Taforalt (Grotte des Pigeons) is a cave located in the northern Oujda region of Morocco near the village of Taforalt. It contains significant prehistoric archaeological remains dating back 85,000 years and containing evidence associated with both the Epipaleolithic Iberomaurusian and the Middle Paleolithic Aterian industries. The site is located around steep hills, rocky mountains, and the natural vegetation of the thermo-Mediterranean biozone including Tetraclinis articulate and Pinus halenpensis.
Human occupation and natural processes in the cave have produced a 10 meter thick layer of archaeological material dating back to between 85,000 and 82,000 years ago. These occupation layers include pre-Mousterian, Aterian, and Iberomaurusian industries reflecting the Middle Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic. Excavations of the Iberomaurusian layers dating to approximately 12,000 years ago have recovered dozens of burials with some showing evidence of postmortem processing and potential ritual use with burials containing animal remains including horns, mandible, a hoof, and a tooth. The deep and highly stratified cave floor has yielded hearths, lithics, and shell beads, among a variety of artifacts of varying ages. The dryness of the cave has contributed to the notable level of preservation found among the remains and artifacts.
Excavation History
The cave was initially discovered in 1908 and has since led to major excavations dating from 1944–1947, 1950–1955, 1969-1977, and ongoing excavations from 2003 until at least 2015. Much of the field records from the early excavations have been lost. During the excavation of 1951 done by Abbé Roche, human remains were discovered that dated from the Aterian and Iberomaurusian (Epipalaeolithic) technological industries. The Roche excavation encountered 10 meters of archaeological deposits with the Iberomaurusian occupying the top 2–3 meters. This same stratification has been encountered in the subsequent excavations in other parts of the cave. Because of the dozens of skeletons located by Roche in the 1950s and the burials located during the Bouzouggar and Barton excavations taking place since 2003, Grotte des Pigeons represents what is likely the earliest and most extensively used prehistoric cemetery in North Africa.
Artifacts The lithic collections recovered from the excavations at Grotte des Pigeons reflect a wide range of technologies and include unretouched and retouched flakes and bladelets, single and opposed platform bladelet cores, river cobbles, microburins, La Mouillah points, backed bladelets, Ouchtata bladelets, obtuse-ended backed bladelets, side scrapers, large bifacial tools, shell beads associated with bifacial foliates and tanged tools associated with the Aterian culture, and potential rock palettes.
Animal remains found at the site largely appear to be food waste though excavations in the 1950s and 2000s, 2010s have revealed burials associated with antelope horns, bovine horns, and at least one horse tooth. The more sedentary Grey Series phase includes a substantial amount of land Mollusca remains in conjunction with hearths indicating extensive land snail collection and cooking. The earliest layers from approximately 80,000 years ago contain shell beads of the N. gibbosulus however analysis of these shells indicate that they were collected along the Mediterranean shore after they had been dead. Ash lenses from the Aterian levels around 80,000 BP contain large Otala punctate indicating small scale exploitation of land snails prior to the Grey Series.
Human remains Sector 10, excavated by Barton and Bouzouggar, and the burial deposits excavated by Roche in the 1950s, form a contiguous and spatially demarcated collective burial area with dozens of closely spaced burials. The presence of both articulated and disarticulated bones indicates extensive use and reuse of the burial area with evidence of secondary burial and selective bone removal being practiced, often disturbing or truncating earlier burials. Some burials were covered by large stones preventing future disturbances by burials. The Roche excavations originally estimated that they had recovered the remains of approximately 180 individuals however subsequent research at the skeletal collections have adjusted that estimate to between 35 and 40 individuals.
These remains were not directly dated by Roche but based on the stratigraphy they were from a greater depth, and therefore greater age, than those in Sector 10. The recent excavations taking place in Sector 10 have recovered thirteen partially articulated skeletons along with a sample of disarticulated bones. Seven bone samples from Sector 10 yielded age estimates between approximately 15,077 and 13,892 years ago, corresponding to the base of the Grey Series deposits seen in Sector 8 excavations. Burials situated toward the front of the cave and those higher within the deposits are likely to be progressively younger, and hence contemporary with higher levels in the Grey Series deposits recorded in Sector 8. A range of funerary practices is apparent based on the grave excavations that have taken place. Some remains appear to have been primary inhumations while others appear to have sustained secondary inhumation after removal for potentially ritual practices. Evidence of deliberate post-mortem modification include cut marks that are not indicative of cannibalism and extensive ochre coloring with one grave, Grave XII, containing Individual 1 with both cut marks and ochre coloring present on the majority of the nearly intact skeleton. Roche’s excavations in the 1950s yielded a single mandible from the Aterian levels.
A 2003 analysis of masticatory and non-masticatory dental modifications among the remains recovered in the 1950s reflected a very high rate (90%) of avulsion of the upper central incisors which subsequently led to increased usage of the proximal teeth. Ritual tooth removal is known elsewhere in this region at other points in prehistory and history and likely took place during the entrance to adulthood. The food processing tasks of the teeth are reflected in the heavy chipping, perhaps indicative of a gritty diet involving bone and shell. Half of the surviving teeth (51.2%) exhibited carious lesions while archaeological hunter-gatherers are expected to range between 0% – 14.3% and agriculturalists range between 2.2% - 48.1%. These numbers are likely a result of the acorns and pine nuts which would have been collected and processed, resulting in fermentable carbohydrates. The women in the population do not reflect the same proximal tooth wear as their upper central incisors were typically not removed. Occupation site utility
The inhabitants of Grotte des Pigeons were hunter-gathers equipped with the knowledge of harvesting plants and animals as the archaeological context suggests some of the burials contained evidence of baskets and grind stones which were used for food preparation. Some of the foods harvested from their local environment included acorns, pine nuts, and land molluscs. The site exhibits evidence that the people that lived in this area used the cave year round by the Grey Series while staying there seasonally during the Yellow Series. The perforated marine shells present from the 85,000 – 82,000 year old level at Grotte des Pigeons and other sites in the nearby Maghreb dated from that period reflect an exchange network that likely existed in order to provide shells to communities 40 km from the coast (Taforalt) and further. While the meaning behind the beads cannot be discerned, the presence of an apparently widespread exchange network to facilitate their transport as well as their being worked for apparent ornamentation indicate some significance behind them.
Ancient DNA A 2,000 analysis of non-metric dental traits indicated genetic continuity from the terminal Pleistocene onward in the Iberomaurusian and Capsian areas. In 2013, Iberomaurusian skeletons from Taforalt and the prehistoric site of Afalou were analyzed for ancient DNA. All of the specimens belonged to maternal clades associated with either North Africa or the northern and southern Mediterranean littoral, indicating gene flow between these areas since the Epipaleolithic.
The ancient Taforalt individuals carried the mtDNA haplogroups U6, H, JT and V, which points to population continuity in the region dating from the Iberomaurusian period.Posts: 22721 | Registered: Oct 2005
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