Reanalysis of the Aterian Lithic Assemblage from Layer 6 of Mugharet el’Aliya: Specialized Activities in a Cave Context During the Middle Stone Age of Morocco

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The cave of El’Aliya on the Atlantic coast of Morocco contained a Middle Stone Age (MSA) occupational sequence that produced Aterian lithic assemblages (i.e. with tanged tools) dated to Marine Isotope Stage 3 (Layers 6 and 5). The site was excavated during the late 1930s and 1940s and the lithic assemblages from the MSA deposits were originally described by Howe in 1967 and later by Bouzouggar et al. in 2002. Comparative analyses of the lithic assemblage from layer 6 and those from other MSA sites in Morocco conducted in 2022-2023 indicate that potential collection bias introduced during excavations was not extensive and that the assemblage contains: 1) a strikingly high representation of bifacial foliates and other pointed tool forms, some exhibiting potential impact fractures and other types of damage; 2) incomplete reduction sequences suggesting that many of the stone tools were not manufactured on site; and 3) retouched artifacts that show unexpectedly high rates of reduction. The association of this lithic assemblage with a zooarchaeological collection reflecting specialized and intense hunting of gazelle, suggests that Mugharet el’Aliya may have been used by groups of highly mobile foragers as a specialized location for the processing of animal resources hunted in the surrounding landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38959.0