The appearance of bifacial technology in the Middle Stone Age of Bizmoune Cave, Morocco
Author(s): Steven Kuhn
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "Early human adaptation on the African coasts: Comparing northwest Morocco and the Cape of South Africa" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
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The Middle Stone Age Aterian of North Africa shows a high level of continuity in artifact forms and modes of reduction. This continuity probably reflects stable environments in near-coastal parts of North Africa, combined with the notable adaptability of Homo sapiens. However, one long-term trend involves the appearance of bifacial foliates in Aterian assemblages. Based on inter-site comparisons, it has appeared that bifacial foliates became a regular part of the Aterian toolkit relatively late, possibly during MIS 4 or early MIS 3. Results from recent excavation at Bizmoune cave in Morocco provide a more localized perspective on this change. Bifacial foliates are effectively absent from the earliest archaeological deposits at the site (Layer 4c), dating to MIS 5e-5c, and possibly earlier. Bifaces first appear in the transition between layers 4a/b and 4c, and they became relatively more common in layers 3 and 4a, dating to after 100ka.<b> </b>There was continuity in other aspects of lithic manufacture across this interval, and tanged pieces, including points, continued to be deposited alongside the bifaces. The appearance of bifacial technology at Bizmoune appears to represent the addition of a novel procedure to an existing corpus of technological knowledge, rather than a cultural turnover.
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Cite this Record
The appearance of bifacial technology in the Middle Stone Age of Bizmoune Cave, Morocco. Steven Kuhn. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 509649)
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Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 51621