Rabat – A team of international scientists have discovered the oldest Acheulean tool in North Africa- a type of distinct oval and pear-shaped stone tool manufacture linked with Homo erectus.
According to the researchers who participated in the discovery, the artifacts were found outside of Casablanca, dating back to 1.3 million years ago, 600,000 years before Acheulean culture was properly established in the region. Other such tools discovered in the region have been dated 1 million years ago, namely the stone artifacts of Tighennif in Algeria, and the Thomas Quarry I-Unit L in Casablanca.
“This is very important because we are talking about prehistoric time, a complex period with little data,” said Abderrahim Mohib at a press conference in Rabat. In the process, the team also discovered “the oldest human occupation in Morocco,” a variant of Homo Erectus, he added.
The discovery results in further enriching the ongoing discussion about the emergence of the Acheulian culture in Africa, Mohib explained at the press conference.
Mohib is the co-director of the joint French-Moroccan project “Prehistory of Casablanca,” which brought together a team of 17 international researchers from Morocco, France, and Italy participating in the discovery.
The discovery has shifted the timeline of the beginning of the Acheulean culture in Morocco, putting it closer to the beginning of the cultures in South and East Africa- 1.6 million and 1.8 million years ago respectively.
It has also clarified the technological differences between the Moroccan discoveries and their Algerian counterparts, which are dated at about 1 million years back. Morocco’s 1.3 million-year-old Acheulean tools explains the lack of certain developments observed in the artifacts discovered in Algeria.
The recent dating work done on the discoveries “will undoubtedly be called upon to play a major role in the understanding of the Acheulean emergence and its pan-African dynamics,” noted the paper published in Scientific Reports, an extension of the Nature magazine.
