Archaeologists Discover Ancient Burial Sites Dating Back 4,000 Years
Archaeologists working in Morocco have unearthed three separate ancient cemeteries, including one stone burial plot dating back 4,000 years, according to a study published May 13 in the journal African Archaeological Review.
Researchers say the burial sites, located in the Tangier Peninsula, show a “rich mosaic of burial traditions” from the ancient community. To date, there has been precious little work conducted into the history of burial rituals in the area. "It is a sad reality that the later prehistoric funerary and ritual landscapes of North Africa west of Egypt remain, despite extensive investigation over the past 200 years, the least widely known and understood in the Mediterranean region," the study noted.
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Searching for sites dating from 3,000 B.C. to 500 B.C., scientists found three sites featuring “cist burials.” Cist burials are when a hole is cut within a rock to place the body, with stone slabs placed over the top to mark the grave. "Their construction likely required a significant time and effort investment," lead author Hamza Benattia told Live Science, noting how difficult it was to cut stone.
Using radiocarbon dating, Benattia and the rest of the team analyzed bones from one of the graves and deduced that it had been built around 2,000 B.C. It marks the first time radiocarbon dating has been used to investigate a burial in Northwest Africa.
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Also discovered were roughly one dozen shelters, all of which were decorated with rock art on the walls. In addition to geometric shapes, the art features anthropomorphic and human-like drawings, which researchers believe depict ancient gods or members of the community. Several "remarkable" etchings show "eight opposed triangles one over the other, known regionally as 'bi-triangulars,'" the study noted. Researchers in Ibiza found similar drawings, and "they have often been interpreted as anthropomorphic figures, sometimes specifically as feminine representations," Benattia explained.
Benattia noted that the discoveries suggest to scientists that the "ritual landscapes of the Tangier Peninsula are far more complex and widespread than previously assumed…with their closest parallels in late prehistoric southern Iberia and the Sahara."
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