Africa

In a groundbreaking discovery that reshapes our understanding of Mediterranean prehistory, archaeologists uncovered the earliest and largest known agricultural complex in Africa outside the Nile Valley. Located at Oued Beht in north-western Morocco, the site belonged to a previously undocumented Neolithic farming society that thrived between 3400 and 2900 BC. The find, detailed in a 2024 Antiquity report and recently awarded the prestigious 2025 Antiquity Prize, signals the Maghreb's pivotal role in shaping the cultural landscape of the western Mediterranean. Shifting the Prehistoric Map of the Mediterranean The project, a collaboration between Youssef Bokbot (INSAP), Cyprian Broodbank (University of Cambridge), and Giulio Lucarini (CNR-ISPC and ISMEO), aimed to address a long-standing archaeological blind spot: the poorly understood period in Maghrebian