Late Pleistocene Societies of Northwestern Africa: Technology and Lifeways

Abstract

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) which falls into the MIS2 Isotope Stage, the archaeological record in Northwestern Africa has known a global tendency toward microlithisation as was the case for the other Mediterranean technocomplexes such as Upper Paleolithic of Europe (Strauss 2001), Late Paleolithic of Egypt (Leplongeon 2017) and Early Epipaleolihic of the Levant (Belfer-Cohen and Goring-Morris 2002). In Northeastern Africa, a number of microlithic industries which are attested by the presence of small chipped stone artefacts on diminutive blanks such as Kubbanian and Fakhurian appeared in the Nile Valley and Nubia just before the Last Glacial Maximum around 21 ka BP. These regional variants are characterized by the profusion of backed bladelets notably with Ouchtata retouch, as well as the microburin blow technique used for shaping geometric microliths. The climatic improvement between 16 ka BP and 10 ka BP lead to the appearance of other microlithic industries such as Sébekien, Silsilien and Afian which have witnessed the emergence of a wide exploitation of natural resources in particular wild cereals (Close and Wendorf 1986). Human occupations are characterized by seasonal base-camps related to fishing and mammal hunting activities such as auroch, hartebeest, dorcas gazelle, hare and hippopotamus (Vermeerch and Van Neer 2015). The sites were probably seasonally occupied by groups that already had a territorial and social organization as evidenced by the presence of two large cemeteries dated between 12 ka BP and 10 ka BP at Djebel Sahaba in Nubia.In Northwestern Africa, Late Pleistocene industries are also denoted by their tendency toward microlithisation and include Iberomaurusian of the Maghreb (Pallary 1909), Southern Tunisian bladelets of Tunisia (Gragueb 1983) and Eastern Oranian of Cyrenaica (Mc Burney 1967); this last seems to be deeply related to the Dabban and might strongly result from a local development (Lucarini and Mutri 2014). Whilst the Dabban is a peculiar tradition of Cyrenaica, the definition of Eastern Oranian has been used to indicate Pleistocene culture found in Cyrenaica (Mc Burney 1967), with clear reference to the Iberomaurusian (Western Oranian). Both Iberomaurusian and Eastern Oranian were concentrated at the coastal zone of the Maghreb and Cyrenaica in the period between 25 ka and 12 ka cal BP (e.g. Barich et al. 2006; Barker et al. 2012; Linstädter et al 2012; Barton et al. 2013; Douka et al., 2014), while Southern Tunisian bladelets technology has proliferated in Southern boundaries of Tunisia (Vernet and Aumassip, 1998).This chapter focuses on the role of Late Pleistocene societies in Northwestern Africa (Maghreb) labelled Iberomaurusian. It examines the implications of the adoption of microlithic technologies in adaptive adjustment to changing environmental conditions and the socio-ecological transformations that took place during the Late Glacial Maximum and the Late Glacial.