Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Most Bronze Age settlements have been documented in European areas, however the Maghreb has usually been ignored in historic narratives, mistakenly labeled as uninhabited till the Phoenicians arrived round 800 BC. Nonetheless, a groundbreaking examine led by Hamza Benattia Melgarejo from the College of Barcelona has recognized the primary Bronze Age settlement on this space, predating Phoenician affect. This discovery is essential for understanding African and Mediterranean historical past.
Again: View of Kach Kouch and the Oued Laou estuary, trying east. Credit score: H. Benatti.
Left: Chipped stone artefacts from Kach Kouch. Credir: L. Lombardi. Picture compilation AncientPages.com
Printed in Antiquity, the analysis particulars excavations at Kach Kouch in northwest Morocco, revealing human occupation between 2200 and 600 BC. This makes it one of many earliest websites of its variety in Mediterranean Africa outdoors Egypt. Melgarejo, a Ph.D. pupil at UB’s School of Geography and Historical past and a part of UB’s Classical and Protohistoric Archaeology Analysis Group, has centered on this prehistoric website close to the Lau River.
The location covers about one hectare and is situated 10 kilometers from in the present day’s coast close to Gibraltar Strait and 30 kilometers southeast of Tétouan. Excavations present a number of phases of occupation: The primary section (2200–2000 BC) is minimally represented however vital for indicating early settlement throughout Iberia’s transition to the Bronze Age.
The north-western Maghreb, exhibiting the situation of Kach Kouch and different websites. Credit score: H. Benatti.
The second section (1300–900 BC) marks a vibrant interval with proof of a steady agricultural group—the primary proof of sedentary life earlier than Phoenician arrival in Maghreb. Findings embody picket mud-brick buildings, rock-cut silos, grinding stones, barley and wheat crops supplemented by sheep, goats, and cattle.
Kach Kouch is situated 10 kilometers from the present-day coast, close to the Strait of Gibraltar, and 30 kilometers southeast of Tétouan. Credit score: College of Barcelona
Within the third section (800–600 BC), inhabitants demonstrated adaptability by incorporating jap Mediterranean cultural improvements like wheel-thrown pottery, iron instruments, and new stone-based architectural traditions. This mix highlights their energetic function inside Mediterranean trade networks.
“Kach Kouch is without doubt one of the first well-documented examples of steady settlement within the Maghreb and tells a really totally different story from the one which has existed for a very long time: it reveals the historical past of dynamic native communities that had been removed from remoted,” says Benattia.
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“The excavations at this website are one other step in the direction of correcting these historic biases and reveal that the Maghreb was an energetic participant within the social, cultural and financial networks of the Mediterranean,” says the UB researcher.
The examine was printed in Antiquity
Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Workers Author
