A joint Moroccan French archaeological mission is expanding excavation and preservation work at the Sidi Abderrahmane prehistoric park in Casablanca, where stone tools and animal remains are being studied to reconstruct the region’s deep past.
The project is led by researcher Abdelrahim Mohib of the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage and Camille Dougar of France’s CNRS, under the supervision of Morocco’s heritage institute and a French foreign affairs mission.
Current work includes preparing geological and archaeological layers at two quarry sites to protect them and continue stratigraphic studies. Teams are also restoring fossilized animal remains and analysing bovine fossils from the “Rhinoceros Cave” site.
The site is hosting archaeology students who are training in experimental stone tool modification and collecting raw materials from Casablanca’s coast for use in these workshops. The metropolis has previously yielded some of Morocco’s oldest evidence of human settlement, including a one million year old technological finding linked to early Acheulean culture in Africa.
Casablanca’s prehistoric sites are considered key to understanding early human presence in North Africa, with recent discoveries pushing the region’s geological and biological framework from two million to an estimated six million years.
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