Recent archaeological finds on Morocco's Tangier Peninsula have revealed three ancient burial grounds stretching back to 2000 BC, combined with rock shelters and megalithic monuments. Researchers believe that this insight gives us the most detailed portrait yet of how prehistoric Bronze Age people in this area buried the dead, signaled their territory, and perhaps even communicated across cultural lines.
In the recent past, finds in this area have started to redefine the academic understanding of prehistoric North Africa and how it relates to the surrounding areas. Traditionally regarded as a periphery area within Mediterranean archaeology, the peninsula, positioned just south of the Strait of Gibraltar, has yielded evidence of elaborate ritual traditions, sophisticated burial practices, and symbolic landscapes that connect it to both the Sahara and Atlantic Europe.
The most recent series of digs have been conducted by archaeologists at the University of Barcelona, the University of Castilla-La Mancha, and Morocco's National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage. They’ve published their finds in the latest edition of the journal African Archaeological Review, opening up a window into a world traditionally overlooked by historians and archaeologists alike.
Cemeteries of Stone: Hard-Earned Burials
Among the most significant finds were so-called "cist" burials — graves fashioned by cutting into bedrock, inserting human remains, and covering them with slabs of stone. The work needed to build such tombs, with the limited tools of the period, represents both technological advancement and intense cultural interest in burial practices.
Based on Hamza Benattia, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at the University of Barcelona, the development of such rock-cut tombs would have taken "considerable effort and time."
Of the cist graves, one was radiocarbon-dated at approximately 2000 BCE — an important achievement as it constitutes the first-ever radiocarbon date for the specific burial type anywhere in northwest Africa.
The discovery serves to provide a chronological anchor to the wider ritual landscape of the Tangier Peninsula, a region that has historically been more understudied in comparison to Egypt and other regions of North Africa, according to this press release.
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Other burial types present at the three cemeteries were pit graves, tumuli (mound burials), and hypogea (underground chambers), reflecting a sophisticated mosaic of mortuary traditions extending over several centuries. These diverse practices reflect a multifaceted cultural interaction and could represent social hierarchies, migratory intrusion, or changing spiritual beliefs over time.
(a) Map showing the main ritual and rock art sites mentioned in the text; (b) map showing all the known rock art and ritual sites previously known in the Tangier Peninsula. (Figure provided by Hamza Benattia)
Art and Architecture: The Symbolic Language of the Ancients
Outside the cemeteries, archaeologists found approximately a dozen rock shelters with geometric and anthropomorphic rock art. Geometric motifs like squares, wavy lines, dots, and bi-triangular motifs (eight opposed triangles stacked vertically) seem to reflect imagery from both the Sahara and Iberia.
These paintings, the researchers say, can show symbolic figures — potentially gods or ancestral figures — and show how prehistoric humans utilized visual art to represent belief systems or define sacred places, reports Live Science.
Also prevalent were "cup marks" — rounded incisions in the stone in meaningful patterns, like side-by-side parallel lines or circles. Their regular arrangement and execution imply that they were perhaps used with ritualistic or ceremonial purposes, or even as an early form of non-verbal communication from community to community.
Standing stones, including some that are more than 2.5 meters tall, were discovered in both burial and near the rock shelters. The monoliths, typically grouped in clusters, are believed to have been used as territorial markers and ritual points. The fact that they've also been discovered in significant crossroads between habitation and burial zones reinforces the notion, according to the research team, that the Tangier Peninsula served as a prehistoric ritual and symbolic landscape.
A Crossroads of Cultures
Located at a strategic position just off the coast of southern Spain, the Tangier Peninsula is a geographic crossroads between Africa and Europe. But until now, its prehistory was under-researched — partly because of deeply ingrained colonial-era prejudices that privileged Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean.
The researchers' conclusion indicates widespread cultural exchanges among the North African, Sahara, and Atlantic European peoples. The close parallels in funerary rites, rock art, and megalithic culture indicate that the Tangier Peninsula was not in isolation but was a part of a wider trans-regional web of symbolic and ritual usage.
“The ritual landscapes of the Tangier Peninsula are far more complex and widespread than previously assumed,” the researchers wrote. Their work draws direct parallels between the peninsula and other late prehistoric regions, particularly southern Iberia, suggesting that symbolic communication and burial practices were shared — or at least mutually influential — across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Challenging Colonial Narratives
Perhaps the most important feature of this research is its criticism of the way North Africa's prehistory has been defined. As the authors explain, "colonial biases" have dominated North African archaeological narratives for a long time, traditionally belittling the cultural diversity and interconnectivity of its past societies.
Images of the two standing stones identified in the region of Tangier. (a) Roummane; (b) Laqueleya. Photographs by Hamza Benattia.
With the addition of new information, including radiocarbon dating and comparative rock art analysis, the research demands a re-examination of North Africa's place in ancient history — not as a peripheral zone but as an intercontinental cultural bridge.
The finds on the Tangier Peninsula provide strong evidence that its people were actively involved in shaping and participating in the wider developments of the Bronze and Iron Ages.
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The research undertaken by Benattia, Jorge Onrubia-Pintado, and Youssef Bokbot is a paradigm shift in North African archaeology. Their holistic approach — the blending of funerary investigation, art interpretation, and landscape survey — uncovers a multifaceted, colorful image of prehistoric life in one of the Mediterranean's most neglected areas.
More than simply documenting artifacts, their study elevates the Tangier Peninsula as a key player in the ancient world — a place where burial, art, and architecture intersected to create a lasting cultural legacy. With further investigation, the researchers hope to deepen our understanding of how these communities lived, died, and connected with their neighbors across land and sea.
Top image: 1747 map of the Straits of Gibraltar showing the Rock of Gibraltar, the Barbary Coast and 16 sailing ships; based upon the charts of Dutch navigator Hendrik Lynslager. Source: Public Domain
By Sahir
References
Benattia, H., et al. 2025. Cemeteries, Rock Art and Other Ritual Monuments of the Tangier Peninsula, Northwestern Africa, in Wider Trans-Regional Perspective (c. 3000–500 BC). African Archaeological Revolution. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-025-09621-z.
Jarus, O. 2025. 4,000-year-old stone-lined burial discovered in Morocco. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/4-000-year-old-stone-lined-burial-discovered-in-tangier.
Yirka, B. 2025. Ancient cemeteries and rock art discovered on Morocco's Tangier Peninsula. Available at: https://phys.org/news/2025-05-ancient-cemeteries-art-morocco-tangier.html.
