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Technological behaviors and territory exploitation during the MSA in Eastern Morocco: Sahb el Ghar 1 & 2 open air-sites in chert procurement areas
Mourad Farkouch  1, 2, *@  , Juan Ignacio Morales  3  , Hassan Aouraghe  4  , María Soto  5, 6  , Antoni Canals  1, 2  , Diego Lombao  1, 2  , Hamid Haddoumi, Alfonso Benito-Calvo  7  , Mohamed Souhir  4  , Raül BartrolÍ  8  , Lee Arnold  9  , Martina Demuro  9  , Aïcha Oujaa  10  , Sonja Tomasso  11  , Robert Sala-Ramos  2  , M. Gema ChacÓn  1, 2, 12, *  
1 : Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain ona
2 : Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarrag
3 : Dep. Història i Arqueologia, Seminari d'Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques (SERP), Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona
4 : Université Mohamed Premier, Faculté des Sciences, Département de Géologie (FSO), Bvd Mohamed VI, BP 717 Quartier al Qods, 60 000 Oujda
5 : Madrid Institute for Advanced Study (MIAS), Casa Velázquez. Ciudad Universitaria C/ de Paul Guinard, 3 28040 Madrid, Spain. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid C/Einstein, 13 Pabellón C 1a planta, 28049 Madrid
6 : Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid
7 : Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH)
Burgos -  Espagne
8 : 8 Archaeological Heritage Survey Head. Ajuntament de Capellades. Ramon Godó, 908687 Capellades, Barcelona
9 : School of Physical Sciences, Environment Institute, and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus, Adelaide, SA 5005
10 : Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine, Département de Préhistoire, Madinat Al Irfane, Hay Riad, BP 6828. Rabat
11 : TraceoLab, Université de Liège
12 : UMR7194 Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique (HNHP), Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), CNRS, Université Perpignan Via Domitia, Alliance Sorbonne Université, - Musée de l'Homme, Place du Trocadéro 17, 75016 Paris
UMR7194
* : Corresponding author

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) in Eastern Morocco is well-known by reference archeological sites as Rhafas, Ifri N'Ammar and Taforalt caves. However, MSA open-air settlement dynamics are practically unknown, due to the lack of systematic excavations and recording of archaeological sites, and only attested by disperse and unstratified lithic scatters or isolated pieces.

During the systematic surveys performed in the Aïn Beni Mathar area in 2017 several stratified localities were discovered. They are located on slopes and exposed surfaces of riverbanks and are associated with a primary chert source area (the Swiwina plain). Two of them, Sahb el Ghar 1 & 2 (SBG1 & SBG2) were excavated during 2018 and 2019 in a surface of 9m2 each one.

 

 

In this paper we present the preliminary results of the technological and raw material characterization of the lithic assemblages (ca. 4,200 remains) recovered from the three archaeological levels identified at the SBG 1 & 2 stratified open-air sites. The dominant raw material used is chert (Neogene chalcedony >98% of the total assemblage) with a potential exploitation area of ca. 5-10km2. These sites present homogeneous flake assemblages (including all the stages of the reduction sequence). The knapping strategies are mainly Levallois (recurrent centripetal and preferential flake modalities) and discoidal. Opportunistic knapping strategies and laminar technology have been also documented. Denticulates and scrapers are abundant within the retouched tools assemblages

The first data about these stratified open-air sites in the region will allow us to compare the technological behaviors, the human occupation patterns and the territorial exploitation dynamics between caves and open-air sites. Were Homo sapiens living in open-air areas as well as in caves? or Are these locations related to specific activities within their subsistence strategies such as lithic raw materials procurement? Are these occupations complementary to those in caves in the frame of Homo sapiens logistic and residential mobility?

In sum, this work will provide a broader perspective of the MSA technological behaviors and the settlement pattern dynamics in Eastern Morocco during the Late Pleistocene.



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