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The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2012: the fifth season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2014

Graeme Barker ,
Paul Bennett ,
Lucy Farr ,
Evan Hill ,
Chris Hunt ,
Giulio Lucarini ,
Jacob Morales ,
Giuseppina Mutri ,
Amy Prendergast  and
Alexander Pryor
...Show all authors
Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Paul Bennett
Affiliation:
Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury, UK
Lucy Farr
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Evan Hill
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, UK
Chris Hunt
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast, UK
Giulio Lucarini
Affiliation:
Interuniversity Research Centre of the Ancient Societies of North Africa, the Sahara and the Mediterranean East, University of Siena, Italy
Jacob Morales
Affiliation:
CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), Madrid, Spain
Giuseppina Mutri
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Amy Prendergast
Affiliation:
Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Alexander Pryor
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Ryan Rabett
Affiliation:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK
Tim Reynolds
Affiliation:
Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
Pia Spry-Marques
Affiliation:
Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK
Mohammed Twati
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Omar Mukhtar University, al-Beida, Libya
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Abstract

The paper reports on the fifth (2012) season of fieldwork of the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project. The primary focus of the season was the continuation of the excavation of the prehistoric occupation layers in the Haua Fteah cave. A small trench (Trench U) was cut into Holocene (Neolithic) sediments exposed on the south wall of Charles McBurney's Upper Trench. Below this, the excavation of Trench M was continued, on the southern side of McBurney's Middle Trench. In previous seasons we had excavated Oranian ‘Epipalaeolithic’ layers dating to c. 18,000–10,000 BP (years before the present). In 2012 the excavation continued downwards through Dabban ‘Upper Palaeolithic’ occupation layers, one of which was associated with a post-built structure and likely hearths. There are indications of an occupational hiatus separating the oldest Dabban from the youngest Levallois-Mousterian (Middle Palaeolithic or Middle Stone Age) lithic material. The Deep Sounding excavated by Charles McBurney in 1955 was cleared of backfill to its base, and its south-facing wall was recorded in detail and sampled extensively for materials for dating and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. McBurney believed that he had reached bedrock at the base of the Deep Sounding, but a small sounding (Trench S) cut into the sediments below this level found further, albeit sparse, evidence for human occupation. Whilst the antiquity of ‘Pre-Aurignacian’ human occupation at the site still needs to be resolved, it seems likely to reach back at least to Marine Isotope Stage 5e, the beginning of the last interglacial (c. 130,000–115,000 BP). Important finds from the 2012 excavations in terms of the behavioural complexity of the human groups using the cave include a possible worked bone point from a Pre-Aurignacian layer and a granite rubbing stone in a Dabban layer from a source over 600 km from the cave.

Type
Archaeological Reports
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 43 , 2012 , pp. 115 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2012

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