good state of conservation. The origin of the builders of the funeral monuments of North Africa in the protohistoric periods is debated. The results of the historic searches, ethnologic and linguistic on the subject oppose two theses. Gabriel Camps's defends an oriental origin of the Protomediterranneans, assuming a progressive replacement of the existing local population and of other researchers who support the idea of a local anthropologic evolution of the Iberomaurusian population. We have based our approach on an anthropologic, as morphologic as morphometric and statistic, of the physic characteristics of the human remains found in the CPSI monument to defin

Les traditions techniques des productions céramiques de la Province d’Aousserd (Région de Dakhla-Oued Eddahab)

International audienc

New lithostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic data for the fossil human skull-bearing eolianite of Rabat-Kebibat (Morocco)

The Kebibat quarry locates on the coastal area of Rabat. It is also known as ‘’The Rabat Human deposit’’ due to the presence of human cranial bones in the quarry deposit. These remains of Hominines are related to the archaic Homo sapiens.The revision of the geological and geochronological context of Kebibat and its surroundings allowed clarifying the morpho-litho-stratigraphic aspects of the different formations that constitute it, as well as their evolution during the Middle-Upper Pleistocene. The sedimentary unit that fossilized the human remains corresponds to a dune deposit (eolianite), which is part of a high-resolution sedimentary sequence (parasequence). Luminescence and U-Th dating indicate that this sequence was deposited between the end of the marine isotopic stage 7 (MIS 7) until the end of MIS 6.L’ancienne carrière Kébibat qui se situe sur le littoral de Rabat est surnommée le gisement de l’Homme de Rabat du fait des restes crâniens humains qu’elle a livrés. Ces restes d’homininés se rattachent à un Homo sapiens archaïque. La révision du contexte géologique et géochronologique de ce site et de ses environs permet de préciser l’aspect morpho-litho-stratigraphique des différentes formations qui le constituent, ainsi que leur évolution au cours du Pléistocène moyen et supérieur. Les restes humains sont fossilisés à l’intérieur d’une unité formée d’une calcarénite éolienne, elle-même située sur une séquence sédimentaire de haute résolution (paraséquence). La chronologie déduite des analyses de luminescence et de l’U-Th suggère que la séquence s’est mise en place à partir de la fin du stade isotopique marin 7 (SIM 7) jusqu’à la fin du SIM 6