Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
Archaeologists have discovered a previously unknown Neolithic society from 5,000 years ago in Morocco.
The archaeological survey of the site is published in the journal Antiquity.
Oued Beht is about 100km inland to the southeast of Morocco’s capital Rabat. The site is named for the Baht River, also known as Oued Beht, on which it lies.
Africa’s northwest, also known as Maghreb, is well known for its impact in the development of societies during the Iron Age and Islamic periods and even as far back as the Palaeolithic (about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago).
But a gap of knowledge exists for Maghreb between about 6,000 and 3,000 years ago.
Oued Beht, with radiocarbon dating at 3400–2900 BCE, is the earliest and largest Neolithic agricultural complex found in Africa beyond the Nile. It shares similarities with Iberian Late Stone Age sites of a similar age.
The find highlights the role of north-west Africa in the development of complex ancient communities in the wider Mediterranean.
“For over 30 years I have been convinced that Mediterranean archaeology has been missing something fundamental in later prehistoric north Africa,” says Cyprian Broodbank, a professor at the University of Cambridge. “Now, at last, we know that was right, and we can begin to think in new ways that acknowledge the dynamic contribution of Africans to the emergence and interactions of early Mediterranean societies.”
The site was discovered during French building works in the 1930s. The new fieldwork was initiated by a team of British, Italian and Moroccan archaeologists.
Their aims were to definitively age the site, find signs of farming, work out the size and shape of the ancient settlement, and find artefacts which indicate the culture and technological development of the ancient community.
Among the Oued Beht finds were domesticated plant and animal remains, pottery and stone tools.
Sites of a similar age have been found across the Strait of Gibraltar in Spain and Portugal. Both the Iberian and Maghreb sites include deep storage pits. Some ancient pits from the Iberian Peninsula have included ivory and ostrich eggs, pointing to a connection to Africa.
The site at Oued Beht highlights the important role that Maghreb played in the development of the wider Mediterranean, significantly shifting our understanding of ancient societies in the region.
