Early Holocene Contacts between Africa and Europe and their Palaeoenvironmental Context

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).

Ifri El Baroud is a reference site for understanding the late Upper Palaeolithic of NW Africa, the so-called Iberomaurusian. Within its archaeological sequence, all the stages of this prehistoric technocomplex are represented, from the oldest to the youngest (21 ka – 10 ka calBP).

The site was partially excavated in the middle of the 1990s. At that time, four test pits were made, one outside the cave and three inside. Our 2015 campaign was focused on the enlargement of test pit number 2 (located in the middle of the cave). The main objective was to investigate the archaeological deposit in its entirety (from surface to bottom) and collect information for a full-scale cultural and palaeoenvironmental interpretation.

Despite of the infinity number of technical problems (mainly related to bad weather conditions), at the end, with a bit of self-sacrifice, the excavation was incredibly successful and all our scientific goals were achieved. Paul McCartney once said: “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.” And yeah, we really loved this cave!

 

 

C2 Poti Fig 1 lhk 250px 2015 06Inside the cave with the students from Rabat.
Photo: Oumaima Najari
  C2 Poti Fig 2 lhk 250px 2015 06
Evening view from the excavation house, Afsou.
Photo: Felix Jasiak

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

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

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

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