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| Ifri Oudadane | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ifri Oudadane |
| Map type | Morocco |
| Location | northeastern Morocco |
| Region | Taza Province |
| Type | Rock shelter |
| Epochs | Epipaleolithic, Neolithic |
| Cultures | Iberomaurusian, Neolithic |
| Excavations | 1990s–2000s |
| Archaeologists | Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, Nigel Goring-Morris, Gonzalo Aranda, Mona Zebiri |
Ifri Oudadane is an archaeological rock-shelter site in northeastern Morocco notable for stratified deposits spanning the Late Epipalaeolithic to the Early Neolithic and for providing key evidence on the timing of Neolithic innovations in North Africa. The site has yielded material culture, botanical and faunal remains, and human burials that have informed debates involving trans-Mediterranean contacts and indigenous processes during the Neolithic transition. Excavations and analyses have linked the sequence to broader regional sequences in the Maghreb, Iberian Peninsula, and the eastern Mediterranean.
The shelter is located near the town of Taza in the Rif massifs of northern Morocco, set on a limestone outcrop overlooking the Mediterranean Sea corridor between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea. The rock-shelter occupies a strategic position along prehistoric communication routes connecting the Atlas Mountains, the Tell Atlas, and the Iberian Peninsula, and its geomorphology features a shallow overhang with well-preserved stratified deposits and hearth features. The site’s proximity to freshwater sources ties it to paleo-hydrological systems including the Sebou River basin and local karst springs, situating it within ecological zones exploited by Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic communities.
Initial fieldwork at the shelter began in the late 20th century under Franco-Moroccan collaborative surveys influenced by researchers associated with institutions such as the Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine and international teams from the University of Cambridge and the Université Mohammed V. Excavations conducted in the 1990s and 2000s involved stratigraphic excavation, radiocarbon sampling, and interdisciplinary specialists from laboratories at Université de Paris I, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and the University of Oxford. Principal investigators coordinated with regional heritage authorities including the Ministry of Culture (Morocco) to ensure conservation and publication in journals tied to the Society for American Archaeology and European archaeological associations. Results were presented at conferences organized by bodies such as the Paleolithic-Mesolithic Research Group and the European Association of Archaeologists.
The stratigraphic sequence preserves an upper Early Neolithic horizon overlying Late Epipalaeolithic (often labelled Iberomaurusian) deposits, with occupational phases dated by accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon assays performed at facilities like the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and the Gif-sur-Yvette CEA dating center. Chronologies place the Neolithic layers broadly in the 7th–6th millennia BCE while Iberomaurusian components date to the 14th–10th millennia BCE, providing temporal anchors for regional cultural sequences correlated with datable sites on the Iberian Peninsula and in the Levant. Stratigraphy includes hearth lenses, ash-rich lenses, anthropogenic floors, and discrete burial contexts that helped refine Bayesian models developed in collaboration with analysts from the Max Planck Institute and statistical teams at the University of Cambridge.
Lithic assemblages from the Epipalaeolithic horizons show microlithic bladelet technology characteristic of the Iberomaurusian tradition, with comparisons drawn to assemblages from Grotte des Pigeons, Rhafas, and other North African sites. Neolithic horizons produced impressed-cardial and comb-impressed ceramics suggesting connections with early farming-related material culture seen in the western Mediterranean including coastal Catalonia, Andalusia, and Sicily. Ground stone tools, polished axes, and bone implements appear in later levels, while ornaments made of marine shell, ostrich eggshell, and worked amber indicate exchange networks linking the shelter to sources along the Atlantic coast, Tunisia, and possibly the Levantine coast. Comparative analyses drew on typologies established by scholars affiliated with the British Museum and the National Museum of Antiquities (Algeria).
Zooarchaeological studies identified hunting of Mediterranean taxa such as wild boar, red deer, and caprines, along with fishing and marine resource exploitation indicated by shellfish and fish remains consistent with coastal procurement strategies observed in Neolithic western Mediterranean contexts. Botanical analyses, including macrobotanical remains and phytolith studies conducted with specialists from the University of Barcelona and the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de synthèse, revealed cereal processing indicators and wild plant exploitation, reflecting a mixed foraging and emerging agropastoral economy comparable to contemporaneous sequences in southern Iberia and Sicily. Stable isotope work by teams at the Max Planck Institute and the University of Oxford has contributed dietary reconstructions pointing to seasonal resource scheduling.
Human interments recovered in Neolithic strata include primary burials with funerary goods such as beads and small ceramic vessels, and osteological analyses performed by bioarchaeologists from the CNRS and the Natural History Museum, London documented age-at-death profiles, pathological markers, and isotopic signatures. Comparative mortuary patterns were evaluated against burials from Ifri n'Ammar, Taforalt, and Iberian Neolithic cemeteries, informing interpretations of social organization, mobility, and possible ritual behaviors during the Neolithic transition in northwest Africa.
Paleoenvironmental reconstructions used pollen analysis, micromorphology, and sedimentology in collaboration with palaeobotanists from the University of Paris-Sorbonne and the University of Granada, indicating fluctuations between more humid conditions during parts of the Early Holocene and aridification trends later in the sequence similar to records from the Mediterranean Basin and the Sahara margin. These data integrate with regional paleoclimate records from Mediterranean cores collected by teams associated with the International Ocean Discovery Program and terrestrial archives from the Tell Atlas to model environmental drivers affecting prehistoric settlement and subsistence strategies in northern Morocco.
Category:Archaeological sites in Morocco Category:Neolithic sites Category:Epipalaeolithic sites