Le Neolithique ancien au Maroc septentrional: donnees documentaires, seriation typochronologique et hypotheses genetiques

摘要

Until recently, our knowledge about Neolithic cultures in Northern Morocco was rather poor and lacked absolute dates. A joint Franco-Moroccan program allowed the chronostratigraphic and environmental context of the sites formerly discovered in the Tangiers Peninsula to be revised. Investigations were conducted in the field while public and private collections were re-examined. New sites were identified and new excavations undertaken in Gar Kahal, Kaf Taht El Ghar and Kaf Boussaria caves. A huge work of classification carried on some 50000 ceramic elements allowed two phases to be distinguished in the Cardial Early Neolithic, first an "Alboran" phase (5600 to 5300 BC), then a "Lusitano-Moroccan" one (5000 to 4500 BC). An initial "Tellian" component (circa 6500 BC) originating in Algeria (Oran area) is also slightly perceived in the Eastern Rif We thus suggest the hypothesis of an Early Neolithic origin combining both Mediterranean and Sa-haran inputs should be tested. In this respect, after observing a widespread sedimentary lacuna between the 9th and 7th millennia BC in the stratigraphic series of North Moroccan caves, we suggest new research should be undertaken on the Saharan borders where wind-borne sedimentation prevailed and which may have recorded a complete Holocene sequence.