Most Bronze Age settlements have been documented in European territory. Despite its geographical proximity, the Maghreb (northern Africa minus Egypt) has always been absent from these historical narratives, erroneously characterized as an "empty land" until the arrival of the Phoenicians around 800 BC.
Now, a research study sponsored by the University of Barcelona has uncovered the first Bronze Age settlement in this geographical area, predating the Phoenician period. This discovery is of great significance for the history of North Africa and the Mediterranean.
According to the results published in Antiquity, excavations at Kach Kouch, located in northwest Morocco, reveal a human occupation datable to between 2200 and 600 BC. This would show that it would be the earliest site of this chronology in Mediterranean Africa, except for Egypt.
Map showing Kach Kouch site, located just south of the Strait of Gibraltar. (Benattia, et.al/Antiquity Publications Ltd.).
Solving the Riddle of the Bronze Age Absence
Up to now, the lack of archaeological evidence in northern African from this time period has represented quite an enigma.
“The Bronze Age (c. 2200–800 BC) to Early Iron Age (c. 800–550 BC) are renowned for seeing the formation of the first complex social and political organizations on the western shores of the Mediterranean,” the researchers wrote in their journal article. “This period is distinguished by an increased frequency of both short- and long-range interactions, with trade routes connecting vast areas of the Mediterranean and extending along the Atlantic facade. Yet to date, the Mediterranean shores of Africa, west of Egypt, have been attributed almost no Indigenous role in this connectivity.”
Seeking to correct this omission, the researchers set out to find evidence of Bronze Age activity in this part of the world. Artifacts from earlier periods have already been discovered, specifically dating from the Late Neolithic and Copper Ages (from around 4,600 to 2,200 BC).
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“Yet the last 1000–1500 years of prehistory in this key area of north-west Africa remain almost unknown, a situation all the more extraordinary given the prominence of the neighbouring Iberian Early Bronze Age,” the researchers noted.
To find the evidence they sought, they focused on the region of the Maghreb located adjacent to the Strait of Gibraltar, the channel that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and is just nine miles (14 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point.
“Marking a point of proximity between two continents and with access to both Mediterranean and Atlantic seaways, the Strait of Gibraltar stands out as a gateway connecting the African and European Mediterranean,” the study authors wrote.
Motivated by this idea, the international research team, which is led by Hamza Benattia Melgarejo, a Ph.D. student at the University of Barcelona's Faculty of Geography and History and a member of the UB's Classical and Protohistoric Archaeology Research Group, has been working on the prehistoric settlement of Kach Kouch, which extends over an area of approximately one hectare near the Lau River. It is just located six miles (10 kilometers) from the present-day coast, near the Strait of Gibraltar, and 19 miles (30 kilometers) southeast of Tétouan.
Excavations have revealed different phases of occupation. The first, from 2200 to 2000 BC, is poorly represented but significant. The evidence suggests an initial contemporary occupation in the transition from the Bronze Age to neighboring Iberia.
Chipped stone artifacts found at Kach Kouch, dating to the Bronze Age period. (Benattia, et.al/Antiquity Publications Ltd.).
The second phase, 1300–900 BC, was a vibrant period in the history of the settlement. A stable agricultural community was established at Kach Kouch and is the first definitive evidence of sedentary life before the Phoenician presence in the Maghreb. Wooden mud-brick buildings, rock-cut silos and grinding stones reveal a thriving agricultural economy based on crops such as barley and wheat, supplemented by sheep, goats and cattle.
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A third phase, extending from 800 to 600 BC, demonstrates the flexibility and adaptability of the inhabitants of Kach Kouch. During this period, several cultural innovations from the eastern Mediterranean were introduced, such as wheel-thrown pottery, iron tools and new architectural traditions using stone. This mix of local and foreign practices illustrates how the community actively participated in Mediterranean exchange networks.
"Kach Kouch is one of the first well-documented examples of continuous settlement in the Maghreb and tells a very different story from the one that has existed for a long time: it shows the history of dynamic local communities that were far from isolated," Benattia Melgarejo explained. "The excavations at this site are another step towards correcting these historical biases and reveal that the Maghreb was an active participant in the social, cultural and economic networks of the Mediterranean.”
A) The north-western Maghreb, showing the location of Kach Kouch and other nearby sites; B) the Gharb region showing known Bell Beaker sites; C) view of Kach Kouch and the Oued Laou estuary, looking east; D) view from Kach Kouch, looking west, of the inner valleys of the western Rif mountains. (Benattia, et.al/Antiquity Publications Ltd.).
The Tip of the Proverbial Iceberg?
As pleased as they were by this discovery, the researchers think it highly likely that more is to come.
“Kach Kouch is unlikely to stand alone as a local settlement in its region,” they wrote in their Antiquity article. “While the chronic lack of projects specifically targeting the Bronze Age Maghreb so far prevents more comprehensive assessment of the extent of such second-millennium BC occupation, the existence of Kach Kouch strongly suggests a more complex landscape yet to be discovered.”
Top image: Archaeological team working at the Kach Kouch site in Morocco.
Source: University of Barcelona.
This article is an edited version of a press release issued by the University of Barcelona, entitled ‘A UB Researcher Leads the Discovery of the First Bronze Age Settlement in the Maghreb.’
