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Julien Riel-Salvatore writes today on new research on the Moroccan site of Dar es-Soltan (near Rabat), which has yielded dates of c. 110,000 BP for one of the oldest cultures of our species: Aterian, defined by its characteristically tanged points and the clear evidence of symbolic behavior in form of perforated shells, extended through North Africa.
He mentions that the same Germano-Moroccan team has been working in other sites dated to as early as 175,000 BP, what is really bordering the very origins of our species as such (oldest skulls are dated to 190,000 BP in Ethiopia and 160,000 in both Ethiopia and Morocco).
He also points to a very promising site at Ifri n'Amar (at the Rif) with a depth of 6.3 meters which seems to include also recent layers of this culture. No final dates are given anywhere but the fact that the tanged peculiarity persisted through Upper Paleolithic (Oranian, Capsian) makes me think of some sort of continuity even through change.
Ref. Press release of the Moroccan Ministry of Culture (in French and Arabic).
6 comments:
"new research on the Moroccan site of Dar es-Soltan (near Rabat), which has yielded dates of c. 110,000 BP for one of the oldest cultures of our species"
I wonder what mtDNA they would have. Already L3? Or L2? Either way that would still place modern humans along the north coast of Africa very early (the western end of it at least).
"other sites dated to as early as 175,000 BP, what is really bordering the very origins of our species as such"
And what about their Y-chromosomes? That date is far older than any most people would consider reasonable for the origin of immediately ancestral modern haplogroups. Would these people too have had haplogroups that were to give rise to out 'modern' ones?
I don't know.
Aterian doesn't look at the source of any later technology, excepting maybe and only in part, those of North African UP. It's very difficult to tell which haplogroups did 'Aterians' participate of, however I do consider the possibility that some L3 and L2 lineages still found primarily in North Africa, may be a legacy from those times.
"I do consider the possibility that some L3 and L2 lineages still found primarily in North Africa, may be a legacy from those times".
And yet you have grave reservations about a modern human exit from Africa other than via the Bab al Mandab?
I would put it this way: I have no reservations whatsoever for human migration using boats.
I don't have "grave reservations" it's you who does: and have "grave favoritism" for one model over the other.
It is worth mentioning the weather in North Africa in that period. In a nutshell:
"Between about 133 to 122 thousand years ago (ka), the southern parts of the Saharan-Arabian Desert experienced a wet period with increased monsoonal precipitation, around 200-100 mm/year. . . . In Qafzeh and Es Skuhl caves, where at that time precipitation was 600-1000 mm/year, the remains of Qafzeh-Skhul type anatomically modern humans are dated from this period, but human occupation seems to end in the later arid period.
The Red Sea coastal route was extremely arid before 140 and after 115 ka. Slightly wetter conditions appear at 90-87 ka but the rainfall is still ten times less than around 125 ka. . .
[T]he southern Negev was arid to hyper-arid [from 185-140 kya and 110-90 kya and after 85 ka nor during most of the interglacial period . . . the glacial period and Holocene.]
The coastal route around the western Mediterranean may have been open at times during the last glacia; [but] . . that the wet period were limited to only tens or hundreds years.
From 60-30 ka there were extremely dry conditions in many parts of Africa."
Thus, the big issue is not just how old that culture was, but how continuous it was in habitation.
"... but human occupation seems to end in the later arid period".
Seems so. But did they die out, went back to arid NE Africa or scattered through less arid regions to the north and NE (mountain areas, Mesopotamia)?
There's no particular reason to think that they just vanished. We just don't have enough data.
"The Red Sea coastal route was extremely arid before 140 and after 115 ka. Slightly wetter conditions appear at 90-87 ka but the rainfall is still ten times less than around 125 ka"...
Yes, I'm aware that the Fertile Crescent and Southern Arabia are two clearly distinct provinces with a very bad desert in between even in the best conditions. But that doesn't mean they could not have converged at some point before reaching South Asia.
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