The small vertebrates of Témara’s caves (Morocco): implications for the understanding of the Middle-Late Palaeolithic and Neolithic occupations - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société Accéder directement au contenu
Poster De Conférence Année : 2012

The small vertebrates of Témara’s caves (Morocco): implications for the understanding of the Middle-Late Palaeolithic and Neolithic occupations

Résumé

Since a few years, new archaeological excavations and datations in the Rabat-Témara region (Morocco) showed that the anatomically modern humans were present in this area since at least 120 ka BP. These occupations are classified among the oldest ones of Africa and Middle East. Among these sites, El Mnasra and El Harhoura 2 caves have yielded, within a very complete sedimentary sequence corresponding to the last climatic cycle (since OIS 5e), human and faunal remains as well as exceptional archaeological objects associated to so called modern behaviors (lithic and bone industries, collected and worked hematite, collected marine shells, fireplaces, stony structures). In addition, the abundance of microvertebrate remains found in the Témara’s caves constitutes an exceptional documentation to propose a high resolution framework of the environmental variations in Morocco during Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Small vertebrate remains found in abundance in the Témara’s caves provide important information on the evolution of biodiversity and palaeoenvironmental context of the human remains in North Africa, as well as on the origin and the history of the deposits. A pluridisciplinary approach was used to study the small vertebrate remains from El Mnasra and El Harhoura 2 (systematics, taphonomy, palaeoecology) in a renewed geologic, stratigraphic, chronological and cultural framework, and in comparison with data from large faunas. The small vertebrate assemblages have been mainly accumulated by several types of predators. Because the pre- and post-depositional taphonomic biases appear low, we have been able to make palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Some species, today absent from the studied region, or even from Morocco, argue for the persistence of faunal (and human?) migrations between several African areas during the Late Pleistocene. The alternation of dry / wet periods and the concomitant variation of ”palaeo” coastal lines seem to be the structuring elements having influenced the faunal and human occupations in this area.
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Dates et versions

hal-02402004 , version 1 (10-12-2019)

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  • HAL Id : hal-02402004 , version 1

Citer

Emmanuelle Stoetzel, Emilie Campmas, Patrick Michel, Christiane Denys, Mohamed Abdeljalil El Hajraoui, et al.. The small vertebrates of Témara’s caves (Morocco): implications for the understanding of the Middle-Late Palaeolithic and Neolithic occupations. 2nd Annual Meeting of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution (ESHE, Sep 2012, Bordeaux, France. 1 (https://www.eshe.eu/static/eshe/files/PESHE/PESHE1.pdf), p.176, 2012, Proceedings of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution. ⟨hal-02402004⟩
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