Zooarchaeology of the vertebrate faunal remains from the Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Temara, Morocco

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.

Contrebandiers Cave is located on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco and is approximately 250 meters from the current shoreline. Harold Dibble and Mohamed El Hajraoui led excavations at Contrebandiers Cave from 2007 to 2011 and plotted finds with total stations. Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) stone tool industries were identified in the cave. The cave deposits have been chronometrically dated to ~120,000-90,000 years ago (MSA) and ~20,000 years ago (LSA). A total of 11,206 well-preserved vertebrate bone and tooth fragments were excavated and piece-plotted or captured during screening by Dibble and El Hajraoui. The results of taphonomic and taxonomic identification of the vertebrate faunal assemblage are presented here. Artiodactyls, perissodactyls, tortoises, birds, carnivores, snakes, and fish are among the 67 identified vertebrate taxa. Results from taphonomic analyses show that humans were the primary accumulators of the vertebrate assemblage, and carnivore activity was relatively low. A bone tool industry was identified in the MSA deposits, and evidence for leather working and carnivore fur removal was published. The vertebrate faunal assemblage from Contrebandiers Cave indicates that humans were hunting and processing large, medium, and small-bodied prey from open and mixed habitats.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Early human adaptation on the African coasts: Comparing northwest Morocco and the Cape of South Africa

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50705