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The Epipaleolithic (Iberomaurusian) from Grotte des Contrebandiers, Morocco

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Abstract

First identified 100 years ago, the Iberomaurusian is an Epipaleolithic industry that was described from a number of sites across western North Africa. One of these is Grotte des Contrebandiers (Smugglers’ Cave) in Morocco, where Abbé Jean Roche recovered Iberomaurusian materials in excavations in the late 1950s. Although the lithics were published in the early 1960s, subsequent changes in methods and in assessing the interpretive potential of lithic assemblages necessitated a restudy of these collections from Contrebandiers. This study led to a better understanding of the lithic types present and of the use of particular stone raw materials. Iberomaurusians emphasized lithic strategies that maximized use of fine-grained stone to the extent that pièces esquillées should be, among others, a defining criterion for this lithic industry.

Résumé

Identifié pour la première fois il y a une centaine d’années, l’Ibéromaurusien est une industrie épipaléolithique définie dans plusieurs sites situés dans la partie ouest de l’Afrique du Nord. Au Maroc, la Grotte des Contrebandiers fait partie de ces sites où l’Abbé Jean Roche a mis au jour du matériel appartenant à cette civilisation dans les années 1950. Bien que le matériel lithique ait été publié dans les années 1960, nous avons entrepris une nouvelle analyse de ce dernier à partir de nouvelles approches méthodologiques et une évaluation de son potentiel documentaire. Cette analyse nous a amené à non seulement identifier les types d’outils présents dans la collection mais aussi à déterminer les matières premières lithiques. Les ibéromaurusiens ont poursuivi un effort de maximisation des matières premières de grain fin à tel point que les pièces esquillées sont devenues un critère essentiel de leur industrie.

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Notes

  1. While the remains associated with the Iberomaurusian are published as belonging to Layer II, the markings on the artifacts in the collections indicate that the Iberomaurusian material is labeled as Layer I. There is no question that these artifacts are Iberomaurusian, based not only on the typology of the artifacts themselves but also from written information on the box and bag tags.

  2. Interested readers should consult Tixier (1963) for extensive definitions and illustrations of the various types.

  3. Deliberate manufacture of small flakes is known in several other contexts, including the Middle Paleolithic Asinipodian and other Middle Paleolithic industries with small flake components (Dibble and McPherron 2006; Schurmans 2008), precontact Hawai’i (Barrera and Kirch 1973; Olszewski 2003a), and the American Southwest (Shackley 1988, 2005).

  4. The term platform blade or bladelet refers to the partial removal of an existing core-striking platform along the end of the core (e.g., Coinman 1998: 44). This type of rejuvenation is similar to the term flanc de nucleus. Rejuvenation elements such as core tablets are extremely rare (these are comparable to tablette de ravivage). The term “rejuvenation blade, bladelet, or flake” is used here for those pieces which are not crested, platform, or core-tablet forms but which still preserve a portion of the original striking platform of a core on their dorsal (exterior) surface.

  5. The RMRI is the frequency of a raw material among all retouched artifacts divided by its frequency among all flaked artifacts (Orton 2008: 1092).

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Acknowledgements

Research on the Iberomaurusian collections from Contrebandiers was made possible by funding from the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation and the National Geographic Society. We thank Harold L. Dibble and Abdeljalil El Hajraoui, project co-directors, Samir Raoui, conservateur of the Musée d’Archéologie in Rabat, Abdellah Salih, director of the Direction du Patrimoine Culturel, Aomar Akerraz, director of the Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine, as well as anonymous reviewers for their exceedingly helpful comments.

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Olszewski, D.I., Schurmans, U.A. & Schmidt, B.A. The Epipaleolithic (Iberomaurusian) from Grotte des Contrebandiers, Morocco. Afr Archaeol Rev 28, 97–123 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-010-9086-9

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