New observations in Grotte des Gazelles at Dar Bouazza (Casablanca coastline): lithostratigraphy, taphonomy and Late Pleistocene faunal accumulation context
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19 novembre 2013
- handle: 10670/1.39t0cn
- hal: hal-02264036
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Mathieu Rué et al., « New observations in Grotte des Gazelles at Dar Bouazza (Casablanca coastline): lithostratigraphy, taphonomy and Late Pleistocene faunal accumulation context », HAL-SHS : archéologie, ID : 10670/1.39t0cn
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The preventive surveys conducted from 2005 to 2012 in a littoral cave (Grotte des Gazelles, Dar Bouazza, south of Casablanca) with swallow holes acting as pitfalls reveal new data about infilling and faunal accumulation process during Late Pleistocene times in this part of North Africa. The main issue was to characterize i) the origin of the infilling and of the faunal accumulations and ii) the impact of post-depositional processes and of carnivore vs hominin activity on these faunal sets. Answering to these points will enable us to determine the modalities of use and sharing of the cave by the various predators and/or scavengers as well as to clarify the presence of artefacts. The use of appropriate sedimentological and taphonomical methods to study this site investigated in short periods of surveys allowed us to suggest a first formation scenario of the cavity. The successive transformations of faunal remains give information in the modes of predation and gathering upon ungulates. A common feature of the different layers is the paucity of human traces and the prevalence of carnivore activity in layers containing exclusively Moustero-Aterian lithic artefacts made of flint and quartzites and percussors.