Early Holocene Contacts between Africa and Europe and their Palaeoenvironmental Context

Oldest crops in Africa from NE-Morocco

Oldest crops in Africa from NE-Morocco

Our research at coastal sites of NE-Morocco has also included investigations of incipient agriculture in Northern Africa. Since 2010, all sediment excavated from our site at Ifri Oudadane has been processed (flotated).

Read MoreThis has revealed an enormous amount of plant remains both from wild and domesticated species. Abundant remains of wild plants have been collected from both Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic levels, thus indicating the important role of these resources in these two periods.

From the beginning of the Early Neolithic domesticated plant species appear. These include predominantly cereals (Hordeum vulgare, Triticum monococcum/dicoccum, Triticum durum and Triticum aestivum/durum) and pulses (Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum). One lentil has been radiocarbon dated to 7611±37 calBP. As such, this is the oldest known date for domesticated plant remains in Morocco, and by extension the whole of Africa. The earliest cereal, a wheat grain (Triticum sp.), has been dated to 7063±73 calBP (Beta-318608).

The contemporaneity of radiocarbon ages made on domesticated plant species from Neolithic contexts in Morocco and sites on the Iberian Peninsula is suggestive of a more or less coeval dispersal of agriculture along both shores of the Western Mediterranean. The results from our investigations will be published in the very near future [J. Morales, G. Pérez-Jordà, L. Peña-Chocarro, L. Zapata, M. Ruíz-Alonso, J.A. López-Sáez and J. Linstädter, J. (in press), The origins of agriculture in North-West Africa: macro-botanical remains from Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic levels of Ifri Oudadane (Morocco). Journal of Archaeological Science].

 

C2 Linstaedter-3---Fig-1-lhk 250px
Flotation.
Photo: Jörg Linstädter
  C2 Linstaedter-3---Fig-2-lhk 250px Triticum aestivum/durum, free-threshing wheat, from Ifri Oudadane.
Photo: Jacob Morales

Project

Project

Project C2
(1st Phase) + (2nd Phase)
continued within Project C1
(in 3rd Phase)

 

Principal Investigator:

Prof. Dr. Helmut Brückner
Prof .Dr. Gerd-Christian Weniger

 

Researcher:

Dr. Jörg Linstädter
Dr. Gilles Rixhon
Dr. Yvonne Tafelmaier

 

PhD Candidate:

Melanie Bartz
Alessandro Poti

Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning (TLS) in caves of Moroc...

Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning (TLS) in caves of Morocco

During a field campaign in spring 2010, Terrestrial LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) was used in different limestone caves in n...

Archaeological excavations in Ifri Oudadane, NE-Mo...

Archaeological excavations in Ifri Oudadane, NE-Morocco, 2011

Fieldwork undertaken in 2011 at Ifri Oudadane was – for the time being – the last campaign at this site. Four field seasons (2006,...

Archaeological surveys at the littoral west of the...

Archaeological surveys at the littoral west of the Melilla Peninsula, NE-Morocco, 2011

The Mediterranean littoral west of the Melilla Peninsula and the mountainous hinterland is a very extensive territory. Archaeologi...

Oldest crops in Africa from NE-Morocco

Oldest crops in Africa from NE-Morocco

Oldest crops in Africa from NE-Morocco Our research at coastal sites of NE-Morocco has also included investigations of incipient a...

Micromorphology proves the penning of domesticated...

Micromorphology proves the penning of domesticated sheep and goat in Moroccan Early Neolithic deposits during the middle of the 8th millennium calBP

The coastal site of Ifri Oudadane is one of the most important sites in the Mediterranean Maghreb. Recent excavations have provide...

Determination of snails from the archaeological de...

Determination of snails from the archaeological deposits of Ifri n'Etsedda ("Lions Cave") NE-Morocco

Museum Koenig, Bonn (07.–09.12.2012) The 2012 spring campaign of sub-project C2 in Ifri n'Etsedda, NE-Morocco yielded an enormous...

Geographical on- and off-site studies in the Easte...

Geographical on- and off-site studies in the Eastern Rif, NE Morocco

In the framework of a cooperation with the archaeologists in charge of the Ifri n'Ammar cave excavations (Dr. Josef Eiwanger, Dr....

Excavations in Ifri n'Etsedda ("Lions Cave&qu...

Excavations in Ifri n'Etsedda ("Lions Cave"), NE-Morocco

The 2012 spring campaign of sub-project C2 was dedicated to the excavation of Ifri n'Etsedda, NE-Morocco. Discovered in 2008, the...

Last excavation campaign at the Epipalaeolithic–Ne...

Last excavation campaign at the Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic site of Ifri n’Etsedda, Morocco

Between February and April 2014, the archaeological team of the C2 project carried out the third and last excavation campaign at t...

Stones, Pottery, Dust, and Couscous

Stones, Pottery, Dust, and Couscous

From 18th until 22nd of November 2014, two archaeologists of project C2 (Jörg Linstädter and Alessandro Potì, both University of C...

Science Day in the Neander Valley

Science Day in the Neander Valley

The Neanderthal Museum at Mettmann near Düsseldorf invited the members of the C-Cluster to the first "Science Day" on November 16t...

Moraine formations and speleothem records in north...

Moraine formations and speleothem records in northeastern Morocco

In August 2014, the C2 members Dr. Gilles Rixhon and Melanie Bartz undertook a second field trip to Morocco with the aim of sampli...

2015 Excavation at Ifri El Baroud, the Gunpowder’s...

2015 Excavation at Ifri El Baroud, the Gunpowder’s Cave (NE Morocco)

Between February and April 2015 the C2 archaeo-team went to Morocco to carry out the excavation of Ifri El Baroud (Eastern Rif). I...

Chasing the Sun. From London to Barcelona

Chasing the Sun. From London to Barcelona

In September 2015, Alessandro Potì and Jörg Linstädter (both from project C2) travelled to London to attend the 5th ESHE meeting (...

“La 8ème Rencontre des Quaternaristes Marocains” (...

“La 8ème Rencontre des Quaternaristes Marocains” (RQM8) in Nador (Morocco)

In November 2015, Melanie Bartz, Alessandro Potì and Martin Kehl of the C2 project attended the 8th conference of Quaternary resea...

Quels passés pour l’Afrique? SAfA meeting 2016

Quels passés pour l’Afrique? SAfA meeting 2016

Since the 1970s, the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) holds a biennial conference dedicated to African archaeology and...

Rabat 2016. Workshop and lithic analysis

Rabat 2016. Workshop and lithic analysis

On October 20, 2016 the Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP) of Rabat (Morocco) organized a on...

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