More than 5,400 years ago, when Egypt was just preparing to begin its pharaonic era, an agricultural society was already prospering on the edge of fertile lands and a network of tributaries of the Oued Beht. This is what reveals a recent discovery published in the scientific journal Antiquity, the result of multidisciplinary archaeological excavations carried out over several years by Youssef Bokbot (INSAP), Cyprian Broodbank (University of Cambridge) and Giulio Lucarini (CNR-ISPC and ISMEO). The site in question, located in the province of Khemisset, exceeds 10 hectares in area and is now confirmed as “the oldest and largest agricultural complex ever discovered in Africa beyond the Nile valley”. Dated from 3400 to 2900 BC. BC, this site reveals a society which mastered the art of cultivating cereals such as barley and wheat, while raising several domestic animals such as goats and sheep. According to the authors of the study, this discovery “fills a gap in our understanding of the prehistory of the Maghreb”.
Sophisticated agricultural society
“While cultures dating from the same period practiced more subsistence agriculture, the agricultural society of Beht was already in intensive agriculture. This is demonstrated by the thousands of enormous storage silos dug deep into the ground,” Youssef Bokbot tells us. These structures therefore testify to a very dense population with an advanced organization, aiming to preserve the harvests in order to trade them in particular. Researchers also discovered stone grinding tools, used to process cereals, revealing an already well-structured food production chain. Clues today give us a new perspective of ancient Morocco. “The size of the Oued Beht site is comparable to that of Early Bronze Age Aegean sites, such as Troy and other sites on Crete and mainland Greece, which have long been central to the history of the “emergence of civilization in this region,” write the authors of the scientific article.
Refined daily life
In addition to the storage silos, the excavations uncovered numerous objects, notably pottery whose degree of sophistication surprised the researchers. “We were sometimes disconcerted by the technical level of certain ceramics that we had discovered that could be confused with porcelain. This is also the first time that we have found ceramics dating from this period in North Africa which are finely painted in several different colors,” explains Youssef Bokbot. The diversity of objects and tools found also illustrates a specialization of tasks within the community. “We did not find any metal object, since our excavations concerned a period which preceded the appearance of the use of metals, in particular copper and which only began 200 years later”, continues the archaeologist , which does not exclude that future excavations could reveal that this society itself could have evolved directly towards the manufacture and use of metals.
Other secrets to reveal
This discovery, according to the authors of the study, “affirms the central role of the Maghreb in the emergence of complex societies in Africa and the Mediterranean”. So far, the period covering 4000 to 1000 BC. AD remained largely unknown in the Maghreb. The results obtained in Oued Beht fill this void, revealing a society capable of great agricultural, artisanal and social achievements. “During several years of meticulous excavations, our work was only really able to focus on 300 square meters through which we were able to observe a cultural evolution between 3400 to 2900 BC with, of course, features of a civilization. Knowing that the perimeter of the site is currently estimated at more than 10 hectares, it is important to highlight all the potential that remains to be exploited,” predicts the archaeologist, before concluding: “To reveal all its secrets, the Oued Beht site will occupy several generations of archaeologists. In a century, researchers will still be digging there and there will certainly still be new things to find there.”
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