Climate induced mobility and the missing Middle Neolithic of Morocco
Abstract
This paper deals with general trends of the Moroccan Neolithic: chronological framework, external influences and environmental impact. Particular focus is on the end of the 7th millennium calBP when a supposed Middle Neolithic should start. However, the paper shows that apparently no distinct chrono-cultural unit between Early and Late Neolithic is detectable, wherefore term and concept of a Middle Neolithic should be abandoned.
The Neolithic transition of Mediterranean Morocco itself is an integral part of the Neolithisation process within the Western Mediterranean as a whole. Neolithic innovations enter the Alboran territory via the range of the Ligurian Early Neolithic. Between the Southern Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Africa these innovations became distributed
through Epipalaeolithic coastal networks, here called “Coastal Epipalaeolithic”. In the following, coastal groups start food production (“Early Neolithic”), depending on local environmental conditions on a very different scale. Cultivation and animal husbandry remained only one aspect of subsistence in the sense of a broad spectrum economy or low level food production. Through continental networks local foragers occupying the West-Mediterranean hinterlands (“Continental Epipalaeolithic”) adopt Neolithic inventions such as pottery and integrate them step by step in their way of life. Because food production is not yet recorded during the Early Neolithic period, these groups afterwards are called “Epipalaeolithic in Transition”.
Furthermore, the impact of climate and environmental change on cultural changes shall be evaluated. While the Neolithisation itself until now seems to have been triggered by socio-economic factors, the end of the Early Neolithic at 6.3 ka calBP, the enforced Saharan impact during the Late Neolithic from 6.0 ka calBP onwards and the end of the Neolithic as a whole at about 4.2 ka calBP correspond closely to supra-regional climate and environmental changes well documented in marine and terrestrial archives.
Bibliography
Linstädter, J. (2017): Climate induced mobility and the missing Middle Neolithic of Morocco. In: M. Reindel (ed.), Papers of the workshop "Palaeoenvironment and the Development of Early Societies“ Sanliurfa 7th October 2012
| author | Linstädter, J. |
|---|---|
| booktitle | In: M. Reindel (ed.), Papers of the workshop "Palaeoenvironment and the Development of Early Societies“ Sanliurfa 7th October 2012 |
| key | J.Linstädter2017 |
| type | book |
| year | 2017 |